Moose hunt advice

[DDot]

I drew a moose tag in Northwest Montana this year and I’m looking for advice on how to attack the hunt. It’s in a unit that’s very steep and thick and hard to navigate around in. I plan to hunt in the higher country near or in the wilderness. I’m wondering if anyone has experience hunting moose in this kind of habitat and has any pointers. Is blind calling a better strategy or getting to a glassing knob and spotting a bull first? I’ve only been on one moose hunt before so I don’t have much experience to pull from.

 

[Straight Arrow]

Find a willow wallow and scatter peas on the surrounding ground. When he comes to take a pea ... shoot him in the willow wallow!

 

[DDot]

As simple as that

 

[MuleyMB]

Not sure when your season runs or how long but I would figure out when the rut kicks in there and go then and cover ground glassing and locating bulls.

 

[DDot]

Think season opens September 5 for archery and runs all the way through November 29. Ive heard the rut is in full swing around October 1. Don’t know if that’s true or not.

 

[BuzzH]

Think season opens September 5 for archery and runs all the way through November 29. Ive heard the rut is in full swing around October 1. Don’t know if that’s true or not.

I would say that's pretty close to the right time frame for the rut. I called in one of the two bulls I killed in Wyoming on October 1, he came in from about 1.25-1.5 miles on a single cow call. Killed my first bull around Sept. 20ish and they weren't calling or rutting at all.

 

[jimss]

Cooler weather definitely helps. Also bulls start moving once they shed their velvet. I often found bulls all summer in the same small area but once they shed velvet they move. Early in the rut bulls can be seen in a particular location one day and 10 to 15 miles away the next searching for a hot cow. If you see a bull early in the rut you better take advantage of it.

Moose ears are amazing. A bulls antlers act as a funnel for hearing. Cow calls can be heard for long distances while bull grunts can’t be heard as far. Whacking and rubbing a stick or log on a tree can also be heard for a long ways and may seal the deal on a wary bull.

Lots can be learned by spending quality time with moose in your area.

 

[WCT3]

Here in Colorado bulls are easy to find in the summer. Like others have said, they tend to disappear once they shed their velvet but in my experience they'll be in the same area during your archery season just a lot harder to find.

This is all coming from someone who's never hunted moose but I run into a lot of them while deer and elk scouting and hunting.

 

[jimss]

I had a Wyo moose tag quite a few years ago. The bull I ended up getting about a week into archery season was around 15 miles from where I saw him every day during scouting trips.

In Wyoming where I hunted the cows moved after the first hard frost. Bulls were wandering around searching for hot cows. The cows changed diets from large willow patches to forbs and other browse in clear cuts. It helps knowing small factors like that in a particular area.

Find cows and you will likely find bulls.

 

[shrapnel]

Don’t waste your time anywhere else than scouting your district! No one can tell you more than you will find out scouting and familiarizing yourself with that area.

If you have a moose permit, it would be a shame to waste it by not spending enough time scouting!

I had a permit in 2020 and found some nice bulls, but when the season opened, they were not where I expected and had to hunt the entire area for the bull I finally got…

 

[DDot]

I’m going scouting as soon as I get back from Alaska. Going to go every weekend starting the end of June. I’ll keep this thread updated with photos and a report of how the hunt goes if anyone’s interested.

 

[buffybr]

I was in on 3 Montana moose hunts in the '80s. Two were with my own tags and the other with a friend who had drawn a tag . All were in the same unit and only about a mile apart. I/we didn't do any preseason scouting other than a ride through the area the day before the season opened.
I found two of these bulls in open areas with water and willows. The third, and my biggest bull was with a cow and was in open timber near a willow park. We didn't do any calling before of during any of those hunts.

All 3 of these bulls were several miles from the trailhead and we used my horses to pack them out. I was solo hunting when I shot my 2nd bull and I had quite a job getting the moose pieces parts into the panniers on and off of my horses.

Three years ago I shot a Canadian moose on a guided hunt in northern Alberta. My guide had called moose every day that we hunted. By September 20th, the 4th day of a 7 day hunt, we hadn't seen any moose, and finally a bull answered one of my guide's calls.

We had set up in the middle of a large willow park and that bull came out of the timper into the park about 75 yards from us. He was not as large as my 2 Montana bulls, but after 2 unsuccessful moose hunts in Newfouondland and Alaska, and being half way through that hunt without even seeing a moose, I let my .300 Weatherby speak and I brought home 2 large coolers of moose meat.

 

[jimss]

Either have horses or some buddies lined up to help with the pack out.

On my Wyo hunt I was alone and it took 7 trips to pack boned meat plus antlers/cape out. It was 1.7 miles one way.

My Colo hunt was also alone but a buddy with 2 mules and a horse packed out my bull in 1 hefty trip. It was 4.5 miles one way. We weighed the meat and cape/horns on the bull and it came out to just over 400 lbs.

 

[Jnasa]

Congrats on drawing a tag. I did my one ID tag a few years ago.

Around me the rut starts at the end of September and goes the first couple weeks of October. Sometimes bulls mah pop up you haven't seen in that area. I would target the first week of October unless you hear otherwise from people in your area.

Moose prefer feeding on wet browse. So look for areas that provide that. They don't have to be right on water but finding water sources isn't a bad call.

Blind calling is a good option. I would be somewhere you can see and listen for a possible response. If your area is open enough to glass I would do that first. Then try a call.

As someone else mentioned be prepared for the pack out. You mentioned difficult terrain. So plan accordingly. My bull wasn't the largest but hindquarters were 90+ lbs and shoulders were 75 lbs (weighed on scale).

It was a lot of fun. Do some scouting ahead of time if nothing else to familiarize yourself to the area. Enjoy the hunt.

 

[thundermountain]

Good Luck!

 

[jimss]

You may want to contact the biologist in the Montana area you'll be hunting. They often have advice for moose movements and trends in their particular area. On my Wyo hunt, it opened my eyes that where I find moose all summer is likely not where they are once things change from summer to fall to winter.

I found that moose summer and early fall locations and movements were totally different in northern Wyo vs Central Colorado. This may be totally different than in NW Montana?

One thing that will likely be unchanged from Colo north to Alaska is if you can find cows when bulls start rutting you will likely find bulls. I also wasn't shy about asking everyone I ran into while in the field whether they had seen moose.