# 2018 alaska moose



## scott_rn (Sep 11, 2007)

Moose regulations in alaska typically restrict hunters to spike/fork or 3-4 brow tines, depending on the unit. My 13 year old drew a tag for any bull in the lottery last winter. We finally did a fly out float hunt after 9 years in alaska. We picked up the kid from school and drove to the air taxi where they weighed all our gear. I find it a little ironic we could have fit 2 more hunters and a few hundred pounds more gear. Most hunters who fly out take every last bit of weight the pilot will let them, we just didn't need to. The flight was a little over half an hour, they even left the wheel skiis used for glacier landings on the plane. We unloaded the plane and we watched the pilot depart. 
Packing the gear to the creek and setting up the raft took most of the afternoon. We floated a couple of miles and set up a quick camp.


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## longbow (Mar 31, 2009)

That's it? You're going to leave us hanging?

Looking forward to the rest of your story.


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## scott_rn (Sep 11, 2007)

I got up in the morning and let the teenager sleep in. I walked 50 yards from the tent and saw 2 bulls and a cow, I ranged them at 300 yards. We were still outside the unit we had tag for, so I just watched them for a bit. One was clearly a tweener bull, the second finally gave me a good look and I put him in the mid 50's. Over 50 inches is legal anywhere. I quickly got the slumbering teenager out of his sleepng bag and we quickly got back to the spotting scope. Unfortunately we never saw the moose again. We packed up and headed down the creek, contending with beaver dams, log jams and a handful of other rafting headaches.


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## scott_rn (Sep 11, 2007)

We floated about 6 hours and stopped where I had seen some promising terrain based on satellite images. We threw up the tent and glassed the last light of the day. We saw moose beds and tracks everywhere but not a single critter. We got up the second morning before first light and figured we would see moose. We flushed a few grouse and a canine. A wolf! No wonder there were no moose in the area. It stopped at 239 yards, sat down and watched us. I looked at it and contemplated whether or not to take a shot. We sat and took it in - no photos, no booming rifle shots. That lasted about 10 minutes and then the kid decided to send lead at it, but missed cleanly.
Another long day floating and a push for a spot we had scouted via satellites and topo maps. But not without a break when we found some silvers.


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## scott_rn (Sep 11, 2007)

Camp 3 put us in a promising spot in spite of limited visibility. We hunted until it was pitch black and I could feel the kid was exhausted and discouraged. I let him sleep in again. I woke him up and told him breakfast was ready, he asked if it was first light. I laughed and told him if the sun is hitting yer tent, it ain't first light. He was grumpy and said we needed to get hiking and try to find a moose. We hiked and trudged through swamps. I tried to explain we probably wouldn't get a moose and needed to get floating to make the takeout. He pushed it - Can we check one more ridge? Can we go around that bend? 
I'll be damned, he toughed it out. We crested created a hill and came up on a cow and young bull within 100 yards. I told him to shoot it, he waited a solid minute and later told me he was waiting for a better angle. He got the bull down and we grabbed the gear to process it. We took photos, butchered and packed it out in four trips through 1/4 mile of swamp. 3 hours 37 minutes.


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## scott_rn (Sep 11, 2007)

With the raft loaded up we floated whitewater bigger than I would have liked with all that weight and ran it until the light was fading. Our bonfire that night was great and we enjoyed backstraps cooked over the fire. The night was cold and everything was covered in frost the next morning. We floated until late afternoon and caught our pickup back to the road system. My wife picked us up in her Honda pilot. What a game of jenga. 5 people, 400 pounds of rafting gear and a moose in a crossover suv. 

Thanks for letting me share our adventure. Best hunt I've ever done.


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## PBH (Nov 7, 2007)

Best thread of 2018.

What river did you float?

any more pictures?


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## CPAjeff (Dec 20, 2014)

Wow, what an adventure! Thanks for sharing!


