Well, I'm getting my shoulder mount back next weekend and can't hardly wait! Stopped by the taxi yesterday and got a couple pics with the mount as it was still in the drying process. Thing is quite a bit bigger than I remembered. Gonna take up a little space in the house. My wife was with me and her jaw pretty much fell to the floor when she saw it. HAHA. My taxi did an AWESOME job on it by the way. Super happy with his work! For reference I'm 6'0" and 225 lbs.
AK Moose Hunt
- Thread starter engelwood
- Start date
Bowhuntrben
Well-known member
Very nice! I'm jealous! 
cadman59501
New member
Wow, very jealous!! I cant wait until I finally make it out on that trip.
Wyodeerhunter
Banned
- Joined
- Feb 18, 2002
- Messages
- 2,150
I normally do not like head mount moose but that one looks good!
Wyodeerhunter
Banned
- Joined
- Feb 18, 2002
- Messages
- 2,150
Btw did I miss the story on that bad boy? Details if not!
Cool thing is that he has a matching one on the left side as well. Pretty unique from what I was told by the game warden for the area.
bow hunter
New member
- Joined
- Dec 29, 2009
- Messages
- 199
what a pig! congrats!
Devil Diver Down
Well-known member
I don't know about those shoes of yours but the moose looks really, really good. Well done to you and your taxi.
I hadn't taken the time to put the story up yet, but here is how it went.
This hunt essentially began on the last week of February, when my hunting partner and I found out that we drew a couple of Moose tags for Alaska. We were instantly extatic about the trip. We knew a guy at our work that had done this hunt back in 98, 99, 00 and 01 and was willing to share some info about the trips. We had plenty of pictures and words of wisdom from this guy from the beginning. We pretty much instantly booked our bush pilot (float plane an absolute must) as well as our tickets to and from AK. From then on we concentrated on building our camp, cutting weight (practically every place possible, including 55 lbs by my buddy and over 40 lbs by me) as well as tent, stove, food, and every other place possible. We had a 15 day round trip, with 12 days in the field. 9 of that 12 would be open season hunting for our moose, with a couple travel days on each end.
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 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 900 yards away (I still can't believe he heard him from that far, it was just so calm that you could hear everything). 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. What I found after walking up to the bull was more than I could have imagined. He measured out with a green width of 65.5" with matching drop tines off the back side of each paddle. I shot the bull Tuesday morning and we didn't have everything completely back to camp until Thursday night. We didn't see another moose, let along a bull, for another 6 days of hard hunting when I was able to call out a nice 60.5" bull for my hunting partner that he put down with a 425 yard shot out of my 300 WSM. We only saw two moose, which both happened to be bulls, and we were fortunate to shoot both of them. We ended up losing a hind quarter and all his bulls ribs to a bear overnight as we had to leave some meat lakeside as we ran out of light the evening he shot his bull. We saw black bears everyday of the trip except for the day that we saw a toad of a grizzly bear. Quite the experience overall and I can't wait to go back. Hopefully it will be in the next 3-4 years. I've concluded that it's a young guys hunt as I fared much better than my buddy who is 20 years older than I am. I was able to carry both my bull's and his bull's hind and front shoulders whole, whereas he was much happier with ribs, neck meat, cape, etc. Full hind quarters of an AK moose were a bit much to handle, but the time saved to be able to get back to hunting made it well worth it. Conditioning prior to the hunt was essential to our success. Thanks for reading.
This hunt essentially began on the last week of February, when my hunting partner and I found out that we drew a couple of Moose tags for Alaska. We were instantly extatic about the trip. We knew a guy at our work that had done this hunt back in 98, 99, 00 and 01 and was willing to share some info about the trips. We had plenty of pictures and words of wisdom from this guy from the beginning. We pretty much instantly booked our bush pilot (float plane an absolute must) as well as our tickets to and from AK. From then on we concentrated on building our camp, cutting weight (practically every place possible, including 55 lbs by my buddy and over 40 lbs by me) as well as tent, stove, food, and every other place possible. We had a 15 day round trip, with 12 days in the field. 9 of that 12 would be open season hunting for our moose, with a couple travel days on each end.
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 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 900 yards away (I still can't believe he heard him from that far, it was just so calm that you could hear everything). 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. What I found after walking up to the bull was more than I could have imagined. He measured out with a green width of 65.5" with matching drop tines off the back side of each paddle. I shot the bull Tuesday morning and we didn't have everything completely back to camp until Thursday night. We didn't see another moose, let along a bull, for another 6 days of hard hunting when I was able to call out a nice 60.5" bull for my hunting partner that he put down with a 425 yard shot out of my 300 WSM. We only saw two moose, which both happened to be bulls, and we were fortunate to shoot both of them. We ended up losing a hind quarter and all his bulls ribs to a bear overnight as we had to leave some meat lakeside as we ran out of light the evening he shot his bull. We saw black bears everyday of the trip except for the day that we saw a toad of a grizzly bear. Quite the experience overall and I can't wait to go back. Hopefully it will be in the next 3-4 years. I've concluded that it's a young guys hunt as I fared much better than my buddy who is 20 years older than I am. I was able to carry both my bull's and his bull's hind and front shoulders whole, whereas he was much happier with ribs, neck meat, cape, etc. Full hind quarters of an AK moose were a bit much to handle, but the time saved to be able to get back to hunting made it well worth it. Conditioning prior to the hunt was essential to our success. Thanks for reading.
HAHA, I figured someone would say something about my shoes. Everywhere I go people keep pointing out how colorful my shoes are, like I wasn't the one who bought them
. LOL
fishing4sanity
Well-known member
Great looking moose and that sounds like a very memorable hunt, CONGRATULATIONS!
Well, right now I actually don't. My in-laws next door have 19 foot ceilings in their great room so my father in law agreed to keep it on his fireplace for the next little while until I have ample space for my bull. I showed him the picture of me standing next to the mount and he about crapped. Didn't realize it was that big I guess. Said something about reinforcing the lag bolt with some steel or something?!?!?! HAHA. I'll post some pictures when it's on the wall!
brownbear932008
Well-known member
Reading this post gets me pumped can't wait until Sept. me and my bud are heading up to the Koyukuk he drew that tag this year gonna be awesome..... BTW that is a great looking bull love the drop tines on him.
northwestalaska
New member
- Joined
- Feb 14, 2006
- Messages
- 104
Very NIce! You may have said but where in AK did you drop him?
It looks like a Yukon Flats Bull.
Walt
Northwest Alaska Back Country
Float hunts and Drop Camps
www.northwestalaska.com
It looks like a Yukon Flats Bull.
Walt
Northwest Alaska Back Country
Float hunts and Drop Camps
www.northwestalaska.com
B
big28hunter
Guest
Beautiful mount and bull! Congrats!
mtmander
Active member
I would be careful on putting him on the fireplace unless there is not a fire in it while the moose is there. The heat from the fire 'may' cause the hide to shrink. Ask your taxi what he thinks.
