First moose hunt any advice?

homslice

homslice

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My wife got drawn for moose here in NB.
Neither of us have ever been on a moose hunt. Any hunting advice for us?
The man who is second gun has gotten a moose 4 years ago and has some experience.
Practical advice we are looking for.
What calls should we use?
Scent blockers and laundry detergent yes or no?
Stick to the roads or go through the brush?

The area we will be hunting in has about 30 acres that were cut 15 years ago. the rest is a cedar swamp. Lots of moose sign.
The trails there are overgrown so I will be going through with a clearing saw sometime in the next month to open it up for the 4 wheelers.
 
Hmmmm you won’t learn to hunt moose in here but you can learn a few things for sure!
What cartridges does she shoot already?
What time of the year are you going?
I don’t worry about anything fancy clothing wise or sent wise.
Find good habitat and go call there morning and night, stick around as long as you can.
As you go in let go a few cow calls and move really slow.
If nothing is responding after the first or second day, you can try a few bull grunts mixed in with the cow calls!
Shoot behind the shoulder on a broad side shot and you will have a freezer full! Keep your shots short, especially if she is not shooting lots at longer distances or if there is no rest available. Most of my moose have been shot inside 110m so patience and good call and also playing the wind is important!!
 
If you are stuck to hunting 30 acres I would set up a few tree stands or ground blinds and cut shooting lanes. Not sure what your seasons are in NB but I would hunt as close to the rut as possible and call them in. If past the rut locate some good trails and wait.

No special clothes needed but use the wind to your advantage. Set up a few different sitting spots so you can adjust to the wind conditions.
 
KennyG2 said:
If you are stuck to hunting 30 acres I would set up a few tree stands or ground blinds and cut shooting lanes. Not sure what your seasons are in NB but I would hunt as close to the rut as possible and call them in. If past the rut locate some good trails and wait.

No special clothes needed but use the wind to your advantage. Set up a few different sitting spots so you can adjust to the wind conditions.
Click to expand...
Good advice i asked an old moose hunter
"Best place to shoot a moose?

"Beside a road"
 
DGY said:
Hmmmm you won’t learn to hunt moose in here but you can learn a few things for sure!
What cartridges does she shoot already?
What time of the year are you going?
I don’t worry about anything fancy clothing wise or sent wise.
Find good habitat and go call there morning and night, stick around as long as you can.
As you go in let go a few cow calls and move really slow.
If nothing is responding after the first or second day, you can try a few bull grunts mixed in with the cow calls!
Shoot behind the shoulder on a broad side shot and you will have a freezer full! Keep your shots short, especially if she is not shooting lots at longer distances or if there is no rest available. Most of my moose have been shot inside 110m so patience and good call and also playing the wind is important!!
Click to expand...
She has a bolt 7.62x39 that's the max so far as she's pretty small . I will try to get her set up on my 308.
Moose season here is end of Sept.
 
KennyG2 said:
If you are stuck to hunting 30 acres I would set up a few tree stands or ground blinds and cut shooting lanes. Not sure what your seasons are in NB but I would hunt as close to the rut as possible and call them in. If past the rut locate some good trails and wait.

No special clothes needed but use the wind to your advantage. Set up a few different sitting spots so you can adjust to the wind conditions.
Click to expand...
I have 100 acres that are mine. I've just seen the most sign in those 30 acres.
There are a handful of camps in the area that people do hunt around. as I'm fairly new to the area I don't want to tread on anyone's toes and my camp is fairly flammable, so I want to stick to my property.
 
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Find really fresh tracks. Make an assesment on where you think they might be going. Plan to call in a spot where the wind is blowing your scent out into an open area with mixed cover to give the moose a sense of security, but force him to pop his head out of the dense cover if he wants to sniff you out. There’s lots of spots, i sometimes use a pond with 75-100 yards across or a bog with patches of trees. Long and loud cow calls every 20 minutes from before sun up to 10ish and again just before dark until after dark. I don’t necessarily go into my calling spot at night, just close by. I usually like to start hunting a touch before the rut in the last week of september into the first week of october. I find its easier to get them in to a cow call before they get hung up on real cows in heat. Get away from the quad and any roads or trails.
 
homslice said:
She has a bolt 7.62x39 that's the max so far as she's pretty small . I will try to get her set up on my 308.
Moose season here is end of Sept.
Click to expand...
7.62x39 is not adequate cartridge for a moose. It is not the caliber I have issues with but the amount of powder behind the bullet. It should have a bit more power behind it. 308 would be a good start in my opinion.

Also, as others said…avoid swamps, water and other difficult terrain or you gonna have tough time.

Don’t waste money on scent killers, most of your scent will come in a way of breathing. Be however mindful of wind direction. Same for clothing, wear what is comfy, warm and dry especially boots.

Be prepared to harvest the animal and I mean BE prepared. It is not a small task dealing with shot moose. Atvs, vehicles of all kind will be of great help.

I’d choose days that are cooler and walk around your hunting area well before the season to figure out the moose movement.

Oh! And when field dressing/gutting etc. watch out for other predators.

