What time did you shoot your Alaskan Moose?

[Blockcaver]

Arrowed my first in Alaska around 4:00 PM and the second at 4:00 PM as well.

 

[Gunnersdad49]

Mine was about 5 pm, had another bull come in from the opposite direction about an hour later

 

[Slugz]

#1 0715
#2 1845

Same day. Same gravel bar. Am one went into a swamp. Pm one dry land.

 

[Chirogrow]

With all these random times of people getting moose I'm curious about how you all spend the day. On my few hunts I'm calling just before daybreak, rake, and glass till about 10 then do camp chores till 1145ish and glass till 130ish then get fire wood maybe power down for a nap and am back glassing around 4 till dark. how do you all spend break up your day with getting water, wood, food etc?

 

[berretsteve]

6am
4pm

 

[Yellowknife]

With all these random times of people getting moose I'm curious about how you all spend the day. On my few hunts I'm calling just before daybreak, rake, and glass till about 10 then do camp chores till 1145ish and glass till 130ish then get fire wood maybe power down for a nap and am back glassing around 4 till dark. how do you all spend break up your day with getting water, wood, food etc?

We hunt far more actively than this. Its call/rake at day break, the spend the day hunting a few different glassing spots. Calling if I find a good spot, otherwise spot and stalk during the day. Back at camp and perhaps call again right at dark.

Moose nap a lot, but will get up to feed or chase each other several times a day. Being on high ground to catch that afternoon movement has killed dozens of moose for us. Including both of our 2023 bulls.

Usually log 5+ miles of hiking as we all spread out to different areas during the day.

Camp chores are mostly ignored or done late until we have the first moose down. Then the lucky hunter is in charge of those. Otherwise there is rarely someone in camp to care during daylight hours.

If we get a moose late in the day, it gets opened up as much as possible and left till morning. Don’t typically do recovery in the dark, and never lost meat.

Lots of different styles of moose hunting though. That’s just what works for me.

Isaac

 

[Chirogrow]

We hunt far more actively than this. Its call/rake at day break, the spend the day hunting a few different glassing spots. Calling if I find a good spot, otherwise spot and stalk during the day. Back at camp and perhaps call again right at dark.

Moose nap a lot, but will get up to feed or chase each other several times a day. Being on high ground to catch that afternoon movement has killed dozens of moose for us. Including both of our 2023 bulls.

Usually log 5+ miles of hiking as we all spread out to different areas during the day.

Camp chores are mostly ignored or done late until we have the first moose down. Then the lucky hunter is in charge of those. Otherwise there is rarely someone in camp to care during daylight hours.

If we get a moose late in the day, it gets opened up as much as possible and left till morning. Don’t typically do recovery in the dark, and never lost meat.

Lots of different styles of moose hunting though. That’s just what works for me.

Isaac

Thanks for the response! as an elk hunter the sitting kills my soul but so many people talk about killing an area with scent that I have tried to be more patient and not hike a lot. I take it that you haven't noticed an issue with moose avoiding your areas after walking around? My second drop camp I finally caved and started hiking quite a bit to find different areas and we never a saw a moose the entire 11 days. That could have just been a bad drop area though.

 

[Yellowknife]

I do try not to unnecessarily stink up the country, but I've shot multiple of moose right off my own trail.

Ex: 2021 we had a lousy weather day with fog and wind. Rather than going high, I hiked an old trail up a mountain valley, calling every mile or so. It was too cold to sit long, so I just kept going. Came back in the afternoon and jumped (and shot) a bedded bull 15 ft off the trail near one of my calling spots.

If moose were that concerned about old scent, we couldn't call them into camp.

 

[SaltySailor]

After thinking about it for a while: been a part of upwards of 30 successful moose hunts, I can only think of four that were shot before 9am, and yes, we are out there at first light. That's not to say we wouldn't love to shoot every one at first light and have the day to deal with it, that's just the way its worked out. Lots of random mid-afternoon bulls, more than a few right close to dark.

 

[BowMan86]

My daughter shot this one about 30 min before dark. Didn’t get it completely done and loaded up in the truck til about 5-6 am. Definitely a long uncomfortable night. Had wolves start howling down wind as we were finishing up. Sounded like they were on the carcass before we got out of the area. Hated doing it in the moment, but glad to have the meat safe and in my truck before something else got it.

