November 2025
Idaho Shiras Moose | Moose and Mice
Story By: Devon Hass
I had been applying for a moose tag for a long time, 23 years in Utah, and I am now almost 62. My odds were not good, but I kept trying! This year, I was thinking I was getting a little long in the tooth for moose hunting, so I decided to apply for the first time in my home state of Idaho. It has good odds, but there is a cost for the good odds. When you decide to apply for one of the OIL tags, you can’t apply for the other tags, so no deer, elk, or antelope. You also can only pick one of the OIL tags to apply for. I figured this was my year to apply for moose because I was not sure how much longer I would be able to deal with the consequences of having one on the ground. I picked a unit that a friend, Chris, had previously hunted, thinking at least I could get a little intel if I got lucky.
When the results came out, I had drawn a tag! My first call was to Chris to let him know I had drawn in the unit he had hunted, but he replied he didn’t know anything about the unit I drew. It turns out I had entered the wrong unit. Oops! That was the first thing to go wrong. After hearing that news, I was a bit concerned and started doing some research. I found a guy named Blank on a hunting website I frequent, and he seemed to be knowledgeable on moose in the part of the state I drew. I reached out, and he was great. He had recently moved from the area near my hunt to right near me. He asked me to come over to his house and laid out some great information, not only about the unit but also about Shiras moose and how to judge them.
I made a few scouting trips and learned the area a bit. I decided not to try and hunt early in the season because of the weather and the fact that my son had drawn a random archery elk tag in Arizona. I had promised him I would help him for that hunt. Then my wife drew a Black Powder tag for antelope in Utah. We were in a bit of a situation with too many hunts in the same time frame. However, my brother reminded me there was a really long season for the moose tag and I would be able to hit the prime time of the hunt after the other two hunts.
My son was successful in Arizona. His kids were along, and I was able to drive them out to where he had taken his bull and hike into the spot with them and his wife. They were able to get in on some of the action. It was a great way to build their excitement for the great outdoors and hunting.
I returned home for a few days and then we left for Utah for my wife’s hunt where we had our second issue. Some mice had climbed into the trailer. Our first night was spent listening to a mouse try to chew through the wall right at the foot of our bed. A trip back to town for traps was in order the next day.
The second night, I was expecting to hear the satisfying sound on a trap snap, but instead, we heard the mouse chewing plastic at our electrical panel. He had moved and now was bolder. He wouldn’t even quit when I walked over and smacked the wall. After two nights of not much sleep, we were pretty exhausted, but my wife was successful in Utah. Now it was my turn.
When my wife had taken her antelope, we left and drove straight to my moose hunt back in Idaho. The first day was a bit of a fiasco. When we were setting the trailer up, the hitch got stuck. I jumped on the bumper to free it up, and it sprang free and slid off the blocking, bending the front lifting jack at a 30-degree angle. It bent so high up that we spent about two hours trying to get it back on the truck and reset.
That evening, we drove to the end of the road and walked in on a 50” trail up a drainage along a creek that had some swampy looking areas. We found a spot to sit and call. After a couple hours, we decided to slowly walk back down to the truck. There were about 30 minutes of shooting light left, so we started driving back up to the top to glass and try to find something for the morning. We didn’t make it to the top before I spotted something black. It looked different than all the angus cattle we were seeing. It was a spike bull moose. We were happy to see a moose on the first day. I made a plan to take my four-wheeler into the area that was the 50” only trail by myself the next morning to hike into a drainage I had found on a scouting trip.
In the middle of the night, I decided to go back up to the top at first light and glass and then go down later into the thick timber because it was going to be really hot. I thought maybe I would see something from the top that I could come at from below a bit later.
Once again, I didn’t make it to the top. About a quarter mile from where I had seen the spike, I again saw something black a first light. It was a cow moose feeding on a hillside below some small aspen stands. As I was watching her and wondering if anything else was around, she trotted off a bit and then slowed down and started feeding. As I was watching her feed, I thought, did I just hear a bull grunting? Then it happened again. I looked back at the aspen stand, and the bull slowly walked out, still grunting. He was at a 90-degree angle to me, so I could not completely see his rack, but it looked good to me so far. He slowly walked and then turned his head towards me enough that I could see he was wide and a plenty good bull for me. I was sitting down and watching him through my scope. He was 175 yards away and broadside. I held for a high shoulder shot with my 7 Mag. At the shot, I saw him collapse. I couldn’t believe it had happened so fast!
I took a minute and then walked up to the bull. I took a couple quick photos and decided I needed some help because it was going to get hot quickly. I hiked back down to the truck and drove quickly back to camp. It was only about two miles away. I woke up my wife and asked her to come help me. She was sound asleep, so she wasn’t quite understanding. I showed her a picture and then she got it! I told her to take her time and get something to eat and then drive up and help me because it was going to be a long morning and a lot of work.
I grabbed the four-wheeler and hurried back to the bull. I started to make some cuts in the hide and thanked God for the opportunity and the good health to still be doing this. Melisa showed up a bit later, and we worked hard to try and beat the heat and the flies. She was swatting flies and holding the legs up for the next couple of hours. We were able to get the meat off the mountain and drove 40 minutes to a great family butcher we had found on our way to the area. They were pretty full but agreed to take the antelope, which we had dropped off on our way in. When I called them and asked if they could help us with the moose, they said they would make it work. You always meet some great people when you’re out hunting.
After dropping off the meat, we went back to camp and finally relaxed for the first time in about three weeks. The mice had left us alone the last couple of nights, and when we drove back home, my wife said I better check the traps. I had two mice in the traps, one in each location. What a September! One elk, one antelope, one moose, and two mice. A few things went wrong, but everything turned out great.