Ive hunted and fished all my life in Alaska. Its what we do and its good times and fond memories.
Date(s): March 20, 2024. Album by John Stelling. 1 - 24 of 28 Total. 517 Visits.
1 Long time hunting partner Kevin Gilson and his subsistence moose
2 Kevin, I and Steve Hood all of Valdez about to get to work.
3 This was one of my subsistance moose. I have a 8 wheel ARGO made for off road. It floats too. The beauty part of the ARGO was it would haul a whole moose quartered and two people and I could drive right up to the moose in most cases.
4 Glenn Madlock got lucky enough to win a draw for a Delta Junction buffalo. I helped him with it.
5 I hunted for around twenty years with Steve Coleman of North Pole Alaska out of his airboat. We hunted in swamps off of the Tanana River that only an airboat could access but its great habitat for moose.
6 One year the Alaska Fish and Game determined there were too many moose in a given area. If they don't reduce the herd size they overgraze and starve so they manage the numbers. This year they offered a registration cow permit which I got for just signing in. There is a cow and a bull here.
7 This is where the fun stops! We had to hand winch this whole moose with a come along out of the river and onto the bank so we could work on it. They weigh around 1200 to 1600 pounds. After this one I bought a chain saw winch.....
8 This is Steve and Karen Colemans Summit Lake Cabin. Totally different hunting area...This is in the foothills of the Alaska Range in some cases above tree level. Also great brouse for moose.
9 Tanana River landing
10 In the fall we would often see huge flocks of Sandhill Cranes migrating south. Flocks would come by is for hours honking and charttering
11 Hunting camp in the swamp. We broke camp down and put everything in drums with sealed lids and left it all over the winter. The next fall it took a couple hours to be back in business. All we needed was gas and grub.
12 Steves airboat. It has 500 horsepower so that 16 foot boat would pack a lot!! The horsepower was great for crossing over or "jumping" Beaver dams easily.
13 The swamps were constantly changing. Beaver dams were built and some went away so at times we lost access to large areas to hunt. We had to take chainsaws and blaze a trail so the airboat could jump into another swamp area.
14 Ridem cowboy....bouncing across brush piles and fallen trees....Horsepower is a wonderful thing!!!
15 Steve Colman's nephew Dave was from Washington state so he had to buy a non-resident permit to hunt that cost $1500. and he was restricted to 50" horns with 4 brow tines....He got I!!!
16 I was never a horn hunter. Did not care how big the animal was it was for meat. Fish and game management put horn size restrictions on animals to assure a good breading population. The animals had to have either a spike or fork horn or be a minimum of 50 inches with 3 brow tines. We had to be very careful before the shot not to violate!!! A moose is a LOT of meat so it was always shared between hunters in the party and anyone else in need.
17 This lodge was halfway between Nenana and Fairbanks on the Parks hi way or about 45 miles. The road left from here 13 miles to the Tanana River where we would meet the airboat and ferry meat gas and supplies out to hunting camp and back. Skinny Dicks Halfway Inn.
18 The ARGO in the high Denali country....Hunting caribou here as well as moose.
19 One year I drew a permit to hunt Muskox on Nunavak Island. It's located right out on the Bering Sea and the hunt was in March...still winter. This is the native village of Mekoryuk, the only village on the island. The only way in was to fly out of Bethel Alaska. We brought our groceries and paid air freight as they were ultra expensive there.
20 I hunted with a friend from Valdez, Ken Morgan who also drew a tag. He was hunting with a bow. We hired an "Outfitter"a local Native boy who provided us with a place to stay in the village as well as snow machine transportation to the hunt. Theres no hotels there! An outfitter cant legally be in the field while hunting but he can provide us a camp as long as he stays there.
21 On the way we saw a herd of Reindeer. The natives herd reindeer and sell meat and horns for a livelihood as well as commercial fishing in summer.
22 We traveled about 40 miles to the south side of the island to hunt in the sand dunes where winter wind keeps the dunes exposed thus providing feed for Muskox. When we arrived everything was windswept snow and our outfitter took us to a low hump of snow and dug out this entry. Inside looking out
23 Its what we all think of as an igloo in real life its a dugout and its called a boravora. A few minutes digging snow and this is looking in. Outside looking in.
24 A few minutes later and we had a dry, warm hunting camp! His name is Charlie Spud
