Born in Alaska in 1993 · 30,000+ sold · Ships across the U.S. and to Canada
Born in Alaska in 1993 · 30,000+ sold · Ships across the U.S. and to Canada
RECORDED IN ALASKA
THE LIBRARY
Moose calling is easy, and anybody can do it. Kids do good cow calls with a little practice, and anybody can break sticks and rake brush. Play each one below, then read the two lines under it that tell you how to make it.
PLAY THEM
COW CALL
The sound that brings a bull across a mile of muskeg. Two seconds to almost a minute long, higher pitched than a grunt.
How to make it: an “e” “r” or “errr” sound. Start low and carry the “r” for as long as you want the call to run. Raise the pitch through the middle, then lower it and taper off at the end. Waver the tone on the long ones. Pinch your nose and cup your hands over your mouth for the nasal quality that makes it sound right.
BULL GRUNT
Short, deep, two to three seconds apart. What bulls say to each other when they are working out who gets the cows.
How to make it: a deep, short “U”: “Ugh!! Ugh!!”. They range from hiccups to explosive coughing sounds. Get close and it works; it does not have to be perfect.
BRUSH THRASHING
The sound of a bull scraping velvet off his antlers, or fighting. It works from late August all the way through the season, and it is the one sound anybody can make on their first try.
How to make it: find a dead spruce and break branches two to three inches thick so they crack loud. An axe on dry timber works. So does an axe handle, an old shoulder blade, or raking a Bull Magnet® against a tree trunk.
THE RUT ITSELF
Not a demonstration. Wild moose, recorded in the rut among roughly thirty animals. Cows answering, bulls grunting as they close.
What you are hearing: this is what you are trying to imitate when you call. Play it a few times before you go.
Moose are most active at night. Call at first light and they have already bedded down. They hear you, and they come when it suits them. Nearly half of Wayne’s success now comes at midday, often at high noon.
USING THEM
Knowing the sounds is half of it. The other half is when to use them, how long to call, and where to stand, which is the whole of how to call a moose.
The short version: call for twenty to forty minutes at a time, three to five hours apart, from a spot 100 to 300 yards from wherever you are watching from. Thrash and call for two or three minutes, glass the country hard, then wait five or ten minutes and go again.
With the right wind and something to carry it, a long cow call reaches two miles. If you are weighing up what to carry it with, the types of moose calls are compared honestly here, including the ones that cost nothing.
GO DEEPER
Wayne Kubat, Alaska Master Guide #147. Assistant guide from 1981, registered guide since 1986, and the designer of the Bull Magnet® moose call. About Wayne
Your voice does the calling. The Bull Magnet® carries it further, adds the deep nasal tone, and doubles as your thrashing horn. 14.5 inches, 11 ounces, born in Alaska in 1993 and made in the USA.
