G
Garion33
Guest
LAST EDITED ON Oct-26-09 AT 01:52AM (MST)[p]Hello all, I went on a 10 day float hunt in Sept, and thought you might like to see the pictures.
We flew in on an absolutely gorgeous day. It seemed like you could see forever.
This is my partner, Brent, getting ready prior to putting the raft into the river.
We had great weather and clear water. It was in the 60s most days. Great camping weather, not so great hunting weather, but I'm not complaining.
We floated downriver about 8 miles the first day. Moose season opened the next morning. We hunted opening morning, but didn't see anything. Around lunch time back at camp, this small band of Caribou appeared across the river and crossed to our side about 60 yards above camp. Caribou was not open in our area.
This shot is of the biggest bull in the group. Nice Bull!
We hunted that evening and next morning. Brent saw a small paddle bull, but could not get a shot. We decided to float down river another 8 miles or so. We set up this camp on a nice grassy bench. There were Moose tracks and trails all over it. I am looking at the various trails. It seemed like a great spot.
Just before dark, I spotted a bull upriver about 150 yards from camp. Brent and I grabbed our rifles/binos to take a look. He seemed to be in the 42-45 inch range and I was looking for something bigger. Brent asked if he could take him. I looked at him again, and since he hadn't grown any bigger, I said to take him. Brent moved up a bit, found a good rest, and got ready to take the shot. The wind had shifted some and was now blowing towards the bull. He looked towards us, didn't seem to care, and started drinking from the river. He finally presented the proper shot and Brent took it. 1 shot from his 300 Win Mag and the bull dropped on the spot at rivers edge. This was Brent's first bull and he was ecstatic. After the high fives and handshakes, we went up for the pictures. Now the hard, but fun work started. We shot the bull around 830pm and didn't get back to the tent until 345am. Kind of a long night.
About 800am, we heard a bull grunting from what seemed like right outside the tent. I grabbed my rifle to see if we could get lucky, but I didn't see anything, just heard the bull grunt some more as he moved deeper into the timber behind camp. We saw another bull at this location around 1030am, but he was only in the 36 inch range, so we just admired him as he crossed the river. The next day, we loaded up our raft, a SOTAR Radical, and floated down river some more. The river was getting a bit on the skinny side, and we were hitting bottom and rocks with more frequency, but luckily, the Radical didn't need much water. we had to drag about 4 times, but only very short distances.
This was really tough country to have to put up with and the weather was horrible to boot!
Brent is taking a breather and enjoying the weather. The Moose wern't cooperating for me, but at least the weather was nice.
We saw several Eagles. This was near some kind of dead animal. We didn't see what kind because we didn't want to disturb our nations symbol.
These were our companions throughout the trip. Each day we saw them (not the same ones). They would let us get close to them, then fly downriver and wait for us to catch up to them.
This was our lucky rainbow (or at least I was hoping it was).
We spent one of our days portaging around an unrunnable (at least for us) set of rapids. This was tough moving all our gear, raft/frame, and a moose up from the river over what looked like a caribou trail, then back down to the river. I'm not whining too much as it really wasn't that bad. You just had to do it. Brent and I could handle a front quarter each, but for the hind quarters, we tied it onto an oar and we each grabbed an end. This worked great.
We spotted 2 more small bulls as we floated. Neither had much size, so we just quietly floated past and let them be. About this time, Brent asked me if I was going to take a meat bull to fill the freezer. I told him I would probably take one the last day or two of the hunt. We had 4 days left at this point. We found a nice cabin to stay in for the last 3 days of our hunt, and it had a nice large meadow (about a mile long and 1/2 mile or more wide) behind it. I spent the next 2 days hunting up river, down river, and in the large meadow without seeing anything. On the third day, I had just come back from a fruitless morning of glassing & calling. While Brent and I were talking about whether to float down river for the last 2 days of the hunt or not, I spotted movement in the meadow behind the cabin. We ran up to the edge of the meadow for a better look. It was a Moose trotting and better yet, a bull! I looked through the binos and told Brent its a nice bull. Here was a chance for my meat bull. I asked him whether we were too far from the river to pack it, and he simply said to take him. Its nice to have a partner who isn't afraid of a little work. I raised my .375, sighted, and squeezed the trigger. I expected to see him go down or at least stumble, but he just swapped ends and started running back towards the river. After a hundred yards or so, he stopped, so I shot again. Brent said I hit him, but he was still on his feet, so I shot a third time. The bull was still standing, so I shot again. As I shot, I heard Brent say he's going down. Finally, he was down. I was happy to have bagged a nice bull, but like many others a bit sad at the same time. As we walked up to him, I was guessing he was somewhere around 40-42 inches. Not a huge bull, but a nice bull. Unfortunately, I missed the first shot, hit with the 2nd & 3rd, and missed the 4th as he was going down. I was disapointed with my shooting, but happy that I didn't lose him and had lots of meat for the winter.
