Mauleguy
MEMBER
This was an adventure planned for by me and my best friend from grade school. We were going to do an Alaskan moose hunt. After researching areas we decided on the area North of the Wrangell Mountains and East of Nebesna. We planned on hunting the 8th-30th of September. I did not know much about hunting moose and actually thought it was going to take that long to be successful. John is a very good with details and spent hours looking at maps and even called to talk with a fish and game biologist at Alaska Fish and Game. After sharing with the biologist our plans and the experience we had between the two of us he ask the guy what he thought our chances were, the biologist simply answered zero and told John we would be better off hunting caribou. This did not deter John who had taken 3 moose in Canada in the last 6 years, he did not tell me any of what the biologist had said until I was in Alaska with my airplane. We headed out to scout on the 8th and started GPS'ing legal moose that would be somewhat accessible by airplane. I was told a few days before to not kill a moose more then a mile from where you can land an airplane. There were a few other things like it will take 8 packs to get it all out and don't call me once it is down. We started hunting and after a few different locations settle in this area that had two nice drainages. We spent days at a time sleeping on moss on uneven terrain eating freeze dried and cliff bars. The packs on our backs had everything we needed for 3 days when we left the plane. On the forth day we split a cliff bar in the morning and started making our way back to the plane for more provisions but were side tracked by a monster moose. This ended up taking time but no success, by now it was 3 in the afternoon and we were both hungry. We stopped to drink water and John who is always hunting was glassing the other side of the valley saw a nice bull. This was not the average bull we had been seeing but one with all kinds of junk on the front, more then the 4 minimum brow tines. With a few quick calculations on how late it would be by the time we killed it and how far it would be from the airplane we decided it was worth the try. We set out after it with the knowledge we were either eating moose meat that night or going to bed hungry. We picked some land marks to go to as we knew everything would look different on the other side of the valley. We made it across pretty fast and by 5:00 pm we were thinking this bull is somewhere in the next 75-100 yards above us, we moved up the ridge line looking at the hillside for this bull but could not locate it. By now we are both thinking it must have moved and so I tell John to try his sexiest cow call, he does but the response we hear is another cow. We know no one else is in the area and although not much cow calling has been going on we are thinking the bull is nearby. John does another call and this time we hear some branches breaking and the bull grunting, we think he is coming in but as time goes by the noise gets farther away. We decide to go in the direction of the cow since we can hear her still. I am glassing as I am moving forward and at about 100 yards I can see this bulls head in the brush but nothing else. John again starts to cow call and this time the bull is hooked, I am ready for the shot and John is behind me filming the whole thing. I can not see the bull coming but can hear him, at about 12 yards the bull enters the opening and I let him have it. I was told they go down pretty easy and so I am expecting him to run 50 yards and go down. He does not and after an hour of tracking small drops of blood on what has to be the worst canvas on the planet to track blood I am beginning to have my doubts about my shot. It is 7:30 and getting dark and after I find each new drop John moves forward from the last drop, I am focused on the next drop and not looking to far forward. I say to John I found another drop and he grabs my shoulder and says you found a hole bunch of blood and points to the dead moose 10 feet in front of me. I am so happy that I did not wound this big guy and I then realize what I have done and how big a moose is and how much work this is going to be.
I will add to this as I have time to reflect. Some have heard about the fact that I wrecked the airplane and I will tell more about that. It had nothing to do with the moose hunt. The moose hunt was over and we were both successful, we were miles away from that area when I bent the airplane on another part of our adventure.
I will add to this as I have time to reflect. Some have heard about the fact that I wrecked the airplane and I will tell more about that. It had nothing to do with the moose hunt. The moose hunt was over and we were both successful, we were miles away from that area when I bent the airplane on another part of our adventure.