Alaska moose width thread?

[AK Troutbum]

My guess was 54”-56”, but when hunting a restricted area, I won’t pull the trigger on something that doesn’t have at least 4 brow tines, or I know is way over 50”. If this bull was in a restricted area, I would not have pulled the trigger on him.


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[WMR]

I would not be able to call that a 4th brow tine without another view. It looks to my rookie's eye like only 3 on the left. More views would of course be helpful. Can't wait for the moose experts to chime in.

 

[Laramie]

He has 3 brow tines on one side and 2 on the other.

 

[Laramie]

The "bay" isn't wide but it is distinguishable. Good looking moose though!

 

[Gunnersdad49]

He has 3 brow tines on one side and 2 on the other.

That's how I would count it as well.

 

[Laramie]

He hides the one tine well in the second pic. Doesn't even look the same. In any event, he is just under 50 and not legal.

 

[AK Troutbum]

I definitely would not consider myself experienced but spent several years in Alaska chasing a lot of moose before finally connecting with a legal bull. I tried several different methods to train my eye but honestly not many of them worked because the same exact moose can look completely different depending on the angle you view them. I found the safest way was to count brow tines. The next best method I found to have any consistency was the ADFG average length guide, where the skull from eye to eye is averaged at 10" and each ear is another 10" to give you a total of 30", then you look at the palm from the tip of the ear out to gage another 10" on each side. So in theory, if the palm extends equal or greater to the length of the ear on each side you "should" be at or above 50"...but as others have said that's a little dicey and their is a lot of room for error. That being said, brow tines are really hard to count from a distance as well and it is very easy to mistake the point of origin of the tine. A good example was this little guy that came in after some calling. It was almost impossible for me to distinguish if the 4th tine was originating from brow or palm. Let's see what you all think:

That’s a close call for sure but I don’t think that it’s one of the brow tines.


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[AK Troutbum]

I am guessing that he has 4 brow tines on his left side, click, bang.

It’s really tough to say from the angle, but I would guess somewhere around 58”
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[carsonkeys]

I'm really glad he wasn't legal because his bigger brother came charging in 2 days later. Here he is if anyone wants to guess:

61?

 

[Akwoodchuck]

I'm really glad he wasn't legal because his bigger brother came charging in 2 days later. Here he is if anyone wants to guess:

59+"

 

[Gunnersdad49]

62”?

 

[Krieg Hetzen]

If you are wanting to size a moose’s antlers then I’d suggest a ranging reticle, a range finder, tripod or bipod, calculator, formulas and patience. If you use MOA then 1 MOA at 100 yards is equal to 1.047”. If you use MIL then it’s 3.6” or 10cm. With the formula you can plug in distance and how many MIL or MOA the target is wide and figure out its size. With that knowledge I know that 48 MOA at 100 yards is 50.25”. The bull I took last year was 50.5”. Patience, a stable platform, good reticle and rangefinder gave me the data I needed to shoot the bull I did. I don’t have any pictures of him via spotting scope but here’s one on the ground.
His right side is almost 50% larger than his left side (when looking at it head on). That also serves to mess with your perception when viewing them. I thought he was much larger from up on top of the mountain but when I got to him I was able to see the size difference. Once measured though, he went down.

 

[AK Troutbum]

If you are wanting to size a moose’s antlers then I’d suggest a ranging reticle, a range finder, tripod or bipod, calculator, formulas and patience. If you use MOA then 1 MOA at 100 yards is equal to 1.047”. If you use MIL then it’s 3.6” or 10cm. With the formula you can plug in distance and how many MIL or MOA the target is wide and figure out its size. With that knowledge I know that 48 MOA at 100 yards is 50.25”. The bull I took last year was 50.5”. Patience, a stable platform, good reticle and rangefinder gave me the data I needed to shoot the bull I did. I don’t have any pictures of him via spotting scope but here’s one on the ground. View attachment 186632
His right side is almost 50% larger than his left side (when looking at it head on). That also serves to mess with your perception when viewing them. I thought he was much larger from up on top of the mountain but when I got to him I was able to see the size difference. Once measured though, he went down.

Good on you for figuring all that out and taking a legal bull! Just by looking at him in the photo and not knowing exactly how big he was, I would never have taken the shot, but you did and you have the trophy to show for it.


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[Steve O]

Hah. Great idea but certainly doesn’t work for the bowhunter!

 

[Panhandler80]

Here is another look at him to throw you off a little more:

This is why I'll need to county times... Appears to be over 50" to me.

 

[Kevin Dill]

Unless you know instantly a bull is over 50" easily, you're better off counting brow points. "I was pretty sure he was over 50" is a good way to end up with a fine bull.

 

[Panhandler80]

Unless you know instantly a bull is over 50" easily, you're better off counting brow points. "I was pretty sure he was over 50" is a good way to end up with a fine bull.

Goes without saying. Just scary that I looked at this bull in this picture and gut reaction was "over 50".

 

[Gunnersdad49]

Ok so this one stolen from a YouTube clip: the side that is up, two brow tines and a bay tine or three brow tines?

 

[Kevin Dill]

You need The AntlaLyzer. It ranges distance while showing a corrected-for-distance scale superimposed in the the image. The scale lets you get accurate width readings.

It hasn't been invented yet.

 

[Smtn10pt]

Here's another one for you