HUNTING ALASKA MOOSE | AN ARGALI ORIGINAL FILM

Added: 2026-05-31

[00:00:24]That was too good to be true.

[00:00:37]Going into this hunt, I was aware of and cognizant of the fact that I haven't had the best of luck with moose hunts.

[00:00:44]Despite, I think, my best efforts to try and kill a moose and call one in, just never laid eyes on a legal bull. And that's just the way it goes sometimes.

[00:00:52]So, this leaves me wanting to come back and I will be back.

[00:00:58]>> You have to let the past be the past and not dwell on it.

[00:01:02]>> I've always wanted to go to Alaska and do a moose hunt and it's a dream of mine.

[00:01:06]>> Being dropped off in a place in a foreign environment with a with an animal and you have to figure out how to hunt that species because that tests your metal as a hunter. And I love that about Alaska.

[00:01:19]The grandeur and the wildness is is genuinely unlike anything else.

[00:01:31]Probably just going to eat fish.

[00:01:35]That's what I'd be doing if I was a bear. Definitely wouldn't be coming over to check out two guys from Idaho for a low calorie meal.

[00:01:44]It's that next step up in the wilderness experience, right? You're going into grizzly country. You're there's no roads.

[00:01:52]>> And I love that. I love the adventure of it. I love the beauty of it.

[00:01:57]>> This is where you go if you want to go on a big adventure. All >> cleaned up.

[00:02:02]>> Charlie and I met years ago when we were both out of college, right when we were both getting into backpack hunting.

[00:02:10]>> Hello, Charlie. How's it going?

[00:02:15]We really met at a time in our in our hunting lives where we were young. First hunt we ever went on was an elk hunt >> and we ended up killing three elk that trip. We had to get two of them out on our backs which was a nightmare.

[00:02:27]>> And we realized like right away like we both had the same tenacity for hunting and ability to just endure conditions.

[00:02:35]>> But also the personality of like if things aren't going well, he can handle it.

[00:02:42]We're going to just sneak sneak back on these meadows behind us and try and find something in the open.

[00:02:51]Call. I've hunted in Alaska quite a bit at this point. And you know, one of the things you realize when you hunt enough in Alaska is your air transporter is incredibly important. And my last moose hunt, I had an air transporter that put me in just a really um just a bad spot.

[00:03:11]Going into this hunt, um Charlie and I had talked a lot about that. I had tried to make sure we like did our homework and found somebody that was reliable. We had a plan to go to a certain certain lake and not too long before our hunt, um we had a conversation with our transporter and he was like, "No, I can't take you there. I have to take you to a new spot." I was very concerned about where we were going to get taken.

[00:03:36]And that that wrench in our plan just made me feel like I could be in the same situation I got into last time. We're just going to figure it out. We're going to still hunt.

[00:03:48]Call still hunt. Call glass and figure it out. We ended up in terrain that it was good moose habitat, but it's it's dark timber with these little meadow pockets everywhere and no opportunity to glass.

[00:04:06]There's lots of sign around here for moose. I know there's moose around here, but um we're going to have to hope that a we get the weather and just the circumstances to be able to call a moose in that the rut kicks off.

[00:04:22]And I don't know if that's going to happen or not.

[00:04:46]First day we call in two bulls, but again we're in thick timber. They weren't that far away, but you have to field judge these moves, too, right?

[00:04:54]They have to be 50 in wide or four bout times.

[00:05:09]You have to get a pretty good look at them like headon or from the side to count the brow times. And in that that first day it like there was no way we could have shot those moose with the with the situation we had. That was too good to be true.

[00:05:23]We just called two bulls in one one small bull. That one bull we don't know if it was legal or not, but it was a nice bull cuz we they they had seen us move a little bit. We were able to call them in. They were curious what we were.

[00:05:36]We had Charlie could have shot one at one point in time. U but we just didn't know if they were legal. So, we were But it was still a good sign.

[00:05:45]>> Damn.

[00:05:49]I mean, that was pretty [ __ ] awesome though, dude.

[00:05:52]>> That was cool. Yeah.

[00:05:54]Just makes me wish that like I hope we can get glitched in some of these bulls like at a distance a little bit so we can make a judgment about those.

[00:06:01]>> That's I just unless those came right in and they where I saw broad times.

[00:06:06]Really? I just don't know. I think I don't cuz you're going to be I did not feel comfortable at all at any point in time there to do anything with it.

[00:06:23]>> The furthest I could see at times was maybe like 200 yards and a lot of the stuff was 100 yards or 50 yards.

