Departments

Hunt Alaska Online 6

Hunting for a Compliment 8

Gear Shop 12

Technical Talk 16

After the Shot 18

Ballistics & Ammo 20

Shooting for the Field 22

Life on the Ledge 24

Red Gold  26

Backcountry Safety 28

Hunt Alaska Recipe 84

Advertiser Index 87

Last Shot 88

Features

A Good Kind of Tired 30
Always up for a challenge, Jim McCann heads into the snowy Interior landscape with Charlie and Rudy, the two lucky dogs getting the nod for a day’s hunt, and sets his sights on winter-white rock and willow ptarmigan. 

The Ghost of the Tundra 36
Over the years, author Louis Cusack has had some luck taking wolves in Alaska, and in that time has also developed a huge respect for the wolf’s ability to thrive in this open tundra country. Here he recounts both.

Hard Work Equals Moose Success 44
Chasing monster bull moose in the mountains of Alaska is not easy, as backpacking moose hunts are all about work, but as Ryan Schmidt recounts, the harder you work the more memorable the trip will be. 

Four Times a Fool 52
Making his fourth expedition for backcountry billies. Lon Lauber ventures among the prime mountain goat habitat of Kodiak Island for a nine-day solo hunt. In the end, the billy he kills records as the fifth largest ever taken by bow and arrow in Alaska, but that’s only half the story. 

Mountain Monarchs 60
Starting at base camp nearly two thousand feet in elevation and then hiking seven and a half miles is how you get to sheep country. High in this virgin territory, accomplished sheep hunter Troy Sessions searches for a giant ram, but once the animal is down, the real adventure begins.

The Alaskan Big Three 70
For Tom Ferguson, the Alaskan Big Three are all about cost and opportunity. Sheep, brown bears and goats require a guide for non-residents to hunt, which could easily mean a cost of $40,000-$50,000. So, if you live here, take advantage of the unbelievable opportunity to hunt these animals every year, with an over-the-counter harvest ticket.

Late-season Blacktails 76
Late-season blacktail hunting in southeast Alaska can be a dark, tangled and sometimes dangerous affair. But imbued with Sisu, a Finnish concept passed on from his dad, which basically means never giving up, Bjorn Dihle sets out in November for another shot at Admiralty Island blacktails.

 

COVER / Best of the West Alaska field host and Huskemaw Optics Alaska rep Troy Sessions with a nice sheep taken while filming. See the story on page 60.
© Troy Sessions.