Home Forums Hunting & Shooting General Big Game DIY Moose/caribou experiences. .please share

I have really been toying with this idea of doing a diy moose/caribou/ black bear hunt in AK in a couple yrs. I know there will be a ton of planning if this happens. Any of you guys that have done this type of hunt please share your experiences. Pointers? Helpful ideas? Must haves?

Thanks,
Josh

bring with you some young and in shape friends you ll thank me for that advice ...

Do NOT shoot moose near water unless you have some heavy equipment capabilities.

However, if you do have both the right equipment and vehicle access to the water within reasonable distance, floating a moose in the water may be easier.

Mostly: THINK AHEAD. A moose is a serious mountain of heavy. I could not budge nor turn my first one over by myself where it fell.

The easiest moose I ever handled was deliberately shot when standing in water deep enough that we could float/drag it. We had an 8 foot inflatable with a 4 horse motor and towed it a mile to a gravel bar where we could pull it out with a 4x4 pick-up. We didn't gut while we floated it to keep sand out of the carcase and also to make sure it floated well. You have to be sure of terrain, access, etc. I wouldn't start down an unknown water course towing a moose...

For an example of what NOT to do, I read about 2 guys from the east who'd never hunted anything bigger than whitetails. They booked for a DIY drop camp in AK. They had no idea just how big a moose really is. On their 1st day, they hiked a good 5 miles from camp where one shot a big bull. They spent their entire week packing it back to camp, passing several better bulls within a mile of camp.

CNS placement works just fine. When it works! Mostly.

The operative word being "near". And not heading full bore toward and just a few yards away from water at the time.

Don't ask.... but,

Momentum is a bitch!

Imagine shooting a critter the size of a quarter horse and figuring out how to get it it out without spoiling.

You'll also want to make sure that you can get to and recover one in the place you happen to see a shootable moose. I've had to pass on several over the years for that very reason.

Just watched a video on You Tube on 2 brothers that planned for 2 years and did a float trip. History on their training and the while hunt ...thought pretty cools.....lots of work to plan. Even tougher it looked to cut weight out for their flight out.

Thanks guys. I killed a nice bull in Maine last year so i have a bit of an idea about the size of those critters. Logistics seem to be the huge concern. I dont even have a clue what a diy drop camp type hunt would cost. $3-4K??

Are you going to fly-in somewhere for moose? If so, tack on another $1500-$2000 and you're in the ballpark. The last remote moose hunt I did was in 2006 and it cost me $3500 but that included a raft rental as well.

Set your priorities as to what you want to shoot the most and go from there. You can take all 3 of your listed critters but it won't be easy.

A moose is very heavy. Simply rolling one over while alone is quite a task. Do the Alaska style butcher job. Caribou are no problem.

I did a barren ground caribou drop camp several years ago. They were about the size of a cow elk. I killed two. great fun and well worth the money. We saw moose and griz too, but didn't hunt them.

If the moose thing scares you as far as getting it out, simply do a caribou hunt. I would wait a little later in the year, say Oct or so to get better pelts, though the weather can delay planes.

I plan to do it again sometime relatively soon.

Learn how to "Indian Quarter"
Waterproof everything.
Practice building a fire in the shower with COLD water.
Multiple fire starting methods.
MRE's float.
DON'T shoot a moose in the water.

A partner and I did a 10 self guided float trip in 02
110 miles of wild river above the Arctic Circle
2Lb Grayling,10 Lb Shee fish 65 " Moose, 4 Caribou and 2 wolves.

DO IT! DO IT! DO IT!

Ravenr...did you two have an inflatable yacht? Thats alot of meat/gear/hides.

Sounds fuggin awesome!


