Binoculars
Vortex Viper HD 10x42
10x42 with HD glass for a long sit on a willow edge.
Field Guide
Glass for moose season
Binoculars, a spotter and a tripod for willow bottoms, timbered creek faces and first-and-last light.
Photo: Tanner Dunn. Credits
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Moose country is not a long elk ridge. You often glass a willow bottom, a timbered creek face or a small meadow, and you do a lot of that work at first and last light. Binoculars on a tripod find the shape. A spotter confirms what you think you saw. A rangefinder matters once you have closed the distance.
For draw dates and once-in-a-lifetime rules, see the Lower 48 moose hunting guide on TagCanyon. If you already have an Alaska tag, start at the Alaska moose page and the moose and caribou pack list.
The pack
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Binoculars
Vortex Diamondback HD 10x42
A lighter 10x42 that still holds a moose in timber shadow.
Spotter
Vortex Razor HD 27-60x85 Straight
85 mm spotter for judging a bull across a meadow.
Rangefinder
Leupold RX-1400i Gen 2
A compact rangefinder for a shot you have already closed on.
Rangefinder
Vortex Diamondback HD 2000
More reach when you are ranging a bull across a wet meadow.
Tripod
Vortex Mountain Pass tripod
A light tripod for binoculars on a willow-edge sit.
Tripod
Vortex High Country II tripod
A sturdier kit when the spotter stays up all morning.
Adapter
Vortex Pro binocular adapter
Gets 10x42s on the tripod so your arms last the sit.
See each retailer for current pricing and availability. Also see hunting binoculars, spotting scopes and tripods and rangefinders.
Willow and timber tactics
Start on a bench or a slight rise that looks into the willows, not in the willows themselves. Work the edges first: the shadow line, the creek openings and the trails that cut the brush. A moose often shows as a dark body in a hole in the cover, or as antler tips above the tops. Move the glass slowly. If you try to walk the bottom first, you bump the animal you came to find.
Timbered faces need the same patience. Grid the openings, then the shadows under the trees. In tight cover, 10x binoculars on a tripod beat a walk. Save the spotter for a bull you have already found and need to judge, or for a far meadow you cannot approach yet. How you pick a hillside apart is covered in how to glass a hillside.
Dawn and dusk light
Moose move in the first and last hour more than they do at midday. At dawn, start glassing before you can see color. The body shows as a shape against frost or water. At dusk, stay until you can no longer pick a hide from a willow. Low light is hard on cheap glass; this is why the binoculars and the tripod matter more than a walk.
After a rain or a cold night, look at openings and water. A bull standing in a pond or stepping into a meadow is the easy find. The harder finds stay in the brush. Give those edges a second and third pass before you leave a sit.
What you are looking at
Photographs by Tanner Dunn, used with permission. Each photo keeps his watermark and is credited below the frame.
Also for this hunt
- Binoculars and harnesses: hunting binoculars and binocular harnesses
- Rangefinders: choosing a hunting rangefinder
- Tripods: glassing-kit tripods
- Western rifle scopes: rifle scopes for western hunting