I have found that here in NH, the mature bulls(being over 5.5 years of age) have a distance between the eyes(inside corner of left eye to inside corner of right eye) of 8 to 9 inches. so I use 8 inches as my guide to be on the safe side! The bull shown below is an example, 5.5 years old in this pic and will be 7.5 years old come this October(yes he is still alive). He may be closer to the 8.5" or 9" in this pic.I estimate using the 8 inch to be safe rather then estimate large and be disappointed! Take a visual measurement of the bull you are looking at(head on) and multiply that times the rough estimate of 8 inches from the inside corner of the right eye to the furthest point of the right antler, then do the same on the left side. So if that distance is times 2 on each side of the head then you have 8 inches times 5 including the initial eye to eye measurement for a spread of 40 inches(roughly), this should be very close and if you get 3 of those distances of 8 inches on each side then it would be times 7 for a spread of 56 inches(roughly) again this should be pretty close etc... etc...
The bull shown above is a giant today, if you got drawn for a permit in WMU B this year and want to hunt this bull give me a call or send me an email.
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I have no clue how to score a moose. That moose looks awesome though
ReplyDeleteOh he is a beauty! this year he is 7.5 years old!
ReplyDeleteHow do you know he is 7.5 years old? Did you mark him at birth?
ReplyDeletetGood question! Well, when you start spending time with moose and you see many many moose of all ages you start to understand. What a bull's antlers look like as far as growth from year to year! A yearling when he is 1.5 will be a spike, when he is 2.5 he will have a couple points on each side and so on and so on. = did not see him or mark him when he was a calf but I am pretty certain about 90 percent sure he will be 7.5 this fall. I also had it confirmed with a couple friends of mine that are authorities on moose
ReplyDeleteThat is interesting. While at a moose check station a hunter asked a biologist to age a moose based on appearance. The biologist responded; "A moose can only be accurately aged to calf, yearling or adult based on physical characteristics. Of course bulls do have antler beam diameters and palmation to assist in adult age classing. Forage protein and soil minerals can cause antlers to be larger than same aged moose of lower habitat quality."
ReplyDeleteAt check stations biologist use tooth wear to get an approximate age, usually right on, but at times off a year or two depending on forage silica content. Because visual tooth aging is an estimate, biologist remove a tooth for cross sectional aging. Cross sectional tooth aging gives a 100% accurate age.
One more question. That picture was taken in the fall. How do you know that animal is alive for the 2011 hunting season?
Just a few points you may want to consider.
Let me start by saying that this Judging blog was not and is not intended to judge the age of a moose but the spread of the moose antlers only! The first time I spotted this moose he was a yearling back in 2005. He is very easy to identify because he has a white patch on his right side just behind his shoulder.
ReplyDeleteAppearance will differ from moose to moose and geographic location, food sources etc.. Again this is just a guaging tool while your in the field, I am not always right when I estimate an age of a bull but I am not claiming to be an authority on moose either. To answer your question, I saw this moose in June of this year while I was scouting.
Again, this blog was not meant to age moose, just the spread of a bulls antlers!