Josh

Remember a quartering tool...a small chainsaw, face shield, and enough gas.

think seriously about what you want as a mount. I have learned to love European mounts. cape and head weigh about 15 tons.





by the time you get them packed out

JoshK
Yes we had a 15 ft raft with a self bailing floor and a 2300Lb load limit.
Rented it from a outfitter in Kobuk Ak.
Don't think this guy is operating any more, tried to catch up with him a few yrs ago to do it again. Couldn't find him.

If you want to rent a raft, contact Larry Bartlett at Pristine Ventures. He has several models of boats that are designed for float hunting Alaskas remote rivers.

I went on my first Alaska adventure in 1987 and have retuned every two or three years since then. I certainly do not claim to be an expert on hunting in Alaska. However, over the years I have encountered problems and had questions. I wrote down the solutions and answers and I have updated the list after subsequent trips. Here is the latest version.

LOGISTICS FOR NONRESIDENT HUNTERS IN ALASKA

In Alaska nonresidents are required by law to hire a licensed guide to hunt brown-grizzly bear, mountain goats, or Dall sheep. Someday I may want to hunt one of those species and then I may hire a guide. But until that day, I prefer to do everything myself and reap the greater personal satisfaction and lower cost that comes from doing it myself. A DIY hunt is a lot cheaper than a guided/outfitted hunt and I couldn�t afford to go as often unless I do it on the cheap. So all of my Alaska trips have been DIY climbing expeditions or DIY hunts where we did all the recon and planning (that�s half the fun) and provided all of our own camping gear and food. We contracted with Alaska companies only for watercraft rental or transportation.



A 120 quart Igloo or Coleman cooler is the largest that the US Postal Service will accept without charging extra for over-sized packages. Avoid wheels and small door in the top lid. The wheels make the cooler heavier and they take up room that could be filled with contents. The door makes the cooler leak in the rain. I mailed a 120-quart Igloo cooler via US Postal Service. I think it cost about $40. Had to mail four weeks early to ensure timely arrival or pay premium costs for faster service. It was mostly filled with freeze-dried and dehydrated food and other disposable/consumable stuff. Make sure you insure your mail and mark your name and address on the outside with magic marker, then seal it shut with strapping tape.

On the departing trip I checked only a rifle case and one large duffel bag filled with clothes, hunting items and camping gear. I also take a carry-on that holds travel items, a change of clothing and hunting boots. Make sure that there are no TSA prohibited items in your carry-ons.

Gun Case: needs to be very sturdy and have locks. I use a Cabelas two-gun "Bulletproof" gun case, which does the job fine. There are many that aren't as good and a few that are better. Pelican is supposed to offer some real good gun cases. The airlines require the ammo to be in "manufacturers' original packaging" and I put it inside the gun case with everything else. You must declare your firearm at the ticket counter and have it inspected by TSA, then locked. Then you give it to the ticket agent at the counter. Your gun case gets special handling and tracking. That�s why I put all my fragile and expensive optics and electronics in the case along with my rifle. It will be delivered at a location or window separate from regular baggage. But also bring a soft case because it�s a lot more convenient in the bush plane and in the tent. The one I use floats and has hard rubber armor around the scope and receiver group. On mountaineering trips instead of a gun case, I carried a ski bag.

There are some good places to hunt that you can reach by driving from Anchorage but most of the best hunting will be accessed via a bush plane from a hub city. Alaska Airlines is the only major airlines that flies to the hub communities. I have an Alaska Airlines VISA credit card that accumulates air mile points. So I fly for free all the way to the hub community. If you want to hunt in Alaska, you should get one. The other major carriers do not fly to hub communities. I�ve flown on Alaska Airlines to Anchorage, Juneau, Dillingham, Kotzebue, Sitka and Kodiak. On one trip my buddy used Penn Air to fly to Dillingham and they left some people's baggage in Anchorage. He had to wait for two days for his gear to arrive. In the panhandle, you can get to some remote communities on the Alaska Marine Highway ferry system, but you have to adapt your schedule to the ferry schedule. You can also rent a boat in the panhandle.

