516-50 Montana Moose Ride-a-long

[YoungGun]

It's been close to a month now since I learned I held a Moose tag for 516-50 here in Montana, and I wanted to give a rolling dialogue of my scouting and hunting progress. The learning curve has been fairly steep, having never moose hunted before, and the unit seems to always be holding a few secrets, so for the other person that drew this tag for 2016, and for the future holder of this tag that see's this post on a google search; I hope this helps you all out!

It would be an understatement to say I was shocked/elated/excited when I drew the tag, but I was also a little overwhelmed and stressed, having seen very few moose in the area over the past few years. The unit covers a fair amount of good moose habitat, stretching south of I90 from Mission creek outside of Livingston, to Bridger Creek near Reed Point. The meat and potatoes of "moose country" begins south of the interstate a fair amount, and then stretches into a few nice "playgrounds". I have more or less broken the unit up into 4 areas: 1. Misson Creek/Swingly rd. 2. The West Boulder. 3. The Main Boulder, and 4. The East Boulder. No love for Bridger creek or the eastern half of the unit, not from me anyway, but perhaps that will change as the summer goes on.

I have spent a good amount of time in the area in years past, and thought it would be a cool area to moose hunt, being that I'm in Bozeman, making it a "day hunt" possible area, and that there are only 2-3 tags in any given year for such a large area of land. It wasn't until I drew one of those tags that I realized I hadn't ever seen much for moose. Undaunted, a good friend suggested that we eat lunch on the road and take a quick lap up the Boulder on June 13th, as soon as he had learned I had drawn. That first quick drive, we found a Cow, and the excitement and "success" (Seeing a moose is a success for us, and a Bull incites small celebrations) seems to have only grown since then. I feel like we've made decent progress with our Moose hunting learning curve, and have actually seen moose each time we've gone and scouted. Goes to show that when you start looking for something, you stand a much better chance of finding it.

Being young and dumb, I find the less trod areas excite me more than the areas along the roads. I'm not sure how it's been hunted in the past, but the unit does allow you to "road hunt", as there is good road access along some of the river/creek bottoms where moose reportedly rut. Although I am not above hunting these areas by any means, I would like make what is more than likely a once in a lifetime hunt, into as much of an adventure as I can. 516 is not the Gravelly range, or the Tetons, or any of the units around Dillon, and I do not expect to find a giant bull. I am looking for a good representative bull for the area, and ultimately, if it gets me excited at the time, I will probably have a hard time passing on it, as I sure do love moose meat. I'm sure there's plenty of you out there that know way more than me about judging a good moose, moose hunting, and moose in general, so there are lots of questions that I am still learning the answer to. I am not sure what age class represents a 'Mature Bull', and I haven't heard of a steadfast way of judging a bull like you would a mule deer or antelope based on anatomical sizes (ears, forehead, etc...). If you know of any, I'd love to hear them!

I've spent the majority of my time checking out different trailheads in the region, and I've placed a couple cameras for the month in the different areas I've previously described. I'm trying to keep this from turning into a novel, so I'll wrap up this introduction with a few photos of what I have so far. I look forward to hearing feedback and opinions on any bulls I post photos of, as well as my scouting/hunting in general. Cheers and happy scouting this summer!

 

[brownbear932008]

Congrats on the tag and nice write up. Looks like your working hard and it will pay off in a few short months. Keep us updated nice reading.

 

[6mm Remington]

Congratulations on the great tag. Keep getting out there and posting up pictures with the story so we can continue to follow along!!

David

 

[MTGomer]

PM on its way. Let me dig up a pic.

 

[YoungGun]

Thanks fellas! With a good buddy's wedding on Saturday the 9th lasting until the wee hours on the 10th, this weekend's update will be a bit shorter, but I'll fill in the backstory from last weekend:

As stated earlier, I've had a couple cameras out, and have already shuffled them up a little bit. The first one I had placed was on the south end of the W. Boulder Meadows, in some flooded timber. There had been moose sign in the area, and my buddy had bumped one out of there while giving the area a look over while the rest of us fished. We had wanted to confirm the sex of this moose, so we placed camera 1 and crossed our fingers we would get something. When I hiked back in after 2 weeks, I was disappointed to see about 50 head of black angus in the meadows as I crested the trail. I figured my card would be full, or worse, the cows would have used my camera as a good back scratcher. What I found instead, was a few white tailed deer, and a few photos of a cow moose, the bottom picture above to be exact. I ended up pulling this camera, as I had accomplished IDing the sex, and had managed to avoid getting a picture of a moo cow. My other camera I had set out was in the Mission Creek/Tie Creek area off of Bruffey Ln. I found a wet spring with plenty of tracks, and decided it was worth a shot. I checked the card of camera 2 last weekend, and it seems the young elk like the area a heck of a lot more than moose do, but still ended up with a few pictures of a cow moose; again, the photos are above. With the spring still active, and the camera getting lots of action from a variety of animals, I've left this one in place, for now. Below Ill post a photo of one of the critters I haven't IDed, let me know if you've got an idea what it could be. Looks cat like, but is small and black, I didn't know if it was a fisher.

