I have had a very warm opening of the moose season here in Northern Sweden. I start hunting early about 5 in the morning and already at 8 it is to hot for the dog. First 3 days was exceptionally warm and I had 0 result. Moose contact every day but they did not bay for the dog, they just ran and the dog get to warm.

On day 4 my Akka found a young bull that I shot when it did the mistake to outrun the dog in wrong direction



The same day my friend Christoph from Germany had a good hunt with the dog Arn who bayed a cow and a calf that Christoph could shot. Full trailer that day.



Yesterday was Sunday and I took my sons Orm and Ulvbane for moose hunting. Akka found a moose that at first did not want to "fight" the dog but after some hours choose to stay at bay. It was a fantastic experience to be able to bring my sons (7 and 8 years old) in on the bay. They were very happy when I shot the bull. The bull was very big to be in this area, approximately 600kg (1300 Ilb)and with very nice antlers.





I hope the weather cools down so that the dog can work a bit longer on this pre rut season.

Very nice dogwork.

I would love to give this a try one day. Anything dogs is great!

Congrats! Thanks for sharing your experience and pictures!

Awesome! Keep pestering my wife for a grahund!

Congratulations

I have been a week hunting Caribou. Because of the heat they didn`t want to come to the usual places. Went home empty handed

Nice pics, thanks for sharing.

Can you tell us more about doing this as a solo hunt?
Do cows and young bay more easily? What kind of distance does the average moose cover before baying.
Does it take long for the dog to find its way back after a moose decamps?

quote:

Originally posted by Boghossian:
Nice pics, thanks for sharing.

Can you tell us more about doing this as a solo hunt?
Do cows and young bay more easily? What kind of distance does the average moose cover before baying.
Does it take long for the dog to find its way back after a moose decamps?

Boghossian,

I hunt moose solo all the time, it is me, the dog and the moose. I love it, best hunt in Sweden (except the brown bears but that is a short season). If the moose is undisturbed prior to the moment the dog find it it often bay directly. But young animals are more prone to run. Some moose never bay some walk/run 1-20km before they bay. Cows with calves and bulls are often more easy to bay. It can take long time for the dog to find it's way back. Before the dog tracking equipment was invented I spent many nights in the forrest waiting for the dog.

In this clip you can see some scenes of my moose dogs working.

http://youtu.be/djD7wzrQjD8

Here we hunt moose from 1 sept to 31 jan so it is a long season. We have the worlds highest moose population (if you take Newfoundland out of the equation, introduced population). In my county we shoot about 14 000 moose every year with the best year 22 000. If you compare that to Alaska that is extreamly much bigger you might grasp our moose densities, Alaska shoots about 6000-8000 moose per year.

There is no more difficult way of hunting moose than with a dog, but when you get the hang of it you can be very effective.

/ P-A

Great stuff thanks for sharing.

K

Fascinating, thank you. I am not really a driven hunting natural so this looks like a fantastic alternative. Is it difficult to call the dog off if it is a sex/age that you cannot shoot? I imagine it is a bit like calling a mad terrier out of a fox earth :-)

quote:

Originally posted by Boghossian:
Fascinating, thank you. I am not really a driven hunting natural so this looks like a fantastic alternative. Is it difficult to call the dog off if it is a sex/age that you cannot shoot? I imagine it is a bit like calling a mad terrier out of a fox earth :-)

Yes, hunting moose with a dog is very far from driven hunt. The average moose I kill is standing still and the distance is most often 10-40 meters.

Yes, if you don't train the dogs well it is difficult to call them in if they are baying wrong animal or are on the wrong side of the bourder. I cheat, I use predator calls to call the dog in...

Picture from yesterday, Akka did a nice jobb on this bull as well

P-A, that had to be special with your children. Congratulations on the hunting and the preservation of those memories. Remember, if you think it is hot there, you could always be in Dande in October.

quote:

Originally posted by MJines:
P-A, that had to be special with your children. Congratulations on the hunting and the preservation of those memories. Remember, if you think it is hot there, you could always be in Dande in October.

Yes Mike, the sons loved it. They now want to go moose hunting every weekend

Me and Emma will try to go back to Dande next year and also bring our sons so they can experience the fantastic nature and amazing African hunting. Who knows, we might meet again in a CMS-camp

And yes, it is true that nothing can compare to the heat in Dande in November. But this first week of moose hunting I really did miss Maplan and Martin with their backpacks full of water bottles...

Only 6 days left of the pre rut moose season, I will try my best these days and then let the dog rest for two weeks until the post rut season starts.

GREAT HUNT MY FRIEND ,MARVELOUS KIDS AND DOG ,I WANT TO VISIT YOU AND MY FRIEND BJORIE .YOUR VIDEOS ARE AWESOME .WE ARE USING YOUR CALLERS WITH GREAT SUCCES ,WE WILL POST PHOTOS SOON .
PLEASE CONTINUE SHARING YOUR HUNTS .

The neighbour hunting area had good luck this week! This is a really big bull for this area



I had a very good day with Akka today, full trailer

Today was the last day of the pre-rut season. Akka did a very good job on this young bull. Now we will rest for two weeks until the post-rut season starts again.

Great posts. Love moose hunting and hope to do the Scandinavian moose hunt one of these days.

Great post P-A,

I'm counting down the days to the start of our moose hunt on the 5th October.

Good luck for the post-rut season.

I team hunted in Varmland for 3 years with my 9.3 then informal hunting with friends in Vasterbotten following the dog. After 2 years of that I moved from my 9.3 building a dog handlers rifle - 308 titanium m700 with 46cm barrel, ASE moderator, edge stock, 3 position safety etc for an all up weight of 3.6kg including sling and 4x180gr. I've wracked up many miles and heard many barks but no moose properly following the dog. I have however shot 4 on stand, 2 moving to intercept the dog and 8 stalked on clearcuts.

This year I shot my first cow and calf double with the calf shot off sticks and the cow called back. It was exciting but also heartwrenching to hear the cow bellowing for her calf.

You must have a very good dog to get such success early season!

The end of the season was cold as opposite to the beginning of the season



My sons are very happy to share the antlers of "their" first bull between their rooms

Nice

You need to get the seiling higher.

a very interesting way for hunting moose.

we are getting soon a norsk elkhound so pretty sure i will come to ask some questions.

Phil

How many moose can you harvest each year?

Watson Lake

quote:

Originally posted by Watson Lake:
How many moose can you harvest each year?

Watson Lake

If I have a bad season I shoot 10, a good season about 20, normal average season 15. There is also difference in quota from year to year. Normal quota is that you can shoot about 3 moose per 1000 hectare (1000 hectare is 10 square km) but it of course variates between areas and regions. Normal annual cull of moose here in Sweden is 100 000 moose per year

Wow..

20 moose here would be about 10 tonnes.. feed a lot of people..

Watson Lake

quote:

Originally posted by Watson Lake:
Wow..

20 moose here would be about 10 tonnes.. feed a lot of people..

Watson Lake

Our moose species is smaller than yours but yes, we handle much food. My wife runs a small business selling the meat