Alaska 2024 moose hunt

[HillHound]

Well we made it.
 The trip was full of extremely slow times and extremely fast times, we had the adventure of a lifetime that I wouldn’t have wanted to do with anyone other than my best and life long hunting partner, my older brother. And despite having several instances show how close death can be around any corner by way of predators, plane crashes, etc. we are already planning the next trip, well planning may be an exaggeration, I guess it would be more scheming at this stage on what we need to do for the wives and kids so we can start planning stage again. Alaska is truly the last frontier. This was our first trip up hunting and I believe it has started an itch that can’t be scratched.
We flew into town the day before we were supposed to be dropped off with our raft and gear for 13 days. Checked in at the hanger and tensions were high due to Weather delays. Some hunters were backed up a couple days already and it wasn’t looking good for us getting out on time. Pilot said be here tomorrow ready just in case. The next day came and it still wasn’t looking good. One group we thought had gone out the night before had turned back due to weather. This put us back 4 groups still. Over the next few hours we had our hopes up then dashed, then back up again, then no again. Then they decided we are going a different direction than most so we were all of a sudden throwing our stuff on a smaller plane than originally planned, with a very real possibility we may spend the night on a sand bar somewhere if we can’t make it all the way out. Even on the way out the pilot kept saying it wasn’t looking good. Someone had stolen the fuel pump off their fuel stash half way out but luckily another pilot in the area had a section of garden hose he swung by for us to syphon the leaded fuel out with. The smell of those planes burning leaded fuel took me back to a very familiar smell my Dads old 74 duster put off when riding in the back seat as a kid. Once back in the air the weather just seemed to keep clearing as we went and we actually made it all the way. We set up camp and in three casts my brother had two trophy size grayling for dinner, something that was repeated over and over throughout the trip. We could catch them at Will and were delicious fried in moose fat once we had some.

