B
boneaddict
Guest
Here are some pics of a heck of a moose out of Alaska. What a bruiser. I'll let Vek add his story.
D
dakotakid
Guest
Nice nice bull and beautiful country, congrats on the success and tell us the story please.
Mike
Mike
V
Vek
Guest
The scoop: I was in Anchorage for the summer working, through September. I knew I'd be there for the moose season, but had trouble bringing myself to fork over the dough for the bush plane / jet boat / atv rental. So there went my access options. Not much going on off the road system, and you don't want to backpack miles and miles in for moose anyway. So, I tried the canoe. There is a system of lakes and portage trails on the Kenai peninsula, and moose density is pretty high. We had been in there twice during the summer, and had seen moose, so we figured it to be worth a shot. I went in alone the weekend of the 10th of September and saw only one moose, right at dusk, right by camp. I figured out what NOT to do by my daytime trompings. I did see quite an aurora borealis show, too.
I told my wife about the borealis, and she decided to take her two personal days off of teaching school and come north for the final weekend war. Her words: ?I want to see the northern lights? and ?You?re not going to shoot anything anyway?. I figured I'd only be about 2/3 as effective as a hunter, being I had to make sure she was comfortable and such. But, though she doesn't hunt, my wife is a characteristically lucky/blessed/charmed person, so in my mind, it was a wash. Saturday morning, we made it from the first lake to camp on the 6th lake in five hours, and by 2:00 I had tent and cooking tarp up. This about 4 miles as the crow flies from the truck, about a mile of walking (portage).
After another short portage, we bushwhacked off the main trail to a puddle I'd spotted on terraserver. No landmarks, so GPS and compass. The previous week, the spot I'd tried was in scrubby Dr.Seuss-spruce that grew to close for horned moose to fit. This time, I chose the puddle surrounded by big birch forest ? I could tell the difference from the overhead photo. The walk into the puddle was ridiculous ? devil?s club, tag alder, and wild rose everywhere. Drizzling. Wife was stoked (not). But, (big but), there was moose sign EVERYWHERE; you'd smell it at times. Beds, rubs, little mud piss pits, poop, etc., and all of it fresh.
We got to the edge of the puddle clearing at about 5:00, and right away I saw a cow on the other side about 250 yards off. I snuck down to the edge of the trees for a better look, and my wife did the same off to my right. She spooked another cow, which ran by her about 30? away. This being the usual height of the rut, I did some cow-in-heat (watch your six) calling which I learned from a video called Love, Thunder, and Bull II. My wife teased me mercilessly about buying that. Anyway, I called at random intervals, and we kept out of sight and still on the lee side of the lake. We kept hearing various noises in the woods fringing the lake to our left ? lots of breaking branches, and I swore I heard a grunt or two.
At about 6:30, I stood to reload my pack and leave. Wife whispers ?Bull! Big Bull! Shoot him!?. I turn back toward the lake and there he is, swaggering out of the woods on the opposite side like he owns the place, looking for love. He wanders to the nearest alder tree to thrash a bit while I size him up for brow tines and spread ? minimum of 3 brow tines OR 50? spread. I knew there was lots of horn, and wife becomes more insistent: ?No, he's big enough, shoot him.? I thought I see a bunch of brow tines from his weird left horn, so I settle in and light off. He flinches, walks hunched a few feet, and I shoot again. Down.
Holy mother-of-pearl. We took pictures, I stopped shaking only after notching my tag and cutting my thumb (standard operating procedure) and started working. We had all quarters and bagged neck and backstraps hanging by 2:00 am and saddled up for our first load out. First shot high in the lungs, didn't exit, the next through the shoulder blades and lungs, didn't exit. 180 grain partitions out of a 300 winmag, loaded hot. Moose are thick. This one had a 375 caliber partition encased in scar tissue in its shoulder. Use enough gun! The walk out was miserable: penetrating the dense undergrowth while navigating in the cloudy moonlight by compass and gps. It was ridiculous. We made the first 1/8 mile in 50 minutes, it was that thick. Finally we broke out onto the nearest large lake and found the portage trail. Back in camp at 5:00 am, burgers eaten, and in bed by 6:30. 26.5 hour day.
