South Chilcotin Moose (3-32)

[geoskier]

My girlfriend, a couple buddies, and I got 2 moose in the group draw for the South Chilcotin (3-32) in October. I have been through the area many times throughout my life but only recently for hunting. I am heading up this weekend for a camping trip and I plan on doing a bit of scouting. I was hiking in the park last year and did see a ton of moose sign and some sheds within feasible packing distance from the Relay Creek road. In all my trips though the park, I can't remember seeing a moose, although I have seen goats, monster mulies, and many grizz (been chased abv tree line).

My questions on the area are:

Approx what elevation will the moose be at during October?

What are numbers like?

What is the timing of the rut like? I know it is generally around Sept 20th (not last year) in the Omineca where I have done most of my moose hunting.

Will hot weather still push them up to the alpine this time of year?

Approx when will their velvet be off?

Anyone with any experience hunting Slim Creek or towards the Bridge Glacier?

Anyone else on HBC get the draw? If so, maybe we can talk via PM closer to the date and have a multi camp beer night.

Cheers

[1899]

I used to hunt a fair amount in 3-32 and I only ever saw one moose and that was in the main valley by Green Mountain. Mind you I was there mostly in September. As for the rut I'd be looking at the 1st week of October.

[13thplumber]

My buddy got a draw last year for that area. We went up 1st week of October.Didn't see much deer or moose in 10 days. Seen a bull and a cow on day 7. And some other hunters seen 2 other bulls all in the same area of relay creek. We would have moved Down there as we were up at mud lake but we only had 3 days left. I would say, stay in the relay creek area. That's where they were and the most sign as well. All the deer taken that week were down low in the marshal lake area as well. All feeding in the burned areas. But a buddy got a huge 5x6 in the alpine at the end of relay a week after we left. Right in the area I decided to take a nap in the afternoon. Lol. Weather was good. Cold -10 at night. -2 - +2 during the day. Good luck.

[geoskier]

Right on. Thanks guys.

[geoskier]

I figured I would bump this since I am heading out in just over a week.

I was wondering if anyone has any thoughts on picking habitat for early October? I was planning on heading to lower and more swampy areas for later in the month but I wanted to try a little higher elevation for my opener (oct 1). We are also hoping to get a mule deer each so we were thinking the mixed bag might be accomplished if we worked a few areas closer to the subalpine. We did set up a couple licks earlier in the summer in higher elevation (5000ft) areas so we will be checking those out first thing.