A Moose Hunting Guide

If you’re reading this you’re probably a beginner or perhaps a skilled and seasoned hunter who wants to improve further as you are a good hunter. Some facts first; The largest member of the deer family is the moose. It has a long, wavy coat of hair and a large head covered in antlers of varying sizes.

Adult male moose weigh an average of 660 pounds, while female moose weigh an average of 450 pounds. Despite the fact that they only have two hooves, unlike the majority of other animals, they are still considered mammals because they breathe air through their lungs like other animals do. North America, including Alaska and Canada, is home to moose.

They have a life cycle that is very interesting, with gestational periods that last more than nine months and calves that nurse for almost a year. Every state has moose, with the exception of Hawaii and Alaska, as previously mentioned.

Two men posing with the moose which they have just hunted.

The 10 Rules to Follow

1. Using A Decoy

A picture of a deer decoy

You can entice a bull moose to pay attention to you. A cow moose decoy can be very useful if you want to openly stalk a bull. Set up the cow moose decoy and place yourself in a good spot for the shot. Check them out below by clicking on the link for a price range.

Montana Decoy Eichler Elk

Montana Decoy Miss September Feeding Elk

2. Use Trail Cameras

Trail cameras can be set up in areas where you think moose frequent. The videos and information regarding the activities of moose in that region will be recorded by the trail cameras. The Vikeri Hunting Camera with 120°Wide-Angle Motion OR GardePro E6 Trail Camera are both great options if you don’t have the time to do the research.

3. Walk Like a Moose

Moose have good hearing and smell senses. Learn to walk like a moose to avoid alarming the moose by making familiar sounds. You could also check out Our Moose Hunting Tips Will Increase YOUR Success… which will talk further on these tips.

4. Don’t Hunt the Trail

A HD picture of moose footprints on the snow during winter

If you find an old trail with moose footprints and droppings, don’t spend the rest of the day looking for moose on that trail. Moose will return to the trail when it gets dark because they only travel open areas at night. 

Follow the footprints to find out where it returned to the bush. If you find the location of the re-entry, look for bodies of water in the area. Make a loop of the area until you reach the water area again, where you can set up your stand and wait. As you get closer, you can also make a few female calls or bull grunts.

5. Glassing From Same Spot You Call

Moving to a different location to glass the area after making a call so that you are upwind of where you were calling A bull will investigate the location where he heard your call if he hears it.

6. First 10 Last 10 Rule

A picture of a moose taken by a trail camera in the woods.

Hunting moose frequently requires a full day of waiting in the woods. There are occasions when you will locate a moose within the first ten minutes of sunlight and the final ten minutes. When hunting moose, be prepared for a long day.

7. Be Patient When Making a Call

Moose are very curious creatures, but they are cautious and won’t act quickly to satisfy their curiosity. A moose may take days to investigate calls, which is not unusual. Wait for it to decide to come and look into the calls and be patient.

8. Breaking Brush

Moose thrash small trees, shrubs, and trees in their territory to demonstrate their dominance. You can use this to attract a bull to you and get his attention. To produce loud crackling sounds, break off some dry branches of an evergreen tree at its base. The noise will be looked into by the dominant moose in the area. 

9. Setting Up A Treestand

A picture of a treestand on a tree

If you can only set up one treestand over the clearing you believe moose frequent, place it on the eastern edge of the clearing. In normal weather, you will be downwind of the moose because the majority of winds in their habitat come from the west. You can check this treestand out Summit Treestands Viper Steel Climbing Treestand for a single-person treestand or BIG GAME Guardian XLT for a two-person treestand.

10. Mimic Bull Pissing

By imitating the sound of a bull urinating, you can convince another bull that there is a rival in his territory. By adding water to a large plastic container, you can imitate bull piss. Then, from your chest, pour it back into the water.

Conclusion

You can look at more hunting tips and tricks at A GUIDE TO HUNTING MOOSE where you will find a few more tips which I did not include in this post. But as an endnote, hunting Moose is a long process that requires patients and resilience, even seasoned hunters get frustrated by the time it takes to get a shot which may or may not land on the vitals.

You need to keep a lookout for any signs that a Moose is nearby and most importantly respect the animal, we only kill them because we eat them and it is a sacrifice from the animal to nourish us. Follow the tips above and you should do just fine! Because we’re from AlaskanArrow, if you are interested in a hunting trip to Alaska itself where there is a hunting camp, you can check out ALASKA MOOSE HUNT GUIDES to get all the info you need.

I recommend watching this video to unlock a new skill on cooking them too!