Lessons Learned Moose Hunt

[Tim in Wa.]

Unless you're going to be blasting rounds in camp, 20 cartridges should be more than plenty. I only bow hunt and I take 8 broadhead arrows for a 2 week hunt. I'd have no problem going in with 10 cartridges personally. Limit yourself to 100% sure shots and make it count.

I made myself a 6'x8' tarp from silnylon and it's sufficient for laying out moose quarters which is really the only use I have for it when butchering. It folds very small and is lightweight; makes a good emergency cover for gear or whatever.

Thing I can't live without in the backcountry: Pocketknife. I'm serious...you'll always find a Case 2-blade folder in my pocket. 2-1/2" main blade and I use it for everything, every day.

Another item seldom mentioned is a sitting pad. I take a Therm-A-Rest Z-Seat as it weighs maybe 2 oz and folds nicely. Keeps my butt dry when sitting and glassing, while protecting my pants from damage by rocks, etc.

Pillow: Say what you want, but I'm not going anywhere for 2 weeks without a real pillow. I've done the make-do thing (stuff sack with clothing) and...uh-uh....not anymore. My head deserves 8 hours of comfort every night. I like the Therm-A-Rest Compressible Pillow in a large size.

2 oz bottle of Dr Bronner Peppermint Castille Soap. Works on everything you've got.

1 oz bottle of 100% DEET....just in case.

1 oz of your favorite steak rub in a plastic baggie.

Black Rock Gear down beanie. Weighs about 2 oz or less and is superbly warm.

Cutco #5718 Drop Point with Double-D edge. Best moose butchering blade I've ever used or seen used. You can't imagine how much effort an extremely sharp serrated edge saves you on a moose-sized job.

Where did you find a cutco with the plastic sheath? All I see is leather on their website

 

[Trial153]

Last moose hunt I used a Dozier Pro guide for all the breaking. No issues keeping it sharp through two moose on that hunt. It the only knife I carry for the hunt, does everything I need.

 

[VernAK]

Dozier indeed makes some great knives. I have a Slim Outdoorsman that I replaced
the scales with Dall Sheep horn.......Dozier's tempering method definitely makes
the D2 steel better than other knives without his tempering. Nice knives!

 

[Trial153]

One lesson I learned is to carry a separate ground cloth for breaking the moose ( or elk ) vs doubling up on my extra tarp. I seem to always find a need to leave my tarp set at camp and I also like my keep a clean camp and bloody tarp is something to avoid.
My solution has been to take a set pull over disposable long scrub. I cut it at the side seams and I give plenty of room to lay meat out. It fits in a small zip lock bag and weights next to nothing.

 

[Kevin Dill]

Where did you find a cutco with the plastic sheath? All I see is leather on their website

I found a custom sheath maker. It's a Kydex sheath and way better than leather for wet environments.

 

[Robinhood21]

You can easily find kydex online. It’s a pretty easy material to work with. You could probably make your own


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[geriggs]

Anti fungal creme.....brought my hunt to almost a standstill. luckily i was able to shoot a decent bull in camp. But i was not as much help to the other guys because I was hurting so much. The one thing none of us had. It was bad.

 

[RedRidge]

Thanks Geriggs I will add that to my med kit.

 

[geriggs]

no prob, good luck.

Thanks Geriggs I will add that to my med kit.

 

[mobilefamily]

Consider one of those orange and silver emergency survival blankets to replace a tarp for butchering. That's what I used on my fall 2017 trip. It was a smaller, lighter package and worked very well. I used one as a ground cloth under my pad in the floorless shelter too.

 

[Brian in AK]

A couple of other other suggestions,

A good water filter and a spare filter cartridge. I have used the MSR but have switched to the Katadyn hand pump style. The round ceramic disk is easier to clean. My hunting partners have started using the Katadyn gravity bag system and seems to work very good. Depending on the water quality your drawing from, you may be cleaning your filter a lot. A good pre-filter is recommended. I bring a 5 gallon bucket to fill with creek water, let the heavies settle out and than pump your clean water, makes it nice because you can bring it back to camp and pump water while your sitting by the camp fire.

Boots, I always hunt in 18" rubber boots and my feet like them, some people hate them. Be aware that your feet are going to get wet no mater what you bring. If you bring leather boots they may be frozen in the morning any you won't be able to get them on. Sleep with them in the tent and covered to try to keep them thawed. I also bring a light weight shoe for around camp, prefer running shoes so the feet get a chance to breath and dry out good.

Depending on your location, a bug head net can save your sanity...

 

[diamond10x]

What do you veteran moose guys think about tyvek as a tarp to layout meat on and others for around camp? It’s lighter and stronger than those normal blue tarps? What are the brand and model tarps y’all use or recommend?

 

[mcseal2]

I'm a rookie moose hunter so take my reply for what it's worth.

I think Tyvek makes a good ground sheet but I haven't used it as an overhead tarp for anything.

I have had good luck with Seek Outside products. We are taking an 8 man tipi plus their Colorado and DST tarps. I plan to carry the DST in my daypack. We have sat under it set up in a flying diamond configuration in a couple lawn chairs while catfishing during rain. Part of our package from the transporter is a couple of the Camp-time roll a chairs so if we find the right situation we might be able to call from under it during a rain. The Colorado we will probably set up at camp if we can find trees to do so to initially and hopefully put it over a meat cache later in the trip. Kifaru makes some great tarps too, I've spent a bunch of nights in a Megatarp on different types of trips. Since we are taking the tipi we won't put a tarp fly over the tent like I would with a lower profile tent. We may not end up having the trees to use the tarps like I'm thinking this trip either, won't know until we see where they put us.

To put quarters on I plan to use the Adventure Medical emergency blanket I keep in my pack. It's a bigger sized one at 5ft x 8ft. My buddy has one too. I don't mind throwing that away and replacing it after the trip if I get it bloody and torn. I'd rather ruin it than a good sil nylon tarp.

 

[AKBorn]

What do you veteran moose guys think about tyvek as a tarp to layout meat on and others for around camp? It’s lighter and stronger than those normal blue tarps? What are the brand and model tarps y’all use or recommend?

I bring a 9'x9' Tyvek sheet for each man in camp, we keep them in our packs and use them to lay quarters, ribs, and other meat on when breaking down an animal. If you cut the sheet of Tyvek, soak it in the clothes washer for a few hours, then run it through a wash/rinse cycle with just water (no detergent), it takes the noise out of it and makes it soft and pliant.

Might also want to bring one newspaper with you - if you take a couple of sheets of newspaper and stuff them into your boots at night, it will take out the moisture and you can climb into dry boots in the morning. if you treat the sheets with care and ley them out when you remove them from the boots, they will last for several nights.