Having located cow moose with my cameras, this leads me to a question for those of you more knowledgable in moose than I: Is it better to find cows, and hope the bulls move in when the pre-rut/rut rolls around? Or is it better to find the bulls now, and hope they are still in place come opener on the 15th of September prior to moving to locate the ladies. I am trying to turn up a good bull in the meantime, but am curious which strategy you would take on a moose hunt. Due to a military obligation, I won't be able to hunt until the 19th, when I have taken 8 days off. I know the bulls will move a bit in the rut, but I am not sure just how far they will go looking for love. If it's anything like downtown Bozeman on a friday night, then I'm guessing the boys will travel...

Wanting to locate a bull, my buddy and I traveled into the Main Boulder after checking camera 2 on the spring. Once up the boulder, we spotted the smallest bull in the photos above, feeding in a small pond. Being the first bull of the year, we were pretty jazzed, and hung out for a bit watching him. They're pretty interesting critters. We then hiked up a trailhead that had looked promising on Google Earth, with some large meadows and swamps about 4 miles back. We were greeted with wet boots, mosquitos, and a fair amount of moose sign. We picked a spot for camera 3 hastily; an open meadow along a tree line that seemed to act as a natural corridor for animals, and then beat feet back for the trail. On the way out, I spotted the Drop Tine bull in the photos above. You can only see the dropper in the one photo. He observed us lazily from 15 yards, and we made sure to snap more than a couple photos. We had big plans of driving up to Independence to camp and checking a swamp to the east of that the next day, and as it was already 8pm, we bid the bull farewell, and hoped he'd continue to eat well for the summer.

The road to Independence was it's own adventure. We thought it was manageable with a bit of 4 wheel low, and zig zagging around boulders. And we were right, at least till it began to rain. With an hour of thunderstorms in the books, and us literally watching parts of the road wash away, we parked the 4Runner and made camp (Front seat folded back for Ike, and the rear door propped open, feet hanging out the back for me). We woke up fresh as daisy's, and decided the area 1 mile south of us looked "Moosey". We checked it out, and although we found one set of tracks that belonged to a Moose, there was definitely more elk sign than moose, and more Griz sign than elk. After the toll the road takes on a vehicle, and seeing limited moose sign at the head of the Boulder, I think that particular area has moved lower on the list. Have any of you ever heard of moose spending time in those higher elevations, like that swamp would be east of Independence?

Okay, so now we will fast forward to the morning of the 10th: After a night of Salmon Fly Honey Rye, making a fool of myself on the dance floor, and a 2am bedtime, My plans of running up and checking camera 3 were looking a little.... challenging. I checked the forecast, hoping that would make my decision easier. Red and green storm cycles pumped through the Big Timber Area. I hemmed, I hawed, but a few cups of coffee later, and Ike and I were out the door. We moved slower than last weekend, but hikes always feels slower each successive trip anyway. Between watching the trail for toe stubbers, wishing the rain would clear up, and wondering how many people noticed how bad I was at dancing the night before, I kept my eyes glued along the creek, hoping to see our drop tine friend again. We made it to the swamp without any moose encounters on the way in, but there had been a lot more sign along the trail than last week. We both hoped the card in camera 3 would have something, anything. We plugged the card into my phone, and saw a few spike elk, white tailed does, muley does and 3 photos of a griz, but no moose. I can't say I am shocked as almost all of the moose sign is centered in the timber and the swamp, and we'd set up on more of a meadow. Regardless, we had a lot of activity for one week, and we reset the camera and left it in place.

