2020 Moose Hunt in Pictures

[Wapiti1]

Finally got some time to post these. I could write a long and witty story filled with adventure and sarcasm, but I'll just let the photos tell the story and narrate a bit here and there.

The summary is this was a hunt with Jake Jefferson. His first moose hunt since he started his own business at least 10 years ago. This is significant in that he has stated a few times to me that he hates moose. Not eating them. He's good with that. Carrying dead ones. That he is not keen on. At any rate, the whole thing was exploratory in nature and we would drop into an area that he has been flying over for years. Many moose have been spotted from the air but he's never hunted there.

So, with a pocket full of locking tags and a good dose of optimism, we embarked on a trip.



My transport was an air taxi that Jake has used for many years, and Jake would fly himself in the black plane on the right. A recent purchase he made after getting his pilots license from people that should know better than to hand those out to just anyone. Since he is a fledgling pilot, commercial flying is out, and I paid for professional transportation to a more remote part of Alaska. This arrangement made life a lot better since Jake could fly gear at a much better rate.








Home for the next week would be a carefully selected gravel bar on an undisclosed river in Alaska. Of course, some folks will probably figure out where we were, but I'll leave it out for obvious reasons. That said, when I say carefully selected, this means we could land on it, and there might be animals in the area. The main criteria being, we could land on it.



The veiws on our little slice of gravelly heaven. Pure Alaska gold surrounded us with peak color in the poplar and birch leaves. This is the latest that I've been to Alaska and the leaves were stunning to me. Sure we get more colors in Indiana, but it is rare to see such a blanket of leaves like I saw in Alaska.




Throughout the hunt we watched a parade of black bear head from left to right across those mountain faces. Those berry eating machines would mow their way across, one after another. At one point, a big bear fed almost to the top of the tall peak and stuck around for two days. Those berries must have been phenomenal.

 

[Wapiti1]

First order of business after setting up camp was to check my rifle. I selected a big driftwood about 200 yards away and then found the best thing I had for a target, a facemask. I pray this is the only hunt where I use a facemask for anything. That said, the elastic made it easy to place. My rifle proved to be either dead on, or I was unsteady in just the right way.



Day one ended with us setting up a mock scrape and filling little mesh wedding favor baggies with exceedingly foul smelling gelled moose urine. The excercise was one of trying to keep it off your hands as much as it was getting it in the baggie. Then we iced the cake with a good spray down of moose cow estrus urine in spray form. These lovely scents are available from Baitem907 who Jake uses for bear baits. I can't imagine formulating estrus cow moose urine and deciding when it was just right. A few calls after dark, a swell helping of mountain house, and we turned in for the night.



Morning arrived and coffee was prepared. Perk coffee in the backcountry is something special. It could be vile swill in any other setting, but is just right on a frosty morning in uncivilized country. Before light we called a bit, and then proceeded with oatmeal for a quick breakfast. We rolled out of the tent about daylight to be greeted by our surroundings.



Not seeing any critters in our immediate vicinity, we took a stroll to look for tracks in the sand. This fellow had passed through overnight. I hoped we would cross paths. Big bear. Very big bear. He crossed over about 400 yards from camp. We also found older sets of his tracks on other parts of the gravel bar.



This day was a mix of rain showers and sunlight. We lounged around for the day moving our chairs from place to place on the gravel bar looking for the best glassing location of out surroundings. We could see a bench to our south, and to the west we could see hills and mountainsides for about 5 miles. Caribou and a couple of black bear were spotted over there, but so far no moose. We called throughout the day, and I tried my nose at calling. It's not a tough call to get out. This day ended and it was good to be alive in Alaska. My trip was a success at this point, and everything more was gravy.





Day two. It had rained most of the night and we were greeted with warmer temps and clouds. The same routine ensued with coffee followed by breakfast. After a tour of the bar, we saw where a smaller bear had crossed, and a moose had also crossed. It looked like the moose winded camp, but the bear just strolled on by. I like the odds of seeing a bear, but they seemed to be a bit nocturnal.



We decided to walk to the next gravel bar down stream and see what we could find. We found a wolverine scrounging for winter kill bones in the ribbons of river channel. For a good 20 minutes we watched him, never stopping, and out of reach. Jake waded out to see if he could get a better look at the benches along the river, and that wolverine came over to check him out.



I didn't put my waders on for this trek, and missed an opportunity. Oh well. It was fun to see, and maybe he would show up later. You never know. From here, we called, and just checked out the whole area. We found a dry channel that cut back behind camp and made walking back a breeze. No bushwacking those evil alders and scrub poplar. On the way, we came across an old moose shed, so at least I knew moose once lived here, but that might have been in prehistoric times.


