Moose Hunt
Last Tuesday Stan and I went on a moose hunt. We loaded up the sleds after work and took off towards the upper Eli and federal land of the Noatak National Preserve. Apparently there is a subsistence tag that you can fill if you didn't harvest a moose in the fall. I didn't get a moose in the fall so we were on our way. It is about a 25 mile trip which translates to about an hour ride by snowmachine. The ride was reasonably uneventful. Most of it was across the "flats" as it is called which is a wide open area between the Noatak river and the mountains. There are very few trees and very few hills, hence the name. We did see a set of bear tracks which is pretty early for here. We also saw a lot of wolf tracks but none of them seemed very fresh. We took a short break as we came over a rise overlooking the Eli. We couldn't see any moose from there so we headed into the trees down to the river. Stan had spotted a large heard of moose in the area a few weeks before when they were sheep hunting. He figured they probably hadn't gone far.
We got out onto the river and right away saw three moose that took off upriver. We tried to follow them but lost them when they got into the trees. Its a little tricky to try to look for moose and drive through the waist deep (or deeper) powder at the same time. You can't drive too fast because you have to be constantly changing directions around the trees. If you stopped you got stuck. We made a wide loop through the trees but didn't see them or flush them out. We regrouped and decided to head downriver. We started going and made it about a quarter mile downriver when we happened upon the large herd. I would say there was at least 20 maybe 30. They were in a 100 yard wide stretch of willows between a couple of river channels. The plan was for me to set up on the river facing upriver about 50 yards from the moose. Stan was going to circle around and scare them out onto the river where I would try to pick a young male from the group. Turns out that was nearly an impossible task when there were no antlers or anything to tell them apart. We wanted to get them out onto the river so that we could gut the animal without too much work. Stan gave me the thumbs up and took off in a a wide loop to push the moose out across the river. I was set up facing upriver to where the moose were supposed to cross but the moose decided not to cooperate at all. Instead of crossing the river where they were supposed too they stayed in the willows heading towards me to my right. I was all ready to fire and I just picked the moose that was nearest to me that I had a clear shot at. They were trotting by at about 35 yards. Pretty close to bow range. Stan told me to aim for the neck and that is where my first shot went. It stumbled but didn't go down. After that I pretty much forgot that I was supposed to aim for the neck and instantly reverted to years of focusing on that area above where the foreleg meets the chest cavity. I put two more shots into it and it went down slowly. I can still see the whole scene pretty vividly in my mind. I don't remember hearing anything though. I drove up to it and shot it one more time in the head to kill the moose. These things are absolutely massive. Similar to a cow but just with really long legs. Unfortunately for us it was in the deep snow. We were able to roll it onto the sled pretty quickly but to get it from where I shot it out to the river it took us almost an hour. It was probably a distance of about 50 feet. We tried hooking the sled up to the snowmachine but the snow was so deep that the snowmachine just kept getting buried. I was thinking that I wouldn't want to be a moose guide trying to pack out an animal in the fall time. We gutted it quickly and loaded it back on the sled and were on our way. We got back to Noatak at about 9:30 and had it quartered by 10:30. All said and done it was about 5 hours of work for another 2 or more months of meat. Worth the time.
Unfortunately I didn't get any pictures at all. I had the camera along when I shot it but I had it in my backpack for the ride and then when I tried to use it, it was too cold. Then I had good intentions to take some pics when we were butchering it but I forgot the camera then too. I guess I should add a few hours to that time because we went to Stan and Doris' last Saturday to butcher the meat. We cut it all up into roasts, steaks, and then ground some meat for ground and some for sausage. Oh, we made sausage too.
We got out onto the river and right away saw three moose that took off upriver. We tried to follow them but lost them when they got into the trees. Its a little tricky to try to look for moose and drive through the waist deep (or deeper) powder at the same time. You can't drive too fast because you have to be constantly changing directions around the trees. If you stopped you got stuck. We made a wide loop through the trees but didn't see them or flush them out. We regrouped and decided to head downriver. We started going and made it about a quarter mile downriver when we happened upon the large herd. I would say there was at least 20 maybe 30. They were in a 100 yard wide stretch of willows between a couple of river channels. The plan was for me to set up on the river facing upriver about 50 yards from the moose. Stan was going to circle around and scare them out onto the river where I would try to pick a young male from the group. Turns out that was nearly an impossible task when there were no antlers or anything to tell them apart. We wanted to get them out onto the river so that we could gut the animal without too much work. Stan gave me the thumbs up and took off in a a wide loop to push the moose out across the river. I was set up facing upriver to where the moose were supposed to cross but the moose decided not to cooperate at all. Instead of crossing the river where they were supposed too they stayed in the willows heading towards me to my right. I was all ready to fire and I just picked the moose that was nearest to me that I had a clear shot at. They were trotting by at about 35 yards. Pretty close to bow range. Stan told me to aim for the neck and that is where my first shot went. It stumbled but didn't go down. After that I pretty much forgot that I was supposed to aim for the neck and instantly reverted to years of focusing on that area above where the foreleg meets the chest cavity. I put two more shots into it and it went down slowly. I can still see the whole scene pretty vividly in my mind. I don't remember hearing anything though. I drove up to it and shot it one more time in the head to kill the moose. These things are absolutely massive. Similar to a cow but just with really long legs. Unfortunately for us it was in the deep snow. We were able to roll it onto the sled pretty quickly but to get it from where I shot it out to the river it took us almost an hour. It was probably a distance of about 50 feet. We tried hooking the sled up to the snowmachine but the snow was so deep that the snowmachine just kept getting buried. I was thinking that I wouldn't want to be a moose guide trying to pack out an animal in the fall time. We gutted it quickly and loaded it back on the sled and were on our way. We got back to Noatak at about 9:30 and had it quartered by 10:30. All said and done it was about 5 hours of work for another 2 or more months of meat. Worth the time.
Unfortunately I didn't get any pictures at all. I had the camera along when I shot it but I had it in my backpack for the ride and then when I tried to use it, it was too cold. Then I had good intentions to take some pics when we were butchering it but I forgot the camera then too. I guess I should add a few hours to that time because we went to Stan and Doris' last Saturday to butcher the meat. We cut it all up into roasts, steaks, and then ground some meat for ground and some for sausage. Oh, we made sausage too.
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