Southern Elk
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I love following along with threads like this. Keep the updates coming.
516-50 Montana Moose Ride-a-long
- Thread starter YoungGun
- Start date
Caseknife
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Either both those pictures are optical illusions, or that WY bull has a strange rack. Looks like his fronts are twice the size of the backs.
6mm Remington
Well-known member
Sure is beautiful country! Be careful with those GRIZZ! They sure are impressive animals................bears and the moose.
No optical illusion there! Just giant fronts and weak paddles. Pretty cool to see that big of fronts on a shiras though. I can't imagine what he'd look like with even average paddles.
Hope everyone had a good archery opener in Montana! I took the bow for a hike to check out some of the area's I plan to moose hunt. Found rain. Lots of rain. Got into a few elk and chased a muley around, but didn't turn up any moose. Anyone know how soon is to soon to start calling? I plan on heading into one of the drainages off of the main Boulder this weekend, and I'd like to start calling too see what is in there prior to opener next weekend. I'm keeping my fingers crossed the Bulls have started to congregate where the cows are! Will keep you all posted if I turn up anything.
MooseCaboose
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Awesome thread man. I wish you the best of luck. You have definitely been doing your homework.
I have a tag for a bull over in 319 between Anaconda and Dillon. I hope we both find what we are looking for. I about fell out of my chair when I saw the picture of the WY moose. Can you imagine?
I have a question, do I need to wear orange for this moose hunt if I am planning on doing it with my bow during the general archery season?
I have a tag for a bull over in 319 between Anaconda and Dillon. I hope we both find what we are looking for. I about fell out of my chair when I saw the picture of the WY moose. Can you imagine?
I have a question, do I need to wear orange for this moose hunt if I am planning on doing it with my bow during the general archery season?
Good luck to you as well! Have you had any luck scouting? I'm still looking for 'the one'. That Wyoming moose would do juuust fine IMO. Unfortunately, I haven't seen anything in that age class yet. I'm planning on using my bow as well, and as I understand it, blaze orange is required for all hunters since it's a combined season.
Best of luck to you!
MooseCaboose
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I had a ridiculously busy summer schedule (got married, cross country move, started graduate school) and was only able to make it over to the hunt district for one weekend. We turned up one cow and I got a pretty good lay of the land. I would say 319 is pretty well the opposite of 516. Mine is only about 30-40 square miles, and within that I would say only roughly 10-15 are prime moose habitat.
According to the biologist there are about 20 moose in the area and that I should strongly consider harvesting any bull I see that is 35" or larger.
I'm planning on flying back up for a 5 day hunt September 29th to October 3rd. Hoping to time the moose rut pretty well and hopefully turn up something nice. I'm trying to talk a few friends into making some scouting trips for me as my hunt date gets closer.
I don't like going into this thing as unprepared as I, given the once in a lifetime chance, but I'm hoping the good luck that drew me the tag will carry over into the hunt.
According to the biologist there are about 20 moose in the area and that I should strongly consider harvesting any bull I see that is 35" or larger.
I'm planning on flying back up for a 5 day hunt September 29th to October 3rd. Hoping to time the moose rut pretty well and hopefully turn up something nice. I'm trying to talk a few friends into making some scouting trips for me as my hunt date gets closer.
I don't like going into this thing as unprepared as I, given the once in a lifetime chance, but I'm hoping the good luck that drew me the tag will carry over into the hunt.
Watt, you will have to keep us all up to date with what you are seeing during those 5 days! Sounds like your unit is pretty concentrated, so hopefully you can get into some rutting action and let an arrow fly. Best of luck to you!
Well, we're within the 1 week window at this point! Next week at this time, I will be covering country, bow in hand and tag in pocket. Due to a work and military obligation, I will not be able to head out until Sunday night, and will start hunting Monday morning. I'm fortunate to have 8 days off right out of the gate, so hopefully I can find some decent rut action and look over a few bulls. If that doesn't pan out, Ive got 11 days off starting the end of September, and another good chunk to take me from the end of October through a few weeks of November. I guess this is the benefit of taking Comp time instead of Overtime....
Got out this last weekend, with a 3am start time on Saturday. Hiked into one of the drainages where we've turned up two bulls (and lots of Grizzly sign) and elk hunted our way through our day of scouting. This drainage has got to be one of the more scenic areas Ive ever hunted, with a feeling that you're in BC or Alaska from the terrain, vegetation, and gravel bars. We took a quick trek up to the top of a ridge separating two basins, the one I plan to hunt, and another that I hadn't ventured into before. We opted to go with the unknown and hike out the bottom of this second drainage. We didn't turn up any moose sign, but it was so thick in the bottom, that we ended up rock hopping down the stream for 2.5 hours to get to the trail (we did stop to eat huckleberries more than a few times). From the trail, we made quick work getting out of the drainage, and it actually looks like there may be some potential for moose in the area. The area was thick with Griz sign, and we all opted for strapping our bows to our packs, and at one point, had the bear spray in hand due to the amount of fresh sign.
By the time we had gotten to the road, the entire boulder drainage had filled with smoke from a fire that I assume is somewhere on the divide. Here's to hoping for my sake, as well as all of the Unlimited tag holders, that this wet weather will knock the fire out and the smoke down prior to the 15th.
Best of luck to everyone Thursday morning!
Here's a few photos from the latest romp:
Got out this last weekend, with a 3am start time on Saturday. Hiked into one of the drainages where we've turned up two bulls (and lots of Grizzly sign) and elk hunted our way through our day of scouting. This drainage has got to be one of the more scenic areas Ive ever hunted, with a feeling that you're in BC or Alaska from the terrain, vegetation, and gravel bars. We took a quick trek up to the top of a ridge separating two basins, the one I plan to hunt, and another that I hadn't ventured into before. We opted to go with the unknown and hike out the bottom of this second drainage. We didn't turn up any moose sign, but it was so thick in the bottom, that we ended up rock hopping down the stream for 2.5 hours to get to the trail (we did stop to eat huckleberries more than a few times). From the trail, we made quick work getting out of the drainage, and it actually looks like there may be some potential for moose in the area. The area was thick with Griz sign, and we all opted for strapping our bows to our packs, and at one point, had the bear spray in hand due to the amount of fresh sign.
By the time we had gotten to the road, the entire boulder drainage had filled with smoke from a fire that I assume is somewhere on the divide. Here's to hoping for my sake, as well as all of the Unlimited tag holders, that this wet weather will knock the fire out and the smoke down prior to the 15th.
Best of luck to everyone Thursday morning!
Here's a few photos from the latest romp:
MooseCaboose
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I will certainly keep you all posted! I saw at least one hunt talker downed a nice bull this weekend! Anybody else have luck yet?
Today's the day! Headed in for an 8 day stretch. If you're up the boulder or around that area, keep an eye out for my 2000 Silver 4Runner with 6 county plates and the appearance that it's seen better days... You're welcome to drop by my camp. Also, if you're in the area and have a hot tip for a bull moose, well, I won't turn away any info! I'll try to pop in and out of service every couple of days, and will update this post the best I can. In the meantime, best of luck to all of you! Here's what 8 days of clothes looks likes:
MooseCaboose
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Good luck man, let me know how calling goes for you