Woke at noon, ate, and headed out. This time I portaged the canoe another 2/3 mile to the near lake. Flagged a path back from the near lake to the moose (much better now that we could see), hollered for the nonexistant bear to show himself, and finished boning the quarters. I brought 5 pillowcases and 4 larger game bags (80-pounders or so), plus a tarp. I had to pack one hindquarter out in the tarp. Those things are enormous. My meat bags and tarp made a rolled pack about the size of a sleeping bag. I strapped the horns on my pack vertically ? suddenly I'm 9 feet tall and hanging up on everything. No way I would have made it out with them sideways. Anyway, we got two loads each back to camp that day. Ate at dusk, and slept until 7:00 am. Woke for the last trip (when placid morning canoe pic was taken). Got to the moose, yelled again for the bear that never came (WE WERE LUCKY), realized we could make it in just one more HEAVY load, loaded up, and got the hell out. Back to camp with last of the meat by noon Monday.
We ate, loaded up, and started ferrying (at ~2:00 pm Monday) our meat and camp to the next portage in two trips. We finished the last big (1/2mile+) portage at midnight under a decent moon. This time, instead of ferrying, I tried loading everything. The canoe held it, so we made just one trip across this lake. Beached at 1:00 am Tuesday, and my wife packed it in after working like a sherpa. I carried all but one load of stuff up the 1/8 mile uphill insult/injury of a trail to the truck. All tolled, my wife figures we walked 25-30 miles, half of that loaded heavy (80-120 lbs for me, 50-75 lbs for her). About 1/3 of that in hip boots, through part nasty brush and part mossy wet mushy muskeg. 9-lb rifle made most of the trips (nothing like being a walking bait station in brown bear country). 4 trips each from the carcass to camp, and each portage was 5 trips each.
Tied the canoe down at 2:00 am, and made it back to Anchorage at 7:00 am Tuesday the 20th after a brief nap and a flat tire fix. Drove home to WA starting the 30th, with generator, small freezer, and huge cooler full of wrapped meat.
My cost: $485 for license/tag, and maybe $50 for extra game bags and a new saw (which I broke while sawing the horns off ? ended up standing on its nose and reefing hard enough to break the rest of the skullcap off).
If you're gonna go cheap, get in shape! My wife and I both lost 10 pounds. The Jerry Craig diet. Yes, she is still speaking to me. But notice that I am not currently mule deer hunting here in WA. She found some other things for me to do. That's fine ? I'd still be there packing moose if she hadn't been there.
Oh, you probably want stats. I can't quite squeeze 70? of spread. 69.5?. Only 2 browtines on each side ? the other points I saw weren't browtines. No matter, 19.5? margin on the minimum spread! Somewhere north of 500 lbs of boneless meat.
-Jerry
I told my wife about the borealis, and she decided to take her two personal days off of teaching school and come north for the final weekend war. Her words: ?I want to see the northern lights? and ?You?re not going to shoot anything anyway?. I figured I'd only be about 2/3 as effective as a hunter, being I had to make sure she was comfortable and such. But, though she doesn't hunt, my wife is a characteristically lucky/blessed/charmed person, so in my mind, it was a wash. Saturday morning, we made it from the first lake to camp on the 6th lake in five hours, and by 2:00 I had tent and cooking tarp up. This about 4 miles as the crow flies from the truck, about a mile of walking (portage).
After another short portage, we bushwhacked off the main trail to a puddle I'd spotted on terraserver. No landmarks, so GPS and compass. The previous week, the spot I'd tried was in scrubby Dr.Seuss-spruce that grew to close for horned moose to fit. This time, I chose the puddle surrounded by big birch forest ? I could tell the difference from the overhead photo. The walk into the puddle was ridiculous ? devil?s club, tag alder, and wild rose everywhere. Drizzling. Wife was stoked (not). But, (big but), there was moose sign EVERYWHERE; you'd smell it at times. Beds, rubs, little mud piss pits, poop, etc., and all of it fresh.
