AK Moose/Caribou Planning and Gear Lessons Learned

Slugz · Sep 28, 2023

The one piece of gear that if we didnt have would have made the trip miserable.

Headnets. Take an extra in case you lose one.

Slugz · Sep 28, 2023

Robinhood21 · Sep 28, 2023

Slugz said:
The one piece of gear that if we didnt have would have made the trip miserable.

Headnets. Take an extra in case you lose one.

100%. Lost 2 my first time up there…. Thank god my uncle had lots of backups. Last year at think I brought 4 lol. They cost little to nothing and weigh just as much…. Better safe than sorry!

Troy Sessions · Sep 29, 2023

Slugs it looks like you came very well prepared, good to see someone put the time and effort needed for a successful hunt. Most common mistake is bringing to much gear that often doesn't get used and overloading your plane or boat. In regards to Air-taxi services weight and space is a major consideration, especially when dealing with FFA regulations. Personally I open up the bank account and purchase the "best, light weight" gear I can get my hands on after much research. Can you share pictures of your hunt?

Slugz · Sep 29, 2023

Thanks. Yep will do. Spent the past few days traveling back to work. Will get settled in and post our pack list then break down each section with some pics and comments.

Slugz · Oct 3, 2023

Shelter/Camp
Tent / pole /stove
Stakes + extra + paracord
Cots
DST Tarp + paracord
Fire starter + lighter + matches
Sleeping bag / pad
Pillow
Camp Chair

Our camp was a SO Redcliffe, 2 x DST tarps for gear and shelter and a Winnerweld fast fold titanium. When we do this again we will run two shelters. One to sleep and one for gear. Would be easier for set up and take down that way, and save time. Most likley a Peax shelter as they have the ability to use your trekking poles to form an X at the top to use as racks to dry stuff. Drying stuff out when needed was instrumental in our success on this hunt. Weather was 2 days crap followed by 2 days nice the whole trip.
Winnerwell stove worked well. I like it for ease of set up and no loose parts to lose.

We always take extra stakes and paracord. Azarixs 9.8i inch spiral aluminum tent stakes worked great in all soils and rocks we encountered.

Cots. Helinox and Thermarest. Helinox easier to set up and less parts. Thermarest more parts and a little larger cot. Both did the job.

Pads. Thermarest Xtherm. This by far is the best pad Ive used. Square in shape and larger. I tie mine to the cot and it never moves. Its quiet also. My sons pad (not sure make or model) but it will never be in my camp again. Noisy as all hell when he was rolling around. (Orange one in the pics)

Bags. We both run Kifaru. I like the middle zip and we use one bag heavier than needed. If we get hot we open the lower zipper. Pillow I have an older stuff type pillow and he ran a First Lite / Neo

Camp chairs. Helinox and Big Agnes. Both served the purpose. Should have put tennis balls on the bottom though. I forgot. Big Agnes was a little wider and more adult size. Id do it different next time and bring a high back zero chair vice the low version.

Slugz · Oct 3, 2023

Slugz · Oct 3, 2023

Shelter / Camp
Two things that got crossed off my pack list.
Bugtape. I've hung it before in the tent and it worked well.
Redlight/lamp for inside the tent at night. Didnt need it due to it still being light enough late in the day.

Slugz · Oct 3, 2023

Slugz · Oct 3, 2023

Slugz · Oct 3, 2023

croben · Oct 3, 2023

Slugz said:
Shelter/Camp
Tent / pole /stove
Stakes + extra + paracord
Cots
DST Tarp + paracord
Fire starter + lighter + matches
Sleeping bag / pad
Pillow
Camp Chair

Our camp was a SO Redcliffe, 2 x DST tarps for gear and shelter and a Winnerweld fast fold titanium. When we do this again we will run two shelters. One to sleep and one for gear. Would be easier for set up and take down that way, and save time. Most likley a Peax shelter as they have the ability to use your trekking poles to form an X at the top to use as racks to dry stuff. Drying stuff out when needed was instrumental in our success on this hunt. Weather was 2 days crap followed by 2 days nice the whole trip.
Winnerwell stove worked well. I like it for ease of set up and no loose parts to lose.

We always take extra stakes and paracord. Azarixs 9.8i inch spiral aluminum tent stakes worked great in all soils and rocks we encountered.

Cots. Helinox and Thermarest. Helinox easier to set up and less parts. Thermarest more parts and a little larger cot. Both did the job.

Pads. Thermarest Xtherm. This by far is the best pad Ive used. Square in shape and larger. I tie mine to the cot and it never moves. Its quiet also. My sons pad (not sure make or model) but it will never be in my camp again. Noisy as all hell when he was rolling around. (Orange one in the pics)

Bags. We both run Kifaru. I like the middle zip and we use one bag heavier than needed. If we get hot we open the lower zipper. Pillow I have an older stuff type pillow and he ran a First Lite / Neo

Camp chairs. Helinox and Big Agnes. Both served the purpose. Should have put tennis balls on the bottom though. I forgot. Big Agnes was a little wider and more adult size. Id do it different next time and bring a high back zero chair vice the low version.View attachment 609316 View attachment 609317 View attachment 609318

Thanks for all the great info! How’re you liking the Winnerwell? I just picked one up and will be using it end of the month.

