For the past 15 years, Montana resident Joe Pinheiro has been dropping his name in the “hat” in hopes of drawing a Montana Moose tag. His unlucky streak ended this summer when he was drawn.

On September 18, 2010, Pinheiro and his friend Scott Englert hiked into the Bitterroot National Forest along the West Fork near Darby, Montana.

“I packed in with my Mathews bow, and Gold Tip arrows outfitted with Muzzy 4 blade broadheads,” says Pinheiro.

Early in the hunt the hunters came across a wolf-killed bull elk. “I got concerned that the wolves had hunted it [the area] out,” explains Pinheiro.

As the bowhunt dragged on, the two were losing hope and were just about to call it quits when they spotted a cow and a bull just up the hill from them.

“As I approached, the bull had spotted me,” says Pinheiro. “He began to drop his head and started stomping the ground to charge. He decided to move away, as he quartered away from me, I decided to take a 60-yard shot, it [the arrow] went into his right side piercing his left lung.”

A short tracking job revealed Pinheiro’s bull. “I could not believe my season was already over.”