On the first day heading into moose camp we experienced strong head winds with a mean rain. We used a 24ft 84inch wide Willie open bow boat sporting a 250 Honda prop driven outboard. These are phenomenal guide boats, almost unbeatable. A perfect vessel for the Yukon river hauling fuel, gear, moose meat, and passengers safely home. What I usually do is keep one dry layer like a vest and quick drying pants in a dry proof bag with my sleeping bag. This layer never ever gets wet. Ever. However, in driving rains on the verge of being snow, ripping a 16foot open bow inflatable for 8hrs straight from base camp…. in head winds going up the Yukon River, just about every layer you got is a necessity. The Ghar jacket goes on first, then the Cirius vest, then the soft shell Dalibor, sealed in nicely with the Koldo. The schoeler fabric on the interior of the Koldo is the star player.
Koldo rain shell, ghar insulated jacket, cirius vest, Dalibor jacket in Khaki, and Briareos Gloves. Winchester Repeating Arms Model 70 Extreme Weather Stainless Steel and Winchester Ammunition Expedition Big Game Long Range. Vortex Optics Scopes and Fury Binos. Spartan Precision Tripods. This was my combo of choice for our 2020 moose hunt on the Yukon River with AK-X. Bringing gear not personally tested on any hunt can be a detriment to the success experienced afield. I’ve used all sorts of gear over the years and have found select garments will usually work when layered correctly. Rain shell, soft shell, and an insulation layer like a down jacket will get you through most hunts. Keeping the under layers dry and or making sure they are fast drying is imperative.
Once at base camp, I inflated my raft and threw a 20HP Honda prop outboard on the transome. Point of the boat story is, I was in the weather from sun up to sun down. Not like we could see the sun through the rain clouds anyhow. I rocked the Koldo for days in hard core rain. To my amazement, I was bone dry throughout the adventure.
The “Ninja Turtle” gloves as I call them, Briareos gloves kept my hands dry and warm in driving rains, ripping a tiller on the “Orange Crush” 16FT inflatable in all weather conditions. On a few glorious days, we experienced some unreal beautiful weather during the peak rut. I stripped down to my Dalibor jacket and chest waiters to charge through swamps. The joke in camp was that I had a moose string on my back and bulls just kept coming to my calls. My theory was the Khaki Dalibor made me a live decoy.
The firearm calibers we used on this adventure were 300WM & 30-06 Springfield. The Firearms of choice were the Winchester XPR and Model 70 Extreme Weather Stainless Steel. The ammunition of choice across the board was Expedition Big Game Long Range 190gr. Sure helps heated situations if everyone in camp is using the same ammunition! Fortunately the knockdown power was immense and nothing got too western out there. Having the Spartan Precision Shooting system on board was a bonus for those tall grass big swamp long range shot situations, and being able to film from the Titan Tripod as well. Multiple uses from a versatile tripod.
The optics of choice were Vortex, a Razor HD LHT 3-15X50, Viper 4-16x 44, Viper 2.5-10X44, and Fury binos. They all worked well together.
Three and half days of travel, three and a half days of hunting, three and a half days travel back home, two and a half days of meat care back home; resulted in 5 bull moose that dreams are made of. The gear performed as advertised, flawlessly in adverse conditions. For more information on DIY Moose hunting in Alaska and transportation to world class DIY moose hunting check out https://ak-x.com/
