Moose hunt info
#12
Spike
Join Date: Sep 2011
Location: West Virginia
Posts: 87
Assuming everyone pretty much drives since there's so much meat to bring back? I'm looking at 30 hours from WV but I don't like to fly anyway. Always considered moose to be way out of the price range and never really gave it a 2nd thought until this post showed up. Hard to believe the prices in NF are in line with/even cheaper than a good guided elk hunt. Definitely something to put on the near future bucket list. Would be my first "guided" hunt anywhere, and I've hunted all over the US. I like the info I've read about NF so far....
#14
Giant Nontypical
Join Date: Jan 2011
Location: Allegan, MI
Posts: 8,019
It's usually more than that. I got 186# of finished meat from the last cow elk I shot and it was about average size. A mature bull is much larger than a cow. Moose are so big they make elk look like antelope and the finished meat is way more than what you mentioned from a mature bull, as I've help on two in the last 10 years in Wyoming and Idaho. It can be taken home in a full size PU in some large coolers, but the truck will really be packed if you have a lot of other gear on the hunt to also take home.
#15
Spike
Join Date: Aug 2014
Posts: 45
That's because I got screwed from the shipper. My Elk went to a UPS store for dry ice. and between the butcher & UPS store, 40lbs of meat vanished. A lot of the prime cuts were taken. I had a very mature cow Elk.
Nothing I can do about it when flying in, and leaving everything to the local rural town.
My only other choice is to drive 25 hrs to Elk camp. Each direction.
In fact... let's say the butcher butchers 250 Elk per season... and he hunts himself. he certainly has enough meat for his entire family. Even if he skims 1 lb per animal, he's set with meat. however... the shipping company. UPS or Fed Ex store. They provide the dry ice, and stuff the packed coolers into cartons... which I paid a pretty penny for their service. Maybe they only get 10 shipments a season. So... if he's going to skim, it'll be a lot more than 1lb. But it's par for the course & somewhat expected. Still hurts when you open the cooler, & weigh everything.
Nothing I can do about it when flying in, and leaving everything to the local rural town.
My only other choice is to drive 25 hrs to Elk camp. Each direction.
In fact... let's say the butcher butchers 250 Elk per season... and he hunts himself. he certainly has enough meat for his entire family. Even if he skims 1 lb per animal, he's set with meat. however... the shipping company. UPS or Fed Ex store. They provide the dry ice, and stuff the packed coolers into cartons... which I paid a pretty penny for their service. Maybe they only get 10 shipments a season. So... if he's going to skim, it'll be a lot more than 1lb. But it's par for the course & somewhat expected. Still hurts when you open the cooler, & weigh everything.
Last edited by Short Track Hunter; 07-20-2017 at 08:44 AM.
#16
Giant Nontypical
Join Date: Jan 2011
Location: Allegan, MI
Posts: 8,019
Well that sure sucks STH! I took a boned out cow to a place in Worland, WY one time because I killed it at the start of a long trip out there. When I told the lady how I wanted the backstraps processed she looked at me and said there aren't any on a cow! I pulled both of them out of the stainless pot we had dropped everything into and asked here what in haydes did she call those and the look on her face was priceless, LOL! That was the last time I had anything processed there and it went OB a couple years later and has never reopened.
Last edited by Topgun 3006; 07-20-2017 at 08:43 AM. Reason: spelling
#17
I always try to hunt places I can drive to even if I've gotta take a few extra days coming and going. Last year in Wyoming I stopped by Walmart and found 70 quart coolers on clearance for $25. I bought 3 and plan to look again this year. Lol A buddy of mi e hunted Newfoundland and got a moose and caribou. I'll get the outfitter he used as I forgot but yes the prices these are about the same as an elk hunt.
#18
Fork Horn
Join Date: Sep 2009
Location: Tug Hill NY
Posts: 420
my hunting partner and I brought my light utility trailer with 6 100 qt coolers for meat. We were told to plan for about 300 lbs of meat, per the butcher scale brought back about 248 lbs. for my 4 =5 year old bull. I saw a couple cows that seemed to dwarf him, and would have gotten a lot more meat off of them, but I wanted a bull. We had room to top the meat with plenty of ice, spread foil over the top of that, duct taped them closed and tight, and put a tarp over all of them.