ibebirdman
FNG
I just got back from a DIY Alaskan moose float trip. Harvested a 57in moose on the last day of the season. I was able to accomplish this trip, in part, due to the great body of knowledge on Rokslide. In an effort to pay it forward, I wrote up some tips, tricks, and thoughts during my trip that may help someone else plan and implement their dream Alaskan hunt.
Here they are in no particular order:
Send me a PM if you want a copy of my gear list.
Joel
Here they are in no particular order:
- You need a tarp to glass and call from during bad weather. It keeps you hunting when the weather sucks. The Seek Outside DST tarps is awesome. Get 8in tent stakes for it, the tundra can be deep and 6in sometimes will not hold in the wind.
- Make set of “tundra straps” to go on the feet of your camp chair (I had a Helinox One chair) to keep it from sinking into the tundra. I made mine by sewing 2in seatbelt webbing into and X with 1.5in deep pockets on each end that the feet fit into. Worked slick.
- If you have a raft, the Flextail Max 3 rechargeable pump can fill it to 95% faster than you would ever believe, top it off with a hand pump like the K-100. I filled a Pioneer Xstream and floor in 15 minutes. Works awesome for air mattresses too, and has a led lantern to boot. I was really impressed by this piece of gear.
- Mountain House scrambled eggs wrapped in tortillas make awesome breakfasts. Bring hot sauce.
- For snacks/lunch each day, I had the following, (which I thought worked pretty well and was easy to meter out and not messy/bulky):
- 10am snack was a breakfast bar (Kind Almond-Blueberry was my favorite)
- Lunch was: 5-6 sausages (5inch in length each, I liked the Cattlemen's Cut Hunter variety best), a granola bar, and 3/4cup of trailmix
- 2pm snack was a protein bar
- Suck air out of the lunch sausage bags with needle/syringe and seal with gorilla tape to save space.
- I sized my waderboots one size larger, and added superfeet to make them more supportive. I used Shower Pass waterproof socks in the wader boots on days I was not in waders to keep my feet dry. This allowed me to save the weight of a second pair of boots for hiking that would have been rarely used.
- Scotts shop towels make EXCELLENT toilet paper. In fact Scott’s are so good, they will be a regular in my hunting camp. They are so tough, you can “do all the paperwork” with only about a half sheet.
- Bring Wipes for a sponge bath, but remember, they are not biodegradable, put in old mountain house bags instead of burying or burning. The Mountain House bags then fit perfectly into the lunch sausage bags, keeping trash organized and compact.
- I repackaged bulk mountain house into freezer ziplocks 1 week before hunt, no need for O2 absorber, saves space, trash, and money. Worked slick!
- Confirm exactly where you will get stove fuel, or anything else you plan to buy in the bush. 3 days before our flight to Alaska, on a whim I called around the town we were flying to figure out who had jet boil fuel. Everyone was sold out! Luckily our pilot had some, else that would have been a disaster!
- A quality shovel for digging poop holes is worth its weight. The Cold Steel Special Forces Shovel was awesome. On a previous trip I broke a GI style shovel on day 1!
- A floorless tent (Teepee for us) is awesome! Allows you to keep your boots on inside, ready to spring out of the tent when a grunting bull shows up and you are making dinner during a rainstorm (see #25)
- There is always water in the tundra, a waterproof ground sheet is key in your floorless tent
- Keep the tent in a separate dry bag, it is always wet, it is the first thing you setup, last thing you pack.
- Pack some Beef Bouillon cubes, about 5 days in, when you are cold and damp, these really would have hit the spot, more so than tea or coffee in the afternoon.
- Read and watch everything you can about calling moose, at least or more than judging antler width, after 3 days of constant calling with no action,you will question your technique.
- Be ready for an emotional roller coaster.There are going to be ups and downs, you have probably planned for this trip for years, which enhances every feeling. In blue sky days you will feel like king of the world, when it is dumping buckets and you are not seeing game, everything sucks. Expect it and be ready to manage it.
- Discuss real expectations and measures of success with your partner in advance and during the trip. If killing a moose is the only measure of success then consider outfitted/guided. If DIY adventure is the success and a moose on the ground is the cherry on top, then DIY may be for you.
- Inreach weather reports are an awesome tool. Builds confidence to ride out the bad stuff, and make good choices based on what is coming. We had to bail on a camp because bad weather was coming in and it would have pinned us at one location for a couple days till the water receded.
- Bring a backup water filter and/or tablets, tundra water clogs filters fast! I bet glacier water is even worse.
- You can’t spend too much on quality, breathable waders. Simms waders are worth every dollar. I went straight into bed without changing my long underwear after hunting all day, I was that dry!
- Videos show moose standing there forever, giving you plenty of time to judge, but in real life it was super brief for us, you have seconds to judge them. Be ready.
- Becoming a known shipper with Alaska Air Cargo saved us piles of money and is the ONLY way to ship gear and meat (this probably should be #1, particularly for a DIY hunt)
- Load the gun in tent before unzipping it if you hear a bull grunting at your door! (ask me how I learned that!)
Send me a PM if you want a copy of my gear list.
Joel