We got to the edge of the puddle clearing at about 5:00, and right away I saw a cow on the other side about 250 yards off. I snuck down to the edge of the trees for a better look, and my wife did the same off to my right. She spooked another cow, which ran by her about 30? away. This being the usual height of the rut, I did some cow-in-heat (watch your six) calling which I learned from a video called Love, Thunder, and Bull II. My wife teased me mercilessly about buying that. Anyway, I called at random intervals, and we kept out of sight and still on the lee side of the lake. We kept hearing various noises in the woods fringing the lake to our left ? lots of breaking branches, and I swore I heard a grunt or two.
At about 6:30, I stood to reload my pack and leave. Wife whispers ?Bull! Big Bull! Shoot him!?. I turn back toward the lake and there he is, swaggering out of the woods on the opposite side like he owns the place, looking for love. He wanders to the nearest alder tree to thrash a bit while I size him up for brow tines and spread ? minimum of 3 brow tines OR 50? spread. I knew there was lots of horn, and wife becomes more insistent: ?No, he's big enough, shoot him.? I thought I see a bunch of brow tines from his weird left horn, so I settle in and light off. He flinches, walks hunched a few feet, and I shoot again. Down.
Holy mother-of-pearl. We took pictures, I stopped shaking only after notching my tag and cutting my thumb (standard operating procedure) and started working. We had all quarters and bagged neck and backstraps hanging by 2:00 am and saddled up for our first load out. First shot high in the lungs, didn't exit, the next through the shoulder blades and lungs, didn't exit. 180 grain partitions out of a 300 winmag, loaded hot. Moose are thick. This one had a 375 caliber partition encased in scar tissue in its shoulder. Use enough gun! The walk out was miserable: penetrating the dense undergrowth while navigating in the cloudy moonlight by compass and gps. It was ridiculous. We made the first 1/8 mile in 50 minutes, it was that thick. Finally we broke out onto the nearest large lake and found the portage trail. Back in camp at 5:00 am, burgers eaten, and in bed by 6:30. 26.5 hour day.
Woke at noon, ate, and headed out. This time I portaged the canoe another 2/3 mile to the near lake. Flagged a path back from the near lake to the moose (much better now that we could see), hollered for the nonexistant bear to show himself, and finished boning the quarters. I brought 5 pillowcases and 4 larger game bags (80-pounders or so), plus a tarp. I had to pack one hindquarter out in the tarp. Those things are enormous. My meat bags and tarp made a rolled pack about the size of a sleeping bag. I strapped the horns on my pack vertically ? suddenly I'm 9 feet tall and hanging up on everything. No way I would have made it out with them sideways. Anyway, we got two loads each back to camp that day. Ate at dusk, and slept until 7:00 am. Woke for the last trip (when placid morning canoe pic was taken). Got to the moose, yelled again for the bear that never came (WE WERE LUCKY), realized we could make it in just one more HEAVY load, loaded up, and got the hell out. Back to camp with last of the meat by noon Monday.
We ate, loaded up, and started ferrying (at ~2:00 pm Monday) our meat and camp to the next portage in two trips. We finished the last big (1/2mile+) portage at midnight under a decent moon. This time, instead of ferrying, I tried loading everything. The canoe held it, so we made just one trip across this lake. Beached at 1:00 am Tuesday, and my wife packed it in after working like a sherpa. I carried all but one load of stuff up the 1/8 mile uphill insult/injury of a trail to the truck. All tolled, my wife figures we walked 25-30 miles, half of that loaded heavy (80-120 lbs for me, 50-75 lbs for her). About 1/3 of that in hip boots, through part nasty brush and part mossy wet mushy muskeg. 9-lb rifle made most of the trips (nothing like being a walking bait station in brown bear country). 4 trips each from the carcass to camp, and each portage was 5 trips each.
Tied the canoe down at 2:00 am, and made it back to Anchorage at 7:00 am Tuesday the 20th after a brief nap and a flat tire fix. Drove home to WA starting the 30th, with generator, small freezer, and huge cooler full of wrapped meat.
My cost: $485 for license/tag, and maybe $50 for extra game bags and a new saw (which I broke while sawing the horns off ? ended up standing on its nose and reefing hard enough to break the rest of the skullcap off).