Have fun and good luck 🙂
 
If it's only 30 good acres I'd keep the trails the way they are, maybe thin them enough to walk through quietly if necessary but that's it. IMO that's too small of an area to be using an ATV and if you're already getting lots of sign I wouldn't want to disturb things too much.
 
learn to call between now and then
Ontario Outdoors has a good series of videos online on moose calling
Stick to softer mellower cow calls in the morning and get aggressive calling in the evening.
If you are confined to 30 acres.... I would also , like someone else mentioned, set up a couple tree stands or good ground blinds broadside to the trails.
Game cameras? be good to set some up before choosing the best locations for stands or blinds.
Scent sticks or liquids??
Mare's Urine used to be an old stanby and came in a rectangular metal can...... stuff stinks to high heaven and the lids suck but it does seem to work. You could take a shovel to a damp area and create a "wallow" and pour lots of mare's urine in the mud. Create a location that attracts bulls.
The scent sticks that burn like an insence stick are also a good idea to set up in a good spot to draw bulls into a stand or blind.
Bunch of things you can do between now and then to up your odds and possibly keep those bulls hanging around on the property come fall.
I also hate to be one of those guys that mentions the caliber choice...... x39 is just asking for trouble. I'd save that for smaller game.
.308 though, can't go wrong there with the right bullet and if recoil might be an issue, grab her a Pachmayer decellerator or a Limbsaver recoil pad. They are availlable for most rifle stocks these days and will tame that .308 right down for her and felt recoil will be no greater than a x39.
 
Some sound advise already.

I have taken a couple dozen moose in my span, guided for them and have buddies who do the same.
There are a few "tricks" you might wish to know.

First: Get her to learn to be deadly accurate with the 308. Shoot for the heart and lungs and it will do the job at reasonable distances.

Second: Start watching as many moose calling videos as you can on YouTube and mimicking them. The cow call is the most important IMO, so focus hard on that. For the bull grunt, learn how to do an immature moose bull call (higher pitched, softer and shorter than a dominant bull call). Of course practice with the mature bull call, but spend a LOT more time on the cow and immature bull sounds.

Grab some Buck Expert Mare In Heat (synthetic) scent lure. As in the larger size of bottle with a decent sized lid. Available at Cabela's and like stores or online. Caveat: I am in no way associated with the company mentioned. However between myself and quite a few other professionals we have proven this product to be the best available by a large magnitude.

Grab some medium sized scent free tampons. These absorb a good amount of the scent lure noted above, and come with a convenient string to hang from tree (bring extra string).

Go in early and again within a week of your draw dates. Go in silent mode. Determine the best area to set up on as for sign and potential shooting lanes. Clear extra shooting lanes at this time. Determine at least two such sites. Set up natural ground blinds or tree stands. Set the latter up based on wind patterns. You want to be off to one side and somewhat downwind of the scent distribution.

24 - 48 hours before your hunt, sneak in and set out two of the tampons soaked in the scent lure. One as high up in a tree as you can get (extra string and a weight helps). One around 10 feet or so below that and off to one side. Cow call just before you leave around 6 times.

Day of your hunt:
Sneak in under the cover of darkness and allow things to settle for around 1/2 an hour.
Begin with a medium loud cow calling sequence - 4-6 calls, and wait.
Rinse and repeat around every 20 minutes.
If no response after the first sequence, increase the volume (but not the duration).
If you get a bull grunting in response, use both the cow call and the immature bull call lightly to get him to commit.
That trick works well when they hang up just out of sight.

Many times a bull will come in silent, and simply suddenly appear. Be prepared for that.

Moose are big. Have a wrecking crew available, or be prepared to deal with it yourself. ATV's and side by sides are useful for this.

I employed this method last year, and shot this bull at 27 feet.

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The method as described has been responsible for dozens of success stories over the past couple of decades.
Simply put - it works.

The scent lure was so effective last year I had another bull come in point blank while I was talking on the phone standing next to the gutted moose and gut pile. Two days later another bull tried to gain access to my buddy's carport outside of Prince George where he had stored the scent bottle - double ziplocked.

Do your homework on the best places to set up, shooting, and calling.
If you follow what I and the others above have noted, you will likely enjoy some fine success.

Cheers,
Nog
 
I was very lucky in my first moose hunt dropping 2 of them, one bull and one cow. I used my 300 win mag on the cow, she was dropped quick. My biggest suggestion is to make sure you have a solid plan on how to harvest the beast. The bull we got took 3x atv’s back to back to move to the road to gut. We used the clear cut logs to make a tripod and a chain fall to lift it into the back of the truck.

Depending on how deep you are going you will need baby wipes or the mega dead down wind wipes if you don’t have a to a bath/shower.

Other then that have fun stay safe!
 
Look for an area with tracks,beds or fresh droppings,if you see a cow or cow and calf in the area and close to water,just sit still and quite there and use what ever call your comfortable with,and call in long periods and wait for the bull to come,i also like racking an antler across a tree or willows.walking they can hear you far away.
 
there have been lots of moose killed in NB with a 35 rem, 30-30, and 32 special. going from 7.63 x 39 to 308 win might be a bit much if she is sensitive to recoil. any 6.5's or 7-08 are also good choices.
Sharp knives or a quick easy sharpener to use to keep knives sharp.
cordless recip saw.
lots of Ice or start freezing water bottles. it can be mid 20's during the day in NB moose season. Plan ahead, know how far to the closest registration station. a lot of meat cutters fill up in the first or second day it might be worth asking if they reserve space ahead of season for a fee.
Game bags. recovery is easier if you quarter the moose. this is easy with cordless recip saw.
i've never used a cover scent but have used to cow in heat lure. can't really say if it helped or not.
if possible get in the woods before first light (rifle cased) start calling 1 hr before legal light.
 
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