516-50 Montana Moose Ride-a-long

Great story, great bull, congrats. Thanks for sharing. Enjoyed following along.

Nice bull and nice write-up. Thanks for sharing.

Congrats on a great hunt and a great bull!

Awesome hunt. Well deserved on a great trophy

Congrats on the success and the experience. Sam, Austin and Issac are great guys so I'm sure you must be the same. Congrats man.

Watt21 said:

Congrats on the success and the experience. Sam, Austin and Issac are great guys so I'm sure you must be the same. Congrats man.

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They sure are some gems! Better men than me! Thanks for all the congratulations. Hopefully the thread helps future tat holders in the unit. Feel free to reach out, I'd love to assist in anyway I can, or tag along! I'll make sure to make a post with a few of the takeaways and lessons learned on the hunt that can hopefully be helpful as well. Good luck to everyone still getting out!

Nice bull! Great job. Sounds like a great hunt.

It is always nice to have friends on speed dial once a big critter hits the ground! Congrats on a great hunt and well deserved bullwinkle!

Very cool! Congrats. Sounds and looks like a great hunt.

What a hunt! I was in the field when you posted.

Great pictures also.

You really took advantage of that tag, that's awesome.

Congratulations on your moose! Thank you for sharing all the photos throughout the whole adventure. Maybe I'm just hungry right now, but I keep going back to the steaks over the fire and drooling on my keyboard.

Congrats on a great hunt and great bull moose!

Well done! Great job. It's nice to see guys being successful after so much work. Congrats!

So many great stories on Hunt Talk this season. This being another one.

Congrats on a great hunt. And thanks for sharing here.

Great bull and thank you so much for the write-up! I was hanging/waiting on every post.

Thanks all! The morning after tagging this bull, the local Game Warden swung though camp. He estimated there were just over 20 moose in the unit. After what we had seen scouting, I figured there were around 30ish, but it's such a large unit with some inaccessible areas, so it's hard to say. The rut was just kicking off when I killed, but it seemed to pull the moose out of the woodwork. The warden stated he had seen a good bull in lower deer creek, which is an area I didn't scout for moose. I figured with the burn, there wasn't a lot of suitable habitat. A co worker of mine said he always sees a cow or two in there as well, so for the future tag holder, check it out, there could be a really old bull back there!

Takeaways:
-scout: if for no other reason than to spend more time enjoying montanas gorgeous public lands.
-don't get to caught up in whether or not you're going to spook the moose, I more or less tried, and they just really don't care about something 1/5 their size that walks on two legs.
-muck boots and rain pants are your best friend, hip boots might even be better. This was a wet hunt, walking in bogs, crossing the river, and dewy mornings hiking through willows and grass, will soak you. Bring more socks than you think you'll need, and a few pairs of footwear. I personally can't stand having wet feet, you could be tougher than me.
-a spot device or some sort of satellite communication is nice when you do get a moose on the ground. Very few areas in the unit have cell service, so being able to stay in touch is a huge benefit when it comes to calling friends with strong backs. Also, lots of griz. Lots. Of. Grizzlies. Bear spray is obvious, but a satellite communicator could save your life if you're unlucky.
-bring a friend or family member along. Having Isaac with was awesome, just to break up the hunt a bit. You're doing well if you see an animal a day, so unless you're a loner or enjoy talking to yourself, a second set of eyes is welcome.
-have a gps with a chip or a good map of public/private. Although the unit is vastly public, the river bottoms are chunked off with private. Knowing what you can and can't hunt makes for a much more stress free experience.

I'm sure I'll think of more, but the top takeaway is that if you have this tag, you've won the lottery. Beautiful country, cool critters that if parasites and predators continue to impact, we may not be fortunate enough to hunt in some areas in the future, and the BEST meat, not game meat, best meat, I've ever had, period. So count your lucky stars, any bull is a trophy, and the memories are what make this hunt.

Congrats on an awesome hunt. Words can not express how jealous I am. Hopefully one day I will get the same opportunity as you had this year. Enjoy the bounty.

Awesome story! I'm living vicariously through these hunts! Thanks for sharing.

