2016 DIY Alaska moose

[Bean Counter]

*tag* 

[JoeE]

I'm taking care of a bunch of the logistics to get me and all my meat and gear home now. I'll type out the longer version of the story later tonight.

To answer one of the questions above we were in an any bull unit so no antler restrictions.

Wow, those are both great bulls, especially for an any bull unit.  Looking forward to the story.

An any bull unit doesn't mean it's lesser quality like how Washington is. The units with antler restrictions are generally in areas with more hunting pressure and more people so they restrict the antlers. We were pretty remote.

[Rainier10]

I'm taking care of a bunch of the logistics to get me and all my meat and gear home now. I'll type out the longer version of the story later tonight.

To answer one of the questions above we were in an any bull unit so no antler restrictions.

Wow, those are both great bulls, especially for an any bull unit.  Looking forward to the story.

An any bull unit doesn't mean it's lesser quality like how Washington is. The units with antler restrictions are generally in areas with more hunting pressure and more people so they restrict the antlers. We were pretty remote.

What?! Other states manage game different than Washington?  Actually that makes sense, thanks for the clarification.  Now that you mention it I think some of the restricted areas are just for out of state hunters.  Probably to keep them from crowding the easy to reach areas.

[PlateauNDN]

Man, talk about steeeeeep country! Upside and sideways! nice bulls, congrats.

[JoeE]

Man, talk about steeeeeep country! Upside and sideways! nice bulls, congrats.

Haha!!! That's what it felt like packing those bulls back to camp!

Hopefully a mod can flip the pics the right way.

[JoeE]

This hunt came up pretty quick. Last time I went up there I put about two years of prep into it with all the planning. This time was about six months. My dad got pretty sick in May and has been in the hospital since. Every day off I had from work I was driving from the west side to Spokane to see him. Finally mid August I was able to get him moved to a hospital in Tacoma to be closer to me. I crammed with prep the last few weeks to get ready. I was still worried about leaving for the bush with my dad being so sick still but a couple weeks out I had a lengthy discussion with my dad and he told me to go kill a moose and bring him back some pictures!

Like I said, last time I did a float hunt. Over 110 miles over the course of 11 days. It was an adventure for sure and I shot a really nice moose. This time I wanted to try something different.

I have a connection up in Alaska that was able to set us up with a pilot and Super Cub. The cub can only haul about 70 pounds worth of gear and we wanted to take just one flight each. I packed like I was backpacking with some comforts. I put all my food in a five gallon bucket and then loaded up a KUIU 6000 pack with clothes, binos, rangefinder, jet boil and my kill kit. Stuffed it all in a couple dry bags and called it good. My gear was pretty lean but effective to get the job done.

My sleep system was an REI 2 man backpacking tent, a EE quilt and Thermarest xtherm. My hunting partner brought a golite SL-5 that he slept in and we stored gear in. In my opinion quilts are garbage and I'll never use one again.

We picked a spot near a ridge that overlooked a river and a creek. We saw cows daily. We landed in camp Sep 4 the day before the season and had a couple days of rain but nothing bad. The weather broke and we got good weather for a few days. My hunting partner called my bull within 200 yards of camp. He was trying to bow hunt but just couldn't get it any closer. I was standing behind him with my rifle and after about an hour of trying to get the bull to come within bow range he told me that if I wanted it to take him with the rifle. Three shots in the lungs from 208 yards and he was down.

That was about 8:45 pm. We butchered and packed meat until about 2 am and went to bed. It was awesome because we were hauling meat under one of the most amazing northern lights shows I've ever seen. We got up the next morning and had my moose packed back to camp and a meat rack started and set up by noon. We were back to hunting.

That evening we divided up and went to opposite sides of the ridge and did some calling. Within about 30 minutes I had two bulls coming into my calls. I ran over to get my partner to tell him to get set up and I would try to call these bulls into bow range. I climbed up on a knob about 30 yards behind him where was set up in the brush. I could see two bulls making there way through the timber but they just wouldn't close the final 200 yards. Once I finally got a clear view of the second bull I could tell he was huge! I told my partner he should climb up to my vantage point and look this bull over and maybe consider taking him with my rifle. He climbed up to me and after about a 1/2 second of consideration he decided to use the rifle. Basically same story as my moose as far as butchering and packing and it was back in camp by noon the next day. We called the pilot of the sat phone and said we were ready for pick up. He came in the next day and picked up a load of meat but the wind was picking up so he had to leave the area and couldn't get back in to us.

Then the storm started. For the next three days we had what seemed like hurricane like weather, high winds, rain, a little bit of snow. In 72 hours I left my tent for maybe a total of 90 minutes to adjust tarps on meat and tie down my tent. I just sat there staring at the ceiling of that REI tent praying that it wouldn't tear apart!

Finally on weds afternoon the weather broke and the pilot got us out if there.

We scored his moose yesterday. 234 5/8 so even with drying and our margin of error the bull should still make B&C.

[DaveMonti]

Rainier10,
If you want to do a moose trip to Alaska and need a partner, let me know.  I'd love to do that trip some day.  A co-worker is there now on a drop float trip and I'll see how he did. 
Dave

[fishngamereaper]

Awesome

[lokidog]

Nice job!

[MtnMuley]

Awesome. Yours is outstanding. Your buddy's is ridiculous!

[HvyHorn338]

Congrats to you both.  Sounds like a dream hunt to me. 

[Timberstalker]

What an awesome trip.  Thanks for sharing it with us.

[JoeE]

Here's a pic of the meat cache afte we got it packed back into camp.

[JoeE]

No idea why I can't post a pic the right way..

[meatwhack]

Congratulations looks like an awesome adventure. If you don't mind posting what is the approximate cost of a hunt like this and was the float hunt compatible in price. Also now that you've done both did you like the float hunt best or having the stationary camp best.