Day one of hunting we called one bull in that was in hindsight probably legal. He was just too close to call and he didn’t give us enough time to get the spotter on him since he came out as we were still blowing up our raft. But boy was he still a nice one and that got the blood pumping. Second day three wolves were spotted and an off hand shot was taken but looked like a clean miss. We saw one cow and called a grizzly right into camp late in the evening. He was sure convinced with our calling and Lucy the Moosy(Montana decoys cow moose) he was in for an easy meal. We spotted him 3/4 of a mile away and within a few minutes he popped out at 150 yards and closing. We yelled and he just stood up on his hind legs not scared at all for what seemed like forever. After a  minute or two of  Lots of yelling and arm waving with the rifle at the ready he finally decided we might be more trouble than we were worth and retreated the way he came. We set the bear fence up for the first time that night as we didn’t want our 9foot friend to come back.
Day three found us at the same spot we called the bear in and no more than 20 minutes of calling and we had a big bull coming our way from almost a mile out. It was an old bull with lots of extra stuff going on and obviously legal so it fit the bill for what we were looking for. He closed the distance to 380 yards and was going to go downwind of camp so my brother let him have it. Three shots into him he finally fell, 200 grain 300 win mag precision hunter eldx bullets performed great. It took most of the day to process and pack it the 75 yards to the boat and then float it to camp and onto the meat rack we made, inside the fence of course.
Day 4 of hunting we packed the meat and all our stuff in the raft and floated/dragged, unloaded and portaged once, for half the day to make it to a possible pick up spot for the moose. We built a new meat rack and set the fence back up around it. We could barely get down the river with all the weight so there was no going forward until moose #1 was picked up. Weather wasn’t good enough to make it that afternoon so we hunted around and found lots of grizzly and wolf tracks. Day 5 was more of the same. Catching fish, eating moose, and the occasional walk about to call and glass the small areas we had since there was no where to gain elevation at this spot. Still couldn’t make it out. Day six was more of the same. I walked miles down stream and saw more and more bear tracks. Big ones, baby ones, and everything in between. Then after seeing not another soul for 7 days two jet boats come pushing water hard trying to make it upstream. This took the wind out of my sails. I kicked rocks back to camp and announced I was done for the day. Hopefully, we would be able to get the moose picked up and on the move the  next morning to an area with better glassing points.
Well, my brother wasn’t done for the day.. He set his chair out in front of the tent and started moose calling. It wasn’t a few minutes later I thought I was hearing things. Laying on the cot with my crocs on I hear it again. A moose grunt. That’s when I hear my brother say did you hear that? And as the whole trip went, it went 0 to 100 again. I grabbed the gun and got set up on the back of his chair. He kept calling, but sounded like the bull was going to come out on the high Bank right by our tent. He was grunting and snorting and tearing trees up on his way in. My brother ran Across the gravel bar and continued to call to get the bull to move further down. It worked and he popped out 300 yards up river. I could see his pans high above the willows long before I could see him. I had the scope cranked up to 16 and when he came into an opening and looked towards us I could see he was legal. He was back in the willows with just antlers visible again now headed towards the river and eventually the smoke from our chimney. I found a gap and waited for his vital’s to enter it and let one fly. Sounds like a solid hit but he’s still moving slow towards the water, give him another. Sounds like another solid hit and he’s noticeably wavering but still moving closer to the water. Gave him a third one that ended up hitting him in the spine and put him down less than 20 feet from the water. It was half hour before dark and we scramble to get all butchering tools, clothes, water we needed into the raft and drag it up river of the moose and paddle across. We had just enough time to take some pictures before it got dark. We started a fire and cooked and butchered the moose most of the night. Around 3:30am we had it in the raft and was rowing back to camp to make a quick meat rack and go to sleep for a couple hours. We messaged the pilot and let them know we have two moose that need flown out now. We go to work building a meat pole you could pull a duramax out on to hang both moose. No sooner do we get it built and 1 quarter hung, the pilot messages we are coming to get both moose today.They made two trips with a smaller plane shuttling them out to a bigger plane. Then we were told to stay put, bad weather was coming and they wanted to get us out the next day. So a bit disappointed we couldn’t float more but we got what we came for. So we prepared to be picked up, but day 7 came and went with bad weather. 8 and 9 were the same, waiting to see if it would clear and then hearing late in the day it wasn’t happening. We hiked around these days picking blueberries and rose hips. Found a caribou antler and a giant wallow possibly made by my bull. Caught lots more fish and cut lots of firewood in case we were stuck in the incoming snowstorm.
Day 10 you could now see the ominous black snow clouds to the north of us. We cut wood and filtered water most of the day so we wouldn’t have to in the snow. About 3:30 I hear a plane. I’m yelling plane, plane to my brother who had just went to find a good bush. With no communication here he comes. We later find out he was picking up some other hunters who said they were ready but they weren’t at the pickup spot yet so he came to get us. We tore our tent,stove,cots, and sleeping bags down and shoved them into the plane with the rest of our gear and we were off. Not 20 minutes earlier I was about to go catch dinner and hunker down for the storm and now we were on the way back to civilization… well almost
A couple hours into the flight we land on a gravel bar. The pilot tells us he has to keep getting people out before the storm and there should be a bigger plane coming to get us. Several other people are dropped off by other pilots and are eventually picked up but we were still there. We had a bonfire going and as our coffe finishes and we are about to set the tent up here comes lights in the distance. Hannah who was supposed to be our original pilot out picked us up but weather was too bad to make it all the way to town and we had to land in a small village. Once there our stuff got thrown in a van and we were told to find room somewhere and get in. We piled in with 7 or more other hunters and started the three hour drive on the muddy snowy road. We made it back to the hanger by midnight and just slept there. Spent four more days in town dealing with meat and skull cleaning. We met some great guys while in town before and after our trip. Crazy how you can take people from all over the country but all being hunters are very like minded. Hopefully we can meet up with Brad,Ty, and Greg again on another Alaska trip or maybe if we make it down to Nevada we can go cat hunting with them.
Major and really the only Downside to the trip was we found out that our pilot had crashed and died on the same sand bar four days after she picked us up. They are still investigating but I’m sure it was the bad weather, they were really pushing to get guys out, even making some leave all their gear so they could fit more people in. She was only 28 and had a lot of life left to live. RIP Hannah Dollick. Good reminder to say good by to your loved ones each day weather you are flying in the bush or driving down I5, our time is limited here and we never know when it will be our last.

