Yesterday after reading about Mark Hampton's Utah moose with his FA 338 Federal one of my son's picked up one to make a little run for a muley buck. He has a tag for a very good area that opened yesterday & runs into November so we decided to do some scouting since a light snow was falling north of town. About 5-6 miles out we drove right up on a average size bull moose who seemed perfectly content to run along beside the truck while I took 3 photo's of him with my cell phone. A deer or elk would have been in the Quakies in a heart beat but moose are wired different. This is about a 35-36 inch bull enjoying the cool weather. If you zoom in you can get a better look. We have a lot of moose. The grandson's probably seen 20-25 during archery season.
My friend Matt recently bought an outfitting business and he had a client for a muzzle loader moose hunt just this past week. Matt told me his client missed a bull at 40 yards; then he put his client on this bull and they sealed the deal.
Matt is guiding for me on my upcoming antelope hunt. We leave for the Durham Ranch on Sunday.
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A deer or elk would have been in the Quakies in a heart beat but moose are wired different.
With increased wolf populations our moose numbers here have been lower for a while now. I've noticed the moose I come across now are much jumpier and stay around heavy cover. When disturbed they disappear into the cover and keep going. I think the ones that are surviving are the ones that react like this. Prior to this I usually found it fairly easy to approach moose. Back then, with the exception of calves, they were not threatened by many predators.
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Experience is the best teacher, hunger good sauce. Osborne Russell Journal of a Trapper
Cool picture. Even if I never manage to hunt a moose, I'd just love to get within about 30 yards of one.
They're impressive up close! Not a big bull but years ago on an archery hunt I was rushing through some thick cover and came face to face with the one. He was about 6 yards from me.
This bull was in the same area. His antlers are not real big but his body was massive! He dwarfed a couple bulls that were hanging out around him.
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Experience is the best teacher, hunger good sauce. Osborne Russell Journal of a Trapper
Registered: 11/21/09
Posts: 1545
Loc: Olympic Penninsula, WA
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cool pictures guys!
They are awesome creatures! I have been fortunate enough to have lived/ worked/ and hunted in an area with pretty good numbers of moose and have had some neat close encounters.
This guy was at about 30 yards and stood broadside for about a minute.
he had two cows with him and they crossed right in front of me, the closest one at about 10 yds.
Never knew I was there... pretty cool!
Edited by BBwheelgunner (10/10/1607:43 PM)
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Registered: 11/23/12
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Loc: Wisconsin North East
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My son and I want to hunt moose next. We are ok with cow tags and will be searching out the WY cow tag situation. Awe have done elk for many years we want try something different. Also if anyone has any suggestions? Obviously we would love to handgun hunt but would be ok with archery equipment. Thanks in advance for any help.