casper50
(.400 member)
18/01/14 05:32 AM
Thought I'd post last fall's hunt here.

We go to the same place every year. We have done it 9 times now. Our tally is 6 moose 2 grizzly and 1 caribou. It's a 150 mile float trip. We usually give it 10 days but if we get our moose early we just float on out. This year it rained on us 6 of 9 days. We were the last ones down the river this year. We usually try and go the day before opening day but decided to delay for a week and try and get them closer to the rut. Seems to have payed off. We had stopped at two of our usuall places but very few moose tracks. Thousands of wolf tracks. I guess the wolves had chased/killed the moose out/off. On the 5th day, 1st day of sunshine, we were moving down river and I saw the 47"s paddle flash way up on a hillside. We raced to shore and changed out of our waders to start the stalk. We had to cross 588 yards, ranged, of tundra. To those that haven't had the pleasure of walking on tundra I'd suggest you decline if offered the opportunity. Knee high tussocks of grass 6 to 12" across interspersed with thigh deep 6" wide gullys half of which hold water. Anyway, we closed to within 450 yds and he started down the hill towards us. Grins all around, any distance cut off of that haul would be gravy. At 280 yds he crossed our wind, we knew that he was going to so we were ready and when he stopped to look towards us my brother shot him. He went about 20 yds and piled up. Our largest moose taken on that river so far. Took 3 guys 4 hours to process and carry him to our rafts. Did I mention that the whitesoxs, small gnat sized bitting insects, were hungry? They leave welts about the size of a dime on you. They itch like crazy. We floated another 2 hours to a good campsite and camped for the night. Woke up through the night to the sound of rain on the tent. It didn't stop the next day. We decided to float to the next site where we stop for a few days to hunt. On the way I spy the 2nd moose on the bank browsing. I grab the rifle and tell my brother to oar us to the bank. I look back at where the moose is and he's gone. I jumped off of the raft as soon as we are close enough to shore and climb over the bank to look for him. The area is fairly open luckily and I see him to my right at about 75 yds. I take the safety off and he starts trotting to my right quartering away. I lead him like a duck and pull the trigger. He falls in a heap, raises his head one time and never moves again. I honestly don't even remember getting a sight picture with the iron sights it happened so fast. The 400 grain barnes TSX did a superb job. We were within 70 yds of the river so this time the job only took about 2.5 hours. We now have both rafts loaded down with almost 600lbs of meat and bone each so they are setting pretty low in the water. But, we are happy campers indeed. The next day was sunny and we loafed around camp drying everything out. Took us 2 more days to float out to the pick up point. Some more photos.








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