[00:06:34]You can't be as aggressive because you have to have that opportunity for it to come in and square you up and be like that's legal or that's not legal. He stood there for a while and kind of just watched us.

[00:06:48]>> You couldn't tell if it was legal or something.

[00:06:50]>> Oh, no. I looked smaller.

[00:06:52]>> He looked smaller.

[00:06:53]>> Yeah, that bull looked smaller.

[00:06:55]>> The one you just saw?

[00:06:56]>> Yeah. I don't think it was the big one that we saw earlier. The opening day was actually encouraging because we're like, we just walked half mile out of camp and boom, we ran into two bull moose. This might actually work out. Like, this might be a great hunt.

[00:07:08]>> I was like cautiously optimistic that we would see more moose.

[00:07:11]>> And then it just kind of went downhill from there.

[00:07:48]had a great opening day. Saw a couple moose. Bushwack through a bunch of ers and brush. Got real wet. got swarmed by bugs.

[00:07:57]>> The bugs.

[00:07:58]>> Oh my god, the bugs. That's cool. Going on the inside or the outside?

[00:08:04]>> All in all, I'd say it's a pretty solid Alaska day. Going to wake up again tomorrow and do it all again.

[00:08:12]Not bad, huh? Yeah, this is exciting.

[00:08:18]Didn't rain as much today as I thought it was going to. I thought today was supposed to be like our nicest day for a while. You're probably right, but I'm trying to be optimistic, >> you know? Then like it's day two.

[00:08:53]these paths of this moment. Right now, there are no moose here.

[00:08:58]The good news is this rain and wind seems like the bugs aren't as nasty. And day three The first day when we bumped the first two, I was like, "Oh, this is going to be amazing. We're going to see moose the whole time."

[00:09:31]>> Yeah.

[00:09:31]>> And we haven't seen it in one since.

[00:09:33]>> And day four.

[00:09:38]And day five.

[00:09:41]>> Wow. We're trying out a new spot this morning.

[00:09:45]And six. And seven. And eight. And nine.

[00:09:47]And we're not seeing anything. For me, they're one of the more mentally challenging hunts to keep going on and keep hope alive. But I don't know. I'm okay for now.

[00:09:59]Talk to me a few days. Uh we're having a hell of a storm today. Did not see a moose. Sat out in the rain all day. Um just getting pummeled by wind and rain.

[00:10:11]I do have my hefty uh ziplo boots on right now. I have hunted in a lot of places that are wet and nasty. That was the worst weather I've ever had.

[00:10:25]We're going to go kill a moose right now. That's what we're going to do.

[00:10:28]>> We went out anyway regardless. So, we I felt like we put in the effort just enduring all of that gnarly weather and just continually like not seeing anything, not seeing any. It just it wears on you mentally, right? I don't care who you are. Not only are we not getting any opportunity to kill something, we haven't seen what we think is illegal bull yet. You go 10 days without seeing a moose. You start to wonder what the hell you're doing there.

[00:10:52]And you're just like, this seems like a complete and utter waste of time.

[00:11:05]Such a great morning. Had a frost. It's dead calm. There's a bull around. You should be able to hear our calls. Got the wind in our face. We got everything going in our favor except for the fact that there are no moose.

[00:11:22]The only thing that like kept me from really being just angry about the whole trip, if I'm being honest, is we had some fishing and I really enjoyed the fishing part of the trip. And I had to like consciously as I was there just really remind myself how fortunate I am to be able to go and experience like a place like Alaska and experience this wild country to focus on on the journey and not just the end goal and and not get frustrated with our situation.

[00:11:53]>> I don't know why I was so hungry. I think part of it was the guide didn't provide us enough food. We were supposed to be provided food. That was a part of the trip. But we had to supplement our diet with fish. We got some real gourmet dinner tonight. We got fresh fish, top ramen, and a little bit of corn in there. All kind of mixed around.

[00:12:15]It's real gourmet stuff we eat tonight.

[00:12:18]Honestly, tastes really good.

[00:12:25]I mean, to go a week without seeing a moose was pretty depressing, lack of a better word.

[00:12:35]Coldest morning we've had by far all trip.

[00:12:43]We're going to split up today again.

[00:12:47]Got to try and prove our odds.

[00:12:50]So, I hope you shoot one so we can get him on camera.

[00:12:53]>> Charlie is the type of person that there's nothing that's going to keep that guy from going out and hunting hard every single day. He will hunt as hard on day one as he will on day 20 or 30.

