Thanks to all but Jose Cuervo. I always get a kick out of how welcoming guys like Jose C are to new members. The "keyboard superstars" who have to tend to giving economics lessons (Ive read your other rants in the past) and thread beatdowns, that are too busy to actually get out and hunt. I hunted w Dean Sandulak/Trophy Stone Outfitters. Excellent guy and outfit. Ive already re-booked next fall for a Grizzly, Caribou, Moose hunt. Prob wont shoot another moose unless he's BnC.
The whole story is this....I left home at 330 am on a Wed out of Chicago. Flew into Whitehorse where Dean's wife picked me up at 11pm. I stayed in a hotel (slept about 15 minutes uninterrupted) that night and flew into the bush (the next morning) about 350 miles NE, just south of Rogue River (Jim Shockey) and MacMillan River Adv (Don Lund). I got to camp and fished that afternoon (couldnt hunt bc of the flight in). The fishing was incredible for 3 days. That pm we got out and scouted and called from the boat. No moose sign at all on the lake we were on. I spotted a BnC caribou on Day 3 close to Glenlyon Peak. I guessed it was 3000 ft up and 2-3 mile hike up the mtn. My guide was a very experienced bushman/trapper/hunter, but he was 70 years old on the day I flew in, overweight and had a bad leg. Good guy, knowledgeable and fun to hear his old stories, but not mobile. Wolves howled every night. Saw the same caribou every night at 6-630 skyline on the same peak. I finally asked him on day 7 if I could go harvest the caribou. He said no. I said I understood but wasnt happy with it. I understood it meant a long, steep hike solo and a night on the mtn by myself w no tent. A field dressing job and packing a huge bull caribou out by myself. He said he couldnt risk having something go wrong. Day 9 was almost over and we were in the boat headed bk to camp, when he said, "Big bull moose". I was up front, pissed off, bored and half asleep when I spotted him. We rolled in and started calling him. My primary weapon was the bow but we couldnt get up on him so I give him 2 shots w a 300 Jarrett. One would have been enough though. We shot him rt before sundown so we opened him up and field dressed him to come back in the morning for him. It wasnt a long distance pack job but I carried every piece of that moose on a pack board myself. The fishing shut off on day 3 but before that it was insane. I caught a couple over 40" northern pike and a bunch of decent lake trout. Physically, this hunt was less demanding than what I enjoy. Mentally it was brutal because we hadnt seen moose or even moose sign at all. Still a great experience that I would love to try on my own in Alaska. I would highly recommend Trophy Stone Outfitters and am considering a Stone sheep hunt w them in 2014.