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## GaryFish (Sep 7, 2007)

Thanks for the share! What a fantastic adventure! Great job!


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## caddis8 (Sep 10, 2007)

You know, you could have picked a place with better scenery to hunt. That was pretty boring and ugly. Good thing you killed a critter to make up for the ugly landscape.......

Great job. What an adventure.


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## scott_rn (Sep 11, 2007)

Thanks for the kind words. 
I am sure some of you expected to see a huge bull on the ground. I don't consider myself a trophy hunter, we just love eating moose. We're happy with cows, we're happy with roadkill, and we're happy with this bull. I shot a brown bear with longbow and it was kind of a trophy hunt, I ate a bunch of it too. It wasn't a meat hunt, but it was an awesome experience. 

We had hunted caribou in a different unit August 24th, moose season wouldn't open there until September 1st. I have seen a big (legal) bull every time I've been there but we've never connected with one. 5 big bulls in 5 trips to that spot. We could have gone back there but I'm glad we did the float hunt.


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## scott_rn (Sep 11, 2007)

That kid loves fishing salmon on a fly rod. He was torn between fishing and floating down to the hunting spot. The salmon fishing was limited to a clear tributary, the majority of the water we floated was cloudy with glacial tilt. 

We arranged a ride out via river boat. We had an great view of the tallest mountain on our continent most of the ride.


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## taxidermist (Sep 11, 2007)

Love the story and hearing of success on a hunt, with, or without a kill. 


An "Old Timer" once said to me...………"No one ever remembers what the antlers tasted like". I'm sure your hunt will be talked about for many years to come. Congrats and thanks for sharing!!


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## goforbroke (Jan 4, 2009)

Sounds amazing. My kids are jealous!


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## PBH (Nov 7, 2007)

scott_rn said:


> We had an great view of the tallest mountain on our continent most of the ride.


I still remember the first time I saw that mountain. It absolutely blew my mind when I realized what I was looking at! Throughout that summer, each time the mountain would poke it's peaks out from the cloud cover, I'd marvel at the size of it. When you look at the the rest of that range, and realize that the other mountains are all 10-12,000 feet high, and then you notice a giant reaching up through the clouds towering above them....wow!! Gotta love Denali.

I'll also always remember one morning driving north towards Tok. We were driving slow, following my younger brother while he got his morning jog in. Mt. Sanford was in the distance, a white sentinel against a blue sky. It almost made me want to get out and jog too. Almost.

These threads pull at me. I need to take my wife up there for a month or two...


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## neverdrawn (Jan 3, 2009)

Memories for a lifetime! Great write up.


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## colorcountrygunner (Oct 6, 2009)

Awesome! Thanks for sharing! That is my dream hunt, but the cost and logistics of pulling it off form the lower 48 just....ugghhh... Yeah, I mean I know it can be done and people do it all the time, but still.


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## johnnycake (Jul 19, 2011)

colorcountrygunner said:


> Awesome! Thanks for sharing! That is my dream hunt, but the cost and logistics of pulling it off form the lower 48 just....ugghhh... Yeah, I mean I know it can be done and people do it all the time, but still.


Just sayin' I've got an open unit in my 4plex in Anchorage that I'm trying to rent out right now...I could probably cut you a deal, AND take you moose hunting next September...


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## colorcountrygunner (Oct 6, 2009)

johnnycake said:


> Just sayin' I've got an open unit in my 4plex in Anchorage that I'm trying to rent out right now...I could probably cut you a deal, AND take you moose hunting next September...


You're tempting me, Johnnycake! No, not that way...fine, maybe a little that way too.


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## 35whelen (Jul 3, 2012)

thanks for sharing! what an unforgettable hunt! congratulations! 
what caliber accubond is that?


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## scott_rn (Sep 11, 2007)

35whelen said:


> thanks for sharing! what an unforgettable hunt! congratulations!
> what caliber accubond is that?


165 gr 30.06


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