Airline flight schedules between the lower-forty-eight and Anchorage Airport can be awkward. It�s common to arrive around midnight in Anchorage and depart for a hub community at 06:00AM or 07:00AM the next morning. So it�s not really worth it to leave the airport and sleep in a motel. As a result it�s common to see people sleeping in the terminal on out-of-the-way benches with their gear beside them.

There are several regularly scheduled regional airlines including Peninsula Airlines (PennAir) that fly�s mostly around the Katmai Peninsula and Bristol Bay. Bering Air uses eight-passenger �Caravan� turbo props and they have hubs in Kotzebue and Nome. They have their act together. I�ve also flown with a couple of services in the panhandle. Air Excursions uses little bush planes. Once they had to leave half of our baggage on the tarmac in Kake because the plane was too small to carry everything. I�ve also flown with Wings. They also use Caravans and IMO seem to have a more professional operation than Air Excursions. Wright Air flies out of Fairbanks to many of the smaller communities, in the region. ERA-Hageland (RAVN) is another regional airlines and they claim to be as big as all of the other regional airlines combined. I suppose that there must be more, but these are the only ones that I'm familiar with. They are operated like municipal bus systems, expensive but a lot cheaper than using a bush plane to get to the smaller bush communities.

Talkeetna is a quaint little town that is the main jumping-off point for flying climbers onto Mount McKinley. There are several skilled bush pilots that fly out of the FAA airport there. I don�t know for sure, but I wonder if you could get a good deal on flights during hunting season because the climbing season is over by then and maybe the pilots might welcome the business of flying hunters into the Talkeetna Mountains. I�ve flown with Hudson Aviation and K2, both were real good. If you do an Internet search for �Anchorage Talkeetna Shuttle� you will find several companies offering ground transportation from the Anchorage airport to Talkeetna.

If you need liquor, you have to plan ahead to make that happen. Beer is bulky and heavy and considering all the restrictions and costs associated with baggage on commercial airlines, beer is probably not your best bet. So if you need alcohol you probably want to buy it in Anchorage. Pack it in plastic bottles so that it won�t leak and put it in your checked baggage. You can buy liquor in Anchorage but that�s not necessarily true in the hub communities. Some hub communities have no restrictions on the sale of alcohol and some are damp, which means you can bring in your own liquor but there is none for sale in the community. Bush communities with a high percentage of Native American residents are generally dry.

Rent a satellite phone. They are the only way to communicate with your pilot. Look for Outfitter Satellite Phones on the Internet. http://www.outfittersatellite.com/ or http://www.satellitephonesolutions.com/

Prices in cities that are on the road system are only slightly higher than in the lower forty-eight. Kodiak and Juneau are large enough that the prices there are only about 10% higher than in the lower forty-eight. Plan on paying about double in the hub communities and expect prices to be higher than that in bush communities. You cannot carry fuel on an airliner so you have buy your fuel in the hub community. I�ve paid as much as $26/gallon for white gas. Bring everything else from home and avoid restaurants if you can.

Lodging was really expensive too. We paid $150/night for a sleazy hotel in Dillingham, in 2004. Nicer places were even more expensive. If I were to return to Dillingham, I would stay at the King Fisher Inn. They charge $75/person/night. But that includes free use of a car. It's a nice, new, clean B&B and they have two bungalows that can sleep four people each. I paid $100/night to stay at Bibbers B&B in Kotzebue in 2007. It was clean and respectable. In fact, the owner likes to interview hunters to make sure that they�re going to treat the place with respect. In 2009, we returned early to Kotzebue and had to get some lodging without reservations. The only place that had rooms was the Nulagvik Hotel which is about equal in quality to a Motel 6. It cost $245/night. In 2013, we stayed one night at the Best Western in Kodiak and it cost only $108/night. Best of all, try to avoid lodging all together and camp in the bush until the last day. You can reserve/rent remote US Forest Service cabins, in the Tongass National Forest at a very reasonable cost. http://www.fs.fed.us/r10/tongass/cabins/cabin_info.shtml Also in the Chugash NF. http://www.fs.fed.us/r10/chugach -> Recreation.

