My 2011 AK Moose Hunt - DIY (Success!!)

[Holg3107]

Too COOL. those drop tines are a great bonus to that rack. Well done fellas, love it when the DIY hunts work out. Hope to do it myself someday.

[engelwood]

To address a couple of questions:

Michelle - We used Alaska Air Cargo as mentioned before and had an employee discount, which was a HUGE savings. We shipped 650 pounds of gear up, 1200 pounds of meat back as well as 690 pounds of gear and antlers back. Altogether we only had $1,000 in freight charges (normal would be in the $3,000 range I believe). Also, there are freezers at Alaska Air Cargo EXCEPT FOR IN PORTLAND. I have no idea why this is, but we know people who have not been notified in the past and lost meat. We tracked our shipment online and met the shipment in PDX. Meat was still mostly frozen and we were able to process it later that day when it was nice and cold.

Highcountry is right, only Grizz, Sheep, Goats (AND MUSKOX) are required to have guides or kinship.

Longashes - yes, just the two of us. In the picture with both of us you can actually see our float plane coming in to take a load of meat out. Pretty lucky that the timer went off at the right time and caught that. It has to be my favorite pic from the trip.

Thanks for all the kind words everyone. Nobody really understands everything that goes into a trip of this magnitude until they actually do it themselves, I thought it was going to be way easier when it all began. We adapted to the changes and made it a very successful trip for the both of us. My buddy said on the second night that he would never go back, mostly because walking/hiking on the muskeg/tundra absolutely killed his feet, ankles, and knees. I didn't have any issues and had a blast. Hard being away from my 8 month old son tho, that is for sure.

[jager]

Congrats!
I'm trying to plan a hunt for 2013..

I wish I could see your pics...I click on the blue box and nothing comes up. Is it just me?

[engelwood]

Jager, send me PM with your email in it and I'll shoot em over to ya!

[jager]

PM sent

[SpokaneSlayer]

Wow, that is a great bull.  I got skunked this moose season, but I stayed pretty local to Anchorage.  Where did you go?  Looks like somewhere up north, maybe around Fairbanks?  Again, congrats!

[losdaddy7]

Wow...  hunt of a lifetime...  Congrats! 

[whacker1]

so cool.  congrats on a very impressive trip.

[high country]

Did you use pristine ventures?

[Whitenuckles]

 Very cool!!

[The100Road]

That is too cool. I may very well be wrong, but why did i think that if you wernt a resident in alaska it was required to have guide? It seems like ive heard this somewhere before. Is it only in certain GMU's?

Griz, sheep, and I believe goats require guides or kinship. Moose, bou, and black bears are all DIY.

How bad did air freight hurt?

Awesome. I did not know that.

Thanks

[Wea300mag]

Sweet story and pics, that's a job well done!!!

[jmx369]

Great write up! Congrats on an awesome hunt. You almost make it sound easy but packing out a   moose for two days is quite a chore.

[Machias]

Wow, that is awesome!!!   Congrats!

[WAcoyotehunter]

Nice work!!!  What a story!