We then decided it would be good to get some elevation and give the whole swamp a good look from a vantage point. We climbed out of the bottom, and hit the ridge about the same time the lightning did. The rain turned to snow, then back to rain. We took in what views we could, and realized the vantage that had looked good on Google earth and from below, wasn't as "all inclusive" as we'd hoped. But I guess that's why you scout. With our daily workout and shower in, we decided getting to the truck before dark would be beneficial. As we dropped off the ridge, the wind picked up, and we were accompanied down the mountain with the snap of trees, followed by their loud crash and thud. With a few new obstacles in our trail, we took our time on the way out, and decided that we would place Camera 4 along the trail where all the moose sign was. With dead fall on one side, and boulders on the other, it seemed most critters were using the trail in this part to navigate the area. I'll be curious to see if we turn anything up on this camera besides horses, hikers, and dogs.

Here's a few photos from this weekend:

 

[YoungGun]

And the mystery critter with a young bull for a size comparison..

 

[----]

Loving this thread. You've done very well too have seen so many moose so far. The grizzly pictures are awesome.

The people I've talked to have all said to find cows now, then hunt those spots in September and October. The bulls travel a long ways to find cows.

 

[Nameless Range]

Cool pictures and critters in some beautiful country. Looking forward to hearing how your hunts go come the fall. Thanks for sharing

 

[Gellar]

Just a guess, the mystery animal looks like a badger or wolverine??

 

[MTGomer]

I was thinking Fisher, maybe Martin?

 

[2ski]

I love this thread and threads like it. Love talking gear, but at some point, a good story of a hunt or any adventure is where its at. I'll be keeping a close watch. Especially since I live in Bzm too. I haven't been down the Boulder in forever. Maybe I'll take a drive with the girl that wants to be my girlfriend and if I notice anything, I'll add it here for you.

I will say, I'm a little disappointed in the 2am bed time. It should be 4am after a wedding. Close it down at 2 and then after party with bridesmaids until 4. 2am means you left the bridesmaids on the dance floor.

 

[YoungGun]

-Thanks Randy, Glad you're enjoying the thread! I've enjoyed keeping up on your moose excursion as well. Lots to learn! I figured the cows were a good bet, but it sure is fun seeing the bulls. I'll be curious to see how localized the cows stay for where they are right now.

-Nameless range, it's hard to go wrong in any of this part of the world for scenery, which is nice on the slower days when the critters are trying out for "Where's Waldo".

-Gellar and Gomer, I'm thinking Fisher, just based on the tail and size, and I'm hoping I get another photo or two of whatever it is when I check my camera next. In the meantime, it sure is fun to speculate!

-2ski, I don't know if you could have hit the nail on the head any better as far as the wedding! I think it's safer to say the bridesmaids left me on the dance floor. Oh well, more time for scouting and hunting come fall! It's a nice drive to take, and I won't complain about a photo or two of anything you see in the area!

 

[Ike14]

Great post, YoungGun!

 

[FishN4Eyes]

Great stuff, thanks for sharing with all us Hunttalkers.

 

[YoungGun]

Well, no new photos this week. I went into mission creek/tie creek area yesterday with hope of having a few new photos of moose on my trail camera, and maybe a better photo of the fisher/mystery creature. What I found instead was a few photos of a doe, and then nothing. Dead batteries will rain on your parade and put a real damper on trail camera excitement. Oh well. The spring where the camera was still had plenty of moisture, and there were fresh moose tracks in the area. I packed in two additional cameras, and thought long and hard about putting one in the dead cameras place. But with the forecast calling for 90's all week, I don't expect the spring, which is on a west facing slope, to be a hot spot this week. So I dove off into tie creek to do some exploring.

The drainage is thick and dark, so I'm hoping the swamp donkeys will be frequenting the area this next week. I didn't find a lot of sign, but a few tracks let me know there's one or two in the area. I'm intrigued by the mission creek and tie creek area due to how thick it really is. I feel like most hunters focus their efforts in the Boulder and west Boulder areas, and potentially, there are some upper age class bulls that don't ever get hunted in the thick stuff just east of mission creek. Either way, to hunt it, I think you have to hope the Bulls are responsive to calling, and are vocal themselves, otherwise it's going to be a chore to find them. Only time will tell. I placed my camera in the bottom along a choke point, and I'll be headed in after a week to see what's trekking around the area.

After a quick 30 minute bushwhack back to the 4Runner, I swung around on Swingly to an off shoot of Mission creek. I hiked in for about an hour to a boggy area with thick spruce and aspen stands around it. There was limited sign, but with the skeeters chowing down, and thorn thickets slowing my bushwhack, I decided it was worth a shot to place the 2nd camera in this area. I wanted to be back home to prep for work at a decent time, so I didn't do much exploring once the camera was hung. I plan on doing a bit more investigating when I go back in a week to pull the card.

