USA: Of Moose & Men, Alaska September 2022

[buck wild]

I somehow missed this. Congrats !

 

[LivingTheDream]

I missed it too!!! Congratulations!! Super jealous and glad you were able to get a great bull!!!

 

[krish]

Congratulations. You had real good hunting experience. It will stay in your memory for a long time. Yes it was a hard hunt and well earned quarry.
Krish

 

[Nyati]

Great moose congrats !

Cold and wet, no, not for me anymore

 

[cagkt3]

Congrats!!

 

[Mtn_Infantry]

Congratulations. Alaska Moose is a bucket list hunt for me. I've always been told to plan for several days of delays when hunting in Alaska, and to purchase a flexible open ended return ticket.

Regards,

 

[375 Ruger Fan]

Congratulations. Alaska Moose is a bucket list hunt for me. I've always been told to plan for several days of delays when hunting in Alaska, and to purchase a flexible open ended return ticket.

Regards,

On the back end of the trip, I got to my hotel in Fairbanks pretty late, 10-11pm. Took a hot shower and went to bed. Spent the next day cleaning and drying a lot of my gear. Spent a second night and then had a early check out and a 6am flight to Seattle. While having breakfast at the hotel the first morning, I met a couple of guys from Washington state that were up for a caribou hunt, north of Fairbanks. They had been waiting at the hotel for 3 days, due to delays on getting flown into their hunting camp. Yes, need to plan for delays on both end of the hunt.

 

[375 Ruger Fan]

Received word from the outfitter today that my moose cape and antlers will be dropped off at an expediter in Anchorage next week. From there, I will have them shipped to a taxidermist, down south.

The outfitter also sent me a couple more photos, taken with a proper camera and a better pose. Makes the moose look better, but the hunter is beyond help.

You'll note that there are 3 brow tines on each side. To be a legal bull, there needs to be 4 brow tines on at least one side OR a minimum spread of 50 inches. It's amazing to me and one of the important ways a good guide earns his pay, judging from a distance on whether the spread is enough. As we approached the downed bull, I was sort of holding my breath and saying a silent prayer that it was indeed a legal bull. We quickly measured it and seeing 55 inches on tape allowed me to breathe a sigh of relief.

 

[gillettehunter]

Beautiful bull. Glad you got him!
Bruce

 

[IdaRam]

Congrats and good shooting! A very nice bull, well done.

 

[WyoBull]

Great write up and trophy bull! Congratulations!

 

[jacques smith]

Sorry I’m late to the write up but glad to have found it—- brings back tons of memories and pushes me to go again. Truly a nice bull and report— thanks—- jacques

 

[Nomadx2]

Congrats, great bull, hunt, & story!

 

[375 Ruger Fan]

Update: I am beginning to think getting antlers and cape from Alaska is almost as complex as getting stuff out of Africa. The outfitter emailed me on Oct 19, almost 1 month after my hunt, and said he hoped to drop the antlers and cape off at D&C Expediters (https://www.dandcexpediters.com/ ) in Anchorage on Oct 24th. I phoned D&C Expediter on Oct 26 to see if they received the antlers and cape and said they had not. I sent a text to the outfitter, no reply. On Nov 7th, received a text from the outfitter that he was dropping the stuff off in Anchorage, but no explanation on the 2 week delay.

On November 15th, I received an invoice from D&C Expediters with various charges for cleaning, handling, crating and shipping from Alaska to their Butte, MT location. They explained that they load a container and it ships from Anchorage to Seattle, then is trucked to Montana. They unload the container and then ship the individual crates to the final destination. I notice on the invoice a comment that the cape was no good, slipping.

I decided to phone up D&C and was very impressed with Shean Hardesty. Shean explained that the hair was falling out of the cape and was no good. He had 4-5 "replacement capes" in the freezer, just to cover this type of problem. The replacement capes were about $500. I told Shean to pack one with my antlers when they shipped. I told him that I was going to ask the outfitter to cover the cost, since I thought he was responsible. If the outfitter wouldn't pay, then I would because I want to shoulder mount the moose. D&C shipped everything right after Thanksgiving. I sent a text to the outfitter and he contacted D&C and covered the replacement.

Sometime between now and the end of the year, I hope to hear from D&C's Butte office with the plan and cost to ship the antlers and replacement cape to my taxidermist.

 

[Rare Breed]

Tuesday, Sept 20: This is my 36th wedding anniversary date, so I thought it would be really special to get my moose today. Makes it easier to remember the date. We decided to hike downstream of the camp. We had to cross Buzzard Creek a couple of times, stepping from rock to rock and hoping to not take the plunge. Most of the walking was on a game trail and the native grass varied from waist high to nearly shoulder height. Capstick never wrote about bull moose in the tall grass, did he?

After an hour or so of hiking, we bumped into a cow. Brent was doing his bull imitation, using a large white leather glove on his left hand as an antler and calling with his other hand. I was close behind him, basically the back half of a moose decoy. I ranged the cow at 200 yards and she was looking straight at us. Then a calf stood up and they both looked at us and turned and walked into the brush.

We waited a few minutes and then pressed forward, slowly and quietly. Brent told me to chamber a round, so I dropped a 225 grain Swift A Frame into the chamber of my 338 WM. With 3 rounds in the mag, I had 4 rounds available.

