cocky84
WKR
After two years of planning and prep for our 2016 Alaska moose hunt, two worn out guys are setting in the Fairbanks airport still in disbelief of our hunt of a lifetime. We never would of dreamed that both of us would tag out on a self guided public land hunt, let alone both tags going on 60" bulls.
Since neither of us had ever hunted moose or even been to Alaska we told ourselves we would try to do this first trip as cheap as possible, to come here and take in as much info as we could to really educate and prepare ourselves for the next time. We know that if you put in enough work you can give yourself a good chance but at the same time we were trying to be realistic and not get our hopes too high.
Day 1 we were dropped of on a lake by a float plane and since we couldn't hunt that day we spent the afternoon fishing. We caught several nice northerns and cooked a couple up for dinner that night. The next morning we headed out before daylight and no more than 1/2 mile from camp we heard a bull grunting. I tried a little cow calling to him but he was either not buying it or just not interested yet. Looking back now we should of took off after him but with the wind not real perfect and not being familiar with the land yet, we positioned ourselves near a large opening so that if he came in we might get a shot at him before he picked up our scent. Never heard or seen from him again.
A half mile later we find a small rowboat on another larger lake. We decided to hop im and row around the edge a little bit. After about an hour of rowing i spot a large bull on the other side of the lake. We beach the boat and take a range. 750yrds. Too far. And with the boat being pretty scetchy we didn't want to row right across. While setting watching another even larger bull came out. We watched them awhile and they walked off.
The next morning we make our way back to the boat. I start oaring around the edge real easy looking and listening. All of a sudden i hear brush busting like crazy about 100yrds away. My natural first reaction was shit, we busted him out. But looking up seen one single tree moving and hear antlers thrashing. I give two grunts and the bull busts out about 75 yrds away looking right at us ready to fight, slightly quartering. I drew my gun and counted 4 brow tines on one side, that was all i needed. BOOM! Instead of a normal animal running away from the gunshot he runs toward the water!!! Time to unload to try to keep him out of the water. Two more shots connect and he falls........right in the water.
Now the fun was over. 11 hours straight of cutting and pulling we finally get him bagged up. Turns out to have 4 brows on each side and 60" wide. I also got a sweet souvenir as i found a bullet just inside the hide on the oposite side.
So the next day we are dragging pretty bad and dont get around as early as we should. We had scouted a place on google earth that we thought looked good so we decided to head there and give it a look. When we got there it looked even better than we thought so we immediately pulled out and decided to get there early the next morning. Since we had plenty of time to hunt and we pretty sore from the day before we decided to do a little more fishing that evening( on a different lake than where we were hunting).
Next morning we got to the spot right at daybreak. We no more than stepped out of the boat and i looked and my brother n law and said did you hear that?? As we both listened we heard it again. A bull grunting about 300-400 yrds out. We set down and got in position and i started repeating everything the bull did right back to him. I think the bull read the script. He came in as perfect as we could ask. When he came in he did not have 4 brows on one side so now we had to decide if he was over 50" wide. Since we had not seen all that many bulls on foot, we wanted to make damn sure he was legal. My brother in law looked at me and said, what do you think? Me not wanting to tell him incorrectly, I decided to put it like this. " If its me , i would take the shot!" After about 30 seconds he agreed and boom! The bull took about 10 steps back and stopped. Since my brother in law shoots some gunpowder that resembles a muzzleloader, we could not see the bull reaction of the shot. It was only 100 yrds and he is a damn good shot but he decided to put another in him just in case. Bull down! Not in the water!
Turns out we are a little too conservative on guessing width, which is good I suppose, but this one also was 60" wide.
This was definitely the most rewarding hunt i have ever done. The preparation and hunting hard paid off. We both got more than we expected and i have never been more exhausted in my life!! Love it!
Since neither of us had ever hunted moose or even been to Alaska we told ourselves we would try to do this first trip as cheap as possible, to come here and take in as much info as we could to really educate and prepare ourselves for the next time. We know that if you put in enough work you can give yourself a good chance but at the same time we were trying to be realistic and not get our hopes too high.
Day 1 we were dropped of on a lake by a float plane and since we couldn't hunt that day we spent the afternoon fishing. We caught several nice northerns and cooked a couple up for dinner that night. The next morning we headed out before daylight and no more than 1/2 mile from camp we heard a bull grunting. I tried a little cow calling to him but he was either not buying it or just not interested yet. Looking back now we should of took off after him but with the wind not real perfect and not being familiar with the land yet, we positioned ourselves near a large opening so that if he came in we might get a shot at him before he picked up our scent. Never heard or seen from him again.
A half mile later we find a small rowboat on another larger lake. We decided to hop im and row around the edge a little bit. After about an hour of rowing i spot a large bull on the other side of the lake. We beach the boat and take a range. 750yrds. Too far. And with the boat being pretty scetchy we didn't want to row right across. While setting watching another even larger bull came out. We watched them awhile and they walked off.
The next morning we make our way back to the boat. I start oaring around the edge real easy looking and listening. All of a sudden i hear brush busting like crazy about 100yrds away. My natural first reaction was shit, we busted him out. But looking up seen one single tree moving and hear antlers thrashing. I give two grunts and the bull busts out about 75 yrds away looking right at us ready to fight, slightly quartering. I drew my gun and counted 4 brow tines on one side, that was all i needed. BOOM! Instead of a normal animal running away from the gunshot he runs toward the water!!! Time to unload to try to keep him out of the water. Two more shots connect and he falls........right in the water.
Now the fun was over. 11 hours straight of cutting and pulling we finally get him bagged up. Turns out to have 4 brows on each side and 60" wide. I also got a sweet souvenir as i found a bullet just inside the hide on the oposite side.
So the next day we are dragging pretty bad and dont get around as early as we should. We had scouted a place on google earth that we thought looked good so we decided to head there and give it a look. When we got there it looked even better than we thought so we immediately pulled out and decided to get there early the next morning. Since we had plenty of time to hunt and we pretty sore from the day before we decided to do a little more fishing that evening( on a different lake than where we were hunting).
Next morning we got to the spot right at daybreak. We no more than stepped out of the boat and i looked and my brother n law and said did you hear that?? As we both listened we heard it again. A bull grunting about 300-400 yrds out. We set down and got in position and i started repeating everything the bull did right back to him. I think the bull read the script. He came in as perfect as we could ask. When he came in he did not have 4 brows on one side so now we had to decide if he was over 50" wide. Since we had not seen all that many bulls on foot, we wanted to make damn sure he was legal. My brother in law looked at me and said, what do you think? Me not wanting to tell him incorrectly, I decided to put it like this. " If its me , i would take the shot!" After about 30 seconds he agreed and boom! The bull took about 10 steps back and stopped. Since my brother in law shoots some gunpowder that resembles a muzzleloader, we could not see the bull reaction of the shot. It was only 100 yrds and he is a damn good shot but he decided to put another in him just in case. Bull down! Not in the water!
Turns out we are a little too conservative on guessing width, which is good I suppose, but this one also was 60" wide.
This was definitely the most rewarding hunt i have ever done. The preparation and hunting hard paid off. We both got more than we expected and i have never been more exhausted in my life!! Love it!
