Post by: engelwood on September 28, 2011, 09:23:06 AM
Our trip started pretty eventful as the airlines lost our gun case as well as one bag that we checked. I fly ALOT and have NEVER lost a bag, and just when it matters most, POOF, my bags go missing.... go figure! After 6 hours of wondering and waiting they appeared on the next flight into town, thank god. The next day we got to the hanger, unpacked our gear box, loaded the truck and headed to the pond where we would fly out. Having never flown in a small plane, let alone a float plane, my buddy and I were both a little worried about the flight out to the bush. Our pilot was awesome and after a few short moments, we were off the water and heading out to our camp. After getting to camp and unloading our gear we instantly spotted a nice black bear feeding on the hillside approximately 900-1000 yards away, awesome...first animal of the trip! A short 7 hours later we had our tent up, cots and stove erected, and our bear fence surrounding our camp and fully functional.
We began our hunt the following day (as required by AK game laws) and hunted hard, calling and glassing for the entire day, without seeing a single animal (except for a couple more black bears on the same hillside as the one the prior evening). Night fell and we awoke the next morning to a cold and drizzly sunrise. After about a 3/4 mile hike to a glassing location we began cow calling to try to locate a bull or get one up on his feet and interested in our sexy calling! After the second calling sequence my hunting partner heard a bull call back from across the lake about 800-900 yards away (I still can't believe he heard him from that far). We were instantly on the move in his direction. After closing about 500 yards of the distance between us and the bull we spotted him as he bedded down. We closed another 300 yards on him and as we were trying to get to a better vantage point, he knew something wasn't quite right and got up and started to move, quartering away from us. I quickly got my gun on my tripod and steadied for the shot. One more step to clear a lone alder tree and BANG, I squeezed off a shot. WHOP, I could hear it connect and it felt like a great shot. He was still on his feet as I reloaded, BANG, another shot rang out and he collapsed to the ground. Knowing he was down we moved over to him and I was instantly overwhelmed with excitement. Here is what I saw....
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I shot the bull on Tuesday Morning and finally had it all back to camp on Thursday night. I was able to pack the quarters whole which was no small chore. Here is a packing pic.
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We ended up hunting another 5 days until we finally found another moose for my hunting partner. He got his the day before the end of the season on a 420 yard shot (out of my gun, hehehe). My bull ended up coming in at 65.5" wide and my buddy's bull was 60.5" wide. My bull actually has a 7" drop tine off the back of each paddle, matching double drop tines for a first moose... I was lucky to say the least. Here is a pic of both our bulls.
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We flew out on Sept. 10th and returned Saturday night, the 24th. On our trip we had 10+ encounters with black bears, 1 close encounter with a Grizzly bear, saw a few caribou that we couldn't really get on, and only 2 moose, which we shot both of. An awesome trip all and all and I will end it here as I'm sure most have stopped listening at this point. Thanks for reading!
Post by: h20hunter on September 28, 2011, 09:37:52 AM
Post by: CedarPants on September 28, 2011, 09:41:01 AM
Post by: coop2424 on September 28, 2011, 09:44:04 AM
Post by: vaz,,66 on September 28, 2011, 09:55:28 AM
Post by: YellowDog on September 28, 2011, 09:56:08 AM
It looks like both bulls have some very similar charactaristics. Same angle of tripple brow tines on the left side, very similar brows on the right side except for the one with the long point behind. They look to me to be very similar. Again, very awesome job congrats to both of you.
Post by: FSTaxidermy on September 28, 2011, 09:57:46 AM
Post by: jackelope on September 28, 2011, 09:59:42 AM
Great story and pics, thanks for sharing! and Congrats.
Post by: engelwood on September 28, 2011, 10:00:29 AM
Just flew in from Alaska Air Cargo!!!!
Post by: GoldTip on September 28, 2011, 10:01:48 AM
Post by: PacificNWhunter on September 28, 2011, 10:02:25 AM
Post by: JBR on September 28, 2011, 10:06:56 AM
Post by: norsepeak on September 28, 2011, 10:27:28 AM
Post by: quadrafire on September 28, 2011, 10:39:31 AM
Post by: engelwood on September 28, 2011, 10:42:49 AM
Post by: engelwood on September 28, 2011, 11:46:49 AM
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Post by: bucklucky on September 28, 2011, 11:51:29 AM
Post by: wamuledeer on September 28, 2011, 11:58:03 AM
Post by: MtnMuley on September 28, 2011, 12:04:18 PM
Post by: MuleySniper on September 28, 2011, 12:09:30 PM
MS
Post by: manfromspam on September 28, 2011, 12:14:55 PM
Post by: The100Road on September 28, 2011, 12:56:03 PM
Post by: Timber_Hunter on September 28, 2011, 01:04:02 PM
Post by: Michelle_Nelson on September 28, 2011, 01:11:41 PM
Alaska Air Cargo I think is the way to go when shipping meat and antlers from AK to WA. What a lot of people don't know is that Alaska Air has a freezer at the airport. Once you check in your shippment they put it directly into a freezer. At SeaTac they have a freezer as well. So the only time your shipment is out of the freezer is when it is in flight.
