Home Forums Hunting & Shooting General Big Game Moose hunt general information?

I’m intrigued by the idea of a moose hunt, meat hunt not looking for horns. What’s the best way for a guy from the southeast best go about doing that on the cheap? Rifle hunt only btw.

I have the gear/gun/transportation thing covered. Just ignorant about best way to make it happen. Guided, diy? Which states with saving $$ being a priority

Any help is greatly appreciated!

Happy New Years and Roll Tide!

A Wyoming Moose Hunt: Wyoming used to be and maybe still is the best location in the lower 48. No guide needed as most areas are fairly easy public access. Possibly have friends to help pack meat. About 15+ years of Preference Points. Lobby really hard to remove all wolves from Wyoming which has almost decimated our Moose population. Moose numbers are way down as are the licenses available for hunters!

Good Luck! memtb

Moose tags of any kind in the lower 48 are tough to draw, even cow tags...let alone for non-residents. Idaho is a non point option but you'll be buying a $100+ license just to apply, so that doesn't really fit in well with the saving $ theme. All other western states with moose have a point system I believe, and (maybe) the New England states too. Wyoming has some random draw moose tags but they're super tough to draw.

Have you considered a guided hunt in eastern Canada? I don't know if they even offer cow hunts over there but if so they'll be cheaper. You're likely not going to be moose hunting in the lower 48 for quite a while, even if you start building points now and apply in any non-point states.

B C. used to offer a driving guided moose hunt for bulls. A few years ago it was $4600. I thought of going, but other things always go in the way. Check out eastern Canada as T suggested. Hunt Nation used to offer some pretty fair hunts, but I never used their booking service! It is not getting cheaper or easier..

I'd spend $6500 and go to Newfoundland. I don't see spending $25k for Alaska/Yukon, etc and NF is supposed to be a real fun hunt. I want to go myself, and was in fact booked last year but COVID obviously shut that down.

Google Maine Moose hunt.
Good luck.

In the east there are a couple of options.

you can try to draw a Maine, NH, VT, or New Brunswick tag, if you get lucky and draw a tag you can put together a reasonably priced hunt. If you have a the tag even a guide isn't much in those areas. I have been in the draws for nearly 20 years and drew 3 tags, one Maine and two in NB

Newfoundland- $6-8K will get you a very cool guided hunt, without needing to draw.

Ontario- lots of outfitters sell hunts and provide the tag. A many of the outfitters are fly-in fishing services and they will put you in a fly-in cabin, give you a boat and motor for a week. Its nice because you don't need to organize everything, have reasonable accommodations, but the hunt and meat prep are typically on you. We went this last year it was `$7K for 3 guys, we had two tags. We called in several moose and killed a 40 inch bull. The other tag was a cow tag and we didn't fill that one. (although we didn't try too hard for the cow, the bull was plenty of meat and we had a blast fishing). Its a different hunt than Newfoundland, maybe a slightly lower odds of success, but the satisfaction of DIY.

Moose aren't hard to hunt, but if you haven't hunted one before and haven't handled a large animal before a Newfoundland hunt is really a good place to start. You will likely learn enough to do DIY on future hunts. Its fun hunt and the meat is excellent.

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THIS

I’d throw Alberta into the mix.

Likely a bit less than a Newfie hunt.

I can vouch for this guy - I wolf hunted with him and know he has great success on moose.
I don't think he spends much time updating the website (his efforts/updates are more Facebook focused) but he's a solid, solid feller and his wife can hunt circles around a lot of dudes.
https://www.wolfhuntinadventures.com/

I’ve been drawn 3 times since 1984 here in Maine as a resident. Been subpermttee 4-5 other times. Your odds as a NR aren’t good.

The suggestions of Newfoundland or other Canadian provinces is probably your best bet if you want to go soon. NF is on my short list now

Newfoundland is the easy button. We got 2 in September.

What do you mean when you say you have the “transportation thing” covered?

I'm glad I got drawn in VT and NH before the population crash. I always intended to keep after Maine to try for the hat trick but I haven't put in for some years. And I think I'm ok with never getting to hunt them in Maine now

444, not to be a downer but if there was an easy way to get a moose tag in the lower 48, let alone an any weapon tag even if for antlerless, it would only be easy for one season.

Good luck...but realize what you're wanting isn't realistic unless you're open to the guided Canadian thing, and even then you're going to be dealing with COVID restrictions and are a few years out, unless cancellation hunts are in the mix.

They're not like elk where you have several options.

Unfortunately this is likely very correct.

The only "easy" way I ever knew of was to win an Auction tag. I did that in 09. I wanted to hunt VT for a 2nd time before the Moose mostly disappeared as they were quickly waning even then due to ticks. It cost me $4K but I bought a tag. I found an adult Cow and I took her. The Pickens were slim though unlike how it was when I was drawn for the same unit in 03 and Moose sign was plentiful

Sorry to derail 444

I believe, but not 100 percent certain, that the Maine Moose auction tags went between $23,000 and $25,000 in 2021. Not exactly affordable and no [bleep] way.

I don't see a realistic way to a "cheap" moose hunt of any type. Only options I see for "cheap" are to draw a cow tag in some of the western states, but that requires a whole lot of luck. If you're not lucky it doesn't take too many years to get outside of what I consider "cheap".

I've been to Newfoundland several times moose hunting. For the $5k you spend it is the best bang for the buck. Tags are guaranteed and success rate is about 65% from what I've seen. Some outfitters boast even higher success rates. It takes me about 2.5 days to get there including the 10 hr ferry ride. If it wasn't for that, I'd go every year. We always had a great time there.

You can also do a combo moose/bear hunt with some outfitters. I tagged both one year.

Newfoundland is solid. The bull racks are shi*t compared to Alaskan/Rocky Mountain animals but meat is meat. Been there 1x and had a great time but walking is a booger. Work on leg lifts. Lots of moose there. Get a cow tag - bulls aren’t worth it - I had a bull only tag & kept passing till I got a nice rack - didn’t shoot anything despite over 65 miles across various bogs on foot. Came home empty which I’m ok with but coulda shot 30 cows and had something for the Big Green Egg.

The VT/ME/NH moose lottery is very low odds - Grammy puts in with the boys every year.

Newfoundland.