Moose hunting tips

[Ownthewest]

I too have a Colorado Moose tag this year. Congrats to everyone that drew. Thank you all for sharing such valuable info and tips. I love how supportive everyone is on Rokslide.

 

[khunter]

I do not have Dbevans experience with moose but I have found shiras in Colorado pretty easy to get a lot closer to than 150 yds after arrowing 3 and now hunting a 4th this year. Sure some will run off but plenty seem to allow you to get in bow range even when they know you are there.

If you hunt the early bow/muzzle season (which is available for bull tags in addition to rifle) you can hunt before the rut and the bulls are not constantly traveling lomg distances day to day looking for cows. Can find the same bull same area repeatedly.

At least that has been my experience. For my cow this year sticking with archery. Pun intended. Same with an ID bull moose tag I also have. If I do not harvest on either of the hunts I will be surprised if I come away thinking the archery tackle was the reason.

 

[Pgidley]

Highly recommended this dvd series: https://moosemadnessproductions.com/

It's mostly based on Canada moose and filmed here in my neck of the woods, but it does also cover Wyoming and Alaskan/Yukon moose. The production is a bit dated but it will provide you all the info on moose hunting you can handle.

 

[khunter]

I love shooting them in shallow creeks, gets things cooled off right away and I can just wash the blood/gut pile away. Last two seasons, my moose have both dropped in 10-12” water. Zero negative consequences but your experience might not be the same.

My last one was more water than bargained for. Had negative consequences in this case but it worked out.





The one before was not as bad at edge of a beaver pond.




The first ran for a beaver pond 40 yds away after the shot and landed a few feet shy, thankfully.

 

[SDHNTR]

I killed mine at 10,000’
But they are at all elevations

View attachment 417432

sweet geezus thats a monster.

 

[Bc7mm]

I mostly hunt moose during the rut. While I’m walking I grunt every couple hundred yards. You would be surprised how often I get a response on the way into my hunting area. We have taken a couple bulls this way. I don’t bother with a horn as I’m sort of covering my tracks, and the grunt is quieter than my usual calling. The fellow I hunt with jokingly calls it trolling for moose. Last fall it was a 2 mile hike into where I was going to hunt. About half way in my Moose trolling got an answer. A bull grunted back from a densely treed hill top above me. We had to reposition due to lack of a shooting lane that would prevent getting winded. We moved up the trail a couple hundred yards to a small clearing and set up. 30 minutes later he gave us an 70 yard shot. He never made a sound after that first response, just that one single quiet woof. It was a small opening back in the trees that gave us an opportunity, he never actually stepped into the clearing but stayed just inside the screen of alder as he circled. Hope this helps.

 

[Coveyleader]

A couple tips I would offer

- Don't start scouting like a madman until August. I spent every weekend, even weekdays driving up, camping overnight and going into work the following AM and by the time the season rolled around, I was burned out believe it or not. Sounds crazy, but I was.

- If you find a bull in August you like, he will most likely be in the same drainage come the opener. Keep looking for more with occasional checkups on the bulls you found.

- Depending on your unit, I didn't read anything about which were drawn, if there is treeline in it, the moose have a tendency to summer as high as mule deer and elk, even higher.

- If you're a bowhunter, If you have a bull or bulls located in August, try to kill him the first few days. If you don't get it done, and are limited on time, stop hunting and come back the last 10 days of September, and hunt weekends etc prior.

- If you're a bowhunter, don't pass up what you would be happy with later. I made a huge mistake, and it cost me. I've been very lucky with tags, if I could have one do over, it would be my moose hunt.

- Big weather will push them down. The year I had the tag I had a ton of great bulls scouted, maybe 4 or more. We got over 2 feet of snow on the level almost 3 above timberline a day prior to the opener, all the bulls vacated the basins. That was a heartbreaker.

 

[Coveyleader]

Thanks for posting. If I hunt at tree line I’ll have a 4mi. Pack out. I’d like to avoid that but I will do what I need to do.

