Wrangell Wildlife Trooper Kyle Freeberg and Petersburg Wildlife Trooper Cody Litster set up shop in the downtown pavilion last Sunday afternoon, Sept. 8, to provide information on the upcoming moose season. The main goal they had, they both said, was to urge caution among any hunters. There are a lot of details to pay attention to and judgment calls to make when preparing to shoot a moose so when in doubt it is better to just let the animal go.
As the State Wildlife Troopers rarely get their hands on "legal" antlers, Trooper Cody Litster said, they only had two examples of moose antlers that were legal to hunt last Sunday. This set of antlers is legal because of the brow tines (the portion of the antlers that would point downwards if still attached to the moose's head.) In the Wrangell area, a moose is legal to hunt if they have a set of two-by-two brow tines, as pictured here, or with three or more brow tines on one antler.
Several racks of "illegal" moose antlers the state troopers set up in the downtown pavilion last Sunday. There are many different rules and details that make a moose illegal to hunt based on its antlers, according to Trooper Kyle Freeberg, such as the number of points on the antlers, their size, whether or not an antler is broken, and many other details.
State Wildlife Troopers Kyle Freeberg, of Wrangell, and Cody Litster, of Petersburg, set up shop in Wrangell's downtown pavilion last Sunday afternoon with several hunting regulation handbooks and racks of moose antlers. As many eager hunters across Southeast Alaska are aware, moose season opens on Sept. 15. This is a registration moose hunt, Freeberg said, so anybody wanting to hunt moose will have to be registered with the Department of Fish and Game. The bag limit is one bull moose, and many hunters are eager to get a pair of antlers in their gunsights. Before going out into the woods, however, Freeberg and Litster wanted to be sure everybody knew how to tell the difference between a legal moose and one that is off-limits.
"We're mostly just trying to get some examples out here so people can see what we're looking for, what we're not looking for," Freeberg said, motioning to the racks of antlers.
There are many details to pay attention to and judgment calls a hunter has to make before shooting a moose, Freeberg said. While he did not provide specific numbers, he said that a lot of illegal moose were killed last year. Killing an illegal moose not only hurts the wider moose population, but it can also incur fines and potentially jail time if not reported.
"We're kind of trying to get people to have a little bit more of a mentality of 'if you don't know, don't shoot,'" he said.
According to Freeberg, and this year's hunting regulations, a moose is legal to kill if it has at least one spike or forked antler. The antler on the other side of the moose's head can be in any configuration. On the other end of the spectrum, a moose with large, 50-inch antlers are legal to hunt. For moose with large antlers, but not quite 50-inches across, another sign they are legal to hunt is by counting the brow tines. Freeberg said that it's legal if the moose has a pair of two-by-two brow tines, or has at least three brow tines on at least one side. Essentially, these regulations are meant to protect adult, breeding moose, while keeping the juvenile or older moose available to hunt.
"You take out the real young ones, you take out the real old ones, you kind of leave the healthy ones in the middle," Freeberg said.
Both Freeberg and Litster said that there are a lot of things to remember before taking a shot at a bull moose, and sometimes it can be hard to tell whether or not it is a legal kill. For example, from a distance or through a scope it can be hard to tell if a growth on a moose's antler counts as another tine or just a bump. Broken antlers can also make the moose illegal. That is why they both urged playing it safe and not taking any shots that a hunter is uncertain of.
In the event that an illegal moose is killed, Freeberg said that as long as the hunter reports themselves, it will not be the end of the world. This will incur a fine, typically about $300 to $500, he said, and the moose's meat will be processed and distributed to charity. Killing an illegal moose and not reporting it, or just abandoning it and trying to hide it, carries stricter repercussions. "Wanton waste" is $10,000 and 10 days in jail, Freeberg said.
"Don't talk yourself into shooting moose," he said. "This is not life or death, and if you don't know, don't shoot it."
To learn more about the regulations for moose hunting, check the 2019-2020 Alaska hunting regulations at http://www.adfg.alaska.gov, or contact the wildlife troopers at (907) 874-3215 for Wrangell and (907) 772-3983 for Petersburg.
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