First Moose Hunt

[johnnycake]

hopefully this works....

Oof, yeah I'd have killed that bull He's mid 50s all day long. But 7 years ago on my first moose hunt I don't know that I would have been as confident.

 

[Rabbit46]

Loved looking at these pictures and watching your video. Beautiful country. Thanks for sharing.

 

[DapperDan]

He's definitely not a no brainer +60". And it is for sure always nice to have the brow tines requirement met. I'm pretty sure that bull would be around 52" minimum, maybe as big as 55" if he has tines that stick out.

The paddles on him are pretty wide and there's still a lot air between the insides. That's usually a good base point to see that he's probably over 50". He also doesn't look cupped up, and appears to have pretty flat beams. That's another good reference point that he's probably not in the 40s. Neither of those are perfect metrics, but they do hold true most of the time.

In the press of the moment he'd be a tough one for me to be confident about unless I had a solid few minutes to look him over.

here ya go. you cant see it in the video but there were no tines sticking out past his paddles. I looked for that with all that time i had to clearly judge him.

we moved after i cut the cam off and just never was able to get a great look or a clean shot. most likely for the best. fish and game hovered over us a few hours later in the helo so better safe than sorry. even if fish and game didnt fly by i would have to self report if he was too small.

also, any input on anything i could have done differently in this situation as far as calling i would appreciate the input. the cracking was me breaking sticks while his head was behind the tree followed by a short cow call. then my not too impressive bull grunts later in the video... lol

 

[DapperDan]

Loved looking at these pictures and watching your video. Beautiful country. Thanks for sharing.

the first video was a joke lol. thats my wife calling. was waiting on the other video to load on youtube so i could post it. sorry i dont have better zoom. was filming on a sony a7iii with 24-105 mm zoom and i didnt have the digital zoom on. i had just put the camera on the tripod and sat down when i looked up and saw his paddle.

 

[johnnycake]

At 3:08 you can see his left side has a tine that goes 2-3" past the edge of the paddle. As he's walking a little before that in the video you can see a similar tine on his right. That's a ~55" bull.

 

[DapperDan]

At 3:08 you can see his left side has a tine that goes 2-3" past the edge of the paddle. As he's walking a little before that in the video you can see a similar tine on his right. That's a ~55" bull.

you have better eyes than me! I just wasn't confident enough to risk it. if i saw him tomorrow id still let him walk. lol

 

[johnnycake]

you have better eyes than me! I just wasn't confident enough to risk it. if i saw him tomorrow id still let him walk. lol

And that's never the wrong answer!

 

[DapperDan]

so, not having the most experience rafting ( close to zero ) this is my answer to when friends ask "how was it rafting down the river?"

and for the record, I was as semi pro by the end of the trip!

 

[DapperDan]

 

[Catchfish]

Video makes me want to correct my earlier response, he appears to be laid back pretty good, nice palm size I would be willing to bet he was legal. But if your not sure not a problem on waiting you can’t pull a bullet back so I applaud you for the control.

 

[DapperDan]

Video makes me want to correct my earlier response, he appears to be laid back pretty good, nice palm size I would be willing to bet he was legal. But if your not sure not a problem on waiting you can’t pull a bullet back so I applaud you for the control.

My wife was shooting, not me. That would leave a bad taste in her mouth if he was under. I just didn’t want to risk it and just didn’t get enough time to get a clear look. Even with a ruler after the fact it’s close. lol.

But I appreciate your compliment


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[khunter]

great photos! thx for sharing

 

[SDArcher7]

Great experience, I too was unsuccessful this year but A LOT was learned and as someone else said, I now have more knowledge and more motivation to get it down next year!

 

[DapperDan]

Great experience, I too was unsuccessful this year but A LOT was learned and as someone else said, I now have more knowledge and more motivation to get it down next year!

My pocket book won’t allow for it again next year. lol. Plus with the wife having a baby I’m gonna wait until she can shoot one. I always try to let her kill first.

Honestly, I’m still salty about the amount of people in a “remote” area. I’m gonna do a lot of phone calls and questioning before I book another hunt for moose.


My idea of hunting remote is to go past the ends of the earth. Get me as close as you can and I’ll go the rest of the way on foot.


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[gpatton12]

Pros: all gear preformed to expectation except the "commercial pump" given to us to inflate the raft. Unless you pressed the plunger down at a certain angle on a certain side of the pump it wouldn't push any air. almost all other gear was our own. I did have a bullet get briefly lodged in the chamber when unloading my rifle. first time that has ever happened. I went to eject the shell after several days and the casing came out but bullet stayed in. Was able to get the bullet out by racking the empty casing into the chamber hard then slamming the chamber open. all other ammo cycled just fine. Once I loaded the gun it stayed in the tent the entire time. The upper section of the river was beautiful and consisted of alpine/tundra. lots of blueberries and the fishing was great with gin clear water. and, as always, my wife being with me makes every single trip. she stayed on me about calling every 20 mins (as per the guide instruction that we talked to). By minute 23 she was on me about calling again. lol. the guide did end up putting his hunter on a 65" bull that I saw in person at Chatna lodge. I was a young kid hunting with his grandpa for a college graduation gift. the Guide said they got very lucky and just happened to stop in his bedroom the second to last day. Also, as mentioned, the gracious hospitality of the husband and wife at Chatna Lodge. Super gracious people.

The cons: I asked every question in regards to hunt pressure, number of typical hunters, etc. I even called fish and game and they said that there weren't many hunters in this area. In total, there was us two, a group of 3, as well as two guides and clients that were floating. There was also a spike camp on a ridge from most likely a cub that dropped them and no idea how many hunters in that group. Then there were the jet boats that hunted the lower half of this 30 mile section of river.... So, yeah, not freaking remote.... And the person that rented us the raft was also the person that I was getting info from. He was shocked to hear about the jet boat camp (although he has clients that go every year) even though the guides said they have been hunting in there the last 4 years or longer. I get it, it's public hunting... But shouldn't you know more about the river you send people down??? Especially that info??? It's safe to say, I won't be headed down that river any time soon. I also found out (after the fact) that I could have cut my transport cost in HALF by shipping my gear to Iliamna or flying it to Iliamna then taking a flight from there into the field.... Another detail left out from the raft guy. Even with the river coming up he was adamant that we dont go to Iliamna and stick to the original pick up point whish was another 15 miles downriver.... Makes sense after talking to the pilot flying us to Iliamna and speaking to the other group that had hunted it the year before...

I was very specific about the type of hunt we wanted/expected and never thought we would be totally alone given how it seems the number of hunters in Alaska seems to keep growing. But, I didn't expect two other float hunters (two being guided) and for sure not a drop camp. And I sure as hell didn't expect jet boat hunters on a "remote" river. So, safe to say I won't be using his services in the future. I get he can't control the hunters that are in the area, but how do you not know there have been jet boat hunters that have been on this river for 4 years....

All in all, we had a heck of an adventure as we always do. We definitely learned a lot regarding to floating and moose hunting. We also come to realize that sitting on a river bend staring at the same scenery for 6 days in a row isn't our style. lol. We defiantly want to moose hunt again but glassing and seeing the actual country we are hunting is going to be a must.

Man what an awesome hunt and thanks so much for sharing all of this!!!