If you go to Kotzebue, you should rent something (anything) from Walt Maslen at Northwest Alaska Backcountry Rentals. http://www.northwestalaska.com/ . The rental gear comes with free advice and recon that�s priceless.

Also if you hunt out of Kotzebue, make sure that your pilot does not drop you on one of the rivers that are close to KOTZ. The pilots like to make short flights because they can make more of them but the best hunting in mid-September will be further away. If you can wait to hunt in early October, the �bou might be closer to KOTZ. Most bush pilots stop flying north of the Noatak River on September 30. We flew with Northern Air Trophy, in 2007 and we used Northwestern Aviation in 2009. Both are based in Kotzebue and I would fly with both pilots again. I flew with Tik-Chik Airventures, out of Dillingham, in 2004 and I would use them again also. In 2013, we flew with Andrew Airways in Kodiak. They did a good job while fighting miserable weather conditions. I guess you get used to that if you live on Kodiak Island. Book your bush pilot as soon as you can. Most of them will be booked up before the end of January.



If you are going to be anywhere near a river, then go prepared to fish. Arctic char, Dolly Varden, rainbows, graylings, and pike follow the salmon up the rivers. Cast anything orange into the river. We killed 'em using big orange spoons and orange plastic eggs. My buddy tied some orange parachute chord onto a hook so it looked like a salmon egg and caught several fish using that. I took 6 pound monofilament and the pike chewed it up. I switched to 15# Spiderwire. It's just as light and much stronger. Another guy did well using little red plastic eggs and dropped them into the water just behind a run of spawning salmon where two rivers met.



On each trip, we took a little extra food and each time we returned with some food left over because we were eating game meat and fish. Half of a freeze-dried entre' compliments fish nicely. However, I've heard many stories about bad weather preventing pilots from picking up hunters for several days. A buddy was hunting on the Alaska bush on 9/11/01 and all planes were grounded. He was in the bush for an extra week and had no clue why the pilot didn�t come to pick them up (no sat phone). They ate their extra rations and then they ate lots of game meat, fish, and wild berries while waiting for the plane. In 2013, we experienced firsthand how unpredictable weather can extend your time in the bush. Don�t forget to bring a little extra fuel also.



Clothing � In southern Alaska (panhandle, Kodiak, Alaska Peninsula) it rains so often that things never dry out and you have to be prepared to deal with that and have a way to dry out wet clothing. It�s important to find a dry place to setup your tents and that can be difficult. Elsewhere things actually dry out occasionally and it�s easier to find dry places for tents. Be prepared for temps hovering around freezing. It will probably rain/snow at least once during the hunt and may rain/snow for the entire hunt. You need a set of bib waiders so you can cross rivers, and a Gortex/Nylon Parka. You need a pair of leather hiking boots with really good ankle support so you can cross marsh mounds without breaking an ankle. A pair of Kennetreck Hardscrabble boots is a good choice. On Kodiak you need real, durable rain gear tops and bottoms. Orange clothing is not required in Alaska but it's not a bad idea to wear an orange hat so you friends can spot you at a distance.

If it's warm, you will have to be concerned with keeping your meat from spoiling while waiting to return to the bush community. We put our meat in game bags, kept it clean and hung it up every night covered by a tarp to keep it dry. We saw that some other hunters had placed their meat in a side braid of the river so that the cold water kept the meat cool. We also used Game Saver citric acid spray. You mix the powder with water in a spray bottle and it works great. I ordered it over the Internet from Indian Valley Meat Co., in Indian Valley, AK. http://www.indianvalleymeats.com/about.htm