Glad you all have enjoyed following along! The other tag holder, Ben, got ahold of me and wanted to share his story on here as well. His hope is similar to mine in that maybe it can help out a future tag holder for 516-50. I will attempt to relay his story as best I can from the messages I have received from him, and upload the pictures of his awesome bull as well:

"I had the other tag for the area and I was wanting to share my experience with you so you could add the info to your forum and possibly aid others in hunting the area, p.s. congrats on your fine bull, game warden said he was a dandy. I ended up tagging one on Monday this week, it was a roller coaster ride for sure. I learned that you had gotten one from the warden and I have to admit that I was very envious. As you know they are not around every corner, my summer scouting and camera placement didn't turn up anything to get excited about, but gave me some ideas on where the cows might be. I spent four days hunting a bull in deer creek, I saw him twice and once was at 30 yds, but him and his cow blew out of there in a hurry. I ended up giving up on him because he was in some very rugged country and I had pushed him even deeper, so I felt with the warm temps we were having it was pretty irresponsible for me to keep going. I gave the natural bridge area a day about a week after you killed yours and did end up calling in a bull to fifty yards but he was probably a year and a half old so I passed.

I had the four mile cabin rented from Sunday to this Friday if needed and on my way in Saturday I saw two calves feeding in armour pond, watched them til dark and headed for the cabin. That morning I hiked above the pond and started calling but was unsuccessful leaving after about 2 hours. On my way to my next stop, I had a cow and two calves cross in front of me, but after investigating they were not with a bull. Long story short I continued down the drainage hitting as many good looking spots as I could, wading the river and calling, but was unable to find a bull. My next stop would be big beaver campground, where by then, I was soaked from rain and a miss judgement of how deep the river was in relation to the height of my waders, lol. I waded the river any way and stuck to the plan. After an hour or so of picking my way through the thick willows and aspens I glassed up something dark and out of place. To my surprise it was a bull staring at me from about 80 yds, I saw enough to know I was going to try to kill him so I scrambled to find a shooting lane being as careful as I could not to shoot the wrong moose because he was with a cow and a calf. Finally I found an opening and touched off my 7 mag, he whirled and ran. After a short, unsure track job, I found him down maybe 30 yds from where he was hit! In total I hunted 10 days and saw 5 bulls but only 2 shooters, 12 moose all together. It was a great experience and the knowledge gained about the animal has elevated my respect for them a ton. My bull was probably 3 and a half maybe 4 and a half but I felt like I could have done a lot worse being the area is not known for Old bulls. You could eat the tag pretty easy if you're picky. Any way, it was a great time."

"There really is no strategy other than put your time in. In our situation, there are no moose experts to get ideas from, it's so rare to get a tag you just have to learn as you go and having the added pressure of knowing that you probably will never get this tag again makes it difficult to relax. I basically applied what I know about hunting everything else as best I could and trusted the process knowing the more time I spend, the higher my odds get. I did a lot of calling and at times felt like an idiot because I had zero proof that it was working until the second weekend. I had stepped out on a ridge above deer creek and let out a cow call, the wind was strong but I got an answer from a cow about 300 yds below me. I was excited and felt some satisfaction that I wasn't just scaring things with my calling. I knew she was probably with the bull I was looking for so I dropped in and when in the bottom I immediately started seeing fresh scat and a lot of rutting bull scrapes, as I eased forward I caught movement to my left and the cow jumped up close to me. She bolted and he joined her. Before I realized what was happening, they were out of sight around the corner. I did get enough of a look at him to see he had big paddles. I also saw him in a burn above the creek on opening weekend, but it was Saturday just before dark and he slipped into the timber on me. I did see some nice bone on his head though. After going back Sunday I found nothing and had to head back to work. The warden has access to a picture of him that a deer hunter in the area took and he said that he's a fine bull especially for this unit. I believe if I had scouted that area over the summer then I would have been more prepared and may have got him killed. It's a sleeper spot that may be allowing the Bulls to get a bit older and bigger. That creek bottom has some nice cool dark haunts all the way down it that are perfect even in the heat. Very thick blow down though!

