Extreme Hunting Edge
785 Mann Hill Rd.
Tioga, Pa. 16946

Hunting Consultant: Mike Gee
Phone: 607-742-8195
Web Design: Mark Gee
Email:extremehuntingedge@yahoo.com

Hearing a Cow Moose call across from our camp for three evenings, I told Wade, "that's where we are going to start calling from, tomorrow morning".  After calling and scouting in that area until dark, our plan was to cross a brushy opening the next morning and call again.  Starting to cross a strip of timber about 75 yards across before the opening, I could see a big bull standing broadside looking straight at us. 
After years of searching for an affordable moose hunting trip in Alaska, we decided to do a do it yourself hunt using an air taxi service.  Mailing our tent and gear ahead, we picked up our gear and loaded our floatplane for a 10 day hunt out of McGrath, Alaska.  They flew four of us and two small boats to a campsite on the Innoka River.  Our agreement with the air service was for them to check on us with the signal of a blue tarp on the sandbar, near our camp or to be picked up in 10 days.  As the planes took off our stay in paradise had begun.
Having the small boats with 3 horsepower motors gave us access to lots of hunting areas up and down the river.  Wade and I went downstream the first day.  Jim and Denny hunted upstream.  After hunting about 3 miles downstream Wade and I headed back upstream, we spotted a bull on the edge of the sandbar.  The area we were hunting was a trophy bull area, meaning the bulls had to have 4 brow tines or be 50 inches wide, after glassing, we decided this bull was only about 40-45 inches wide.
Wade decided to sit across the river from the willows and sand bar while I went to the edge of a clearing 400 yards down stream  to hunt.  Sitting in some white birch saplings along the clearing I start Cow calling.

After 20 minutes of calling, I heard crashing out about 200 yds and coming.  In no time, 3 cows came busting out of the heavy brush, stopping right over my left shoulder.  Not daring to wiggle looking out of the corner of my eye, all I could see was the big head of a Cow Moose.  The Cows circled about 15 yds away then I could see the bull coming out about 30 yds behind them.  I could see he had 3 brow tines on each side, but could not tell how wide he was.  All of a sudden the cows scented me making a loud coughing sound the Moose exploded back into the brush.  What an experience on the first day of a DIY (do it yourself) hunt.
After two more days of seeing only cows we were across the river from camp hunting where we heard the cow calling in the evening.  After a day of calling and scouting, the next morning found us going just down river to sneak in where we had scouted the day before.  Leaving camp Wade and I thought we would be down river and back in the far end of the clearing before daylight, then the boat motor started sputtering.  As cold as it was out we knew there was probably water in the gas that had frozen.  Rowing to the spot down river we finally got there at day break.  Up the steep river bank we started through a small strip of timber before the clearing.  I said "Wade there's a bull at the far end of the clearing".  The bull stood right where we called from the evening before.  The bull was standing broadside looking directly at us.  We both had our rifle scopes on him, I said, "I think its a legal bull, Wade take him" Wade says, "you've done the calling you, take him".  Using a small sapling to steady the shot, I pull the trigger, the bull never movies.  I hold a little higher and shoot again the bull is hit hard in the front shoulder. The third shot hits behind the shoulder.  The bull tries to go for the thick brush, I told Wade not to let him get out of the clearing we both shot, the bulls goes down.  When we get up to the bull we could not believe how big he was.
After 9 hours of work, we check the distance to see how far the bull was on the first shot and it was over 440 yds.  The 180 gr Win Mag Winchester Supreme ballistic silver tips did its job.  After 5 days of hunting in paradise, as we called it, things took a change for the worst.  We endured 4 days of hard rain at about 36 degrees.  It not only stopped Moose from moving, but it sucked the energy out of us.  When the rain stopped it was time to tear down camp and take our equipment to the sandbar to get picked up by the planes.  The only plane that showed up was the game wardens, with a message for us,  that the pass in the mountains that the planes use when coming in from McGrath, had been locked in for 3 days, so we had at least 3 more days to wait.  After setting camp back up we had three long cold days of waiting before returning to McGrath.  Returning home and watching some of the videos of the hunt, the wives got a feel for some of the ups and downs of a hard DIY hunt.

This story was written by Mike Gee, if you would like to share your story for our hunt of the month please contact us at:

extremehuntingedge@yahoo.com