let me tell you about my OIL moose draw--hopefully this quells some fears. In 2006 i drew an any moose tag in unit 117 with only 1 preferance point. i had only hunted eastern washington once in 1992 when i shot a bear outside of colville. i wasn't real savy on the internet and didn't know about the hunt wa website so my early prescouting was to contacting a state wildlife biologist outside of spokane and letting him know i drew the permit and was looking for an area to concentrate on hunting moose in that area. He called me up and told me to drive down so and so road (yes i remember the road name but am omitting it)...asked him what do i do when i drive down the road--he told me shoot the moose that is standing in the middle of the road. i didn't really believe him so the wife and i took a 3 day weekend the end of august and headed over there. we were driving down the road the biologist said (wife was driving and i was looking off the side of the road like i normally do when were deer hunting.}..only went about a mile and i heard her say HEY, HEY , HEY and i look up in the road and see a bull moose trotting down the road about 100 yards in front of us and go around a corner. she stopped the SUV and I went hurried up around the corner looking for the moose. Standing there looking into the brush not seeing it and i cant understand where it went. I'm looking at the brush when i see a pair of legs standing above the brush...i look up and that bull moose is standing lest than 50 yds from me but i'm looking underneath it---they are huge animals not used to looking for something that big. the rest of that weekend we saw 5 different bulls and multiple cows. Tag started October first (Saturday)...a bunch of us went over the thursday before the opener and camped in Chewelah and took our enduro motorcycles out and found areas that had moose sign. On the opener (Saturday) we walked into an area we saw fresh sign and jumped 2 cow moose and heard at least 3 others moving around the brush around them. Moose rut was on and i ddin't see any bulls but was within 50 yards of some that were surrounding the cows. backed out of the area and went back to camp. that evening was driving to another area that the biologist said to look for moose and we saw a cow cross the road followed by a bull. He looked big enough for me so i dropped him where he stood. rack measured 43 1/2". . Don't worry about not knowing the areas---plenty of people can help you out...hardest thing is drawing the tag
Thank you. That does quell some fears for me. I have always dreamed of hunting moose and know I might have to wait a while to be drawn... but its thought of a new adventure and the opportunity to hunt something new that gets my heart pumping. I guess on this one if I get drawn I will fly by the seat of my pants for a change. I'm just used to having a 100% game plan and knowing the areas so well that I could walk through them blind folded. I guess until I get drawn I will do as usual and poor over google maps and onx to make myself feel comfortable. As stated I have never put in for moose before. Can I put in like for elk where I can pick several units? If so I will just put in for all 3 of the units and cross my fingers. I prefer to get my info on this stuff from this forum as opposed to wdfw... I've called for their info before and been given 2 different answers from 2 different workers after waiting a week for a response.
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