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How can you find a moose if you can't stop long enough on your wheeler and look for them.

A pard and I were out looking for a caribou and maybe even a moose yesterday out at Eureka and the number of supposed "moose" hunters riding into the area was stupid crazy but was really stupid was the number of them driving right by moose. We saw 8 moose before we even hit the Nelchina and everyone we talked too hadn't seen a moose.

And the funny thing about it was they were out in plain site, even watched 2 cows get into a catfight which is something I've never seen before. Anyways, I thought i'd share a little bit of what I saw yesterday.

Oh yeah, we did see 1 bull and 1 small cow caribou after covering about 45 miles worth of country. We didn't get the bull because 2 other hunters managed to miss it 5 times and it escaped.


That's ok, I'll ass shoot a dink.

Steelhead

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Originally Posted by AkMtnHntr
How can you find a moose if you can't stop long enough on your wheeler and look for them.


Yep! Lots of moose, I'm certain, get ridden right past. They simply aren't as dull-witted as they sometimes appear. There have been plenty of instances where they have been spotted entering a willow patch, and no amount of riding by has moved them. This fall some friends had been out looking for a bull which had been spotted close to town in one of the many willow patches dotting the tundra. After many hours spent over several evenings, they finally saw it cross and enter into a smallish patch of alders. They did a couple of ride-bys hoping it might show itself. It wouldn't. Finally, they just stopped and parked, throwing a few stones. Still nothing, so the waited awhile and then tossed rocks again. It seemed that waiting him out must have finally made him nervous. And that seems quite typical.

Moose know what cover is, and use it to their advantage whether in escaping from wolves, ATVs, or humans. They can actually be hunted like rabbits if you're not afraid to take your chances "going in". Flushing moose can be effective and a whole lot of fun. Of course, they can also give you the slip because that much cover is......cover, which is to their advantage.


Sometimes, the air you 'let in'matters less than the air you 'let out'.
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We had 3 hunters following behind us, they kept their distance from us , even when we would stop to glass. I spotted 2 cows on the hill to our right and watched them bed down in some brush. We later taked to these guys and one of them had a cow tag so I told him about the cows we had seen earlier as they were day hunting like us. On the ride out I spotted another cow in a solitary patch of evergreens on the side of a hill, they couldn't have been more than 6 or 7 feet high. She simply laid down among them and "vanished" into thin air.

Needless to say, anytime we happen upon a patch of anything we will stop to check things out.


That's ok, I'll ass shoot a dink.

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Was in a gun shop several years ago listening to a patron extoll the incompetence of Fish and Game and their moose management practices. His reasoning was that he'd put over a thousand miles on his four wheeler and hadn't gotten his moose. He got a bit out of sorts when I asked him how many miles he put on his boots.

We lucked out this year when my wife spotted a cow from the four wheeler that she ended up killing. Sometimes it happens. We sure spent enough time on the boots before we ran into the cow. I like to use my wheeler to get in to good country and boot hunt from there. May not always find a legal bull but we always seem some bulls. Last week I was still hunting some heavy cover and ended up looking a little fork bull in the eye at twenty feet. Had just a little to much junk to be legal though. He wasn't far from a trail but without getting off the wheeler and hunting I'd of never seen him.

Mart


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Driving around on a 4 Wheeler looking for a moose sounds like fun to me.

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A lot of guys do just and only that. And a few of them actually connect with moose. I have seen cows and bulls from the wheeler. I've seen a lot more while I was boot hunting. Don't get me wrong, a legal bull (or cow in my wife's case) show themselves while I'm running around on the Arctic Cat, I'm stopping for a shot. I just don't rely on running hundreds of miles of trail to get a critter.

Mart


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Where I'm at, it hardly qualifies as "fun", riding around on tundra. (It's more like work, work which allows me the satisfaction of being in country where I might have an opportunity to see a moose or two.)

[Linked Image]

Am sure thankful we can use hondas for transport. Slavery being outlawed and all, I really don't think it would make sense to hunt them otherwise, except perhaps opportunistically and whenever, around these parts.

[Linked Image]


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I should have clarified that 4 wheelers sound nice right now, after stomping up and down mountains in a SE Rainforest looking for deer this last week..(grin)

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I hear ya on that. I imagine if I had gotten out this weekend instead of remodeling the house - which is what I should be doing, but is really hard this time of year- I would probably think an easy chair sounded pretty good. Oh wait, I probably should get out of it and get back to work! laugh

What saw you? wink


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I'll be the first to admit that without a wheeler, I'm not sure I'd hunt moose, except maybe on a float hunt. Those big bastards are a ton of work when it comes to packing one on your back.

