2015 MT Moose

[onX Hunt]

Well today is opening day for Moose so I figured I would sit down and start a thread to document the upcoming hunt. I'll be heading out Thursday for a four day trip to continue scouting but with a rifle now.

I drew unit 126 in Montana this year. We did some extensive spreadsheet calculations this spring on draw odds for moose based on the previous years applications and what our current bonus point would be. It is pretty interesting to look through the list of units and the actually potential draw odds with bonus points calculated in. With my bonus points and an estimate of the number of applicants from last year I had a 5.68% chance of drawing for this unit. This unit only gives out one Antlered Bull tag and covers a vast area from St. Regis to the Idaho Border, then North to Prospect creek, and west to Thompson Falls, Plains, and back south to St. Regis. This is a heavily forested, thick area with a pretty substantial road network.

Spent some time in July setting up trail cameras around the unit. Had a fun day riding over Copper Pass some new country for me. I was excited to see what we would find.

 

[onX Hunt]

One interesting Spot was a wallow we located using our maps. It was dried up by July but with the amount of tracks we went ahead and set it up anyway. We had lots of deer, some elk, mountain lion, and one medium looking Moose.

 

[MT_elk]

Nice! Looking forward to the story unfolding.

 

[onX Hunt]

The next spot was a high mountain spring running through a nice meadow.

Here we had bears, mountain lions, wolves, whitetails, elk, and one small Bull moose.

 

[onX Hunt]

Another spot was a little bog lake located way up high and tucked up against some cliffs, it was a beautiful spot. Good variety of animals here but no moose showed up. The bog goes to 5 feet right away so not to many animals going to risk going into it. Looked pretty hard to get out of if you fell in.

 

[onX Hunt]

I'll share one more series of pics from the west side of the unit. This was another great spot we found using maps and some effort bushwhacking. This was worth the hike in and a spot I will be checking out as the rut starts. It's just as important to find cows while out scouting as they will often stay in the same general area during the rut and bring the bulls to them.

Cousin Tim making sure the camera is working.


Curious Cows



This was the first picture from this animal, thought somebody was playing a prank holding a shed up to the camera.


Finally this ugly guy showed his head. Weird one.




Cow moose at night.



Small bull. To be legal an antlered bull needs to be 4 inches in Montana. This one passes the test but with the only tag in the unit he's a last day bull.

 

[Schaaf]

I love these kind of threads. Good luck this season!

 

[onX Hunt]

Between my cameras and another 20 or so setup in the unit for elk scouting by a friend in the area we were not able to locate a bull I wanted to target this week. Based on past recommendations for the unit I will spend some time doing morning/day hikes into likely areas locating cows and trying some calling. Evening will mostly consist of continuing to cover new and likely country with the truck and getting some miles covered. I'll have some updated info on Monday when I'm back at the office.

Matt

 

[Hem]

Great scouting pics. Okay, I am hooked on this thread.Keep them coming and good luck.Be sure to show any big whitey pics too please.:hump:

 

[MinnesotaHunter]

Awesome! Looking forward to watching this play out. Good luck!!

 

[Gunflint]

Great work Matt!

Good Luck!

Thanks for bringing us along!

Randy

 

[earlybird]

Can anyone else not see all but a couple of the pictures? I'm liking this thread.

 

[muledeerjunkie]

Thanks for sharing, love all the photos! I've not seen anyone use such a variety of trail cameras, which one do you like the best from a feature/functionality versus price perspective?

 

[mtmander]

very interesting, I will keep looking for updates

 

[Trigger50]

Great Pics !

 

[StalkandSpook]

Good luck Matt...keep us updated for sure

 

[Mica Man]

Looking forward to how the rest of your hunt unfolds.

 

[big28hunter]

Incredible pics! Got my popcorn and looking forward to your adventure. Good huntin'

 

[recon6036]

Great pics. Best of luck!

 

[duckhunt]

Great pics. I look forward to following this story.