USA: Of Moose & Men, Alaska September 2022

[R eight]

Fairbanks was good. I stayed at a downtown hotel upon my arrival and walked around the tourist area and riverfront. My last night, after the hunt, I stayed at a hotel near the airport. I went to the Pump House for dinner and it was quite good and doing a booming business. The Fairbanks airport was nice and easy to check in, etc.

Like you I also arrive early and leave late for my hunts. Usually 3 days each side of the hunt is reserved for playing tourist and getting over jet lag. So….I’ve spent around about 10 days, all up, in Fairbanks. Not too bad a town and the locals are bloody friendly

 

[375 Ruger Fan]

I recovered one of the 225 grain Swift A-Frames from just under the hide of the left shoulder. When I get a chance, I will weigh it.

 

[cpr0312]

Congrats and thanks for sharing!

 

[kdenn]

Congratulations. Thank you for sharing the good and the bad.

 

[VertigoBE]

Waidmannsheil @375 Ruger Fan ! Very well done in persevering despite the set backs and long days in cold and wet environment. Very well done on a great bull moose! I hope you got to take a lot of the meat with you home

 

[NE 7x57]

Congratulations on a successful hunt.

 

[Woodcarver]

Congratulations on a successful hunt, despite the delays! Hoping to find the Shiras version without the headgear in a week; and with a little more pleasant weather.

 

[jacques smith]

I go west and north out of Fairbanks to Galena then north up the Dolby for moose every several years. I’m with you on wet and cold but still think I’ve got a couple left in me
My brother is a resident and has a cabin outside of salsa so I get around the guide requirement but still pay like a slot machine for non resident tag. Nice bull and congrats. Jacques

 

[gillettehunter]

Nice bull! Sounds like you had to work for him. Also preserve through the extra difficulties. Enjoyed your report. Congrats
Bruce

 

[Uncle Sauce]

Congrats on a great bull!

 

[Mekaniks]

Awesome hunt, great bull. Congratulations!!

 

[Frederik]

Thanks for sharing and congrats on the bull and excellent shooting.

 

[375 Ruger Fan]

Finally got around to weighing the recovered 225 gr Swift A Frame.

221.2 / 225 = 98.3% weight retention. Just like advertised.

 

[375 Ruger Fan]

I blew out my flip flop, stepped on a pop top and had to cruise on back home.

My go-to insulated hunting boots for many years has been a pair of Cabela's Whitetail Hunters, made by Danner. On day 4, I was walking back to camp and after going through a muddy, boggy area, it literally sounded like I was wearing a flip flop. Luckily, I was only a 100 yards from camp and I brought my Kenetrek Hard Scrabble boots (Non-insulated) as my back up boots. The Kenetreks proved to be my lucky boots on day 5, so I think my old Cabela boots are going to be replaced with a pair of Kenetrek Mountain Extreme 400s.

 

[375 Ruger Fan]

Not the greatest video, but saw this young caribou one day and pulled out the iPhone

 

[375 Ruger Fan]

Some closing comments and observations on this hunt.

Alaska is a tough place to live and a tougher place to hunt. Alaskan outfitters have a tough job, with difficult logistics, high costs and ever changing weather. Factor in a few years of COVID related issues and you can see that nothing comes easy in Alaska.

When I decided to contact Brent Keith of Castle Rock Outfitters, he worked with me on how this hunt came about in 2022. You see, I had a moose tag application in for Wyoming, but knew I only had about 20-25% chance of drawing. However, I needed to wait for the Wyoming draw in early May before committing to an Alaska hunt. Brent allowed me to put a deposit down for 2022, subject to the draw results in Wyoming. If I did draw, then my Alaska hunt would be 2024 (2023 is booked). The first week of May, Wyoming informed me I was again unsuccessful, so Alaska here I come.

I found several Youtube videos on Castle Rock hunts and this is one of the better ones:

Reviewing the outfitter's performance, it's hard to be too critical when you successfully harvest a nice trophy animal. However, there's always room for improvement so I will leave some constructive feedback.

What was really good?

The actual hunting and hunting area was fantastic. Very remote and very exclusive. Didn't see or hear any other hunters. The horses were excellent too. Brent is an excellent hunting guide, as was Bruce, the assistant guide. Pete, the wrangler, was outstanding with the horses and a big help with many other chores.

What was not so good?

Pre and post hunt communication. During the delays immediately before the hunt, communication was poor and very frustrating. Transportation issues between Fairbanks and Healy. Food in camp, both quality and quantity was so-so. I've been home for 3 weeks now and have not heard a word on getting my moose cape and antlers to the expediter and shipped to my taxidermist.

 

[Fixfire]

With a tough hunt and so-so food, did you have any discernible weight loss?? I once lost 10% on a tough Elk hunt. What became of the meat??

 

[375 Ruger Fan]

With a tough hunt and so-so food, did you have any discernible weight loss?? I once lost 10% on a tough Elk hunt. What became of the meat??

I lost a few pounds, but nothing major. Lots of granola bars, protein bars, candy bars served as snacks. I also brought a big bag of jerky and some peanut butter crackers.

Regarding the so-so meals, breakfast wasn't bad. Scrambled eggs and sausage most mornings. After a few days, the sausage was gone and we then had hash browns with our eggs. No bacon in hunting camp just didn't seem right.

Dinners were pretty skimpy, not really well planned meals but simply something to eat. One night was baked beans with Vienna Sausages sliced up and mixed in. That's it, nothing else. Another night, refried beans and flour tortillas. The day I shot the moose, we celebrated with mac & cheese and lots of it! Another night, we all ate a Mountain House dinner and it was pretty good. If we were hunting from a spike camp, in a tent, I could understand this type of menu. But we had cabins, full size kitchen oven with a 4 burner cook top, plus a wood burning stove.

Lunch for the first 2-3 days was sandwich meat, cheese and bread. When that was all gone, lunch became almost non-existent. The days we stayed gone all day, we took a can of Spam and some flour tortillas, along with lots of snack bars.

Regarding all the moose meat, the short answer is I left it all to the outfitter. If I wanted to fly out most of the meat, it was a $600 plane flight. If I wanted to take a little of it, say 40-45 lbs, we could have packed it out my last day. But then I would need to get it frozen in order to take it on the airlines. The logistics of getting meat home were not easy or cheap. I knew none of the meat was going to waste and also knew that the outfitter fed his family throughout the year with moose, so he was grateful I left it with him.

 

[Fixfire]

I left 1/2 of Elk with an outfitter and he too was much appreciative. Most guides I’ve known are busy guiding, thus unable to hunt/provide for their own use.

Great and entertaining report. I’m the same age of you and though in good shape, the strenuous hunts may be a thing of my past, unfortunately. Maybe more upland hunting.

 

[tarbe]

Nice report Dave. You earned that bull for sure!

I spent the last couple days scouting in northern WI for a Nov whitetail hunt. Foot travel only area, about as “remote” as you can get in a populated place. Snowing this morning. Windy and drizzling yesterday.

it really does make a guy wonder when the shine will wear off!

Moose in AK has always been on my bucket list. I suspect I will leave this rock and it will still be waiting to get scratched off! A man has to leave some things left undone, to dream about?

Glad you were able to get a nice bull. 3 hits out of 3 under those conditions- you did fine!

Tim