Home Forums Hunting & Shooting General Big Game Off Moose hunting around Pink Mountain in BC

Leaving Saturday, hope to get my first moose.

Good luck. Take lots of pics.

On my bucket list! Good luck!

HAVE FUN, Good Luck. very nice country. I worked over the years from 1988 thru to 2004 on reconstruction of the Alaska HWY from north of FSJ all the way thru to the Alaska border. Spen ta few summers near Pink Mountain.

We leave for our annual moose hunting trip first week of October. Nice thing for me its on an hour drive, then unload and quad in a couple miles.
Cant wait.

Closest I've been before is tree planting in the Bowren-Hagen valley (or driving the Yellowhead out to Jasper). I envy your ability to just drive and hunt, must be nice. My hunting buddies hunt there every few years (whenever the freezers need a refill).

Hope it doesn't get too hot. Good luck!

I more envy my bro-in-law.....lives out by the farm, can shoot elk, deer, moose, bears, wolves, coyotes off his deck if he wanted to.

As someone previously mentioned, take lots of pics and update us when you get back.

From a spot near there, I once watched moose, bear, goats and caribou for hours - from one vantage point.

I never shot anything that day - but to my dying day I'll consider it one of the best days I ever had hunting!

Good luck - post some pics on your return.

I'm back from the hunt. The weather was very warm for the region and the moose were hiding out up in the pines mostly. With 26 hunters in the area, there were two bull sitings and one moose taken. Fortunately, it was my hunting partner Paul that got him. The other bull was seen by a hunter going out to Pink Mountain for a shower, and had neglected to take a gun with him (might take him a while to live that one down!)

Anyway, it was great fun. We saw Grizzly, Black Bear, Wolf, Lynx, Grouse, Hawks and much more. The Peace region is much more beautiful than I expected. Hunting seismic and pipeline cuts was an interesting experience.

The moose we bagged had first been spotted by my friend Larry a few days earlier. It was very skittish and on his first sighting he wasn't even sure it was a bull. He came back and spotted it again and determined from tracks it was a bull so we came back that evening in an attempt to bracket him in with me covering the road at the bottom of the clear cut (planted with what are now 6 foot tall pines), Paul covering a skidder track on the left side and Larry stalking through from the right side. Our bull didn't make a showing and we went back empty handed. The next morning, Paul and I went back to check it out and Larry worked the valley below. I split off down the right side of the cut and not five minutes later I hear "bang...... bang". I booted it back up to the track at the top of the cut and saw a quad stopped ahead of me. I started walking in it's direction when I heard "bang..... bang" again. I was starting to get a bit of adrenaline going because that sure sounded like Pauls 30-06. I caught up to the guy on the quad who offered me a ride and just as I was getting on I heard "bang" followed by "WOOOOHOOOOO!!" and I knew it was Paul. He's a pretty calm guy, but when he gets a moose you can hear him for miles.

A short way down we ran in to Paul and had a look at his nice 5x5 he had down. We didn't have cameras with us and the photos we took back at camp will have to wait for posting. The guy on the quad (Les) said "Well, I better come up with a new plan" so I guess he'd been looking for this Moose as well. He gave me a lift back to our Suzuki Sidekick (stripped down for hunting - no doors, chained up for the boggy areas) and by the time I got back Larry had showed up. We field dressed and quartered Bullwinkle, hauled him back to camp, built a ladder and meat pole and hung them in game bags. After it had a nice crust built up we reorganized the freezer and loaded it up.

We had originally planned on a 2 week trip, but the weather report was for a week of rain and we figured it would be a good idea to get out while we could. The roads there turn in to a special kind of gumbo when they get wet and none of us could afford to be gone more than 2 weeks. Too bad, because the rain would bring cooler weather and probably a lot easier hunting.

A typical day at Moose camp consisted of waking up at 3 or 4 am, grabbing coffee, driving out to our best bet for a cut block to site moose and either hunker down and wait or stalk around looking and listening. After 8 or 9 am, we'd switch to driving the roads and cut lines, checking for tracks, browse and other signs. Around noon, we'd meet back in camp, have a meal, BS a bit and maybe try for a nap, although Larry's booming voice didn't allow much of that. In the afternoon we'd continue driving and scouting and in the evening, we'd often try stalking prospective areas.

In previous years, Pink Mountain has produced 80+ animals in a Summer bull season (Aug 15-Sep 1). By the time we'd left, it produced 3 (ours and 2 in the meat locker in Pink Mountain). Some hunters blamed bears, wolves and many other things. For myself, I think it's the weather. Moose don't like the heat and it was way warmer than normal. I saw plenty of tracks in the wetter areas and that tells me there are plenty of animals in the area. As the weather cools down I'm sure the hunting will improve.

We had a really nice feast of Moose liver (nothing like fresh moose liver, much better than beef liver and even baby beef liver). We hunt Summer Moose for the high quality meat - you harvest before the rut and get the best meat for your freezer.

