Towing a moose in the water

Towing a moose in the water

Towing a moose in the water

What is the best way to tow a dead moose in the water to a landing? Behind our small Jon boat with a two horse motor or tie it along along side? I have high hopes.



I'm not sure which is the best way, but I can tell you that towing the moose behind our boat worked for us.

I somehow don't think tying your moose along side would be very safe?

Not only that, I think it will be much harder to steer your boat if the moose is along side. The moose carcass will create a tremendous amount of drag on the side to which it is tied.

Here is a point to remember: Don't clean your moose before you attempt drag it across any body of water. It will sink like a rock if you do!

Towing a moose behind a boat with a small motor is a slow process. We had a 15HP motor on our 12 foot Misty River boat and as I recall, it took about an hour to cover 500 meters.
You can see in the picture the distant shore we towed our moose from.

When this bull was shot, we were lucky. Unknown to us at the time, he was standing in about 18 inches of water. When he hit the ground he was mostly floating already. However, it still required considerable effort to get him out into deeper water where he floated free of the bottom of the lake.


With a 2HP it's going to take you some time! Be sure to have a thermos of coffee with you.

~ Mark - The Mooseman

Comments for Towing a moose in the water

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Towing a Moose
by: North Sask hunter

Fasten something to tie the rope to, put it in the center but rear most of the boat running by one side of the motor, we use a metal bar then stick it in front of the rear seats(ours are open in the center) The trick is to keep the moose close to the boat so the motor creates a wake pushing the moose up to the surface. It creats less drag having the motor push pretty much under it and pushing the moose to the surface for the tow, we only shoot bulls so its easy to mount to the antlers, a cow you may need to get tricky with. We typically have to tow them 7-14 miles back to our camp. Works like a charm doing the moose next to camp on the shore with a whiskey in hand and a warm fire waiting.
Towing a moose
by: Anonymous

I shot a bull moose in Canada on the edge of a lake. He was coming to my call on the opposite shoreline. The moose entered the lake after I shot and died some 200yards out in the lake. He was almost submerged, just the side of his belly area was afloat. I only had my 14 ft. Canoe and had to tow him back to shore with a rope!! It seemed to take forever but I finally got him in shallow water where I could cut him up.
Towing a Moose
by: Mike Ostrowski

We typically hunt on water and prefer to bring them in whole. We normally tie them on to one side of the boat. It's slow but it beats cutting, packing them to the boat and then loading it all in the boat.

I would suggest not dressing them until they are out of the water, the meat spoils quicker with the bacteria from the water.

If your curious on how we float the moose that tip over on land, We use a chainsaw winch to get them down to the water.
Tow in Zodiac
by: Anonymous

Have not had to do this yet, my plan though...

I have two small boats: 12ft Aluminum (rated 500lbs) and a 12ft zodiac(rated 1200lbs). The Zodiac has enough capacity to put on moose in without having to quarter it,or worry about the moose lungs flooding with water and sinking, or filling with shitty water.
Moose sank!
by: Anonymous

A friend once shot a moose in a lake, and to his surprise and dismay it sank. But next morning he saw it floating and was able to tow it to shore. Fortunately the cold lake water had cooled the moose carcass enough so that the meat was still good.
Tow moose
by: Carl

We had experience last year where we had the moose tied probably too short.

I see in the photo you had yours tied quite a ways out we could not steer our boat with it tied real close.

It took us one hour to go one mile with one guy power rowing with left oar just so we wouldn't go in a circle, the moose acted like a rudder.

We did not gut it and killed it with an arrow so it had no big blow hole and floated just fine.

Ya think it was tied too short?
Towing Moose
by: Robbie

We have towed and or pulled moose a few times.

Tie the horns to a rope and tow behind.

We pulled one moose by hand. Wife was in water with chest waders. She pulled our canoe and I let out rope attached to the moose. When she had pulled the canoe a ways I pulled the moose to the canoe. we kept doing this until we got to our "landing" spot.

Moose float real well.

A friend got a moose in August last year. It was very hot out so he tied the moose behind his boat and pulled it around the lake to cool the meat.

Robbie

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