Brush Thrashing

The most underrated sound in moose hunting, and the one anybody can make on the first try.

Part of the moose sounds library. A full minute of it below: branches breaking, brush being raked, a dead spruce taking a beating.

Find a dead spruce and break branches off it, two to three inches thick, so they crack loud. Beat that branch against the trunk. Rake brush with it. Chop dry timber with a wood-handled axe. An axe handle works, and so does an old shoulder blade, and so does raking a Bull Magnet® against a tree trunk.

Start really loud for the first few minutes to get the sound out there and get their attention, then tone it down. Thrash for two to three minutes, pause for two to three minutes, and repeat that through a twenty-to-thirty-minute session.

Two different things, depending on the month. In late August, bulls are rubbing new antlers against small trees and brush to scrape off velvet. By early September, once the antlers have hardened, they are sparring, and as the rut builds they will do battle over cows or to prove dominance, sometimes inflicting serious and even mortal injuries.

That is why it works so early. Bulls are curious about future competition long before they are ready to fight over it.

Wayne has called big bulls in from two and three miles out, on or before 1 September, with nothing but thrashing. If you doubt whether your moose vocalizations are good enough, at least go and thrash. It brings bulls in through most of the season and there is nothing to get wrong.

Scraping and beating Bull Magnets on brush and dead trees makes an identical sound to bulls fighting and stripping velvet from their antlers. Born in Alaska in 1993 and made in the USA.