Hopefully next week I'll have a few photos for the thread! Only 3 more weeks of camera use, which means only 7 more weeks till I have my bow in hand. But who's counting down to hunting season anyway??

 

[Reeltime]

Looking forward to the next report! And not having to worry about getting our cameras out of the woods someday........

 

[Schaaf]

Wow, I can't believe I haven't been following this thread. Tuned in from here on out!

 

[Caseknife]

Great thread, YoungGun. Hope to follow along to the successful end.

I think that your mystery animal is a Pine Marten judging from the size with the scale of the grass, thanks for the pic of the bull from the same camera.

The bulls should find the cows come September. Have you researched how to call moose? Kind of a nasally moan is what the cows sound like. An empty milk jug with a piece of nylon rope with a knot keeping it from pulling through the bottom of the jug, when wetted and pulled through your fingers, may do the trick.

You will need at least 10 large game bags and a couple intellectually challenged college buddies on speed-dial when you get your bull on the ground, and don't kill one in the water, you'll hate yourself.

 

[YoungGun]

Glad you all have enjoyed following along up to this point!

Caseknife: That is good to hear, because I've found more cows than bulls! I've been practicing my calling when I'm out scouting, but I'm no where near perfect. I'm just hoping to fool one bull, once. As for the packout, I've got some willing friends on speed dial, and they all have good backs, at least for now. After seeing some of the country I plan on hunting, I think it will pay dividends to consider where a moose may die if I find myself fortunate enough to let loose an arrow or squeeze the trigger this fall, and water is definitely a consideration.

Now for this week's update:
Friday morning I got off of work at 7, and quickly ran home to change and pack up a few snacks and coffee. I ran over to the mission/tie creek area to check the camera I had placed on Monday in the bottom drainage. On my way in, I decided to bushwhack in from a new area to see some different country. On the way in, I crested a ridge, and had a large meadow open up under me. The meadow sloped off, and in the center was a nice aspen stand. I hiked into the stand that had spruce mixed in, and the dry meadow quickly turned into a bog. There were moose tracks a-plenty in the area, and it got me fairly excited as another possible area to place a camera. As it was only about a half mile from my camera, I started to think that maybe my camera move would pay off, but decided I shouldn't get my hopes up just yet. I got into the drainage along the creek, and noted that there were a lot more moose tracks on the trail than on Monday, and began to think that just maybe my wild guess of the heat pushing them into the thick stuff was right. I got to the camera and pulled my card, and inserted my SD reader into my phone. As the photos popped up one by one, I saw the rich, dark brown fur I had been hoping to see, then another, and another, and one more. At first glance, I thought I had 4 pictures of cow moose, but it turned out that I had two of a cow, and two of a *very* young bull. They were moose though! With renewed excitement, I decided a mosquito filled meander along the stream wouldn't be so bad anymore. I hiked for about a mile, where the stream opened up a bit. There were plenty of moose tracks, and the area looked really promising. As I came out of the creek bed, I looked up to see a cow, presumably the one on my trail cam, staring at me no more than 50 yards away. We were both surprised to see the other, and so there we stood for the next 5 minutes, me taking photos, and her munching on some greens and doing her best to ignore me, probably hoping I would leave. I decided my hike had been a success, and pushing her out of the area wasn't worth it, so I hiked back to my camera. I decided that the bog I had stumbled upon was worth a closer look, and I had seen a bit of what the bottom had had to offer, so I pulled my camera and moved it to the bog. I am not sure when I will be checking it next, but hopefully sooner than later!

On my way back to my car, I again took a different route. I was pretty jazzed about my morning at this point, and sort of zombie stomping my way along when my toe connected with a dried out dead fall. The crack of the wood was loud enough to make me upset I hadn't been paying better attention. I looked up to see a bull moose running in the opposite direction as the noise he had just heard. He was a respectable bull, and the biggest Ive see in the unit as of yet. Very similar to the drop tine bull in size, but looked to be a bit wider, and with slightly larger paddles. No forked fronts, and not a boone and crocket bull, but it sure had me at once excited to see him, and disappointed in my clumsiness, as I did not get a chance to photograph him. I'm hoping to get a photo of him on my new camera location in the next week or two though! I reached my car, and headed for little mission to see if I could duplicate my success, which unfortunately, I was unable to do. My original plan when I had gotten off work was to run and check the cameras, and if there was one that was not proving fruitful, I was going to pull it and go into the east boulder and place it there. As Little Mission had proved uneventful, without even a moose track on the way in or out, I decided to pull the camera. However, after a full night shift, I was just to tired to go to the East Boulder, and instead opted for bed.

