By Marcus Weiner
The Lure of the Bull
I love hunting for bull moose. There are many reasons: the logistical and physical challenge of locating, dispatching and butchering an animal that can weigh 1000+ pounds; the massive amount of high quality meat that sustains my family for a long time; the impressive head gear that returns home with me and reminds me of the adventures long after the last meal is eaten. But perhaps the thing that draws me to hunting bull moose the most is that with a minimal amount of skill and practice, a hunter has a good chance of calling in a bull. Granted, the largest bulls in the woods won’t just come running out of the woods when you call, but when you get good at calling, combined with understanding moose behavior and using good general hunting techniques, you’ve got a legitimate chance of calling in quality bull moose.
And when you’ve been making cow calls and a bull starts grunting in return, it’s hard not to get a massive adrenaline rush.
Another thing to consider is that moose quarters weigh a lot. If you can call a moose to you and shrink the distance you need to pack the animal, that’s a major win. Also, you don’t want to dump a moose in the water as that will make the butchering job far more difficult. These ungulates are often found around the water, and if you can move them to hard ground before shooting, you’ll be in much better shape.
The Bull Magnet: A Hunter’s Multi-Tool
My tool of choice for calling bull moose is the Bull Magnet, created by Wayne Kubat in 1993. I started using the original call in 2011. It serves several functions:
- A megaphone to amplify sound. I use this call to amplify both cow calls and bull grunts. It gives a nasal sound to your calls that makes them more realistic. Bull moose have great hearing, combining big antlers that catch sound waves and funnel it towards their large ears. The ears are set far apart on their head, which gives them stereophonic hearing and increases their ability to calculate the distance and direction of the sound. This is especially useful in finding a mate. I think it’s fair to say that a moose can hear a call from several miles.
- Bull moose scrape and thrash on brush during the rut to shed velvet, attract mates, signal dominance, practice sparring, and to challenge other bulls. The original fiberglass Bull Magnet that I have used for 15 years has proven to be an excellent tool for scraping and thrashing brush. It makes a realistic sound replication of a bull moose thrashing and scraping, and it is tough. I have beaten brush and scraped on trees in earnest, and it’s held up perfectly to the abuse.
- The color of the call is similar to the color of moose antlers, so you can hold it over your head and wave it to create a “flashing” visual similar to a bull moose rotating it’s antlers.
- You can scoop water and drain it out to emulate the sound of a cow moose urinating.
Inside the Mind of an Inventor
Recently I ran into Wayne at the Great Alaska Sportsman Show and he shared that he had developed a new call using synthetic materials. The new version is lighter and stronger, and Wayne reports that the sound it creates is more realistic, particularly when scraping brush. From watching his video, I can see what he means. He provided me with the new call and I intend to use it on a moose hunt in September with my oldest son. I posed the following questions to Wayne to illuminate the reasons that drove him to invent this very useful moose hunting tool.
Hunt Alaska: You are a registered Alaska Master Hunting Guide. Tell us the reasons behind the motivation for inventing the Bull Magnet.
Wayne Kubat: A rutting bull has two things on his mind—loving and fighting—and he will readily respond to whichever one he thinks is nearby. Early in my guiding career, I witnessed just how far a bull will travel when looking for a cow or a good fight. If you can accurately mimic those behaviors, your chances of filling the freezer skyrocket. For years, I relied on my bare hands to cup my mouth for vocalizations and cup my ears to listen for distant responses.
To mimic physical behaviors, I had to lug around heavy, bulky items like real antlers, a shoulder blade, or a wood-handled ax to thrash brush. As I got older, I became obsessed with cutting down my pack weight while improving my ability to manipulate moose behavior. I needed a lightweight, compact multi-tool that could do it all. That obsession led to the invention of the Bull Magnet. It eliminates the heavy gear while amplifying your vocalizations and hearing range two to three times further than bare hands, and serves as a durable tool for thrashing and flashing, and other sounds.
From Fiberglass to Synthetic: Thirty Years of Refinement
Hunt Alaska: Your original call is made from fiberglass and works very well. What drove you to redesign the call using synthetic material?
Wayne Kubat: While hunters have loved and relied on our fiberglass Bull Magnets for years, we are always looking for ways to improve our gear. We made the switch to an advanced synthetic material to directly address the common limitations of fiberglass in the field. Fiberglass: Can produce a tinny sound if held wrong when thrashing. Will chip and crack over time when aggressively used for thrashing. Are rigid and a bit heavy. Has a chemical smell and can cause itching. It took me over 30 years to come up with something better than fiberglass.
Our synthetic calls: Sound very realistic when thrashing and the “tinny” sound is gone. They produce a slightly deeper tone for vocalizations, which I really like. Are re-enforced at the speaker end where most of the damage from aggressive thrashing occurs. They are much more durable and won’t chip or crack, even at temperatures well below freezing.
Though five ounces lighter, they are very sturdy yet somewhat flexible so that you can flatten them a bit if you need to squeeze them into a small area. Don’t smell or cause itching or slivers when you put them to your mouth to call or hold them to your ear to listen. Are a light bone color and more visible for “flashing.” If you are a weight freak, you can easily cut the 1.5-inch re-enforced lip off the speaker end with a jig saw and save 3 ounces while still maintaining very good performance.
Success Story and Thirty Thousand Calls
Hunt Alaska: I’m sure you’ve heard many success stories from hunters using your call. Tell us about one that particularly stands out to you.
Wayne Kubat: I have a story on my Alaskaremote.com website titled “3 Day Strategy for Moose Hunting Success.” Mark C. from Georgia called me and told me that he had bought a Bull Magnet and read my story before going on his first DIY hunt in Alaska. He said my 3-day moose-hunt strategy didn’t work, because he killed a 70” bull on the first day. You can read his testimonial and see the pictures on my bullmagnet.com website.
Hunt Alaska: Please share anything else you would like our readers to know about the Bull Magnet.
Wayne Kubat: I’ve been flying, guiding, and hunting in Alaska for 50 years. Calling in and harvesting big mature bulls is still one of my greatest passions. In the 1990s, I produced our two instructional video guides, “Love, Thunder and Bull.” Together, they remain the gold standard for moose calling and hunting instruction, packed with live audio, genuine behavioral insights, and footage of actual, successful hunts on massive bulls.
Since 1993, my wife Marilyn and I have hand-crafted over 30,000 Bull Magnets. You can regularly spot them being used in popular hunting programs and YouTube videos. While the market has seen a wave of copycats and “internet experts” echoing the techniques I’ve been teaching for over three decades, the Bull Magnet remains the most durable and versatile multi-function call you can find anywhere. They can be found in most major sporting retailers throughout Alaska or can be purchased direct from our websites.
Also, the name “Bull Magnet” was inspired by a humorous scene in the movie Pretty Woman, where Julia Roberts explains that her mother called her a “bum magnet” because of all of her failed relationships. The idea stuck—thus, Bull Magnet was born.
Marcus Weiner is an avid hunter, angler, forager and gardener who gets significant enjoyment from knowing where his food comes from. He founded and publishes Fish Alaska and Hunt Alaska magazines with his business partner and sister, Melissa Norris.
About the Author Marcus Weiner
Marcus Weiner is an avid hunter, angler, forager and gardener who gets significant enjoyment from knowing where his food comes from. He founded and publishes Fish Alaska and Hunt Alaska magazines with his business partner and sister, Melissa Norris.