cow moose

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rkr

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does anyone here have any experience about cow moose hunting? Is this something harder than hunting for a bull moose?
 
Hunting cow moose is very similar to hunting moose in general, except you don't shoot any bull moose that you find.

Sorry to be so flippant, but the only real difference is that it's harder to call a cow than a bull. I have had cows come to a call, mostly out of curiosity I'm guessing, but not many. So you are left with spotting and stalking, or just sneaking around looking for moose, and then shoot the one that has no horns.
 
some of the zones here still have 'antlerless' draws but others are 'calf' draws.

the regs recommend that if you have an 'antlerless' tag that you shoot the calf and not the cow.

personally I would change all the 'antlerless' draws to 'calf' draws. I have seen the results in one of the first zones to make this change, lots of moose now after 20 years, but its heavily hunted and bulls are hard to find, but lots of cows and calves so the bulls are somewhere, and it doesn't take a lot of bull moose as they can cover a lot of ground in the rut.

Talking to the wildlife biologist about sustainability can be fun..

but there are some who are meat hunters who will shoot the cow and leave the calf to the wolves.

personally I find calf moose is very tasty, I've shot a few over the years.
 
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rral22 said:
Hunting cow moose is very similar to hunting moose in general, except you don't shoot any bull moose that you find.

Sorry to be so flippant, but the only real difference is that it's harder to call a cow than a bull. I have had cows come to a call, mostly out of curiosity I'm guessing, but not many. So you are left with spotting and stalking, or just sneaking around looking for moose, and then shoot the one that has no horns.
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This.
 
Shoot a cow and potentially your killing 5 moose with one shot. The cow, the 2 embryos she's carrying in the fall and less than 50 percent chance the one or two calves with her will survive the winter without her. Shooting calves has little effect on a moose population as a whole. Moose management 101. Wish we could get some of the rights based hunters on board...
 
The guy asked about hunting cows he must have s tag so why all the bull
Thy gave him a cow tag so he may harvest a cow.glass clear cuts and low water areas you should be able to spot any cows coming out to feed early mornings and late evening. Good luck.
 
I know lots of guys that seem to think that their 'Anterless' tag is a 'Cow' tag

even had a buddy complain that he saw several cows and calves and didn't shoot any because the cows had calves, He thought he had to shoot a Cow.

your province might be different, but in Alberta there is no such thing as a 'Cow Moose' tag
 
woodchopper said:
some of the zones here still have 'antlerless' draws but others are 'calf' draws.

the regs recommend that if you have an 'antlerless' tag that you shoot the calf and not the cow.

personally I would change all the 'antlerless' draws to 'calf' draws. I have seen the results in one of the first zones to make this change, lots of moose now after 20 years, but its heavily hunted and bulls are hard to find, but lots of cows and calves so the bulls are somewhere, and it doesn't take a lot of bull moose as they can cover a lot of ground in the rut.

Talking to the wildlife biologist about sustainability can be fun..

but there are some who are meat hunters who will shoot the cow and leave the calf to the wolves.

personally I find calf moose is very tasty, I've shot a few over the years.
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Isn't there a law prohibiting this?
 
Hunted Northern Ontario Moose for over 40 years now (save the 9 years I was posted in NFLD, and hunted them there). Until the tags got scarce we could always draw a cow tag in the WMU where we hunt, so hunted a good number of cows over the years.

While I have heard 2nd and 3rd hand accounts of guys calling in cows, we have certainly not experienced enough success "calling" to consider it a viable method.

You can call bulls, they will come in to scents sometimes etc - cows, not so much.

Our cow hunts are predominantly "find fresh tracks and start following them, hoping it's a cow at the end of it". Although we hunt the same piece of ground every year and know the trails, watering holes etc, cow hunting is still not conducive to sitting and letting them come to you.

If you are hunting by canoe/boat you can often sneak up on them along the shoreline - but again, you are going to them, not the other way around.

So bulls can be an "ambush hunt" where you sit on a stand.

With cows pack a good pair of boots and plan on doing some humping to find them.

Now, that's the situation I found in both Northern Ontario and Newfoundland - both of which I have hunted extensively. Western Moose might have some different habits etc, they are a little bit of a different species....
 
galamb said:
Hunted Northern Ontario Moose for over 40 years now (save the 9 years I was posted in NFLD, and hunted them there). Until the tags got scarce we could always draw a cow tag in the WMU where we hunt, so hunted a good number of cows over the years.

While I have heard 2nd and 3rd hand accounts of guys calling in cows, we have certainly not experienced enough success "calling" to consider it a viable method.

You can call bulls, they will come in to scents sometimes etc - cows, not so much.

Our cow hunts are predominantly "find fresh tracks and start following them, hoping it's a cow at the end of it". Although we hunt the same piece of ground every year and know the trails, watering holes etc, cow hunting is still not conducive to sitting and letting them come to you.

If you are hunting by canoe/boat you can often sneak up on them along the shoreline - but again, you are going to them, not the other way around.

So bulls can be an "ambush hunt" where you sit on a stand.

With cows pack a good pair of boots and plan on doing some humping to find them.

Now, that's the situation I found in both Northern Ontario and Newfoundland - both of which I have hunted extensively. Western Moose might have some different habits etc, they are a little bit of a different species....
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Good advice for sure and mimics my experience as well. You need to go look for cows!
 
Haven't hunted moose as of yet, but I never could wrap my head around why there are tags given for cow moose. To each their own I suppose.
 
kamlooky said:
Isn't there a law prohibiting this?
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There are - in some European countries. If you see a cow with calf, calf has to be taken first.

Makes sense to me since many calves will not survive first winter without the cow. In rare cases they are
"Adopted" by other cow.

NL used to have "Female Only" (or calf) in a select few areas, not anymore. It is Bull Only (or calf) and Either ###.

I usually get Bull Only, but had Cow Only a couple of times.

MDR said:
Haven't hunted moose as of yet, but I never could wrap my head around why there are tags given for cow moose. To each their own I suppose.
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All based on statistics from "flyovers". Then som lengthy equation formula. As far as I am concerned, not very accurate.

In saying that, while calling, cows and calves are usually the first ones out. The bigger mating bulls seems to be out only if "coast is clear". If there were no determined ### for moose hunting, there would be more cows taken.
 
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