Early season is always hit or miss because of weather.I hunt about 40 miles south of Pink Mountain,and usually go in the first week of October to take advantage of the rut.Chilly weather makes all the difference.Of course after September first there are antler restrictions and I've had to turn down a lot of bulls that would have been legal in August!Glad you enjoyed your trip,it's beautiful country. Monashee

Monashee - are you hunting around Wonowon? Looked like there were some extensive road/cut systems around there.

Sounds like a fun hunt. I too leave for our annual moose hunt tripo first week of October.

It has been warm the past few years.....use to wake up to a light snow fall on the first morning for years...and stay between +-5 celcius. Been hunting the same area for 25 years. Moved camp about 500m west from original spot about 5 years ago as the area got logged. Now with new blocks, we have been fortunate enough to get a bull on the first evening out after getting camp all hauled in and set up by 3-4pm. Last 2 years bull taken in a new block directly behind camp...can see the wall tent. The year before that was same first evening (my bull), but was further away and ended up being a long night before back to camp when an ATV overheated pulling the bull back to camp and would not fire back up....it was a big bull. We had it dressed out before dark. One guy went back to camp to get help....we were about kilometre from the kill site and sitting in the dark waiting for about 1.5hrs for help to get back - hearing the wolves find the kill site....gets a bit iery but still GOOD TIMES anyhow!!!

CANT WAIT !!!! 5 weeks till we leave. 4 tags in camp this year.

In five weeks you should have the cooler weather and the rut to help you out. We've got ours all butchered up and ready - nothing like a nice young summer bull moose!

Moose are very heat sensitive. The reason bulls are darker(in my experience) than cows is that they spend more time in deeper shade/cooler temps. Probably due to their greater body size and heavier body-fat buildup in late summer and early fall, they need the thermo-regulation.

Consider slip-hunting (some call it still-hunting) thru the densest evergreen or mature forest around, from a couple hours after daylight to dark. They are bedded then, unlikely to come to calls before near (or often after) dark. You can call, and they will hear and respond - but not until near or after dark, when it cools and the light dims. They are unlikely to be found up feeding during the day, unless there is a break in a rain storm,and or deep in cover. Sometimes between 11 and 1 or so they may get up for a brief feed. In heavy cover. I've killed several feeding bulls suchwise.

I've had my best luck calling from pre-dawn to two hours after, and a few minutes before evening dark. Making mild noises - such as breaking a few branches and a mild bull grunt or two - for a few minutes in mid-afternoon, then shutting the hell up often brings in inquisitive moose right at dark. Or after. There is nothing like a bull moose raking his antlers 15 feet from your sleeping bag in the blackest dead of night to get your attention! BTDT.

Tall/Mature aspen/birch or tall alder also provides the required cooling effect for bedding areas. Hilltop/higher ground wooded areas more or less surrounded by bog/lake/water are prime bedding and mating areas. During the pre-rut and rut itself, this is where you will find the "harems". The cows chose the area, by the way. The bull(s) - well you know how males are......:)

Read up on white-tails- they are remakably similar in their habits, and there is a lot of published white-tail stuff- less so on moose.

If you are hunting an "any-bull" area, when the antlers come out of the grass.....

I enjoyed about 15 years of such slip-hunting on the Kenai Peninsula of Alaska, targeting "islands" of unburned spruce amidst a burn area to slip hunt thru. I had 100% success ratio, averaging 4 days of hunting per season, compared to a 20% success ratio for the area, but then I always hunted at least a mile off-road. The moose used the unburned "islands" as daytime bedding areas. And they didn'ty like road traffic.

Then the second growth grew up, the moose population dropped to current date to about 15% of the peak, and F&G imposed some questionable antler restrictions - most recently on a complete lack of accurate data. I.E. What they can see on their airplane surveys over now heavy cover. (they can't see chit). Their bull/cow ratios are way off, IMO from my ground observations and for several other reasons. I've actually infiltrated a pre-rut group of at least 4 bulls (probably 5 with about 10 cows present. F&G claims there is only about 1 bull per 10 cows out there.. (With a couple more hours, I probably could have got me a date..... )

A few years back their arial survey sfound not one "mature bull" (50 inches or over) in the hundreds of squre miles of that survey unit. In the two square miles I've hunted for over 30 years (two places, about one square mile each, about 5 miles apart) in this survey area, I knew of/had seen during hunting season, four such bulls- and I'm pretty certain there were that many more. They are smarter than me, and I didn't kill a one....

It's gotten a lot tougher to kill a legal bull in that area, and my success ratio has slipped to about one kill in 3 or 4 years years - but I have not hunted there in 2 years, living where I do now.

Still- the moose pop. isn't being hurt by F&G errors in math, so what the hell.... and it's discouraging other hunters for that area, which is all good with me once I resume hunting there in a year or two.

I will no longer hunt bulls in rutting season - I now quit after about Sept 20 - even when the season allows(like where I live now). The chances of getting an stinky/inedible one, or one with just disagreeable flavor - and yes I have - are too great. I will no longer waste- or choke down- such an incredible animal.

Unlike white-tails, moose rutting season is pretty much standardized throughout all of NA. Late Sept into mid October. I will no longer shoot any bull between Sept 20 and October 15.

Cows, where legal, at any time, are a whole 'nother story....