If you're gonna go cheap, get in shape! My wife and I both lost 10 pounds. The Jerry Craig diet. Yes, she is still speaking to me. But notice that I am not currently mule deer hunting here in WA. She found some other things for me to do. That's fine ? I'd still be there packing moose if she hadn't been there.
Oh, you probably want stats. I can't quite squeeze 70? of spread. 69.5?. Only 2 browtines on each side ? the other points I saw weren't browtines. No matter, 19.5? margin on the minimum spread! Somewhere north of 500 lbs of boneless meat.
-Jerry
S
Saskman
Guest
Awesome bull and awesome photos. I have to get up there to get a moose one day.
Saskman
Saskman
B
boneaddict
Guest
Nice........I think I used words like "You Bastard!"
or something like that anyway. He doesn't know it yet, but he's taking me moose hunting next year. I may not be as good looking as his wife, but I can carry more meat, and can grunt with the best of them!!!!!!!!!!!
Congrats on one heck of a bull.
Good luck finding a spot in the house for it. Its easier if you shoot smaller ones you know.
or something like that anyway. He doesn't know it yet, but he's taking me moose hunting next year. I may not be as good looking as his wife, but I can carry more meat, and can grunt with the best of them!!!!!!!!!!!
Congrats on one heck of a bull.
Good luck finding a spot in the house for it. Its easier if you shoot smaller ones you know.
ColoradoBob
Active Member
- Messages
- 467
Conglads !! He's a dandy bull & a DIY hunt done the right way-----memories to last a lifetime !! A tip of the hat to you !! CB
ridgerunner
Very Active Member
- Messages
- 1,965
Sweet bull, love how its a little bit non-typical. Glad to hear your wife was such a sport to pack all that meat.
E
Elwood
Guest
A-W-E-S-O-M-E
Pictures and story, I loved the photos and then read the story and loved it ever more! You lucky dog.
Elwood
Pictures and story, I loved the photos and then read the story and loved it ever more! You lucky dog.
Elwood
fatrooster
Long Time Member
- Messages
- 4,192
Wow, what a story. And after all of the pain and misery of packing it out would you do it all over again? I bet you would!!!! It even makes it more impressive knowing that it was DIY and you and your wife did it together. Awesome! fatrooster.
H
Hornseeker
Guest
Sweet! Congrats!
A
asdf
Guest
Great hunt and great memories. Print that story, laminate it and place it behind the mount on your wall!
Congrats.
Congrats.
D
DonV
Guest
Awesome bull and great story - thanks, man that is a LOT of work. Makes packing an elk seem like a picnic.
FYI for future hunts, download USAphotomaps from JDMCOX software (easy to find) it is FREE and aweomse. It downloads pics and topos from terraserver into a program, it is then easy to switch from topo to aerial photo, and you can save GPS points (like the ponds you found) and download them into your GPS. I cannot say enough about this free program, easy to use, takes up little memory, works great etc. Priceless, I use it a ton to prepare for my elk hunts and it really helps.
You did your homework, not many guys who study maps/photos like that, it paid off!
Great job and be sure to check out USAphotomaps
FYI for future hunts, download USAphotomaps from JDMCOX software (easy to find) it is FREE and aweomse. It downloads pics and topos from terraserver into a program, it is then easy to switch from topo to aerial photo, and you can save GPS points (like the ponds you found) and download them into your GPS. I cannot say enough about this free program, easy to use, takes up little memory, works great etc. Priceless, I use it a ton to prepare for my elk hunts and it really helps.
You did your homework, not many guys who study maps/photos like that, it paid off!
Great job and be sure to check out USAphotomaps
D
DeerKing
Guest
Nice photos, bull and story. Congrats!
F
Flatlandr
Guest
congrats on an awesome hunt and beautiful animal.
Mark
Mark
P
Prism
Guest
Now that's a cool story. I imagine you'll be telling that one for decades to come!
T
TrohChse
Guest
Thats a wide one, nice photos!
S
studpile
Guest
Awesome story...awesome pics.
