DIY Alaskan Moose Q&A

[J_Poiencot]

Alright guys, everyone knows that new experiences bring whole new levels of excitement. Something I have thought about is an Alaska hunting trip. Getting into the untapped, untouched wilderness and laying it all on the line to hopefully see and get a chance at the trophy of a lifetime seems like an amazing trip to me. In this post lets post thoughts, questions, answers, info, pricing, ect. Anything you want to know, would like to know, or just general conversation about it. Maybe a group of us hunt talk guys could even meet up and form a new friendship and hunting group and take on this trip.

Ill start off the post with a thought. My thought is this trip would be difficult without a doubt. The logistics would take a few years to figure out and get everything lined out just right. From flying in to your hunting spot, skiff rentals, getting your camp and gear there. And all for a price that isn't going to break the bank.

 

[MITCHMO]

I was shocked when I finally went. Turned out easier than expected.

Maybe a good contribution to this thread would be what worked for me.

#1 far and away from everything else, was hunting terrain that was fun. Hunt high and hunt dry. No bugs no waders, it was awesome. I saw so many more animals as well. If I make it back, the right type of terrain will be my #1 criteria to picking an area. All my buddies talked about how miserable and wet and buggy it was. For me it was just plain fun.

 

[Frazier]

I just booked for September 2021 DIY moose yesterday.

here’s my question: how many have brought fishing gear and had success in the Yukon delta in the lakes? Seems like a great way to pass some time. Had also wondered about waterfowl.

 

[AvidIndoorsman]

I just booked for September 2021 DIY moose yesterday.

here’s my question: how many have brought fishing gear and had success in the Yukon delta in the lakes? Seems like a great way to pass some time. Had also wondered about waterfowl.

No experience in the lakes, but I’d definitely bring fishing gear.

 

[J_Poiencot]

I just booked for September 2021 DIY moose yesterday.

here’s my question: how many have brought fishing gear and had success in the Yukon delta in the lakes? Seems like a great way to pass some time. Had also wondered about waterfowl.

Never been, but the buddy i am talking about possibly going with in the future and i have said we were gonna bring fishing gear and try to catch dinner.

 

[theat]

Iv'e been up twice on moose hunts. First trip, my former boss flew a friend of mine and myself from Fairbanks out to a airstrip he had cut out years before but had never hunted. Turned out to be the best moose hunting spot I could ever imagine. We saw 5-18 different bulls every day we were there and our best day for total moose spotted was 46 between the two of us. Definitely not what anyone should ever expect to see on any moose hunt. We just happened to be in the right place at the right time to catch them migrating from the flats to the mountains. There are a ton of good transporters up there with proven spots to choose from if you want to do this kind of hunt.

Second trip was last fall with a friend that is a member on here. I brought my raft up with me, but in the end we decided to do a packraft hunt to get away from the crowds. It was a lot more work than a regular float trip, but I am very glad we went with the option. We never saw a soul once we started hiking from the road until we had floated out to another road. I didn't get a tag for this trip since I had already killed a nice moose and the logistics of getting one moose out with our small sized packrafts was hard enough. We ended up having to float half the meat out, then hike back in and float out the rest.

Alaska is a huge place with widely varying terrain. For both of those hunts as well as the time I have spent up there working, I found it much easier to get around up there than just about any of the real, ie no roads/trail, backcountry elk hunting I have done in western Montana. There are certainly lots of places up there that are extremely difficult if not impossible to get around in, so like MITCHMO said above, pick an area with terrain that is hike-able if that is the type of hunting you are interested in doing.

A lot of guys want to do float hunts for moose, and that is great. I love anything to do with rivers, but it seems like a lot of hunters bite off more than they can chew on big float hunts. A lot of the moose float trips I hear about are long distance floats up to and over 100 miles. If all you want to do is call from your boat and camp, then that is fine, but you will be spending too much time trying to make miles down river to actually get away from the river and glass. On our trip last fall, we hiked in about 7 miles and floated 30. That meant that we only had to travel a handful of miles each day, which we did in the middle of the day giving us ample time to gain elevation to glass the mornings and evenings. I had done some online research and scouting and marked all the spots I thought would be good camps, glassing spots, and good moose habitat. Another thing to consider with a float hunt is that lots of Alaskans have jet and air boats the can get up pretty skinny water. Another reason why I chose where we went was because I could see some nasty looking rock gardens on the lower end of the creek we floated that could only be ran with a power boat when the water is high. I was a little worried about floating weighed down packrafts through there, but it turned out to be easier than I expected. There are a few companies making hunting specific packrafts that carry way more weight than the ones we had. They weigh more than twice as much as the Alpacka Denali Llamas that we used, but I am sure we could have gotten the moose out in one go with room to spare with two of them. If I do that trip again I will be renting one of those.