[00:13:09]I've been hopping from meadow to meadow this morning. Midm morning, uh I spotted a small bull and these two small bulls came out.

[00:13:31]I mean, I looked pretty hard and I think at best, you know, they're like 40 to 45 in at best. They're sublegal bulls.

[00:13:41]>> That night, I called in a bull.

[00:13:49]and he wasn't legal, but like got a good look at him.

[00:13:56]Went to another spot and I started calling again and I called in another one to like 15 yards. It was pretty awesome.

[00:14:13]He's right behind you right now in the meadow. You should turn around and get a video. I think you're fine to make a picture.

[00:14:24]But it's at least encouraging to see something. And so I was just like, maybe it'll turn around.

[00:14:33]>> Whose turn is it today?

[00:14:36]It's probably yours. I'm just fine. I don't care. Don't worry about it. You see a moose, you shoot a moose.

[00:14:42]>> Going into that last day, I knew it was our last morning. If we're going to kill something, we had to shoot it in the morning. So, we had a hard stop at 10:00.

[00:14:59]>> I didn't think we were going to see anything.

[00:15:01]>> Mood was ready to go home cuz this ain't happening. We've been hunting these same meadows every day almost.

[00:15:07]>> This was the moose hunt that I have always dreamed of, and it hasn't turned out the way I wanted it to.

[00:15:17]>> But you have to just keep punching the clock.

[00:15:26]I was a little excited when they got like to the meadow and I was like, "Oh, let's try this." You know, and like made a couple calls and then like nothing.

[00:15:33]And we're like sitting there getting ready to leave and I'm just like it's it's over. Like this is not happening.

[00:15:40]We're done. Like we didn't have a plan after that. It was pretty much go out to this meadow, do our last set, and then get back to camp to break it down. And I was just having this like flashback to my previous moose hunt and just thinking like I should know better um in terms of doing my homework to find a good spot, a good transporter to take us. I was mad and frustrated uh at myself.

[00:16:23]And then all a sudden we heard something.

[00:16:32]We're sitting there and Charlie we we both hear it. I need that rake and my hearing is not the best for some reason.

[00:16:39]I don't know why.

[00:16:41]>> And he looks behind us in the timber and he gives me that like unmistakable like and he points right behind us and I'm like, "Okay, well he seems really confident, but I'm like I'm sure it's the exact opposite direction." That's what I thought thought it was.

[00:16:57]We heard it again and it was actually across the meadow.

[00:17:04]That's exactly what you want to see, which is like a bull coming in doing it right, giving you a show. Charlie and I didn't have any time, whole lot of time to communicate. I walked over to him real quick and said like, "If you get a shot, just take it."

[00:17:20]He didn't turn and he just keeps coming right at us and he gets to like 40 yards and he stops again and then I just felt a light breeze on our necks. I know it's not an ideal shot, but I didn't want him to turn and bolt if he smelt something funny.

[00:17:38]>> It went from being this hunt that it seemed like the chances of success were 5 10%.

[00:17:46]>> Holy All of a sudden, we've got a dead moose on the ground.

[00:17:55]>> It's a mental game up there for sure.

[00:17:57]The mental aspect of Alaska is huge.

[00:18:00]That was probably the hardest piece of the whole thing was just like not seeing anything. The bugs are eating you every day. You're wet. You're cold. And then you're halfway nervous most of the time of a grizzly bear attacking you.

[00:18:15]Good hunting partners are really really hard to find because it's hard to find somebody who's in it for in it for the team. You're as happy as for your your partner when they're successful as you are for yourself and vice versa.

[00:18:28]>> I want to say I'm really I'm really proud of Charlie today.

[00:18:33]Just taught him so much, you know, and think finally node >> finally all clicked for him today. So nothing like your first kill, you know.

[00:18:42]Brooks, you want to see what lymph nodes look like?

[00:18:43]>> He doesn't know. I'm talking smack right now.

[00:18:47]>> Yeah. What's a lymph node look like, Charlie?

[00:18:52]>> So, Charlie and I have always had that relationship. Like, we push each other, right? Not in a negative way, right? We push each other in a positive way, but if he like out hunts me, I'm like I'll be smiling and I'll look him in the face and be like, I'm going to do better than you next time, bud.

[00:19:09]There's a peacefulness in it for me and there's something about being immersed in that wilderness that's just calming to me. That's why that's why I'm going to go on another moose hunt is because yeah, I want to kill a moose, but also I just can't get enough of it.