The rut activity seemed to be picking up the third week, I was seeing a lot more moose tracks in the mud traveling the roads and the young bull I cow called in by natural bridge was drooling and grunting a bunch. I also made a quick trip in to the west boulder meadows that weekend that turned up nothing, but on my way out ran into a decent bull on private just standing in the wide open in the middle of a field. After all the scouting and hitting the higher grounds on foot and horseback, I came to the conclusion that the best chances were going to be low in the river bottoms from box canyon all the way to natural bridge. One area that I heard over and over had a good number of moose in was Davis creek but I killed my bull a day before I was going to head in there. I hit 4 mile and came out meatrack twice this season and to my surprise didn't see much sign, I also rode bridge creek, but concluded that it was too thick for my style of hunting. I had heard of the drop tine bull several times but I could never lay eyes on him. I did have mission and little mission on my radar but never made it in there. I also was told about a great bull by the natural bridge area that some fly fishermen had encountered, and if you heard them tell it he was the biggest thing that they ever saw. I didn't let myself get to hung up on that though because I felt he was probably living comfortable on private and may never come off. I forgot to mention I had a camera in West boulder meadows this summer that produced a cow but unfortunately there is a grazing permit for that area that pushes the moose out and it is also a high traffic area for hikers and with such a shy animal I think that area just looks better than it is.

I had dreams of using my recurve but after the first week and realizing that I may only get one opportunity at this, I put the bow down. I know what you mean about ending the hunt to soon because I have obsessed about this moose for so long I feel an emptiness in not being out looking for a bull. But nevertheless we got it done and we were blessed with a chance to do something most will never get to do. Moose is probably the hardest tag in North America to draw I think, that was an amazing adventure and for the unit we were in we can be proud! The biologist had said that due to predators and brain worm they just don't get very old. I'm no expert but brain worm in my opinion is transferred by white tails, and there are lots of those in the boulder........there are none in deer creek!
I can't wait to eat some of mine, when I killed him I was solo and in awe of the size, luckily I had a lot of rope and had somewhat of a spider Web going on in the trees lashing him off to work on him. I have a butcher friend who is taking care of processing for me so I'm anxious for him to call. Good choice on rifle caliber also, I love my 7.

Oh and now I'm just going to be picky and have fun the rest of season because I don't have to worry about filling the freezer with elk and deer for once, happy hunting man, good luck! I almost forgot I totalled my truck on one of the scouting trips this summer by hitting an elk at 80mph and deer creek cost me a set of tires but it was all worth it lol"

"I ended up in deer creek just because I had never looked at that country before, and due to a miss judgement, me and my friend did a 19 mile hike the day before that kicked our butt, so we decided to take it easy and look through the windshield for a day. While we were there we chatted with a bear hunter that told us he had seen two bulls in the same spot last year and that's what started it off, then the other game warden had mentioned in passing that he'd seen him and the deer hunter has his pictures. Hind sights 20/20 and I probably would have played it different when I dropped in on him and the cow that day, if I had been more patient I could have watched the area from above and maybe got a shot that way. Well good luck man and who knows maybe next year it will be sheep or goat!"

Hi everyone,

I'm relatively new to the forum and wanted to introduce myself and contribute to YoungGun's thread from last season. I've lived in Montana for a good bit now and was fortunate to accompany YoungGun during his 516-50 moose hunt from the scouting through the day he harvested his bull.

With only three points going into the draw, I decided to apply for 516-50 as I thought it would be fun to hunt the same moose unit two years in a row. The draw results came out and I was in disbelief ...we drew! Ever since, YoungGun and I have been running trail cameras, looking into new access points, and ultimately trying to locate a couple of the bulls we know made it through last season.

As YoungGun eluded to last year, it is a big unit. The boundary runs from the Swingley/Mission Creek area all the way East to Bridger Creek (East of Big Timber), down through the Deer Creeks/East Boulder, and then down Placer Basin to the East Fork of the Main Boulder and then West along Sheepherder and North along the divide separating the Main Boulder and Mill Creek. The country is diverse, ranging from burns in the West Boulder and Deer Creeks to thick timber and swamps in the Upper Boulder and East Boulder drainages.

Thus far, we have turned up 12 moose, nearly half being bulls. I know they will move considerably come September/October but it has been fun to learn areas that we didn't have time to explore last season. YoungGun and I will do our best to keep you all in the loop, and our hope is that this thread helps somebody down the road if they draw a 516-50 Moose tag.




A younger bull that made it through last season, the same bull YoungGun saw early in the season.





Beaver Ponds in the Upper Boulder last September.



Meatrack Creek. We never saw a moose here last year but I reckon there are a couple that live here at least part of the year.