3 Types of Moose Hunts

[OntarioHunter]

Sounds like you are quite the still-hunter! That would be a very rewarding accomplishment.
We rarely have snow during the legal season and tracking likely would be an cow or non-legal bull.
I our units the only legal bull is spike-fork and 50+ inches/4 brow tines so most bulls and cows are not legal and it can take 2 weeks of sorting thru bulls to find a legal one. In 30-years I've only seen 2 spike forks in our area.

No, not a still hunter, a stalker. I can't sit still in the woods. Gotta be seeing new stuff all the time.

I always had a bull tag ... that was also good for a calf (go figure!). The only logic in 50+ inches is to keep the numbers of harvested bulls down. That can also be done by reducing the number of tags but I think the 50+ rule is more cost effective for management. They can sell more tags. Certainly makes more sense than the way they do things here which is total nonsense (for many other reasons as well). It's why I opted out of moose hunting more than twenty years ago.

I can usually tell the track of a 50+ candidate bull from a cow (but admittedly our moose are a different critter than yours). A spooner bull will invariably still be with his mother. Again, a yearling with a cow is easy to determine from tracks. I am baffled at the logic of making spooners legal with 50+ bulls. Why cull them? To sell tags I guess.

Our season spans from early October to 15 December. I avoided the early part of the season when lightweight fair weather nincompoops fill the woods. Also more difficult to avoid spoilage unless the moose is shot on the road. Cows will come into estrus three times during the season if not bred. Once on the last day of the season I listened to a pair of big boys sparring and a horny cow cheering them on not fifty yards away in doghair alder. The tops of the brush were swaying back and forth. Very exciting for about fifteen minutes. But I never saw hide nor hair of any of them (she had a calf with her). Probably just as well. I skied in 16K to hunt in subzero weather. That day was one of only two times building a fire while hunting. Needed to dry my sweaty socks ... all three pairs. It was a beautiful clear windless day with no one else around for maybe thirty miles.

 

[rmyoung1]

Thanks @AlaskaHunter ! A lot of good information. I appreciate your input.

 

[Bambistew]

You forgot one... mountain valley/river hunt. Fly into a gravel bar and hunt the river and hillsides. I much prefer this as they tend to be much drier hunts, the packing is always downhill, take a small raft to cross rivers/float meat back to camp, you can glass a lot of country, you can see them moving on the hillsides, most are killed at near treeline, so its a hump up to them, but water is close etc, etc.

I've done a few ridgetop hunts, they are fun and I don't mind the downsides. Packing up, water, etc. I'll do a float hunt one day maybe, but I have zero desire to sit on a lake and twiddle my thumbs.

 

[geetar]

You forgot one... mountain valley/river hunt. Fly into a gravel bar and hunt the river and hillsides. I much prefer this as they tend to be much drier hunts, the packing is always downhill, take a small raft to cross rivers/float meat back to camp, you can glass a lot of country, you can see them moving on the hillsides, most are killed at near treeline, so its a hump up to them, but water is close etc, etc.

I've done a few ridgetop hunts, they are fun and I don't mind the downsides. Packing up, water, etc. I'll do a float hunt one day maybe, but I have zero desire to sit on a lake and twiddle my thumbs.

That seems the most appealing Alaskan moose hunt to me.

 

[geetar]

No, not a still hunter, a stalker. I can't sit still in the woods. Gotta be seeing new stuff all the time.

I always had a bull tag ... that was also good for a calf (go figure!). The only logic in 50+ inches is to keep the numbers of harvested bulls down. That can also be done by reducing the number of tags but I think the 50+ rule is more cost effective for management. They can sell more tags. Certainly makes more sense than the way they do things here which is total nonsense (for many other reasons as well). It's why I opted out of moose hunting more than twenty years ago.

I can usually tell the track of a 50+ candidate bull from a cow (but admittedly our moose are a different critter than yours). A spooner bull will invariably still be with his mother. Again, a yearling with a cow is easy to determine from tracks. I am baffled at the logic of making spooners legal with 50+ bulls. Why cull them? To sell tags I guess.

Our season spans from early October to 15 December. I avoided the early part of the season when lightweight fair weather nincompoops fill the woods. Also more difficult to avoid spoilage unless the moose is shot on the road. Cows will come into estrus three times during the season if not bred. Once on the last day of the season I listened to a pair of big boys sparring and a horny cow cheering them on not fifty yards away in doghair alder. The tops of the brush were swaying back and forth. Very exciting for about fifteen minutes. But I never saw hide nor hair of any of them (she had a calf with her). Probably just as well. I skied in 16K to hunt in subzero weather. That day was one of only two times building a fire while hunting. Needed to dry my sweaty socks ... all three pairs. It was a beautiful clear windless day with no one else around for maybe thirty miles.

You gotta any pictures of the bulls you killed this way @OntarioHunter ?