Field Test Montana Cow moose decoy
 This fall we were field testing the Montana cow moose decoy during our annual moose hunt. I had hoped the moose rut would be in full swing when we arrived, but nothing could have been further from the truth….very hot weather, and any movement was done at night. Nine straight days of hunting and nothing to show for it. By this time I was getting quite adept at setting up and taking down this decoy in various settings, and I must admit it looked incredible in every instance. This decoy although representing the largest of the deer family, folds nicely into a very small and very lightweight package, it tucks neatly into a flat pack that slings over your shoulder. By simply pulling the decoy out of the pack and tossing it to the ground the spring steel does it’s magic and voila, laying on the ground in front of you is a photo realistic cow moose. One thing I haven’t mentioned yet are the two stakes that come with it. They break down much like tent poles that are joined together with a stretchy rope inside. Simply sliding the poles together, assemble both leg stakes, each stake has a small foot peg located roughly 10” from the end and are used to push the stake into the ground, the poles are NOT the same length but are marked as to where they go (front or back legs). The decoy has two sewn sleeves that receive the leg posts, and are different lengths, so one cannot mix up which stake goes where, otherwise the moose will be looking skyward. Prior to going into the bush and using them, you should first practice folding it up. It really is just an issue of hand placement and a quick twist and push with the wrists and it’s back into the bag. The decoy comes with very good directions and pictures explaining this and in a matter of seconds you can master it. Now back to this falls hunt. On day ten, we finally got our first good frost and much to our delight, a nice bull finally answered the call from a couple of guys in our group testing the decoy. The bull was coming in, but not with the unbridled passion one would hope for. The closer he got, the more cautious he became….until he had visual contact with the wanton cow that was calling to him…..she was beautiful, his guard down, he came in the last 100 yards totally fixated on this lady. A 7 yard shot brought down a 53-1/2” Northern Ontario bull. The Montana decoy did what we had hoped for, it changed what could have been a long and arduous campaign to bring in this bull, and perhaps he would have kept his guard up long enough to realize he didn’t like this set up after all. But he came in and I have to believe that it was a direct result of the sultry lady used by the guys in our group. There are however a few issues with the decoy that we encountered. 1). The sewn sleeves were not always friendly to insert the poles into, I’m not certain that the sewing in my decoy perhaps came apart inside somewhere as the pole did not always follow the sleeve up and would wander elsewhere causing me to remove the pole and try again. Not always fun to do in the dark. 2).The poles could stand to be slightly longer in my opinion, this way the foot pegs could be up a little higher resulting in more pole in the ground. Sometimes it just didn’t seem like the decoy was sturdy enough in certain ground conditions. Due to the shallow ground depth for the poles and the problems I had with the sewn in sleeve I would rate the Montana cow decoy a 7.5 This is a must in all moose camps.

 Rick Marchand
 Outdoor Test Pilot