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alaskanpiper

Enabler in Chief
May 23, 2019
9,348
42,247
Alaska
Certainly do! The young ones are really tasty ?

I mostly hunt deer and boar though, the good moosehunts are way further north.
Yeah, the little guys (spike forks) are quite tasty here as well, but it's pretty uncommon to come across one that's legal. And when you do, you only get 450 lbs of meat or so instead of 650 from a mature bull.
 
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mso489

Lifer
Feb 21, 2013
41,210
60,433
The extent of my moose knowledge is that only the males have antlers. I learned that writing a children's book for my old employer who was doing a kids page for their web site. That one looks like a freezer or two full of meat. Do you rent a locker or have a row of freezers at home?
 

alaskanpiper

Enabler in Chief
May 23, 2019
9,348
42,247
Alaska
The extent of my moose knowledge is that only the males have antlers. I learned that writing a children's book for my old employer who was doing a kids page for their web site. That one looks like a freezer or two full of meat. Do you rent a locker or have a row of freezers at home?
The typical Alaskan row of chest freezers in the garage. We have 3. And you are correct, only male moose have antlers, haha. The same cannot be said for caribou though! Or mountain goats, which are notoriously difficult to confirm as billies or nannies.
 

germinal

Lurker
Mar 18, 2021
41
251
Sweden
Yeah, the little guys (spike forks) are quite tasty here as well, but it's pretty uncommon to come across one that's legal. And when you do, you only get 450 lbs of meat or so instead of 650 from a mature bull.
Interesting, what determines legality? Over here we get allotments of cow, bull and calf that are distributed over swaths of land. The precise population control is determined more locally.
 
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Aug 1, 2012
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Yeah, the little guys (spike forks) are quite tasty here as well, but it's pretty uncommon to come across one that's legal. And when you do, you only get 450 lbs of meat or so instead of 650 from a mature bull.
No judgment here but I'm a bigger fan of a nice juicy cow than a tough old bull. I would be happy to change that preference with the right dinner experiences though.
 

alaskanpiper

Enabler in Chief
May 23, 2019
9,348
42,247
Alaska
No judgment here but I'm a bigger fan of a nice juicy cow than a tough old bull. I would be happy to change that preference with the right dinner experiences though.
Haha, I wish! Bulls are all you can get in most units with over the counter (free and available to everyone) tags. There are drawings for cow tags in many units but they draw at less than 1% most of the tags.

Between my Dad and I (he’s almost 80) we’ve drawn a cow tag once.
 

alaskanpiper

Enabler in Chief
May 23, 2019
9,348
42,247
Alaska
Interesting, what determines legality? Over here we get allotments of cow, bull and calf that are distributed over swaths of land. The precise population control is determined more locally.
It depends on the management unit, but the vast majority of them have essentially three types of legal bulls.

1. A young bull having a spike or fork antler on at least one side.

2. A mature bull with a rack spread of at least 50 inches (or more).

3. Any bull that has at least three brow tines on at least one side. (Some units require 4 brow tines).

Now those are legal with free tags available over the counter to any resident. If you enter a $5 drawing, there drawings for “any bull” tags “antlerless (cow)” tags and more. The any bull tags in our unit draw at about 11% so we’ve had em a few times.
 
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alaskanpiper

Enabler in Chief
May 23, 2019
9,348
42,247
Alaska
I'm really thankful we don't have to use the lottery or tag method. We just have an app. Funny though, you guys have way less hunters per square mile, with more game per square mile than us, and yet you guys are using what seems like a lot more conservancy.
Most of us don’t use a lottery or tag method either. You can take any game in Alaska with over the counter tags.

The draw tags are just for special conveniences, like any bull, or units close to/in town. Or for crazy stuff like Bison and Muskox. But moose, caribou, deer, sheep, goats, bears, etc. can all be taken with OTC tags.

Moose have antler restrictions with OTC tags simply because they are far and away the most popular game animal in the state. They are plentiful and we want to keep them that way.

Conservation is certainly a priority though. We have taken a lesson from watching the lower 48 hunt/fish its populations of certain species into some pretty dire situations, so fish and game is careful not to do the same here.