2nd DIY AK Moose Hunt

[Sam]

I had an opportunity to do my 2nd DIY moose hunt in Alaska this year. I traveled to a remote village with an old friend and we spent 6 days with our friends who live in this village. It is always important to be reminded of what it is like to live in the bush and realize how challenging life can really be. This is a special place. But, sometimes the wrong kind of people are discovering these areas. We see how trophy hunters and a few guides have caused quite a disruption to the way of life up here. It is not uncommon to see hindquarters sitting in the sun on a pallet at the airport. Chunks of meat dirty and rotting away. Some guys go out to areas for the sole purpose of shooting a 60 plus inch moose. The problem is that these big bulls need to be left to breed another season. Not to mention, the meat on big musky bulls has to be hung for at least a week in order to get rid of all the smell from testosterone running through their bodies. Most people don't have this kind of time. So leaving a hunt with a 40 to 50 inch bull is okay with me. It equals great meat and a respectable rack. But, most importantly, respect from the locals........

Day 1 - Rain all day, no live bulls seen. 

Day 2 - Sunny all day. 13 bulls seen. 5 cows seen. One bigger bull passed up due the difficult of the pack out. Three of us in the boat and we are all over 50 realizing our limitations we decided to look for something closer to the river. We spotted a bull feeding in the shallows of the side channel. As we got closer I decided it was a nice bull. I raised the 375 Ultra mag and shot him in the lungs, between 2 ribs. Bull ran and we saw the pink blood. He turned to go into the willows, so I shot again and hit him low in the front leg. He turned again and ran into the main channel. He is running like he was not hit. I waited for him to exit the river and shot him in the head. The last thing we wanted was for him to travel into the wilderness. But, at the same time, you do not want a bull dead in the river. Well, instead of him dropping on the shore, he flew backwards into the river. Trying to keep the motor out of the rocks, reaching for the bull and hanging on to antlers and not having a workable reverse all turned into a challenging situation really quickly. Two of us grabbed the bull, while our buddy controlled the boat and found a piece of shore a few hundred yards down river. Tied up the boat and used a come along to get the bull on shore. One guy working the come along and two of us pulling the moose and we could barely move it. We laid out some tarps and got to work. If you have never handled a moose, here is the break down into 10 manageable pieces - neck, brisket, rump, 2 sides of ribs, 2 front quarters, 2 hind quarters, head. Put all the meat in game bags and on a clean tarp in the boat and got back to the village at dark.

Day 3 - Snowed all day and night. Started butchering that night.

Day 4 - Snowed all day. Butchered and wrapped meat all day

Day 5 - Finished butchering, wrapping and grinding meat.

Day 6 - Flew back to Anchorage with 400 pounds of deboned meat. Stayed with another friend in Anchorage and filled up his spare freezer with the meat for the night. 

Day 7 - Flew back to Phoenix with the meat in totes lined with foam board. Each tote held 90 pound of meat. All the meat stayed completely frozen. My friend and I each lugged a soft cooler of 40 pounds of meat onto the plane. He gave me grief the whole time! 

Basic hunt. Nothing fancy. Just good, down to earth people and incredibly good meat.

[stanley]

Heck yeah, man!!!    AWESOME!!!!

S.

[Flatlander]

Cool trip. Sounds like more of a butchering trip with a splash of moose hunting.

[PRDATR]

Congrats. I went years ago and sure miss it. Did those motors have props?

[Chef]

Amazing.  Congratulations on a successful trip.

It looks like you shot on the perfect day and got snowed in for the butchering.  My kind of trip.

[Sam]

16 hours ago, Flatlander said:

Cool trip. Sounds like more of a butchering trip with a splash of moose hunting.

Yeah, kind of. It takes alot of time to debone, cut and wrap. And then grind scraps and other meat. We did not time ourselves this year, but one year it took two of us 21 hours to complete the job. 

[Sam]

8 hours ago, PRDATR said:

Congrats. I went years ago and sure miss it. Did those motors have props?

Yes, props. The river gets really shallow in parts. One year we tore up the prop and had to have a friend fly up river and drop us a new prop. 

[Flatlander]

Just now, Sam said:

Yeah, kind of. It takes alot of time to debone, cut and wrap. And then grind scraps and other meat. We did not time ourselves this year, but one year it took two of us 21 hours to complete the job. 

I killed a Shiras in 2019 and did the whole thing start to finish with only my 11 and 10 year old to help. I can’t imagine what an Alaskan moose is like on the ground or the butcher table.

[Sam]

On 11/17/2021 at 7:05 AM, Chef said:

Amazing.  Congratulations on a successful trip.

It looks like you shot on the perfect day and got snowed in for the butchering.  My kind of trip.

Agree - love doing my own butchering. Very lucky we had a place to do this. 

[Sam]

1 minute ago, Flatlander said:

I killed a Shiras in 2019 and did the whole thing start to finish with only my 11 and 10 year old to help. I can’t imagine what an Alaskan moose is like on the ground or the butcher table.

You have a pretty good idea. We figure this moose weighed about 1300 pounds. Add more after the hide got wet. 

[Jazz]

That's incredible. Great story. Can I ask what kind of ballpark something like this cost?

[Big Browns]

Very cool!!!

[PRDATR]

1 hour ago, Sam said:

Yes, props. The river gets really shallow in parts. One year we tore up the prop and had to have a friend fly up river and drop us a new prop. 

OK. I thought I saw a prop on the second boat, the area I went all the outboards were jet's.

[Sam]

On 11/17/2021 at 4:29 PM, PRDATR said:

OK. I thought I saw a prop on the second boat, the area I went all the outboards were jet's.

Jets are definitely better in the shallows. But they burn alot of gas. Gas was $6.50 a gallon up there. 

 

[Sam]

On 11/17/2021 at 3:31 PM, Jazz said:

That's incredible. Great story. Can I ask what kind of ballpark something like this cost?

About $3000.......Tag is $800. Hunting License is $160.  Flights are about $1000. The rest is luggage,/cargo fees, food and fuel costs. We shipped extra food and supplies to some folks up there.