BTW meat processing and storage was really expensive. De-bone the meat and put it in clean game bags that you bring from home. In 2004, there was a guy operating a huge walk-in freezer in Dillingham and he had setup cutting tables outside that hunters could use to de-bone the meat. In some Alaska game management units, it�s illegal to debone the meat until you arrive at a city that has an airport. It was expensive to keep the meat in his freezer, but well worth it if you compare that to the fines imposed for wanton waste of game meat. There are no public freezer facilities in Kotzebue. Alaska Airlines has a freezer facility in Kotzebue for freezing and shipping frozen cargo, but they will not allow storage overnight. So you have to arrive at the terminal early in the morning and get the meat into the freezer for an afternoon flight. Also, you have to be a "Known Shipper" for the airlines to accept your meat as air cargo. It takes a month or so to get through the TSA red tape to become a "Known Shipper". In Kotzebue, there is a well established network for notifying locals of hunters wanting to donate game meat. All of the panhandle hub communities have freezer facilities for freezing fish and most can also handle meat from big game animals. I�ve read that Alaska Air Cargo is � the cost of Fed EX and UPS, but I haven�t used them myself. There�s a meat processor at 7th and M streets in Anchorage.

It has rained or snowed every time that I have been to Alaska and you need to be prepared to hunt in the rain and bad weather. But there have also been some sunny days on each trip. Imagine how clear and clean the air is in a place where there are no cars and the air is washed clean by rain half the time. Setup a rain fly outside your tent so you are not confined to the tent in the rain. Limbs from willows and alders make for passable poles. We used several strategies for rain shelters; driftwood and the oars from the raft on one trip, just the rain fly and poles only on another trip, and on other trips we simply took a 6-man dome tent with a big vestibule. Each strategy has its� pros and cons.



I was expecting to encounter insects in Biblical swarms. But they weren't as bad as I had expected. We all had repellent but we didn't need it all the time. When we did need it, it worked. This was the situation in the spring and fall. I suppose that they may be worse in July and August.

If you are going to use a raft, then take some good hip waders. Make sure to assemble your raft and check everything out before your pilot leaves. When we floated out of Dillingham, we had two rafts for four people. One of the pumps didn't work. If they had been alone they literally would have been up a creek without a raft because the pilot left before they knew the pump was bad. Also one of the valves had a slow leak and we had to keep refilling that raft. In 2009 we had to cross a fast flowing river. Three of us had bib waders and we locked arms while crossing so we were OK. But the fourth guy had hip waders and he couldn�t cross because the water was too high/fast and his waders would have filled with water and pulled him under.



I have used USGS maps and compass wandering and exploring over North America for more than 50 years and I am really confident with that system. But I got to use my GPS on one trip and learned what extra features it has to offer. It was worth the investment and I will carry it on future AK adventures. Mark the degrees (improve what's already there) on the margin of your map for pinpoint navigation, then have your map laminated at Kinkos.

We carried small Motorola two-way radios in case of emergency. We didn�t use them though, because radio recon for hunting is illegal. If you communicate via radio, your hunting is done for the day.

We used Leupold 10x42 binoculars in 2007. In 2009, my buddy showed up with a pair of Schwarovski 15x56 binos (@+$2,200) mounted on a tripod and used them to spot a black bear from five miles away. So I bought a pair of Nikon Action Extreme 16x50 binoculars ($220) and a tripod. They don�t perform anywhere near as good as those Swarovskis. I�m thinking of investing in a pair of Vortex 15x56 binoculars ($1,200). We both had chest harnesses attached to our binos.

I use to use a wood/blue rifle and my buddy used a Remington 7600, blue with synthetic stock and Leupold Scope. We didn�t have any corrosion problems until we got back into a warm building. Moisture condensed on the cold barrels and they rusted inside the gun cases and I had to re-blue mine when I got home. It�s probably not a good idea to open up a gun case and dry your rifle inside the airport terminal. TSA might frown on that. They have no sense of humor. I tried using a silicone impregnated gun sock on a subsequent trip but the barrel still rusted. I finally bought a T/C Icon Weathershield 30-06 rifle with a Leupold VX-3 scope. It�s heavy and ugly but extremely durable, weatherproof and MOA accurate. We met some native subsistence hunters who use small caliber rifles and shoot caribou from a boat, at close range while they are crossing a river. They said that it is part of their overall strategy to waste as little of the animal as possible.