We got back to camp and settled in for the rest of the day. Calling and waiting. I don't recall the conversation, but one of us said something exceptionally witty and smart, and the other was going to respond in an equally intellectual fashion when we heard a moose noise. A hiccup to be exact. Both of us froze. Another hiccup came and we both were in motion. I snagged my rifle, and put one in the chamber. Meanwhile Jake nabbed the Bull Magnet and his binocs. We scurried to the nearest bush, and listened. Oooomph. Oooomph. He was coming, so Jake let out a soft whine to keep his interest.

The bull was back in the brush a good 30 yards and now moving to our left, skirting the edge. The brush lay about 75 yards away. Jake called again, and the bull finally made it to the scent trail of that scrape. The foul stench filling his nostrils like ambrosia. To me, I had to force back bile, but this dude just snorted heaven in a little black mesh baggie. He made an appearance at the edge, but it was really hard to get a look at him before he turned back in. Crap!!

Jake grunted, and started to rake the brush. This got his full attention, and he did likewise. A 3" diameter poplar did the boogaloo for a minute of so, then a couple more grunts came our way. We moved up about 10 yards to another bush and Jake grunted. Now, the bull had had enough of this twerp challenging him. Here he came. Now we had a clear look at him and legal bull was the easily apparent conclusion. I lined up the crosshair, but waited. He was on his way, no need to shoot when he was closing in. In my ear Jake said shoot him behind the ear, and I adjusted my aim. Made sense. Then he stepped up onto a bank giving me the perfect look. At the shot, his hind quarters whithered and it cascaded through his front. He was down.



And I had just collected my first moose. We circled him and I put one finisher into his chest. Then I just sat for a while and looked at him. We are truly blessed to be able to hunt these creatures. Some come hard and others, like this bull come easy. I mean, hell, I shot him at 17 yards. 17 yards from us, and all of 44 yards from the tent. The pack out wasn't going to be much trouble with this one. But, even so, I had travelled to Alaska, and called in a bull moose in the middle of nowhere. I could have spent a week or more and never even seen a moose. Jake and I could have told the same stories for 10 days and solved most of the worlds problems. And that would have been a great trip. This. This was another level.

Did I mention how big these animals are. Wow. I've moved a lot of elk, and helped with Shiras moose. Pipsqueaks.

 

[Wapiti1]

It's likely, probably certain, that I'll never shoot and easier moose in my lifetime. I do plan on shooting another at some point, but this scenario seems like a lightening strike.










When it was all said and done, we packed him about 200 yards to a meat pole we erected closer to where the runway was.





We hung it all and arranged things so the meat would cool, then made our way back to the tent for dinner. The shot was at about 2:30pm and we were back to the tent by 6. Not too shabby.

From that point on we just relived the moment. It was pretty awesome and I'm glad I got to share it with Jake. He's good people.

The next morning we poked our heads out and surveyed the area for bears. None had visited, so we took a walk to see what was around. When we had landed, my pilot said that he used to hunt this spot 30 years or more ago with his kids. He pointed to a few landmarks and said there should be a couple of piles of junk here and there. Those were kind of jokes to Jake and I, but on that day, we decided to see if they existed. Sure enough, over by the mock scrape we found a couple of old chrome chairs long rotted and a pile of blazo fuel cans.

Farther back we ran across an old meat pole tethered to a tree, and found the outhouse. Near this we also came across a bear trail lined with hair covered rubs. Sorry, not the best photo, but best I got. It was really unique to see the bear trail where each footprint is 6 inches deep and they put their feet in the same spot year after year.




The blueberries were mostly gone down low, but the cranberries were thick. Surprisingly, we came across no grouse. A sad testament to a hard winter. Sheep numbers here were also hit hard from the 19/20 winter.

At this point, we worked our way back to camp for lunch. But we weren't the only lunch seekers in the valley. Someone was looking for a moose snack, but I wasn't keen on that concept.

 

[Wapiti1]

As we prepared a bagel and salmon cream cheese lunch, I spotted our little buddy, the wolverine, bounding along the opposite river bank. My rifle was snagged, and we quickly made our way in a crouch to the bush nearest the meat pole.

Mr. Wolverine dissappeared into the river, and swam across. After a few seconds, he reappeared on our side, and bounded up to a driftwood log about 100 yards away. Here, he paused to survey the situation. It was the last thing he did.





Big old male wonverine. Broken canine and a couple of missing teeth. What an animal! Totally unexpected, and super unique. Tough to describe how awesome getting him was. I know that this will be the only one I ever shoot, and one of the few that I'll ever see. I've only seen two previously in Montana, and those were just for an instant.