I've never shot one from a wheeler but have used the machine to get me to a point where I can find them on foot. Have never been lucky enough to find one just riding around on the quad, glassing lots of country is how I usually end up finding a shooter.


That's ok, I'll ass shoot a dink.

Steelhead

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Originally Posted by AkMtnHntr
Have never been lucky enough to find one just riding around on the quad, glassing lots of country is how I usually end up finding a shooter.


That's the part that some so-called 'hunters' don't seem to understand about the use of ATVs, and the part that lot of others don't get either. It's mostly a sitting and glassing thing for us here as well. I dread much of the riding we have to do; it's challenge enough in itself much of the time, and 'getting lucky' means back-tracking through that which may have been hairy to begin with. And that is part of the challenge of getting there in the first place: making sure you have a proper exit strategy in place.

I haven't actually seen many moose while straddling an ATV. Off the top of my head I can think of only a couple. One, a couple of years ago, was a young bull in the rut which must have though the putt-putt of the machine was a challenge or something. He was out in the middle of the wide open tundra, just as we were when we saw him. We stopped. He seemed to be looking right at us on the still-running honda. I think he might have kept coming had we just stayed as we were. Not wanting to take any chances - and for legality as well, we dismounted and headed toward a willow line which would break our outline; he was headed right toward us afterall and could undoubtedly see us. We probably cut the distance in half until I was comfortable with the shot. Another bull more years ago must have realized that I had given up on the fall effort. He stood withing a few hundred yards of the boat I was returning to, again putt-putting on my honda.


Sometimes, the air you 'let in'matters less than the air you 'let out'.
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my kid last Tuesday eve ....left his house on wheeler got to his sitting and listening spot .... 20 mins later....shot a 32"er inside of ten min's... I taught my kid to hunt on wheeler....now i'm still working on my moose smile


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Here in Colorado we have a few places quads (4 wheeler) can be used. My group uses them to haul in camp and then to haul it out. If we get an elk or deer it is backpacked to camp. When done hunting the quads haul every thing back to our trucks. Actual hunting is done by hiking looking for elk and deer. Elk and deer run and hide at the sound of a quad. So if you want to eat you hike for an elk or deer.

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What's interesting is watching a bull a half mile away walking across "flat" barren tundra and in a about 4 steps disappear from sight... smile


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Originally Posted by Klikitarik
Where I'm at, it hardly qualifies as "fun", riding around on tundra. (It's more like work, work which allows me the satisfaction of being in country where I might have an opportunity to see a moose or two.)

[Linked Image]

Am sure thankful we can use hondas for transport. Slavery being outlawed and all, I really don't think it would make sense to hunt them otherwise, except perhaps opportunistically and whenever, around these parts.

[Linked Image]


Dang Mark- that country is all cluttered up with cover! smile



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I went moose hunting this morning. Efed up the outboard a mile down the lagoon.

It's 4-wheel in the morning!


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Originally Posted by las


Dang Mark- that country is all cluttered up with cover! smile



Like a lot of folks, we hunt the rivers. Only thing is, our rivers are rivers of lava with a thin coating of "lumpy" crazy eek tundra on top. But I guess it's all the same since we do have to use boats to do it.

[Linked Image]

There's a "honda" and meat in that boat!

smile


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Drove past eureka yesterday. I see what u mean. Won't complain much about what atvs we see next time. Though I do wish the dumb [bleep] would quit driving off trail to every last spruce or birch stand they could see because they are too damn lazy to walk a quarter mile. I don't care about the older folks but to see 20 year olds doing the same sucks and stirs em up.

But they Do it on public closed land in Texas too,

John thanks for the info yesterday. Cased up and in Seattle on the flight home now

Jeff


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Seems to be a common thing up here anymore, idiots riding into good moose habitat instead of parking their machines and walking into it. They've ruined some prime hunting areas because of it and it really irritates me.

The last couple of years pressure has slowly declined due to low legal bull moose numbers, so maybe there is hope down the road.

No problem Jeff, wish we could have connected this time but circumstances just wouldn't allow it. Have a safe flight bud.


That's ok, I'll ass shoot a dink.

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I"ve wanted a few ATV tags over the years.... But I agreee on the pressure. And low numbers. The cow kill off seemed to have an effect too from what I saw this year. FEW cows to speak of compared to a few years back.

Talked to a few guys that said they were seeing nothing much and it sucked.

Did think we have a new group that made a new horrible trail up a hill side to spot and seems like they are cell calling other hunters wehre to go. If so I hope they nail the SOBs big time.


We can keep Larry Root and all his idiotic blabber and user names on here, but we can't get Ralph back..... Whiskey Tango Foxtrot, over....
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