Saturday came, and feeling well rested, I packed for a short trip up the East Boulder after accomplishing a few Saturday tasks, and left in the late afternoon. I arrived in the area, and drove as far east as I could until the road turned to a four wheeler trail. Satisfied with how the area was looking, I hiked down to the water, and ended up finding what, I think, is a large moose track. However, sign was limited, so I moved downstream. The area had me fairly excited, as I had been told there were very few moose in the east boulder, yet the habitat looked promising, and now I was seeing sign. About a mile from where the road had ended, I hiked back into the willows and spruce again. This time as I exited the timber, I looked up to see a cow peering around a tree at me. She had winded me and didn't want to stick around long, but I snapped a quick photo on my phone through my binos before she exited, stage right.

My initial objective had been the pond behind the mine, and I hiked back into the area with high hopes having now seen moose sign in one spot, and a cow in another. I got back to the pond, and fully expected to see a moose, as it looked very "moosey". The area is gorgeous, and the hike was quick, albeit full of dead falls and rather wet. I did not see any moose, let alone any tracks or other sign, but I hung around to watch the evening thunderstorm roll in on top of me, and enjoy some of the incredible moments scouting in moose country has brought to me thus far.

Sunday, two good friends and I left with our eyes set on Lost Lake in the West Boulder drainage, as well as the swampy country near Nurse Lakes (Nurse lakes themselves are on private). We had eyed the area on Google earth, and thought it was worth a look, and it had been close to a month since we visited the W. Boulder. On Google earth, as well as my map and gps, there is a clearly defined trail to Lost lake, and we thought we would hit that area first, as it looked like it would take the longest. We hiked into the West Boulder Meadows, the whole way I cursed my choice of pants and boots to my friends shorts and shoes. We reached the meadows, and realized we couldn't see a trail on the other side of the river, but thought it had to be there. We found a shallow place to cross, and proceeded to wet wade.
The cool water felt good on all of our legs, but the sharp rocks negated most of the pleasure. We began our hike towards where the trail supposedly was. multiple times we found "it", and multiple times we learned it was a cattle path meandering to nowhere. The GPS showed there was a trail, but we never did locate it, even after "crossing" it numerous times. If you haven't had the pleasure of bushwhacking though a forest fire's blow down, trust me, it's an experience that will prepare you to join the balance beam act at any Barnum and Bailey's circus. I was no longer cursing my attire as the bushwhack proceeded. After 45 minutes of piecing fallen log with fallen log in an odd sense of an elevated maze, we had covered the .8 miles to the "lake". Sadly, this effort did not result in any huge moose revelation, but rather a good leg, cardio, and core workout, as well as one sweaty, dirty, "force a smile" photograph to at least walk away with something. We opted to bushwhack straight back towards the trail head instead of returning to the meadows, as either way was lacking trails, and we hoped this way would have less downed timber. I'm still not sure if we were correct in this assumption.


Hot, tired, dehydrated, and covered in cuts and soot, we opted out of Nurse lakes area, and instead checked out some other areas via vehicle in the east boulder region. We didn't turn up any moose on sunday, but 2/3 days with sightings is still awfully exciting. This weekend's trail camera successes, as well as physical sightings, brings my summer scouting total to 5 cows and 4 bulls. This after having never seen a fraction of this number of moose in the entire hunt district over the last 4-5 years. I'm excited for when I can call for moose, and I will be curious to see how much easier, if any, it will be to locate moose during the rut. I imagine foliage loss alone will help to a certain extent, as will more activity throughout the day as they wander for cows. Either way, I can only hope to have at least one more scouting weekend as successful as this last one! And for those of you not counting (yeah right), only 3 more weeks and we'll be hunting antelope here in MT, and not many more after that for everything else, so I hope you're getting dialed!

 

[Caseknife]

Beautiful country, and yes, burns are a b****. Even though you didn't see any moose in the Lost lake area, not surprised with there not being much thermal cover, the habitat/forage looks very inviting to moose later in the season when it cools down.

Here in Washington our moose seasons are now split between early and late. The early being October/rut and late is November/no leaves. I was able to glass up numerous moose later than earlier, kind of like looking for a 4x8 black sheet of plywood. The other thing that makes me prefer the later season is the cooler weather/chance of snow/and no yellowjackets to contend with during field processing.