After walking about 15-20 minutes, Brent spotted a bull, along with a cow and calf. He indicated it was a legal bull and I needed to shoot quickly. It looked like about 200 yards and I guess the shot was going to be off hand. I drew up my rifle and didn't even take time to crank up my 2.5-8 power scope. The bull was walking away from us, so Brent made a call and the bull turned and took a few steps toward us. Standing still and quartering towards me, I set the crosshairs on the front of the right shoulder and fired. A second or two after shooting, the echo was heard and I think confused the bull. There wasn't much reaction to the first shot, but the bull was now standing broadside. A second shot, echo and not much reaction again. A third shot, echo and the bull flopped to the ground this time. We waited awhile and I ranged it at 226 yards.

We slowly eased down to the bull and it was down for the count, laying on it's side and nose sticking straight up in the air. Interestingly, there were 3 bullet holes: one in the front of the right shoulder, which was my first shot, another in the right shoulder up high and the last one in the spine near the hind quarters. I consider myself an average shooter and don't typically shoot offhand at animals. Thankfully, a large target at a reasonable distance worked in my favor.

The first thing I noticed was 3 brow tines on each side and I worried a bit about the 50 inch required spread. Bruce quickly produced a tape measure and the spread was 55 inches. After a bunch of photos, the worked of skinning and cutting the big critter up began and took us a good 3 hours or so. We left Bruce to finish the last bit of work and Brent, Pete and I went back to camp to get the horses. It took 3 pack horse to haul everything. Quite a haul.

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Great bull!!! Congratulations! Off hand at 226 incredible shooting!!!

 

[375 Ruger Fan]

Great bull!!! Congratulations! Off hand at 226 incredible shooting!!!

A really large target helped.

 

[fourfive8]

Oh yah! No question about that bull being legal. Congrats. Good report and thanks for sharing. It is not Africa and “we’re not in Kansas anymore” …thoughts that come to mind.

 

[Bob Nelson 35Whelen]

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.

@375 Ruger Fan
I can hear the Johnny Horton music now. North to Alaska go north the rush is on, when it's spring time in the Rockies and other great music. Glad you ended up having a,great hunt. Hunting on your wedding anniversary is true big game hunting. You have to be big game to miss an anniversary.
Bob

 

[WAB]

@375 Ruger Fan
I can hear the Johnny Horton music now. North to Alaska go north the rush is on, when it's spring time in the Rockies and other great music. Glad you ended up having a,great hunt. Hunting on your wedding anniversary is true big game hunting. You have to be big game to miss an anniversary.
Bob

We enjoyed our years in Fairbanks. It’s a very special place. I used to joke that we had moved to the banana belt when we moved from Fairbanks to Kenai!

The Pumphouse was our hangout after UAF hockey games. Lots of great memories!

 

[Rare Breed]

Monday (Sept 12) evening, the outfitter's daughter drove me the 100 miles from Fairbanks to Healy. We also had a starter for the truck that had broke down near the trailhead and caused the delays. The outfitter's nephew met us in Healy and he was going to take the starter to Brent and the broken down truck. They got me a hotel room in Healy at the Totem Inn. It was a nice, clean and quite place and had a restaurant and bar. Also a decent breakfast.

On Tuesday, I went to the outfitters house and met Brent and also shot my rifle. I was then transported to the trailhead, about a 1.5 hour journey via a nice Polaris Razor UTV. We crossed a stream several times, which made for an interesting ride. At the trailhead, which was located on the divide between the motorized and non-motorized area, I met assistant guide Bruce and Wrangler Pete. There was also seven horses and a tent. The plan was to spend one night there and Brent would meet us the next morning and we would do the four hour ride to moose camp. However, we ended up delayed another day, so spent two nights in the tent at the trailhead. It was raining the entire time and a miserable start to this hunt. I was pretty frustrated at all the delays, because I knew my departure date couldn't be pushed back. I was losing hunting days and wasn't too happy about it.

Thursday, Sept 15, we finally loaded the three pack horses and the four of us rode to the cabins at moose camp. We spotted a few moose as we rode, so that was encouraging. The scenery was stunning!

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With the moose camp and all the area we would be hunting being in the non-motorized area, I wondered why there was a worn over two track road that we were riding on. It turns out the non-motorized restriction was just during hunting season. So the outfitter can use motorized vehicles in August to stock the camp with propane, horse feed, etc. Also, in October haul out moose and anything else.

Arriving at camp, I was impressed with the setup.

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Exterior of 4 man bunkhouse.

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Interior of bunkhouse. The thick memory foam mattress made for a comfortable bed. The wood burning stove was great for drying out clothes.

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Buzzard Creek. When you hunt with horses, you need a good water source. The water had a fair amount of sediment in it, so the Sawyer water filter system I used came in handy.

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Main cabin with kitchen and outfitters bunk.

You endure through anything to succeed which is a true compliment to you! Congratulations on your great bull!!! However, I would not want to hunt with this outfitter…I know what a moose hunt costs…to me this is not it…lost days, you are too kind to say poor food. As always thanks for posting. I will always remember you are the one who recommended my first safari to Africa…I will always be grateful to you for that!!!