These are from my first moose hunt

This was looking down on our camp and fishhook landing strip with a cow standing at the far end










Not the best pic of my buddies bull, but I don't want to put his face on here without asking first




Saw this guy after our tags were filled

 

[theat]

These are from last falls hunt.



I would at least bring one small packable fishing rod. It was nice to have something other than mountain house for every meal.


There were bear and wolf tracks on every beach. Only saw one bear, but heard wolves howling several times and even had one knock down the teepee and steal my buddies brand new sleeping bag while we were glassing the first day. Luckily, I found it about 100 yards behind camp and we were able to patch up the many holes and tears with the tyvek tape in our packraft repair kits.


This is the only bear we saw on the actual moose hunt. Not the greatest pics since they are screen shots from video, but couldn't not include them as this encounter was a big highlight of the trip. We had seen a cow and calf hanging around our first camp and on opening morning the cow was standing in the middle of the river acting very nervous and staring into the brush on the other side of the river from us. As we got closer we noticed that she had several wounds on her flanks, back, and hind legs. We initially thought that the wolves we had heard the night before might have killed her calf and wounded her in the process, but after awhile the calf ran out of the woods and crossed over to our side of the river. A few minutes later this griz came charging out of the brush and jumped in the river after the cow. We were only 30-40 yards from her and the bear was 60-70 from us. The cow started running our way so we made our presence known and after a bit the bear decided to retreat.




She stayed standing in the middle of the river for most of the day




The weather was almost too nice during the days, but it got below freezing every night. We were both glad to have a hot tent to warm up before bed and while drinking coffee in the morning.


Called this bull in from about a mile away. He never came right to us, but I turned him and his cow from heading up into the hills and got them down to the rivers edge for an easy packout


On the first trip out we put most of the meat down on the floor of the pacrrafts and it was a bit uncomfortable after awhile with my legs dangling over the sides, but we got it done. The meat and the water was very cold on the second trip out so we took the chance of putting the meat in game bags, double bagged in garbage bags, inside of the tubes of the rafts. I really didn't want to get any blood in there as it would be tough to get the smell out completely and I tend to use my packraft in places with lots of bears. Fortunately, that method worked great. With most of the weight in the tubes, the rafts were pretty stable and the meat was just fine.


Headed back in for round 2


Ended up needing to skull cap the bull to get it to fit on the raft and still be able to make decent paddle strokes.

 

[N_8]

First Denali lama moose trip I've seen. Nice! I concur with those recommending simple fishing gear. Inlets and outlets on lakes. We were weathered out two days on trip this summer, and catching laker after laker sure passed the time.

 

[Kaitum]

No experience in the lakes, but I’d definitely bring fishing gear.

Second that. After watching fish just yards from your shoreline camp you'll regret not bringing a pack rod and a couple spinners.

 

[Arctic_Snow_Seeker]

Theat’s post is a great example that you can make an Alaskan moose hunt as expensive or as cheap as you want it to be. The easy way is just hire a transporter but it will cost you more $$$. More research will save you some dough.

 

[Irrelevant]

@theat I swore I wasn't interested in AK moose after I helped unload one from a small plane, but dang, those pics sure make me want to change my mind.

 

[Fsmith]

These are from last falls hunt.

View attachment 126265

I would at least bring one small packable fishing rod. It was nice to have something other than mountain house for every meal.
View attachment 126266

There were bear and wolf tracks on every beach. Only saw one bear, but heard wolves howling several times and even had one knock down the teepee and steal my buddies brand new sleeping bag while we were glassing the first day. Luckily, I found it about 100 yards behind camp and we were able to patch up the many holes and tears with the tyvek tape in our packraft repair kits.
View attachment 126267

