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**2021 AK Moose Hunt** DIY Float Trip

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    #91
    What an adventure! Looking forward to the rest of it!

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      #92
      Love this!!!

      Keep after them!!!!

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        #93
        Same as two years ago, I found this thread too early. Great story telling and pictures. I’m in the process of planning my first caribou hunt with a buddy. Alaska is calling

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          #94
          Oh we are getting moosey!!!!

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            #95
            You’re a great story teller. Can’t wait for the rest of it.

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              #96
              Awesome, thanks for the write ups. Good luck.

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                #97
                Such an awesome thread and adventure!

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                  #98
                  Suspense is killing me!

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                    #99
                    Let’s Go!

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                      Wow heck of a trip.

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                        We need more

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                          **2021 AK Moose Hunt** DIY Float Trip


                          Dead head from previous day

                          Day 15

                          It’s now been more than two full weeks without even laying eyes on a legal bull. Depending what happens, we have 4 to 7 days left of being out here and 4 days of the season left. It’s another cold night and getting out of my sleeping bag is tough. We get set up in the same exact spots we were the evening before. The wind before daylight is the same as yesterday. We rake two different times between sunrise and 10:30. We reconvene after no luck in the morning and my brother and dad decide to head back and cut and split wood while I go back to my spot up on the ridge next to the lake we’re hunting. Figure what the heck. We have only a limited amount of season left, can’t miss out on any opportunity. The plan is I’ll sit here all day and my brother and dad will be back by 4 to hunt the evening.

                          The woods are completely dead today. No birds no squirrels. It’s an odd thing. It happens everywhere but for some reason out here it’s a heck of a lot more noticeable. I don’t know if it’s because when being basically in the wild for extended periods you start becoming a lot more in tune with it or what? I’m not sure what causes it but on days like this, things are incredibly boring. I’m leaned up against my pack resting on an aspen. I’m fighting dozing off with just about all I have. I have to start fiddling around with stuff to occupy myself from falling asleep and taking a nap. I manage to stay awake but at the cost of starting to get pretty agitated about how the hunting has been going. No matter what I tell myself I can’t help but get down and about all this. Yes we got a beautiful bear but we came for moose and 2 years of research is starting to seem like it very well could be a dud, sort of all for nothing more than just a camping trip.


                          View from my ridge over the lake


                          View of the meadow behind me

                          Dad and brother show back up at 3:30. Apparently on their way in they found another new bed, fresh bull droppings, and real fresh bull tracks. We hunt til dark doing a total of three raking sessions. Nothing. How can this be? There’s obviously moose in the immediate area and we haven’t spooked them out. Back at camp over a warm dinner and hot fire we have a serious talk about what we’re going to do. Are we going to move or stay? Whatever we do we just have one last choice or place to hunt. We talk about the sign and one bull we’ve seen in three and a half days. If we move, that’s basically one whole day and instead of 3 hunting days left we will only have 2. Something in the back of my head keeps saying stay because there’s plenty of moose here we haven’t seen because they just haven’t shown themselves. The thought of losing one of our last few hunting days as well is not something we’re wanting to do. The unanimous decision is made to stay and stick it out here until the very last second of shooting light of the close of the season. Before we fall asleep I decide I will sit out there on that ridge watching the lake all day the next 3 days. Not giving up and not gonna have any regrets knowing I didn’t give it all I had.

                          Day 16

                          I wake up ready to go. I’m in a good mood and spirits are high. I think it’s probably because I’ve realized if we eat tag soup we will have worked hard and done all we could do and that’s just the way this trip was possibly meant to go. Only problem is we all woke up late this morning. It’s about 7:30 and we’re just getting out of our sleeping bags. I get up first and get the stove going to warm the tent up for everybody else since it’s fairly cold. I set a pot of water on the stove so we can all enjoy a warm shake for breakfast. We’re sort of laughing and cutting up about how our luck has been so bad with the moose this year. I’m joking about game bags saying I should never have even brought any, would have saved me some space and weight in my pack. I realize I’ve been toting them in my pack everyday while we’re hunting along with my knives. My brother laughs and says ,”well heck that’s how we killed that bear, we didn’t have our bear bags with us and had to put it into the small extra moose bags!” I’m in the middle of putting my socks on next to the stove and stop with one sock on, stand up, grab my pack from the corner, flip my pack over, and dump it out completely. Game bags flop on the floor and I kick them into the corner. Felt like punting them through the wall of the tent but didn’t. Finish putting my other sock on and then close my pack back up. Brother and dad think it’s funny and get a good laugh. Throw my food for the day and water in my pack and sit down to lace up my boots and gaitors.