So, now we had a decision to make. Get the meat out and call it a hunt, or try for a bear for a couple more days. Given the nocturnal nature of the bears so far, we chose the former and called in the air taxi for the next day. This gave us a good laugh. Hey, can you fly us out tomorrow around noon? Probably.

What do you do with an answer of "probably" when you are in the back country? Well, we figured that plans were set, so the next day we loaded up Jake's plane with meat. I took down camp while he flew, and I waited for my ride back to civilization.

But not before taking a few more photos of this place.





My ride arrived, and we finished pack things up. Jake flew the antlers.

 

[Wapiti1]

Denali was out in full force on that day and I couldn't help but snap away.



So, what do you do when you get done early? Not sure what you do, but I go fishing.

After a bunch of phone calls, I nabbed a seat on a middle Kenai boat and a Homer boat. I love fishing. No big bows on the Kenai, but we managed some nice dollies and decent rainbows. Homer yielded a pair of good halibut, two big kings, and a big bonus silver that didn't realize it should have been in the river by then.









As a bonus, one of the kings that I got was a white king. Tastes the same, but just a unique variation.

 

[Wapiti1]

And that endeth my trip. Alaska produced once again, and I enjoyed a lot of luck that I am not entitled to. A big thanks to Jake. He is a good guy and fun to spend time with. I'll get back up to hunt with him at some point in the future.

Gear wise, I took a lot more than I used, but it could have gone the other way.

My rifle was a stainless .300 Win Mag that I built a few years ago as my perfect mountain rifle. Ruger action, exaliber barrel at 24", carbon fiber and kevlar stock, topped with a Swaro 3-10 Z3 scope. All in it weighs 7.5 pounds and is all I want in a good rifle. Loads were handloads with 196gr Badlands Bulldozer bullets. I'd like to report more on them, but a .22 would have handled the moose, and the wolverine wasn't much of a test other than needing some accuracy. Still, I'm pretty sure they are a good bullet.

I took a Seek pack with 6300 cube fortress bag, but never needed it. Had I needed it, that would have worked well, but I'm not complaining.

Dryft wading pants were only used later while fishing. My other gear was what I took for sheep in 2017 and is mixed brands with vairous purposes. You may note that I am not a camo wearer. Mostly because, I see no need and if I get done early, it's easier to wear green pants to dinner than camo, IMO.

Hope you enjoyed the report and photos. I know I enjoyed making the memories. If you think you want to go, do it. Plan it and go. It's worth it.

Jeremy

 

[JPD350]

Great picture story, congrats and thanks for taking the time to post it!

 

[wildwilderness]

Very nice. Great pictures! How wide was the moose?

 

[USMC2602]

Well done, congrats and thanks for posting.

 

[James270]

Great trip, thanks for sharing.

 

[Rokbar]

Nice pics and great write up. Trip of a lifetime. What tent were you all using in the pics?

 

[Wapiti1]

Very nice. Great pictures! How wide was the moose?

60" on the nose. He was an old boy with most molars worn to the gum line.

Jeremy

 

[Wapiti1]

Nice pics and great write up. Trip of a lifetime. What tent were you all using in the pics?

Cabelas 6 man Outfitter tent. I think their equivalent is the Alaskan Guide tent now.

Jeremy

 

[Voyageur]

Thanks for sharing. Really enjoyed your recap.

 

[5MilesBack]

I'd be more excited about the wolverine than the moose. Are you going to mount it?

 

[Catahoula]

Great trip and story. Very cool..

 

[onetohunt]

great write up and congrats on a very nice bull!!!

 

[Wapiti1]

I'd be more excited about the wolverine than the moose. Are you going to mount it?

Yep. Full body with that little moose antler shed we found worked into the pose. I agree that he was more than worth the price of admission. Rare and impressive critter. I finished the skull last weekend. Thanks.

There's a good lesson in that critter. Always buy extra tags. I tagged him with a black bear tag. It could have also gone on a wolf, and I wouldn't have hesitated to put my grizzly tag on the wolverine. I learned long ago to just get the extra tags when I go on a big hunt.

Jeremy

 

[Wapiti1]

Just in case anyone cares, all of the photos were taken with a Sony RX100 VI. Incredible camera for hunts like this. I could not have taken many of the photos that I did without such a camera. A couple of the fishing photos are from an Iphone.

The video the Sony takes is excellent as well.

Jeremy

 

[AKBorn]

Cabelas 6 man Outfitter tent. I think their equivalent is the Alaskan Guide tent now.

Jeremy

Wow - that things looks like the spitting image of my Cabela's 4-man XPG Expedition Tent.

Congrats on a great trip and great company. Sure missed that country this year.