Rufous' Huckleberry Moose hunt

[Rufous]

My brother and I drew the Huckleberry Moose tag after putting in for something like 13 years (not just that unit but for moose in general). We are so excited! We have never been in that area so I would love some help from  those of you who have hunted it before or know the area and where the moose hang out. We intend to hunt hard to make the most of this once in a lifetime tag and hope to take mature bulls but obviously we have no idea what a good representative bull would look like for that area. Any help there would be great too. Thanks, Brian.

[280ackley]

Congtats to you and your brother.  Moose hunting will now be in your blood.  My brother drew the same tag last year and it was a lot of fun.  I will start getting the maps back out send some info your way.

[280ackley]

Ok, you guys will have a great time.  Take a look north and south of springdale-hunters road and along the Huckleberry
Range divide during prime times.  When you are south of the springdale-hunters road be carefull not to be on the Spokane Res.

[Rufous]

Bearmartin, should we focus our efforts north or south of the Springdale-Hunters road and east or west of the mountain range? Would it be possible for me to talk to your brother? If so please send me a PM with his phone number. Thanks, Brian.

[280ackley]

Bearmartin, should we focus our efforts north or south of the Springdale-Hunters road and east or west of the mountain range? Would it be possible for me to talk to your brother? If so please send me a PM with his phone number. Thanks, Brian.

Both north and south of springdale-hunters and both east and west of the divide will put you in good moose ground.  Be prepared to walk, there are a lot of gated roads.  Talk to the people you see, all the firewood cutters we ran into were helpfull.

[Rufous]

I met a guy this weekend and he drew the Huckleberry Range moose tag the first year it was an option which was in 2002. Back then only 2 tags were issued. He took this bull on his third day of hunting. It was aged at 10 years old. Nice bull. He said it missed the books by not much. He did not remember its score or width. It has a broken tine as you can see. Brian.

[PA BEN]

MOOSE HUNTING IN EASTERN WASHINGTON

The moose in northeast Washington are Shiras Moose (Alces alces shirasi), which is the smallest of the four subspecies of moose in North America.  Shiras Moose are named after George Shiras III, an ardent conservationist, explorer, and U.S. Congressman in the early 1900’s.  This subspecies is native to the northern Rocky Mountains and apparently migrated on its own accord into eastern Pend Oreille County, Washington in the 1950’s.  The first official state documentation of moose in Washington occurred in 1954.  In the decades since moose have dramatically increased both in numbers and distribution and are now common throughout much of northeast Washington.

Hunters should take note that while moose are fairly common, they are by nature a solitary animal, and occur only individually or in small groups scattered over wide areas.  They tend to prefer habitats based on forest successional stage and local climatic conditions.  While they can be found at any elevation in northeast Washington, they are most likely found in the 3,000 to 5,000 foot elevation band.  In the fall they seek deciduous browse, primarily willow, serviceberry, ceanothus, and other shrubs in logged over areas or burns that are approximately 15 years old or older.  Moose are particularly drawn to north slopes or east flowing drainages, which are cool and moist.  Late fall and early winter snowfall does not seem to deter moose in any way.

Moose rut in early October and some hunters have been effective with calls.  Early in the season moose are widespread and snow is usually not present for tracking.  This is a good time to learn the country and glass logged over areas.  Access is good and many hunters take moose in October.  Usually by some time in November snow is common and locating moose tracks as well as seeing these dark animals against a white background of snow becomes much easier.  Early to mid-November is a good time to plan a moose hunt.  By late November there is frequently deep enough snow to be concerned about having only limited road access into moose range


Huckleberry Range – GMU 121 and GMU 124 West of Hwy 395

Good areas to hunt in the Huckleberry Range are the mountains extending north and south of the Springdale - Hunters Pass off the Springdale - Hunters Highway.  The east side of the pass has the majority of the moose habitat especially the headwaters of the forks of Chimokane Creek and Deer Creek.  Moose sightings are also common east of the Fruitland area with access to the mountains through the Fruitland Valley or up the “O-Ra-Pak-En” Creek drainage.  The other primary moose area in the Huckleberry Unit is southwest of Loon Lake.  This range of hills is referred to as the Five Sisters and extends south to Scoup Mountain.  There is a good moose population in the mountains here but automobile access is difficult due to gated roads.  Boise Cascade Corporation owns much of the forestland in this area. Washington Department of Natural Resources (DNR) maps are recommended.

[SHANE(WA)]

Sent a PM

[Rufous]

I went up for some scouting this weekend. I saw 4 moose. One was a young cow, probably about 1 year old. Saw her on Saturday. Then today I saw a decent bull (hard to know how much more antler he will grow in the next month or so) and then later a cow and baby calf. It was my first time up there and was a good trip. I learned a bunch of the roads and found out where some of the clear cuts were. I got photos of the yearling cow and the bull. As close as they were it has me thinking that I might be able to take a moose with my Ruger 45 Colt revolver. If not I will use my 300 Win Mag. Brian.

[Wea300mag]

Very cool Rufous, thanks for letting us follow your pre-hunt.

[Ridgerunner]

Thanks for posting a report, I am anxious to get out there and do some looking around.

[WAcoueshunter]

Congrats to you and your bro on an awesome tag!!!  Super jealous.  If you're into the books, be sure to look at the B&C score sheet to see how moose are scored.  It has nothing to do with the number of points up top, and everything to do with width and length.  As I recall, the fronts need to fork to get counted in the length.  It makes a HUGE difference!  Obviously the size (wide and length) of the palms is big, but it seems to me that a lot of WA bulls (e.g. that one pictured above) don't get the branch in front and wind up missing book because of it.

[PA BEN]

Looks like he's starting to fork already. Where do you find the B&C book info?

[WAcoueshunter]

Couldn't find the actual B&C sheet on that site, but here's the P&Y sheet, which should be the same.

http://www.pope-young.org/pdfs/ScoreSheets/moose_r6-2008.pdf

I'm certainly no expert on scoring, so others should feel free to correct me if I'm wrong.  But note that the palm length is measured from "dips between points at the top to dips between points at the bottom", meaning you need two points on the bottom (and therefore a "dip") to measure down that far. 

Also note that you don't get credit for length of points...you just get a +1 for each point.  Hence why the bulk of the score comes from the width and length of the palms.

[finnman]

Thanks for the update It just keeps getting better the closer we get to Oct. 1st!
I just got good news from a friend of my brothers, He inherited 40 acres last year from his mom and dad after they were killed in Africa on a motorcycle trip(No drivers ed over there!) hit by a bus! Anyway the property is 10 minutes east of Fruitland, right in the heart of Moose country, he said we can set up our base camp there and we won't have to worry about having our stuff disappear while out hunting. I will get some pics when we get over there for a scout trip!

Getting pumped!
Jason