Slugz · Oct 4, 2023

croben said:
Thanks for all the great info! How’re you liking the Winnerwell? I just picked one up and will be using it end of the month.

Like it alot. As I described in other posts,
Ease of set up, quickness of set up and no parts to lose is what drived my purchase.

Slugz · Oct 4, 2023

croben said:
Thanks for all the great info! How’re you liking the Winnerwell? I just picked one up and will be using it end of the month.

I was surprised also how big a piece of wood I can burn in it. The flu and vents worked real well for longer burn times than I was expecting. Theres a learning curve there on size of wood, placement etc etc thst just took a few burns to figure out whats best.

Slugz · Oct 6, 2023

Cook Set
Cooking grill/grate
1 x jet boil 1 x desoto
4 cans of fuel / wind screens
Sporks / Long cooking fork
Fillet knife
MSR fry pan and small pot
Toaks titanium cups
Micro fibre towel / dish soap
Water filters gallon hanging and 2 x Be Free
Nalgen bottles

Only thing I would change. Be Free filters only due to the hanging bag filter speed.

Food
Plan was to go in for 10 days. We took 14 days of food and planned to eat grayling and tenderloins. We came out with 2-3 days of food left and spent 14 days in.

Breakfast = Belvina breakfast bars, oatmeal with granola and dried fruit, Peak biscuits and gravy, Green Belly MTG, M House eggs and bacon and Wholly moly bars. We really liked he MTG due to ease. Should have brought more small tortillas and pancake mix.

Lunch = Salami cheese crackers smokies and olives, ramen with mountain house chicken, B hole sandwich, PB and J

Dinner = Peak, GTG and Heathers Choice

Dessert = Cookie, rice crispi treat or oatmeal creme pie

Snack 1 = Pretzels, Ghardettos, trail mix or jerky
Snack 2 = Pro bar or Cliff bar
Snack 3 = Granola cachew or Honey Stinger
Snack 4 = Snickers, M and Ms or Kind bar
Snack 5 = Gummy bears, swedish fish or peach rings

Drinks = Coffee, tea, lemonade, Crystal Light, Ignite, Gatorade and bone broth

Spices etc = salt, dill, Montreal steak seasoning, cajun seasoning, garlic, olive oil, onion, butter, Taco bell sauce

Lessons learned. Oatmeal creme cookies bust up easy. Needed a better liquid recovery plan. Swap out electrolytes for lemonade and crystal lite. More bone broth. GTG meals were very good specifically thai curry, chicken gumbo and mushroom risotto. Street taco size four tortilla with a spoon of mashed potatoes and heart/tenderloin is still dang good. Grayling. Wow made them with lemon pepper / butter and blackened. Awesome white and meaty fish.

Slugz · Oct 6, 2023

Slugz · Oct 13, 2023

Meat Care

To put the comments in perspective we shot both bulls the same day one am one pm. Mine ended up in water and my sons on dry land. Moose one was broken down and floated to camp out of a slough to the main river then 30 yards to our river bank camp, then bagged and on racks. Moose two was shot on dry land 30 yards from the river, broken down, bagged, loaded on a small raft and floated to camp 60 yards away then put on racks. The day we shot em was the first night below freezing. I was very relieved the temp turned as prior to that day it was humid and raining 70% of the time.

We used 60inch Club game bags and we liked the handle at the bottom. Easier to move quarters with two people than other game bags I used. I think next time I'll mix bags and add in some bags meant for boned out meat also. If I'm gonna have to go heavy I'd rather have a tall skinny bag that mushrooms out less.

We used Montana Knife Company knives. I think Cub and Beartooth Skinner. I like a solid blade when working on an animal that big. Wyoming pack saw worked well on the ribs. I may switch to a fine tooth carpenter saw next time (12-14 inch model maybe)

Tyvek sheets were used as meat tarps on the ground to organize things then as covers on the racks when it rained. SO DST tarps then were used where we had a more permanent meat stash while waiting to fly out. We had citric acid but didn't use it and a thermometer to ensure we got core temps down quick.

I ran Kifaru frame/pack and the son a Mystery Ranch with a cargo panel. Both worked fine with no issuses and were used to move both moose 300 yards as we portaged from a stream to the pick up lake. Next time I may take a frame style as I was wanting something higher to tie the quarter to in order to reduce sway.

We donated one moose to a local town and shuttle company and brought the other home via Fred Meye fish boxes and AAC straight to Denver. All in all the plan worked, gear worked and will only make some very minor tweaks next time.