 

[Lvthntitall]

6pm here

 

[Robinhood21]

With all these random times of people getting moose I'm curious about how you all spend the day. On my few hunts I'm calling just before daybreak, rake, and glass till about 10 then do camp chores till 1145ish and glass till 130ish then get fire wood maybe power down for a nap and am back glassing around 4 till dark. how do you all spend break up your day with getting water, wood, food etc?

We hunt (glass) from sun up to about 1-1:30PM, go back to the tent and take a quick nap, filter some water then head back out until dark. We don't use a stove so there's not really much camp chores for us. Almost all the moose we've seen have been the first few hours of light and the last hour of light.

I'm not really a breakfast eater but after an hour or so after first light I'll make a coffee and eat some snacks.

Then around 11:00-12:00 I'll eat my lunch out in the field which is either Freeze dried B&G, Freeze dried Granola or Ramen.

For Dinner, we eat as soon as we get back to the tent from our evening hunt which is always a freeze dried entre. Usually as fast as we can because by then it's 10:00-10:30 and I'm trying to get back to sleep for the next mornings hunt.

Lots of snacks throughout the day though while in the field

 

[ColeyG]

Of the dozen-ish moose kills I've been in on, 4 of mine, and 8-9 with others, kills have been pretty evenly split between the morning hunt and the evening hunt.

We try really hard to get them in the morning because, as others have stated, staying up all night in the dark cutting meat isn't a ton of fun, even if the weather is good. The northern lights and howling wolves add some nice ambiance for sure, but getting the work done in daylight is greatly preferred.

I feel like during normal conditions leading up to and even through the rut. moose are pretty active until about 10-10:30 in the morning and then the tend to bed down for a few hours at least. There seems to be a little flurry of activity midday, say noon to 1-1:30. I think they like to get a little snack and/or look around after a few hours of resting and ruminating. Many if not most will stay bedded until mid-afternoon. I usually like to be set up and back on the hunt by 3:30pm at the latest with the activity picking up as the evening comes on.

Obviously lots of factors affect moose behavior and movement like temperature, cloud cover, wind, human/predator presence, recent kills, in the area. I feel like the least amount of activity I tend to see is on clear, windy, days. The spots I have hunted I know really well and typically spend 2 weeks in the area and get a really good feel for moose inventory in and around our camp. Seeing 20-30 unique bulls, if not more, and double that in cows from the hill we camp on is normal and you tend to see the same animals in the same or similar places day after day. On some of the clear, windy days we've gone all day without seeing a moose or seeing 1-2, when in the days leading up to those conditions we would see a few dozen. So I know they are there, but they aren't showing themselves.

 

[cumminsbassguy]

Shot my moose at the end of November 22'. about 1230 and after phoning 4 friends to assist with packing, it was 1/4 and packed up by 1530. Dark at 1615 and to the truck at 1830.. majority of the moose I seen shot were in the morning before 11am. AK time.

 

[dallen]

I don’t really know how many moose I’ve shot…..probably the number of years in AK minus about 3-4 ish.

In my experience (calling) it seems my times tend to be 8-10 am, 2 ish and then evening before dark. They do seem to have an active period in that 1:30 to 3 pm time frame that has been pretty productive.

 

[diamond10x]

With all these random times of people getting moose I'm curious about how you all spend the day. On my few hunts I'm calling just before daybreak, rake, and glass till about 10 then do camp chores till 1145ish and glass till 130ish then get fire wood maybe power down for a nap and am back glassing around 4 till dark. how do you all spend break up your day with getting water, wood, food etc?

We are in our spot from before sun up to after dark. We stay there all day, usually about midday take turns taking naps. May venture a short ways to glass a different area or different angle but stay close. Call/rake before light until about 10:30-11am then quiet down til about 3 or 4pm and call/rake til dark. Camp chores are done back at camp at night if needed. Usually whoever is last in the lineup for shooting will stay behind one morning or two early in the hunt to get a stock of wood cut and a good 5 gallons of water filtered so that it’s nothing but hard hunting til the season closes.

Killing them in the evening isn’t too bad, the biggest problem is having to work under a headlamp which can be a hassle at times. As far as predators we just be cognizant, pull the meat from the carcass, leave sweaty close hanging around meat and carcass, pee around the area good and never had any issues.

Everyone is different in their style. I currently have only done float hunts for moose as that’s what I enjoy. My style of float hunt is a little different than others where I’ll hunt an area until for a period of time instead of just having a new camp everyday. I’d like to hunt an area where I can stay in one area and be able to glass for miles but just haven’t put the time to find that place yet.