My bull fell about 150 yards from the river, and 300 yards down from the cabin. A couple of things we found out that we didn't have was a headnet or bug dope. The bugs were horrible in the meadow as were quartering my bull. They were so thick that we were breathing them in with each breathe. I must have swallowed a few hundred. We kept praying for a breeze. The wind would blow for a few moments, then die. The wind kept teasing us this way the whole time. This was the worst time I've had while quartering an animal. This is also a mistake I won't make again. This shot is the quarters and some of the meat. We were only partially done at this point. There was still a few hundred pounds of meat left on the carcass that we had to get.
The next day, we loaded the Radical with both bulls and floated to our finish point. This ended up as the worst day of the trip. It was cold and rainy. It ranged from an annoying drizzle to a downpour. The Radical performed flawlessly throughout the trip. It easily handled both bulls, our gear, and us. We had to go through some class III rapids heavily loaded. It gave us a minor pucker factor, but the raft handled well.
Here's another shot of the Radical loaded with both bulls. I can't say enough great things about this raft.
Here is a shot of both racks at our finish point. The rack on the left is Brent's bull and is wider, while mine is on the right and is a bit heavier. After we got back, we measured our bulls. Brent's came out at just under 49 inches, while mine was 45 inches. They aren't the biggest bulls on the block, but we were happy with them. The tenderloins were fantastic and I am looking forward to the pleasure of all the meat over the coming winter.
We didn't see many animals at all. We saw a total of 6 Moose, all bulls, and we harvested the 2 largest. We also saw 8 Caribou, zero Brown Bears, and zero Wolves. We are both Alaskan residents and would have loved the opportunity to thin out the bear/wolf population a bit.
I don't pretend to have a whole bunch of experience with rafts, but if anyone is looking and can find the Radical, I heartily recommend it. It handled everything we threw at it easily. We were constantly on rocks throughout the trip due to low water as well as bouncing off of and over rocks while going through class III rapids. You could not tell at all looking at it. This is one tough raft!
Sorry for being long-winded at times. I hope you enjoy the pictures.
Take care,
Garion33
We flew in on an absolutely gorgeous day. It seemed like you could see forever.
This is my partner, Brent, getting ready prior to putting the raft into the river.
We had great weather and clear water. It was in the 60s most days. Great camping weather, not so great hunting weather, but I'm not complaining.
We floated downriver about 8 miles the first day. Moose season opened the next morning. We hunted opening morning, but didn't see anything. Around lunch time back at camp, this small band of Caribou appeared across the river and crossed to our side about 60 yards above camp. Caribou was not open in our area.
This shot is of the biggest bull in the group. Nice Bull!
We hunted that evening and next morning. Brent saw a small paddle bull, but could not get a shot. We decided to float down river another 8 miles or so. We set up this camp on a nice grassy bench. There were Moose tracks and trails all over it. I am looking at the various trails. It seemed like a great spot.
Just before dark, I spotted a bull upriver about 150 yards from camp. Brent and I grabbed our rifles/binos to take a look. He seemed to be in the 42-45 inch range and I was looking for something bigger. Brent asked if he could take him. I looked at him again, and since he hadn't grown any bigger, I said to take him. Brent moved up a bit, found a good rest, and got ready to take the shot. The wind had shifted some and was now blowing towards the bull. He looked towards us, didn't seem to care, and started drinking from the river. He finally presented the proper shot and Brent took it. 1 shot from his 300 Win Mag and the bull dropped on the spot at rivers edge. This was Brent's first bull and he was ecstatic. After the high fives and handshakes, we went up for the pictures. Now the hard, but fun work started. We shot the bull around 830pm and didn't get back to the tent until 345am. Kind of a long night.
About 800am, we heard a bull grunting from what seemed like right outside the tent. I grabbed my rifle to see if we could get lucky, but I didn't see anything, just heard the bull grunt some more as he moved deeper into the timber behind camp. We saw another bull at this location around 1030am, but he was only in the 36 inch range, so we just admired him as he crossed the river. The next day, we loaded up our raft, a SOTAR Radical, and floated down river some more. The river was getting a bit on the skinny side, and we were hitting bottom and rocks with more frequency, but luckily, the Radical didn't need much water. we had to drag about 4 times, but only very short distances.
