Although I saw this 60-inch Alaska bull moose on the first day of my September 2024 hunt, it took several days of hard hiking and glassing to re-locate the bull and stalk in for a shot.
October 06, 2025
By Frank Noska
“I see the bull, and he is coming to us,” my friend Darryl said as I was bringing gear from the plane.
“Are you kidding me?” I asked. We had flown around in my Supercub and picked out a favorable place to land and camp, a couple of miles from a moose that I wanted to hunt. The weather was great, and the moose rut was in full swing. As I was taking care of the plane, Darryl had started putting up the tent. The inside of our tent is white, before the blue rain fly is attached, and the bull somehow saw it from two miles away. Seeing this, along with us moving gear from the plane to the tent, had gotten the bull’s attention. When the rut is going good, moose are curious, vulnerable and can be decoyed somewhat easily. However, I have never had a bull moose get decoyed in by an 8x8-foot white tent!
This is the white tent (left) that got the bull’s attention on day one. Although the moose practically walked into our laps, Alaska regulations prohibit flying and hunting on the same day. At right, Darryl is standing in our moose camp. Most of the time, my tent is covered with a blue rain fly to protect it from the harsh elements. Having just landed, I could not hunt until the next day. The state of Alaska same-day airborne rule states: “It is against the law to hunt or help someone else take a big-game animal until 3 a.m. the day following the day you have flown.” Darryl and I just hid behind the tent and watched in disbelief as the bull closed the distance. When the bull got within 100 yards, he realized the white tent, gear and plane were not what he thought. He then turned around and walked away, not appearing too alarmed. I felt confident we would find him the next day, when I could hunt. I was wrong.
Hide & Seek For the next three days, Darryl and I walked in all different directions from camp looking for that bull. We climbed to all the high spots around camp and spent hours glassing long distances. We were in the middle of very good moose habitat, so I felt the bull was still in the area; we just had not been lucky enough to find him. On a hunch, I told Darryl we needed to get up extra early the next morning and hike even further than we had been going. I wanted to check out one more area where the bull could be. We started hiking the next morning when it was barely light enough to see. After almost two hours going up and down hills and wading through water, we slowly climbed to the top of the highest terrain in the area. Darryl was behind me, but he saw the bull first. It was music to my ears when I heard him say, “I see the bull.” The bull was several hundred yards away and completely oblivious. So, we continued slowly winding our way around trees and brush until we got to a good vantage point.
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We could see the bull had two cows around him. Using our rangefinders, we determined he was 600 yards away. There was a large lake between us and the moose. It was early in the morning, and we had all day to watch the moose, study the area and make a plan. We took our packs off and got comfortable. We had finally found the bull we were after, and I was optimistic about my chances of getting an arrow into him. The bull was busy following the cow moose around in circles and thrashing trees with his antlers. He was in full rut mode. Normally, Darryl and I wait for a bull to bed down and then quietly stalk in closer and try to call it into bow range. We have been fairly successful doing this the last few years.
Here, I’m hurrying into position for my first shot at the bull. It was about this time I had to answer “the call of nature.” I grabbed some toilet paper and headed over a small hill, away from the bull, into some trees. A small stick, smaller than a pencil, broke in half when I stepped on it and made a muffled noise. I didn’t think anything about it. When I finished my business, I walked back to Darryl to get the update on what the moose were doing. He said the bull had started looking in our direction a few times for some reason. We were in some brush, 600 yards away, in full camouflage; and we agreed there was no way the moose saw us. Still, the bull slowly started moving toward the lakeshore across from us. Darryl ranged the bull there at 460 yards.
The next thing we knew, the bull was in the water, swimming across the large lake in our direction. It still hadn’t registered in my head yet, but the bull was coming! Darryl and I quickly separated, since he was calling, and I was the shooter. Darryl dove behind some thick bushes to hide as I was trying to identify possible shooting lanes. I didn’t even have my bow unstrapped from my backpack yet!
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Closing Time As I rushed to get my bow off my backpack and my release on my wrist, I could hear the moose grunting — he was getting closer, and fast! I was on my knees, scanning ahead and expecting to see antlers appear at any moment. Then I heard Darryl yell, “To the right.” I peeked around some brush and looked more to my right, and there the bull stood at 35 yards. I raised my bow to draw and to let the bull see the cow moose decoy attached to my bow. I had to take a couple steps toward the moose to get a clear shot.
