Ever shoot a calf?

JFKinYK · Aug 28, 2014

Where is all the moose talk on here?! Our season starts this Monday - Sept 1...

I was out last weekend and scouted up a cow/calf. My tag is good for ANY moose, and there are plenty of guys that shoot calves up here. I've been reading it's better for the herd to shoot a calf since most of em die in the winter anyway - compensatory mortality and all that. I won't shoot the cow, since that would give the calf a death sentence. The calf sure isn't much meat though.

I shot a moose here a couple years ago, my first. I estimate it took 100 days of hunting and 2 seasons to see that one moose. Our densities are extremely low, about 1 moose per 100 sq kms. It's no easy task to find one the way I hunt - from a canoe, portaging lake by lake. Lots of guys stick to roads and ATVs to cover the miles of emptiness. Lots of em drive south 8-10 hrs into better habitat and densities.

So, any thoughts?

Yellowknife · Aug 28, 2014

I'm rolling out on the 3rd.

Looking forward to big antlers in the thick stuff.

I've been in on one calf kill (wasn't mine). It's legal under many of the anterless hunts in Alaska for the biological reasons you mention, but in practice it's rarely done here. Much more common in Canada I think. It was late winter, so it was bigger than a Sept calf, but still basically just the meat equivalent of a caribou.

The guy said afterwards that it wasn't really enough meat to be worth cutting the tag, and he wished he would have kept hunting for a lone cow. Very different circumstances though. We had seen at least a dozen moose that afternoon.

In your circumstances, and considering your hunting area... I would be carefully considering letting a partner in on the deal and taking both.

Yk

JFKinYK · Aug 28, 2014

Thanks, Yk. Any thoughts on relocating those 2 in the same spot? Or how long they might hang there? I thought about giving it a couple weeks and maybe they'd have attracted a bull by then. But I've never had luck relocating moose around here and seems like a bull pestering them would run em around some. They did seem content, saw em a couple different time over the course of a couple days in the same bay.

My hunting partner was on the scouting trip, but she says no calf will die on her watch! Makes it a little complicated I guess

Yellowknife · Aug 28, 2014

Once the bulls start getting involved, they start to move around in the country I hunt. Very different where you are at, so I don't want to make broad generalizations, but I would be dubious of her still being around in mid Sept.

Of course the "complicating" factor of your hunter partner should be considered. That might make it worth waiting around to see what else shows up.

Yk

WRO · Aug 28, 2014

Shot an elk calf last year on a core hunt on accident. Tastiest accident ever!

Jimbob · Aug 29, 2014

I have shot 3 calves and been involved with about 12 others. The amount of meat changes drastically deepending on how early in the season you get them, 5 weeks time and the calf really grows.

To be specific we shot one on a backpack hunt in october and we deboned the whole thing. My pack weighed 122lbs with the whole calf in it. 8lb pack so we had about 115lbs of boned out meat. Others that I have shot in november were quite a bit larger than that one.

Here in ontario everyone gets a calf tag then you apply for adult tags, which depending on the area can be very hard to get, that means we are hunting calves every year even if one guy gets lucky and pulls an adult tag.

Bar · Sep 2, 2014

Lots of elk calves are shot, and they're small compared to moose calves. 122 lbs of tender lean meat isn't hard to take. That's a lot of meals for me and my dog.

jtw · Sep 2, 2014

With elk would shooting a cow with a calf be a death sentence for the calf or would the herd take care of it?

Bar · Sep 2, 2014

Another cow would look after the calf. Although the calf can tag along by itself with the herd by hunting season. It would have no chance alone.

bobhunts · Sep 2, 2014

I remember one time while cow calling we had a calf come in so many times we were just sick and tired of it so we stepped up and shooed it away. Eventually a spike showed up and a while the calk came back again. The two seemed to pair up after we quit calling and then we just left not wanting to repeat the same.Bob.

Ever shoot a calf?

JFKinYK

Lil-Rokslider

Yellowknife

WKR

JFKinYK

Lil-Rokslider

Yellowknife

WKR

WRO

WKR

Jimbob

WKR

Bar

Banned

jtw

WKR

Bar

Banned

bobhunts

WKR

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