Blazing Paddles.

James had planned to spend that September elk hunting with Joe. Then another hunter canceled a British Columbia moose hunt booked through Worldwide Trophy Adventures, and it was his, about three weeks out.

To bring the meat home, he drove: a pickup with a chest freezer and a generator in the back, 47 hours from Michigan, with Jordan Parham along to film. A float plane took them to a remote lake, and a jet boat ran them up to spike camp. Woody, a 13-month-old Jack Russell, went with them on every hunt.

Each morning they ran the creek upstream, climbed 500 to 1,000 feet and glassed a long marsh. Each evening they floated back in the dark, calling. On day one the guide had James pass a bull in the high 30s to low 40s. Warm days kept the bulls quiet. Then a front pushed in wildfire smoke, the weather turned, and the bulls started moving.

On September 11, the sixth day, they waded toward a big bull, calling every hundred yards. A smaller bull grunted back, and that pulled the big one out of the timber. James shot off his sticks at 100 yards with a Christensen Arms .300 Win Mag and put in follow-up shots. The bull went about 50 inches.

"The moment you have an opportunity, you take it."James Zandstra · Hunting Moose in British Columbia