twincedargap
Senior Member
Did my first AK DIY last year to take a caribou. Decided to go back this year after a moose, or two. With an 11 day season two would be unlikely, but a possibility.
Got there a few days early to go up the haul road to scout some grounds and see if it makes sense for a future low budget caribou hunt. So bought a bou tag just in case we saw a good one, but also knew we could apply the tag to a black bear during our moose hunt if I didn’t take a bou.
We saw moose, wolf, Artic fox, caribou, dall sheep as we drove all the way up and above Happy Valley. Caribou were still just ones and twos, we didn’t want to go any further as we still wanted time to fish. We found the grayling to be abundant and hungry. We also suffered the typical flat tire on the haul road, but our windshield survived
Got back to Fairbanks and spent a day checking our gear in and weighing with the air taxi, also shooting the rifle on a public range. 300 yd range, free, no cost. So flew in the field the next morning, a day and half early which allowed room for a weather delay w/ch isn’t uncommon in AK, but also to set camp, do some pike fishing, and scouting before the season opened.
Didn’t see any moose until the season opened, but then only a cow for a day and a half, mostly in same place each morning and evening. No real bull sign to be found, but did find some sheds.
After five days with not a moose seen, we moved to the opposite side of the lake, about a mile via our packraft. We’d found good sheds there and an area we could hike to a smaller secondary pond and some additional
Marshy fields and swamp holes. I did manage to take a small black bear, fresh meat in camp was awesome
On the night before our last hunt day, we finally have a small bull come to our calls and gets to within 50 yds of camp. We’d been 8 days since last seeing the cow, so we were excited to finally seeing something with a rack and not going home completely skunked.
The next morning we called the same bull into camp along with a medium size bull that was with him. After they left, that same cow appeared in the usual spot about 1 mile from us. No bull was with her. We only had until noon that day to hunt as we’d fly our first thing the next morning. It takes 6-10 hours to break down and pack out a moose, so noon left us not much time to also break down camp.
So after the cow left we continued to call but saw nothing. We decided to hike about a mile further from camp
And call at the second lake. After an hour of nothing, moved again, but this time closer to camp, maybe a 1/2 mile. As we set up to call, we saw a great moose raking across the wet grassy area about 350 yds away.
We called it to our side of the opening and he destroyed brush and trees all along our wood line but didn’t present a shot. Called again softly and he slowly cut the distance to 60’yds or so
my son shot him with 7mm RM 3x and he finally tipped over. What an amazing feeling to hunt 11 days, 13 days in field, and finally connect with a bull, a bull of a lifetime, and only have just over an hour left in the hunt.
We spent the next 9.5 hours cutting and packing him out. The hardest and greatest time we’ve ever had.
Our extraction was delayed 3 days. We had a lot of time to reflect on our experience, feel gratitude for our blessings, and enjoy the fruits of our labors with plenty of bear and moose steaks on an open fire. Sometimes reality is bigger than our dreams!
Got there a few days early to go up the haul road to scout some grounds and see if it makes sense for a future low budget caribou hunt. So bought a bou tag just in case we saw a good one, but also knew we could apply the tag to a black bear during our moose hunt if I didn’t take a bou.
We saw moose, wolf, Artic fox, caribou, dall sheep as we drove all the way up and above Happy Valley. Caribou were still just ones and twos, we didn’t want to go any further as we still wanted time to fish. We found the grayling to be abundant and hungry. We also suffered the typical flat tire on the haul road, but our windshield survived
Got back to Fairbanks and spent a day checking our gear in and weighing with the air taxi, also shooting the rifle on a public range. 300 yd range, free, no cost. So flew in the field the next morning, a day and half early which allowed room for a weather delay w/ch isn’t uncommon in AK, but also to set camp, do some pike fishing, and scouting before the season opened.
Didn’t see any moose until the season opened, but then only a cow for a day and a half, mostly in same place each morning and evening. No real bull sign to be found, but did find some sheds.
After five days with not a moose seen, we moved to the opposite side of the lake, about a mile via our packraft. We’d found good sheds there and an area we could hike to a smaller secondary pond and some additional
Marshy fields and swamp holes. I did manage to take a small black bear, fresh meat in camp was awesome
On the night before our last hunt day, we finally have a small bull come to our calls and gets to within 50 yds of camp. We’d been 8 days since last seeing the cow, so we were excited to finally seeing something with a rack and not going home completely skunked.
The next morning we called the same bull into camp along with a medium size bull that was with him. After they left, that same cow appeared in the usual spot about 1 mile from us. No bull was with her. We only had until noon that day to hunt as we’d fly our first thing the next morning. It takes 6-10 hours to break down and pack out a moose, so noon left us not much time to also break down camp.
So after the cow left we continued to call but saw nothing. We decided to hike about a mile further from camp
And call at the second lake. After an hour of nothing, moved again, but this time closer to camp, maybe a 1/2 mile. As we set up to call, we saw a great moose raking across the wet grassy area about 350 yds away.
We called it to our side of the opening and he destroyed brush and trees all along our wood line but didn’t present a shot. Called again softly and he slowly cut the distance to 60’yds or so
my son shot him with 7mm RM 3x and he finally tipped over. What an amazing feeling to hunt 11 days, 13 days in field, and finally connect with a bull, a bull of a lifetime, and only have just over an hour left in the hunt.
We spent the next 9.5 hours cutting and packing him out. The hardest and greatest time we’ve ever had.
Our extraction was delayed 3 days. We had a lot of time to reflect on our experience, feel gratitude for our blessings, and enjoy the fruits of our labors with plenty of bear and moose steaks on an open fire. Sometimes reality is bigger than our dreams!
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