The moose decoy worked its magic and caused the moose to just stand there and stare at me. When I had a clear shot and had the sight pin where I wanted, I squeezed the trigger on my release. Hearing a loud whack, I knew I’d hit the moose, but I wasn’t sure where. The moose slowly walked away and out of sight. I hurried up the hill to try and find him and keep him in sight. The bull was easy to find, as he was standing in the wide open. Studying him through my binoculars, I could see my arrow had hit him low and behind the shoulder. He started slowly walking, and Darryl and I kept moving and keeping our eyes on him. We were careful to keep our distance. I didn’t want to alarm or spook the hard-hit moose and make him run.
Once your bull hits the ground, the work begins! Processing and packing out a moose are monumental tasks, and I’m sure glad I had Darryl along to help get the job done. Finally, the bull crossed a low, grassy swamp area and bedded down in some alders on top of a small hill. As Darryl and I sat there looking at the bull, we were confident we were going to eventually get the bull. What we didn’t want was for the bull to get out into the middle of one of the many ponds or lakes around us and die there. We have had that happen before and wanted to avoid it happening again if we could. I believe the bull would have laid where he was and eventually died, but we both agreed I should try to get a second arrow into him if I could. The bull was in a vulnerable spot where I thought I could stalk in from below and get into a good, close-range shooting position. The wind was gusty and blowing hard, so the noise the wind made would aid in my stalk. Sitting there looking at the terrain, I studied and figured out the best path to take. Darryl would sit where he was and keep an eye on the bull. Then I could look back at Darryl with my binoculars to get the “thumbs up” sign from him that the bull was still there.
I left my pack and just took my bow. I slowly scooted and crawled down the hill towards the bull. I could not see the bull during the entire stalk. I could only see the clump of trees where he was bedded. Analyzing the ground directly in front of me, I chose the best path I could to avoid making any noise. As I got closer to where the bull was, I slowed my stalk even more. When I was directly below where I thought the bull was bedded, I looked back at Darryl for one last assertion that the bull was still there. When I received the “thumbs up” sign, my adrenaline level spiked. I was now less than 30 yards from the bull. Slowly stalking up the grassy hill, with an arrow nocked, I moved only when the wind gusted. Inch by inch, I continued. Finally, I saw the tips of his big antlers. I had to get a little closer to have a clear shot at his vitals. I was less than 20 yards away now. My excitement level was at redline, but I forced myself to take my time and study the way the moose was lying, so I could place my arrow where it would be most effective. When I decided on the best spot to aim, I slowly came to full draw. When the arrow struck the moose, he stood up and turned broadside. Having already quickly nocked a third arrow, I drew again and sent it into the kill zone.
When Darryl and I finally got to lay our hands on our 60-inch moose, it had been some time since my first shot earlier that morning. While it wasn’t my quickest moose harvest, staying in the game, making good decisions and never giving up paid off. September 19, 2024, was a good day.
Worth The Work Getting ready to head out heavy, with moose meat and antlers strapped to the pontoons of my Super Cub! For a few seasons, I didn’t moose hunt here in Alaska in late September. My excuse was I had already been hunting in Alaska for almost two months straight, starting the first part of August, for other species such as caribou, deer, bears, sheep and goats. By the time the good, late-September moose season started, I was either worn out or had work to do.
However, the last half dozen years, I have renewed my love for bowhunting moose. DIY moose hunting is a ton of work, and until you’ve done it, you don’t realize how much. During the rut, bull moose can travel long distances looking for receptive cows. They also can respond to a call and come in faster than you can imagine. The bull I arrowed last September first traveled a long distance coming to our white tent, then moved so far away it took us days to re-locate him. He then came from 600 yards into bow range in a very few minutes after hearing a tiny stick break. There is nothing that compares to the experience of a rutting bull moose responding to a call and coming into close bow range. In late September, during the peak of the rut, moose are on the move in more ways than one!
Frank Noska has more than 200 entries in the Pope and Young Club record book and is the only bowhunter to complete two Super Slams of all 29 North American big-game species. In fact, Noska is just four animals shy of his third archery Super Slam. He lives in Wasilla, Alaska, with his beautiful and supportive wife, Millie.
Author’s Notes: On this hunt, I shot a Mathews LIFT bow outfitted with a TightSpot quiver, Schaffer bowsight, Victory arrows, 100-grain Muzzy broadheads and a bow-mounted moose decoy from Ultimate Predator . I wore KUIU apparel, Kenetrek boots and Simms waders.