We used MSR �Whisperlite� stove on one trip and an MSR �Dragonfly� on another trip and MSR �Alpine Guide� pots. Don't forget a frying pan. We fried the fish in 1/8" water plus a little margarine. I didn�t see any butane for sale in hub community stores. So, if I had taken a butane canister stove, I would have been out of luck and would have to buy another stove before going into the field. I only saw white gas and propane for sale in the stores.

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We used a Cabelas XPG Expedition, 4-season, 4-person tent for two people, which weighs 13#. That tent has lots of room so you don�t get on each others nerves so much. On a float hunt the only weight you have to worry about is that which your bush pilot will impose so as not to overload the plane. We�ve used an REI Base Camp-6 tent for our rain shelter and I thought that the wind broke a tent pole. When I got home, I discovered that the problem was simply a loose ferrel that easily popped back into place. Whatever tent you use, make sure that you use every single extra tie-down that the tent offers, to combat wind.

The only thing that I regret about the caribou hunt in �07 is that we were not as selective as we could have been. We saw thousands of caribou and it reminded me of the Serenghetti Plain on some National Geographic TV special. Both of us shot respectable bulls before noon on the first day that we could legally hunt. You cannot hunt on the same day that you fly. But we saw bigger bulls while carrying meat back to camp.

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On that trip, we rafted 80 miles back to an Eskimo bush community and flew back to Kotzebue on Bering Airlines. Meeting an Eskimo family and spending the night in their home, was one of the highlights of the trip.

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My buddy took some T.T.C. (Taxidermy Trophy Compound) https://www.bringmin.com/catalog/index.php and used it to treat the capes in the field. It�s lighter than salt. If you are not returning to the lower forty-eight immediately, put some �Stop Rot� on the cape. I left mine at the meat processor for two weeks and instructed them to keep it frozen. They put it in a cooler (not a freezer) and it was ruined.

US Postal Service: You don't want things to get lost so mark your name and address on the outside of all packages in such a way that it can't possibly get lost, torn off, etc. They will accept some really odd looking packages so long as they are within certain dimensional restrictions. I have mailed two sets of caribou antlers via US Postal Service and they arrived in perfect condition. Cut the skull plate in half and nest one antler inside the other, tape them together and cover all the points with cardboard and duct tape. It looks really awkward but works fine. I also mail back my large duffel bag full of clothes and camping gear. I used the same cooler to carry frozen meat, as my luggage on the plane and I mailed my gear home, again with USPS. I froze the meat, put it in the cooler and it was still frozen when I got home.

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OTHER THINGS I HAVE LEARNED

I hate marsh mounds.

Bush-whacking through second-growth rain forest is a PITA.

Don't setup your tent on frozen muskeg. It looks inviting but sooner or later it will thaw.

Use a sleeping bag with synthetic insulation if you are going to camp in southern Alaska.

A bull moose is bigger and heavier than a horse. Plan accordingly.

You need to own all your gear and be an experienced camper. You need to know what you are doing in the wilderness, must be self-sufficient and know how to survive when everything goes wrong. Once the plane leaves, you are on your own until it comes back. Have a backup plan, contingency for emergencies. Expect some gear to break or fail and be ready to repair it or adapt to do without it. Expect someone to get injured or sick and be prepared to care for them. You need to be proficient at wilderness navigation so you can hike three or four miles from camp into unfamiliar country and get back to camp at night, in the fog or in a howling blizzard.

Good luck, have a great adventure and a safe hunt.

KC

Great info. Thanks for taking the time to share!

Josh