Calvin
New member
Did my moose hunt. After getting screwed by a transporter last year, my hunting partner and I decided to go to a different area. It was a draw area, and the odds were good, so we were both drawn. Area had a history of kicking out some big bulls, and was far enough from the villages to not a a bunch of locals running up and down the river.
We found a native guy in a native village to be our transporter, who actually had all his paperwork into the state and was legit. A bunch cheaper than using a plane company, that was wanting 1k an hour to access the area with a Beaver. Screw that, considering that where we wanted to go was a 100 mile flight and we would have needed meat flights for moose. They quoted us $2500 a flight. That would have been 1 in, 1 out, and 1 flight for each moose down.
We arrived in fbanks on the 9th. Did our shopping. Bought way too much food, but since weight wasn't an issue as we weren't using a plane, we brought the good stuff. On the 11th we flew commercial to the village. Our transporter met us at the plane and loaded our gear (a bunch of it) into his 21ft river boat. He then ran us while towing a 14ft jon boat 100 miles up a river to the mouth of the river we had a tag for. We then loaded our gear into the little boat and proceeded to do our reverse float hunt. We then painfully traveled upriver with a 4hp motor at 2.9 mph, until we found a good camp site, well within our unit.
Then the waiting game started. It was really thick woods. Flat. No real places to climb and glass. All the advice given to us was to not go crazy and move around too much. The exact words were "resist the urge to move around". So, we spent an ungodly amount of time waiting. The river and oxbow lakes were about the only places you could really get a look at things. A few meadows, but not as many as we were envisioning when we had looked at google earth.
After 6 days of staring at empty sandbars and lakes, I finally had a good bull walk out on me on an oxbow lake, behind camp. I had been beating on a tree (mostly out of boredom) with a stick, and the bull must have mistaken me for another bull challenging his territory. I seen he was a good bull, from 335yds. I had an "any bull" tag, so I didn't have to count brow tines or estimate spread. After 6 days of wondering if bull moose really existed in the area, I put 4 in him, and anchored him before he went too deep into the lake.
Here are a few pics of the old boy as he landed after I loaded him up with lead.
Me and bull:
Pulling him out with the come-a-long:
Better look at his screwed up paddle:
When I walked up to him in the water, I had the Carrie Underwood song "oh no, what I have done" going through my head. Took us 6 hours to pull him out, and butcher him up. Had a good bull show up while were were butchering the bull. My partner passed, as it had small paddles. It'll be a hell of a bull in a few years tho. Then it took us 4 hours to pack him the 1/3 of a mile back to camp the next morning. Not too bad. I used a good tarp as a game sled, and pulled the 4 quarters back to camp. Those things weren't going on my back, as I need my back for blacktail hunting. The pull wasn't bad at all. I laced up the tarp and made a good sled to pull on.
The transporter was actually a master guide, who has lived in the area his entire life. He's just getting into transporting, and is very oyo friendly. He estimated the bull at 12-14 years old, and called it a trophy. That made me feel better about the messed up paddle. He had pulled a similar sized moose out of same oxbow lake many years earlier, unknown to me until he picked us up at camp. He was a real knowledgeable guy and treated us right. The spread was 63.5 inches, even with the messed up paddle. The rack is at the taxidermist in Salsha, AK, if anybody uses Skips Taxidermy. Getting a plaque mount done. That guy has some unreal stuff in his shop/home. What an amazing hunter.
Well, that's the hunt. It was a different style hunt. I'm used to moving, hiking, and glassing from vantage points. I could do none of that in that area. It's amazing how it can go from "bored out of my mind" to dead animal in about 30 seconds tho.
Now that I have moose out of my system, I'm thinking white animals for 2012.
We found a native guy in a native village to be our transporter, who actually had all his paperwork into the state and was legit. A bunch cheaper than using a plane company, that was wanting 1k an hour to access the area with a Beaver. Screw that, considering that where we wanted to go was a 100 mile flight and we would have needed meat flights for moose. They quoted us $2500 a flight. That would have been 1 in, 1 out, and 1 flight for each moose down.
We arrived in fbanks on the 9th. Did our shopping. Bought way too much food, but since weight wasn't an issue as we weren't using a plane, we brought the good stuff. On the 11th we flew commercial to the village. Our transporter met us at the plane and loaded our gear (a bunch of it) into his 21ft river boat. He then ran us while towing a 14ft jon boat 100 miles up a river to the mouth of the river we had a tag for. We then loaded our gear into the little boat and proceeded to do our reverse float hunt. We then painfully traveled upriver with a 4hp motor at 2.9 mph, until we found a good camp site, well within our unit.
Then the waiting game started. It was really thick woods. Flat. No real places to climb and glass. All the advice given to us was to not go crazy and move around too much. The exact words were "resist the urge to move around". So, we spent an ungodly amount of time waiting. The river and oxbow lakes were about the only places you could really get a look at things. A few meadows, but not as many as we were envisioning when we had looked at google earth.
After 6 days of staring at empty sandbars and lakes, I finally had a good bull walk out on me on an oxbow lake, behind camp. I had been beating on a tree (mostly out of boredom) with a stick, and the bull must have mistaken me for another bull challenging his territory. I seen he was a good bull, from 335yds. I had an "any bull" tag, so I didn't have to count brow tines or estimate spread. After 6 days of wondering if bull moose really existed in the area, I put 4 in him, and anchored him before he went too deep into the lake.
Here are a few pics of the old boy as he landed after I loaded him up with lead.
Me and bull:
Pulling him out with the come-a-long:
Better look at his screwed up paddle:
When I walked up to him in the water, I had the Carrie Underwood song "oh no, what I have done" going through my head. Took us 6 hours to pull him out, and butcher him up. Had a good bull show up while were were butchering the bull. My partner passed, as it had small paddles. It'll be a hell of a bull in a few years tho. Then it took us 4 hours to pack him the 1/3 of a mile back to camp the next morning. Not too bad. I used a good tarp as a game sled, and pulled the 4 quarters back to camp. Those things weren't going on my back, as I need my back for blacktail hunting. The pull wasn't bad at all. I laced up the tarp and made a good sled to pull on.
The transporter was actually a master guide, who has lived in the area his entire life. He's just getting into transporting, and is very oyo friendly. He estimated the bull at 12-14 years old, and called it a trophy. That made me feel better about the messed up paddle. He had pulled a similar sized moose out of same oxbow lake many years earlier, unknown to me until he picked us up at camp. He was a real knowledgeable guy and treated us right. The spread was 63.5 inches, even with the messed up paddle. The rack is at the taxidermist in Salsha, AK, if anybody uses Skips Taxidermy. Getting a plaque mount done. That guy has some unreal stuff in his shop/home. What an amazing hunter.
Well, that's the hunt. It was a different style hunt. I'm used to moving, hiking, and glassing from vantage points. I could do none of that in that area. It's amazing how it can go from "bored out of my mind" to dead animal in about 30 seconds tho.
Now that I have moose out of my system, I'm thinking white animals for 2012.
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