Morning guys
It’s been a busy hunting season, but I got it done with a SE Alaska Island moose. Me and a hunting buddy Kurtis took his boat up to the next island in our chain called Kupreanof island. I hunted the south end.
We got there on a Wednesday early after about a 50 mile run in the boat towing a small Lund. It was pretty rough going and the water was pretty stirred up after the series of storms we had been having. We got there and the winds picked up in the completely wrong direction for our hunt, and were increasing so we stayed on the 22 ft C-Dory and hunkered down to wait out the storm. Took about 2 days of hunkering down, but on the 3rd day, it broke for a few hours giving us the opportunity to hunt at first light.
We quietly rowed into one of the river channels and left the boat behind and walked into the marshy river deltas. On the first delta, we setup and called for about 2 hours. Nothing came in. So we hiked out, and hiked into the the next river system about 1/2 mile to the east. We walked up the bank of the river for about another 1/2 mile to the confluence of 2 rivers, and there he was… making a beeline for the delta where we had previously setup and called. When he came out of the brush into the open, he was 408 yards. I was shooting my 308 equipped with 150g nosler partition bullets (I know, not cast) blasting at 2800 fps. For me and my eyes, it was gunna be miracle shot and a total Hail Mary. When the bull crossed the first river and came up the other bank, I let it fly.. first shot hit him low, but solid, followed by another in rapid succession. The bull stumbled and fell into a slough with mid thigh water. I crossed the river and finished the bull with a shot to the back of the head. Then the work began. I failed to mention the weather immediately started back at us once the bull was down. Rain and bad wind.. we quartered and butchered and in 3 hours, all the meat (over 500 lbs) was loaded into the Lund and down the river we floated, with a couple bears on our tail. Sure did not want to shoot a bear even though I had a couple tags for bear.. enough is enough. In my 60’s and it’s a lot of work. It’s a young man’s game these days. Prolly my last moose hunt, but who knows. Never say never.
I took some short vid clips here they are.
Moose spotted..
Moose down.
Butcher time..
Float out..
And home canning.
Here in SE Alaska our moose don’t have the racks that interior moose have, but let me tell you they are still big.. 2 brow times on each side to be a legal bull.
Anyway, have a awesome day..
Marko