I would like to think I'm as a strong as they come, and stupid as they come when it comes to packing animals. I was going deep into the WA's trying to find the gold at the end of the rainbow. I can promise you, you do know want to pack a moose (even a Shiras) 4 miles. Line up a packer without question.

 

[Coveyleader]

 

[Coveyleader]

 

[Coveyleader]

During my summer scouting I had this bull less than 3 feet under me. I climbed up on a downed log to see a meadow better. I guess that wasn't needed. He ended up right under me. I have some great video of this encounter, he was right under me as I was on a downed tree. I could have saddled him and went for a ride he was that close.

 

[Coveyleader]

This bull was I'm guessing right at 50 incheses.

 

[Mirxivus]

Can’t offer much on CO moose but I’ve gotten a few AK moose myself and my dad has been on over 40 successful trips.

Be patient, scouting helps, be a good shot, understand that moose are big, make sure you can shoot while under pressure and fatigued, you can get pretty close to moose (at least I have. Last years was 40 yards the year before that was 25), big moose get big because they are patient if you think it ran away but you didn’t see it, its probably still in there. And again be patient. Billy molls on youtube offers a lot of the same advice my dad gave me

I have more tips and quite a few stories if you’re interested. For calibers I like 308 under 200 yards. People will argue go bigger but my dad got a 65 inch bull with a 243 one shot. But my gram used to make my dad shoot ~ 1000 squirrels every summer in the head for parkas.

308+ will work great. I like barbes ttsx, nosler partitions, sciroccos, A frames, accubonds, federal terminal ascents if I had the choices. But remington corelokts was all my dad used for 20 years. You might want a bigger caliber because of the elevation and as a just in case.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Thanks for suggesting Billy Molls as a resource, I'm trying to gather as much information as I can get!

 

[Packing Meat]

Thank you to everyone that has provided information and shared their hunting experiences. I’ve never used a forum before for any reason and I’m amazed how much hunters are willing to help out other hunters. I greatly appreciate it.

Unfortunately, I had to turn my moose tag in. As much as I didn’t want to, there is more important things going on for me right now. Hopefully I won’t have to wait another 13 years.

If you or anyone you know lands a moose tag in the next few weeks, I’d like to be able to help in anyway I can. I’d also like to hear about their hunt or anyone else’s hunt for that matter. This will help my mental state since I probably won’t be getting into the mountains much for any animal any time soon. Thanks

 

[khunter]

Thank you to everyone that has provided information and shared their hunting experiences. I’ve never used a forum before for any reason and I’m amazed how much hunters are willing to help out other hunters. I greatly appreciate it.

Unfortunately, I had to turn my moose tag in. As much as I didn’t want to, there is more important things going on for me right now. Hopefully I won’t have to wait another 13 years.

If you or anyone you know lands a moose tag in the next few weeks, I’d like to be able to help in anyway I can. I’d also like to hear about their hunt or anyone else’s hunt for that matter. This will help my mental state since I probably won’t be getting into the mountains much for any animal any time soon. Thanks

So sorry to read you had to return the tag. Big bummer but clearly you have other things to take care of. Wish you well in pulling tag again as the odds are so terrible.

lucked out and killed my 4th colo moose on opening day and only had Sat/Sunday to hunt b/c of time neded for the ID bull moose tag I will keep hunting.

 

[adturn01]

I hate to be "that guy" but here we are. I, too, drew a Colorado tag, 37/371 cow, and have been following this thread for a while, but never participated.

I've been out scouting and have a couple of spots that I really like. One has a creek, beaver ponds, willows, etc with timber on both sides of it. I have seen a ton of fresh sign, like hours old fresh, but no moose. There appears to be quite a bit of logging going on in this area as well.

The other is a bit drier but still has water and lots of timber. Some sections have a tremendous amount of blow down to the point that it is incredibly difficult to navigate. I saw a bull up there today. Lots of older sign, as well.

