mobilefamily
Lil-Rokslider
- Joined
- Dec 11, 2014
- Messages
- 135
A friend and I took our first hunting trip to Alaska this September. This was a lifelong dream come true for me. We did a drop camp out of Bethel with Renfro. His areas have lots of moose. We both killed bulls in the high 40's (any bull area). There were larger animals around, but the ones we shot were called to a really convenient spot and we were perfectly happy with their size.
My brief advice:
• Get to know your waders. You're going to live in them if you go where we went, and you won't have any control over where you go. Hip boots would not have worked.
• Take a great hatchet. We used a little Gerber I had sharpened and added grip tape to the handle. It was excellent.
• Take a great bone saw. We used a Wyoming Saw which was fantastic.
• Bring no less than 4 extra tarps, and make them the same size so the holes match up and you can join them with paracord to make a roof and/or a wall in front of your tent.
• Wetfire was a miracle fire starter. Take some.
• Get yourself in shape. I trained for 18 months and was ready for the job. Note that you're not just training to carry the moose. You may be making long trips to get firewood and water every day.
• I took 100' of paracord and wish I'd had more.
• Bushnell solar charger did not work well. Partially because there wasn't a lot of sun. I also think it is a cheap design, so a better solar charger might have done the job. I couldn't keep my phone charged enough to make notes at the end of each day, even keeping it off while I was not using it. Cold weather kills batteries.
• I wish I'd had a little shovel for leveling camp beneath the tent.
• Stock up on patience. We had delays getting into and out of camp.
Here is a video my partner put together of us breaking down my moose.
https://vimeo.com/142092780
We'd like to do a drop camp for caribou next. If anyone has experience to share on that, I'd love to hear it. I am particularly interested to hear about your camp. Was it on dry ground with cover and firewood nearby?
Thanks to the site and members for the copious information we used in preparing for our trip.
My brief advice:
• Get to know your waders. You're going to live in them if you go where we went, and you won't have any control over where you go. Hip boots would not have worked.
• Take a great hatchet. We used a little Gerber I had sharpened and added grip tape to the handle. It was excellent.
• Take a great bone saw. We used a Wyoming Saw which was fantastic.
• Bring no less than 4 extra tarps, and make them the same size so the holes match up and you can join them with paracord to make a roof and/or a wall in front of your tent.
• Wetfire was a miracle fire starter. Take some.
• Get yourself in shape. I trained for 18 months and was ready for the job. Note that you're not just training to carry the moose. You may be making long trips to get firewood and water every day.
• I took 100' of paracord and wish I'd had more.
• Bushnell solar charger did not work well. Partially because there wasn't a lot of sun. I also think it is a cheap design, so a better solar charger might have done the job. I couldn't keep my phone charged enough to make notes at the end of each day, even keeping it off while I was not using it. Cold weather kills batteries.
• I wish I'd had a little shovel for leveling camp beneath the tent.
• Stock up on patience. We had delays getting into and out of camp.
Here is a video my partner put together of us breaking down my moose.
https://vimeo.com/142092780
We'd like to do a drop camp for caribou next. If anyone has experience to share on that, I'd love to hear it. I am particularly interested to hear about your camp. Was it on dry ground with cover and firewood nearby?
Thanks to the site and members for the copious information we used in preparing for our trip.