This was really tough country to have to put up with and the weather was horrible to boot!
Brent is taking a breather and enjoying the weather. The Moose wern't cooperating for me, but at least the weather was nice.
We saw several Eagles. This was near some kind of dead animal. We didn't see what kind because we didn't want to disturb our nations symbol.
These were our companions throughout the trip. Each day we saw them (not the same ones). They would let us get close to them, then fly downriver and wait for us to catch up to them.
This was our lucky rainbow (or at least I was hoping it was).
We spent one of our days portaging around an unrunnable (at least for us) set of rapids. This was tough moving all our gear, raft/frame, and a moose up from the river over what looked like a caribou trail, then back down to the river. I'm not whining too much as it really wasn't that bad. You just had to do it. Brent and I could handle a front quarter each, but for the hind quarters, we tied it onto an oar and we each grabbed an end. This worked great.
We spotted 2 more small bulls as we floated. Neither had much size, so we just quietly floated past and let them be. About this time, Brent asked me if I was going to take a meat bull to fill the freezer. I told him I would probably take one the last day or two of the hunt. We had 4 days left at this point. We found a nice cabin to stay in for the last 3 days of our hunt, and it had a nice large meadow (about a mile long and 1/2 mile or more wide) behind it. I spent the next 2 days hunting up river, down river, and in the large meadow without seeing anything. On the third day, I had just come back from a fruitless morning of glassing & calling. While Brent and I were talking about whether to float down river for the last 2 days of the hunt or not, I spotted movement in the meadow behind the cabin. We ran up to the edge of the meadow for a better look. It was a Moose trotting and better yet, a bull! I looked through the binos and told Brent its a nice bull. Here was a chance for my meat bull. I asked him whether we were too far from the river to pack it, and he simply said to take him. Its nice to have a partner who isn't afraid of a little work. I raised my .375, sighted, and squeezed the trigger. I expected to see him go down or at least stumble, but he just swapped ends and started running back towards the river. After a hundred yards or so, he stopped, so I shot again. Brent said I hit him, but he was still on his feet, so I shot a third time. The bull was still standing, so I shot again. As I shot, I heard Brent say he's going down. Finally, he was down. I was happy to have bagged a nice bull, but like many others a bit sad at the same time. As we walked up to him, I was guessing he was somewhere around 40-42 inches. Not a huge bull, but a nice bull. Unfortunately, I missed the first shot, hit with the 2nd & 3rd, and missed the 4th as he was going down. I was disapointed with my shooting, but happy that I didn't lose him and had lots of meat for the winter.
My bull fell about 150 yards from the river, and 300 yards down from the cabin. A couple of things we found out that we didn't have was a headnet or bug dope. The bugs were horrible in the meadow as were quartering my bull. They were so thick that we were breathing them in with each breathe. I must have swallowed a few hundred. We kept praying for a breeze. The wind would blow for a few moments, then die. The wind kept teasing us this way the whole time. This was the worst time I've had while quartering an animal. This is also a mistake I won't make again. This shot is the quarters and some of the meat. We were only partially done at this point. There was still a few hundred pounds of meat left on the carcass that we had to get.
The next day, we loaded the Radical with both bulls and floated to our finish point. This ended up as the worst day of the trip. It was cold and rainy. It ranged from an annoying drizzle to a downpour. The Radical performed flawlessly throughout the trip. It easily handled both bulls, our gear, and us. We had to go through some class III rapids heavily loaded. It gave us a minor pucker factor, but the raft handled well.
Here's another shot of the Radical loaded with both bulls. I can't say enough great things about this raft.
Here is a shot of both racks at our finish point. The rack on the left is Brent's bull and is wider, while mine is on the right and is a bit heavier. After we got back, we measured our bulls. Brent's came out at just under 49 inches, while mine was 45 inches. They aren't the biggest bulls on the block, but we were happy with them. The tenderloins were fantastic and I am looking forward to the pleasure of all the meat over the coming winter.
We didn't see many animals at all. We saw a total of 6 Moose, all bulls, and we harvested the 2 largest. We also saw 8 Caribou, zero Brown Bears, and zero Wolves. We are both Alaskan residents and would have loved the opportunity to thin out the bear/wolf population a bit.
I don't pretend to have a whole bunch of experience with rafts, but if anyone is looking and can find the Radical, I heartily recommend it. It handled everything we threw at it easily. We were constantly on rocks throughout the trip due to low water as well as bouncing off of and over rocks while going through class III rapids. You could not tell at all looking at it. This is one tough raft!
Sorry for being long-winded at times. I hope you enjoy the pictures.
Take care,
Garion33