So, a couple of questions:

Would you hunt the area that appears to hold moose, even if you haven't physically seen one? Or go to the spot where you saw a bull, despite having a cow tag. Since rutting season is getting close, I assume that where there is a bull, there is likely a cow nearby.

Will the moose hang out in/travel through the blow down area? It is extremely tough to travel through, so that's where I'd go if I was an animal.

Anything else I should consider? Good luck to everyone else with a tag next week!

 

[TheRepeatOffender]

I hate to be "that guy" but here we are. I, too, drew a Colorado tag, 37/371 cow, and have been following this thread for a while, but never participated.

I've been out scouting and have a couple of spots that I really like. One has a creek, beaver ponds, willows, etc with timber on both sides of it. I have seen a ton of fresh sign, like hours old fresh, but no moose. There appears to be quite a bit of logging going on in this area as well.

The other is a bit drier but still has water and lots of timber. Some sections have a tremendous amount of blow down to the point that it is incredibly difficult to navigate. I saw a bull up there today. Lots of older sign, as well.

So, a couple of questions:

Would you hunt the area that appears to hold moose, even if you haven't physically seen one? Or go to the spot where you saw a bull, despite having a cow tag. Since rutting season is getting close, I assume that where there is a bull, there is likely a cow nearby.

Will the moose hang out in/travel through the blow down area? It is extremely tough to travel through, so that's where I'd go if I was an animal.

Anything else I should consider? Good luck to everyone else with a tag next week!

@adturn01 i was successful getting a bull moose down in the flat tops area a week ago. My advice would be to stick to where you are seeing the most sign and water. Moose will use the blowdown areas but most of the cows I saw were all pretty close to large willow complexes (or slightly uphill from them). I think the weather coming up will help you a lot. On hot, dry days I would only see moose very early in the morning or at last light. When it got cooler and rainy, they stayed out until at least 11 or so. Looks like it is going to be cooler and rainy this weekend which should help you out. You should see more activity as we get closer to the peak rut.

Also, I know those units get a ton of hunters and recreationists this year (in fact my parents in Breck doing the leaf peeping thing right now). The individual moose I came up to weren't concerned about me as an individual but the highest concentrations of moose I saw were all still well away from trailheads. If you can find an outfitter to pack out, I'd head as far back in as you are comfortable. Just keep in mind even these Shiras moose are an incredible challenge to pack out.

Feel free to PM me with any questions and good luck!

 

[dingle]

In my experience, be looking for elk and you'll find moose. Often bow close.

 

[adturn01]

@adturn01 i was successful getting a bull moose down in the flat tops area a week ago. My advice would be to stick to where you are seeing the most sign and water. Moose will use the blowdown areas but most of the cows I saw were all pretty close to large willow complexes (or slightly uphill from them). I think the weather coming up will help you a lot. On hot, dry days I would only see moose very early in the morning or at last light. When it got cooler and rainy, they stayed out until at least 11 or so. Looks like it is going to be cooler and rainy this weekend which should help you out. You should see more activity as we get closer to the peak rut.

Also, I know those units get a ton of hunters and recreationists this year (in fact my parents in Breck doing the leaf peeping thing right now). The individual moose I came up to weren't concerned about me as an individual but the highest concentrations of moose I saw were all still well away from trailheads. If you can find an outfitter to pack out, I'd head as far back in as you are comfortable. Just keep in mind even these Shiras moose are an incredible challenge to pack out.

Feel free to PM me with any questions and good luck!

Thanks so much and congrats on your bull! I'm heading up tomorrow to check cameras one last time and hopefully get in to them this weekend. I greatly appreciate the advice and hope I can post a success story here in the coming days/weeks.

 

[adturn01]

In my experience, be looking for elk and you'll find moose. Often bow close.

Apparently it works the other way, too. I've been looking for moose and have gotten in to elk every day. This morning I had a bugling bull with about a dozen cows within 50 yards. It was awesome.