I just picked up several Caribou from Alaska Air Cargo up at SeaTac a few weeks ago. Everything was still frozen when I got it.
Post by: dscubame on September 28, 2011, 01:12:22 PM
Post by: boneaddict on September 28, 2011, 01:15:57 PM
Post by: cohoho on September 28, 2011, 01:48:20 PM
Post by: 724wd on September 28, 2011, 02:04:24 PM
Post by: longashes on September 28, 2011, 02:14:51 PM
Was it just the two of you in camp!
Post by: high country on September 28, 2011, 02:17:46 PM
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?
Post by: Holg3107 on September 28, 2011, 02:37:45 PM
Post by: engelwood on September 28, 2011, 02:45:00 PM
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.
Post by: jager on September 28, 2011, 02:55:09 PM
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?
Post by: engelwood on September 28, 2011, 02:58:44 PM
Post by: jager on September 28, 2011, 03:02:59 PM
Post by: SpokaneSlayer on September 28, 2011, 03:54:49 PM
Post by: losdaddy7 on September 28, 2011, 04:50:44 PM
Post by: whacker1 on September 28, 2011, 04:58:09 PM
Post by: high country on September 28, 2011, 05:08:01 PM
Post by: Whitenuckles on September 28, 2011, 06:10:52 PM
Post by: The100Road on September 28, 2011, 06:21:47 PM
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
Post by: Wea300mag on September 28, 2011, 07:11:13 PM
Post by: jmx369 on September 28, 2011, 07:19:35 PM
Post by: Machias on September 28, 2011, 08:36:28 PM
Post by: WAcoyotehunter on September 29, 2011, 06:57:09 AM
Post by: engelwood on September 29, 2011, 08:25:09 AM
Did you use pristine ventures?
No, just an air taxi that had a float plane available. No special hunting taxi of any sort.
Post by: MLBowhunting on September 29, 2011, 11:46:14 AM
Post by: Lunchbox1981 on September 29, 2011, 10:36:54 PM
Post by: sirmissalot on September 30, 2011, 09:05:07 AM
Good job man.
Post by: saylean on September 30, 2011, 10:25:05 PM
Post by: huntnphool on September 30, 2011, 10:27:56 PM
Post by: hunterofelk on October 01, 2011, 06:22:46 AM
Post by: engelwood on October 04, 2011, 08:36:41 AM
I've heard a little about bear fences, are they easy to get? Did you see any cow moose?You can buy them online, but we just borrowed a battery powered horse fence from a friend. It ran on 6 D cell batteries and is supposed to be able to run for over 5 weeks on them. :dunno:
I know my buddy grabbed it once and it was either in-between shocks, or his rubber boots insulated him, but he didn't get shocked. It was pretty damn funny to watch. I expected him to hit the ground. :chuckle: We only saw 1 cow moose and it was on a lake near camp as we flew in, but never saw it after or any others to speak of. It was pretty weird and unusual from what we had been told of the area, we expected to see a lot more critters.
Post by: elkhuntindad on October 31, 2011, 01:38:39 PM
Post by: Ripper on November 01, 2011, 06:39:02 PM
Post by: Elkpiss on November 03, 2011, 09:53:57 AM
Post by: iceman91m on November 17, 2011, 06:20:16 PM
Post by: JoeE on November 20, 2011, 11:45:10 PM
Post by: Greg Mullins on November 24, 2011, 09:46:46 AM
Post by: ANDERWAGON on November 24, 2011, 10:09:42 AM
Congratulations DIY success is awesome. Great bulls!
:tup: :tup:
Post by: lokidog on November 24, 2011, 10:24:39 AM
Post by: RB on November 24, 2011, 10:46:39 AM
Post by: Elkstuffer on December 01, 2011, 03:52:41 PM
Post by: Ridgerunner on December 03, 2011, 08:39:12 AM