This is the only bear we saw on the actual moose hunt. Not the greatest pics since they are screen shots from video, but couldn't not include them as this encounter was a big highlight of the trip. We had seen a cow and calf hanging around our first camp and on opening morning the cow was standing in the middle of the river acting very nervous and staring into the brush on the other side of the river from us. As we got closer we noticed that she had several wounds on her flanks, back, and hind legs. We initially thought that the wolves we had heard the night before might have killed her calf and wounded her in the process, but after awhile the calf ran out of the woods and crossed over to our side of the river. A few minutes later this griz came charging out of the brush and jumped in the river after the cow. We were only 30-40 yards from her and the bear was 60-70 from us. The cow started running our way so we made our presence known and after a bit the bear decided to retreat.
View attachment 126268

View attachment 126269

She stayed standing in the middle of the river for most of the day
View attachment 126270

View attachment 126271

The weather was almost too nice during the days, but it got below freezing every night. We were both glad to have a hot tent to warm up before bed and while drinking coffee in the morning.
View attachment 126272

Called this bull in from about a mile away. He never came right to us, but I turned him and his cow from heading up into the hills and got them down to the rivers edge for an easy packout
View attachment 126273

On the first trip out we put most of the meat down on the floor of the pacrrafts and it was a bit uncomfortable after awhile with my legs dangling over the sides, but we got it done. The meat and the water was very cold on the second trip out so we took the chance of putting the meat in game bags, double bagged in garbage bags, inside of the tubes of the rafts. I really didn't want to get any blood in there as it would be tough to get the smell out completely and I tend to use my packraft in places with lots of bears. Fortunately, that method worked great. With most of the weight in the tubes, the rafts were pretty stable and the meat was just fine.
View attachment 126274

Headed back in for round 2
View attachment 126275

Ended up needing to skull cap the bull to get it to fit on the raft and still be able to make decent paddle strokes.
View attachment 126276

That what dreams are made of right there! Thanks for sharing

 

[AvidIndoorsman]

Second that. After watching fish just yards from your shoreline camp you'll regret not bringing a pack road and a couple spinners.

Yeah big game trips can turn into fishing trips real quick...

 

[J_Poiencot]

Thanks to everyone for posting!! Maybe we can educate each other enough to maybe take this trip.

 

[geetar]

I doubt I’ll ever do this one mostly from the logistics standpoint of a guy coming all the way from N.C. but it sure looks awesome. Hoping to make it to Alaska one day for some type of hunting or fishing but idk if a DIY float trip for moose is a good way to break myself in

 

[1eyedshooter]

What great pictures thank you, I have a high school friend ( class of 64 ) that has lived there forever, I should look him up !!!

 

[Gellar]

I just booked for September 2021 DIY moose yesterday.

here’s my question: how many have brought fishing gear and had success in the Yukon delta in the lakes? Seems like a great way to pass some time. Had also wondered about waterfowl.

When we hunted the koyukuk the main River was flooded and super dirty but if you found clear water you’d catch a 30-35 inch pike every cast.

 

[J_Poiencot]

I doubt I’ll ever do this one mostly from the logistics standpoint of a guy coming all the way from N.C. but it sure looks awesome. Hoping to make it to Alaska one day for some type of hunting or fishing but idk if a DIY float trip for moose is a good way to break myself in

Man im in south east texas, so logistics for me are gonna be rough to figure out as well. But i plan on taking a stab at it. I think im going to do a DIY alaskan black bear first to figure it out. Then up it to moose.

 

[MITCHMO]

Man im in south east texas, so logistics for me are gonna be rough to figure out as well. But i plan on taking a stab at it. I think im going to do a DIY alaskan black bear first to figure it out. Then up it to moose.

Not sure if trophy and meat transport is part of your worry, but I can’t say enough good things about Alaska trophy express. Bring your meat, cape, and racks home. $850 plus freezer storage fee. It made that part of the logistics so easy. Just drop it off at a specific location, and pick it up when the semi is coming through your area. Without this, I probably would not have went to AK.

 

[geetar]

Not sure if trophy and meat transport is part of your worry, but I can’t say enough good things about Alaska trophy express. Bring your meat, cape, and racks home. $850 plus freezer storage fee. It made that part of the logistics so easy. Just drop it off at a specific location, and pick it up when the semi is coming through your area. Without this, I probably would not have went to AK.

Being able to take enough time away from work and family is probably more of the issue for me. My wife is awesome when it comes to letting me hunt but idk that I wouldn’t rather take her and my two kids to Alaska on a fishing trip that we’d all enjoy vs me just moose hunting but I think it’s awesome when those who do are successful.