                          My plan is to sit all day on this lake. Let everyone know I’m going to set up either on that ridge in the aspens or over by the meadow and side of the lake where my brother has been, all dependent on the wind direction when I get over there. Dad and brother decide they are going to stay back and will be meet me over there this evening after they get some camp chores done. Today I’m grabbing my rifle since I’m by myself and I don’t want any opportunity to slip away if a bull hangs up outside of my bow range. I get to the ridge at about 10:00am and set up in the aspens and get tucked away and comfortable. As soon as I sit down, the woods are alive today. Varmints and birds everywhere, enjoying this sunny cool day. It’s not long and flocks of cranes are flying over head wave after wave. I’m thinking to myself I should have grabbed that moose scapula so I could have done some raking. It’s not long and I’m wondering ,”you know, we haven’t cow called once, I wonder if that is what will get things stirred up?” I decide that’s what I’m going to do, cow call. It’s my only option as i didn’t bring the scapula or a paddle.

                          2:00pm rolls around and it’s time for me to make my first call. I hike along the ridge I’m on and then down to the bottom so I can make this call right from the lake’s edge. Take several big deep breaths to sort of get my lungs expanded,”RREeerrrrraaaaahahahahah!” Pause for 30 seconds and do it again ,”rrEEERRRRRaaahahahah!” That felt like a terrible call, shaking my head I work my way back to my little spot up on the ridge. Trying to be as quiet as I can it takes me about 6 or 7 min to get over there. I get to my pack me and haven’t been sitting down but 15 seconds or so and I hear ,”GLUUUCK…. GLUUUCK!” Holy smokes! “CRAAAAACK… crrrrkkk… crrrrkk… crrrkk!” There’s a bull right down this ridge to my right and he is FIRED up. It sounds like he’s scraping his antlers along every bush and tree and stopping every couple steps to rake the heck out of the brush. He’s stumbling on logs and breaking sticks to let this cow know he’s here and he’s the man in charge around here. He’s flicking about every 20 seconds or so. There’s one problem, the brush is so thick to my right I won’t be able to clearly see him until he’s right under me. There’s a draw that comes off the end of this lake and works around a hill in front of me on the opposite side of the lake, the only spot besides right up within 15 yards of me, that I can get a good look or clear shot on him. Usually moose take a while to work their way in, almost is if they live in slow motion. This bull isn’t wasting any time at all. Maybe two min goes by from the first noise, I see antlers and a big brown and silver bull just hustling through the brush to be the first to this hot cow he thought he heard. He’s all of 60 yards and just keeps walking from my right to my left, down in front of me. He stops at probably 40 yards, right behind a spruce tree, eyes locked where I had just stood and cow called a few min ago.


                          As of right now I haven’t been able to get a good enough look at him to tell if he’s got the right brows or width to make him legal. He looks close but it’s not obvious. This is probably making the situation ten times more stressful and I’m alone with only my set of eyes and angle of view. The bull is motionless just staring waiting to see this cow. He stands there for probably 60-70 sec before he turns around and makes his way back the exact way he came in. He takes about 15 steps then just stops and snaps these small Birch and aspen trees to his right (between him and me), with one swing of his head. He stands there for a second and let’s out another “Gluuck”. Immediately he turns to his right and heads up this ridge. Just about right straight at me. I count brow times as now I have a good view. “1, 2…. 1, 2… dang it, how wide is he?” He’s closing the distinct headed straight up this ridge and is now only about 20 yards and doesn’t have a clue I’m here. He starts to veer off to my right, his left a little bit and walks right by me at 8 yards. At this point I’m worried he’s hearing my heart beating I’m so jacked up.




                          At this point the wind is blowing from straight in front of me on my left to behind me on my right. This bull is about to walk right into where my scent is blowing. I watch him walk by with just my eyes trying to keep my head still. He gets behind me at 14 yards. “CRAck..crrrrrrck..crrrrck…crrrrck!” I’m pretty sure I just flinched. Then things go silent. The woods are still alive but this bull is silent. I can’t hear steps, I can’t hear breathing, I’m trying to see him out of the corner of my eye but i can’t see clearly enough. I wait 15 minutes or so and still nothing. Finally I decide when there’s the next gust of wind to cover my sound I’m going to jump up and swing my rifle over and hopefully I’ll get a better view. The odds are probably about impossible of having enough time to do this, figure out if he’s wide enough, then shoot, all before he takes off. I do it anyways and to my surprise, there’s no moose. Where did he go? How could he have disappeared without a sound? He either walked along the ridge away from me or went over and down into the meadow I had watched the days prior. I want to go see if he left tracks of which way he went but I don’t want to spook him if he’s still close. I sit tight listening for any sound for the next 20 min. Still nothing. Okay I’m going to go see where I last saw him and see if there’s tracks leading along the ridge or down towards the meadow…

                          To be continued…


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                          Last edited by diamond10x; 10-05-2021, 07:48 PM.

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                            Tease.....lol

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                              Man cant wait what a great write up, thanks for taking us along

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                                Eeek. Thangs are gettin tense.


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