[MADMAX]

great job
great story
congrats

[fishngamereaper]

Awesome bulls..
Your experience is 100 percent Alaska... hurry up, wait, watch weather...hurry up .repeat..
Brings back memories...
Bummer about the pilot....
Hopefully that's not the same gal that was working out of Bettles a few years ago when we went up for Caribou...

[Taco280AI]

Great hunt and story 

[Rainier10]

Great bulls. Love the drop times.

Great story. Thanks for sharing.

[HillHound]

Thanks. Caribou is definitely on the list for the next hunt. I did hear one of the other pilots talking about flying out of Bettles. But I’m not sure about Hannah. She lived in Palmer but they all seem to follow the work around so it is a possibility.

[teanawayslayer]

Man sounds like it was quite the adventure! Thanks for sharing!

[Karl Blanchard]

Thanks. Caribou is definitely on the list for the next hunt. I did hear one of the other pilots talking about flying out of Bettles. But I’m not sure about Hannah. She lived in Palmer but they all seem to follow the work around so it is a possibility.

different gal than reaper is thinking of. 

Great story and adventure! Alaska will grab ahold of your soul and never let go.  It's truly an unscratchable itch.

[Crunchy]

Damn.  Did it like REAL men.

[wafisherman]

Epic dream hunt right there. Nice!

[HillHound]

Thanks. An adventure of a lifetime that’s going to be hard to beat, well at least until we go back to Alaska. Good luck to everyone who put in for the draws

[Joshramirez1995]

Feel free to not respond and I don’t mean to pry but what would a trip like this cost in total it’s a dream hunt of mine

[boneaddict]

Truly a typical epic Alaskan hunt.   I was staring at the regs last night trying to decide if I had another in me or not.   Thank you for sharing your adventure and what great bulls.

[HillHound]

 There are a lot of variables, such as if you need to buy lots of specialty gear still, how many people you are going with and how long of a bush flight you will have. I know of a group of 6 guys that goes up and have it down to about $7000 a person, but they are taking a larger plane not nearly as far out to a lake. For what we did with two guys I would budget $10-$12,000 a person. Half that is just bush fights. $2900 for the flight in, another $2900 for the flight out(those costs are split with your partner) Then another $2900 to fly each moose out(if in a 185 landing on gravel bars)We did fly further than most so bush flights may be cheaper where you pick to go and payload will be more plus cost split more directions if you’re taking a larger plane on floats with three or four guys. Another thousand for the tag. Another thousand for your commercial flight/extra luggage/ parking fees up and back. Another five hundred for shipping meat and shipping/packaging antlers(if you are a known shipper, possibly more if not). Airbnb or Hotel rooms/food on the front and back end. Rental for getting around town. Raft rental if your doing a float is more, along with any other gear like bear fence etc you don’t have and doesn’t make sense to buy. Being that far out there, you really need to have top-of-the-line equipment and if all that still needs to be purchased or rented You could easily be looking at $15,000 all said and done. But you get out there and do it on your own terms and is still half what the outfitters will charge you for a similar hunt. Still not cheap but if you have a reliable(huge emphasis on this) hunting partner or two to split cost with and start socking money away(you’re looking at 2 to 3 years out for bush flights) even the average guy can do it. Like boneaddict said he’s trying to decide if he has another one in him, start planning now and get out there and do it while you can. Much too soon we will be sitting around the fireplace talking about the good old days unable to do these kind of things.

[HillHound]

My brother finished mounting my moose antlers. I think they turned out great. Wish I had a ceiling that was four or 5 feet higher to hang them on but I guess having antlers too big for any of the walls is a good problem to have