moose activity in the rain??

[hornchaser2011]

Wondering if moose walk around/feed good in the rain or prefer to bed? Heading to Alaska in a couple weeks and bringing a rain fly and good rain gear to stick it out in the rain and continue calling and hunting but wondered what you guys have seen. I understand anything can happen at anytime but wondering how it affects there movement generally.

 

[Akwoodchuck]

Moose don't give a crap about the rain...at all. High winds are a different story...that may keep them bedded....

 

[Larry Bartlett]

actually, akwoodchuck is mostly right from my experience. A refined answer is what's happening with the barometer during the rainy spells with or without wind.

If the barometer has a significant drop moose will usually bed down. Some rain events have depressed BP and others don't.

Until last year I believed high winds were a sign to stay in bed...until a 60" engaged us from over a mile away with winds up to 15 mph, gusts of higher. With moose, just hunt and always have a rifle even if you're just taking a crap!

 

[Yellowknife]

And to expand further... In my experience what really keeps a bull in bed is heat. An unseasonably warm sunny day will often have them parked deep in the timber until it cools down at night. This is more so in the early season of course.

I stalked 57" bull bedded down in a puddle on a 70F day on Sept 3 three years ago. The guy refused to get up until I was practically stepping on him. Hit him on the jump from 20 yds with nothing but brown in the scope. He was awake and aware I was there... just didn't want to leave his cool spot!

 

[hornchaser2011]

actually, akwoodchuck is mostly right from my experience. A refined answer is what's happening with the barometer during the rainy spells with or without wind.

If the barometer has a significant drop moose will usually bed down. Some rain events have depressed BP and others don't.

Until last year I believed high winds were a sign to stay in bed...until a 60" engaged us from over a mile away with winds up to 15 mph, gusts of higher. With moose, just hunt and always have a rifle even if you're just taking a crap!

Thanks for the feedback Larry, I ordered your dvds (float hunting Alaska, project bloodtrail, and wildgame taxidermy) for my upcoming moose float and have found them to be a wealth of information.

 

[AKDoc]

Excellent comments made thus far and certainly consistent with my field experiences here. It rains so much up here that it's a common experience for moose. Generally speaking, when it's raining and significantly windy at the same time, it tends to hunker them down. However, there always seems to be an exception every now and then to that one as well.

When you're in your tent for a few days of continuous strong wind and sideways rain, just keep reminding yourself that when it stops the animals are going to definitely be out and moving...that's worth betting on.

 

[diamond10x]

So basically to sum it up, unless the weather is just awful and you’re socked in, always be out and ready?

 

[VernAK]

The moose are getting well along in growing their winter coat so warm weather will shut em down usually.

 

[bmrfish]

So basically to sum it up, unless the weather is just awful and you’re socked in, always be out and ready?

A couple years back we changed things up and did a lake hunt in south central Alaska. Weather was awful. Rained everyday for like 10 days straight. One night it actually stopped raining for a little bit and we both woke up. Hunted all day everyday - had a siltarp that we could rig and sit under, made it bearable, called in several and finally got one big enough on a fine drizzly day. Not much doing on the really nasty sideways days. Talked to several parties after that didn’t see anything but it sounded like they musta been from a drier climate and were not very rain adapted.


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[Kevin Dill]

Cows don't like rain, but bulls have those big antlers........

 

[mcseal2]

We saw moose in the rain, but when it got hot later in the hunt daylight movement quit. We had a full moon also to deal with then.

I spent a lot of time under my Seek Outside DST tarp that hunt.

 

[Justinmm]

Good info.

 

[Kanooper]

Man I hope it cools down in time for my moose hunt here in Washington. Oct 1st is fast approaching.

 

[kiddogy]

moose are like fish , they won't bite when wet.