Let the hunting season begin

I’m amazed at how fast this year has gone. Here it is September already. The fireweed has come and gone. The leaves are turning color; and there’s a chill in the early morning air!

That can only mean one thing. Hunting season is here!

If you’re a waterfowl hunter, the season opened Thursday. As I mentioned in a recent column, I’m not a big fan of crowds when I go fishing and that same feeling follows me right into the hunting season. Opening day of duck season usually sees everybody and his brother out trying to harvest some ducks.

I purposely avoid opening day, even though that is often the best day to harvest ducks or geese that have not been shot at this year. The birds wise up very quickly and become much more difficult to call in, decoy or pass-shoot after their first encounter with hunters for the year. For some birds, the opening shots of fall signal time to form flocks and leave the area altogether, beginning their migration south.

The general moose season in this area opened Aug. 25, so we’re already a week or so into that season. Last week, my longtime hunting partner and I took a scouting/hunting day-trip with the six-wheeler into an area neither of us had moose hunted before. We were prepared to take a moose if we found a legal animal, but the trip was really more looking around than serious hunting.

The weather was warm and beautiful and the ground was just beginning to dry out. I figured we would see other hunters simply because, if we could drive into the area, so could everybody else. However, I wasn’t expecting to find everybody and his brother!

After we unloaded the six-wheeler and started our trip out the “road,” it seemed like every curve with a wide spot had a hunting camp already in place. Some places were occupied which were just wide spots –— no curve in the road required!

We encountered pickups and ATVs running up and down the road and found where both vehicle classes had traversed all the two-rut trails that ran off the side of the so-called road. Some of those trails were still soft, wet, and muddy enough that I didn’t want to risk getting the six-wheeler stuck by exploring the trail. However, some folks were either brave or stupid enough to have run out the trail. Several of these trails didn’t seem to show return tracks!

We found a couple of spots that might bear watching and calling for moose later in the season, but overall, neither of us was impressed with the area as a moose hunting hotspot. I’ve got a couple of other areas to check out before the end of the season starts creeping up.

And, there’s always my back yard!

Last fall, we had a small bull hanging around the area. Around January, I found a shed antler in the back yard next to a conifer the bull was either munching on or fighting with, I’m not sure which. If he survived the rest of the winter, maybe he’ll be big enough to be legal this year. I hope he will pay us a return visit!

This was the inaugural hunting trip with the six-wheeler and everything went very well with one exception. This machine is designed, generally, as an open air side-by-side. I had a full cab installed and an aftermarket skid plate added to better protect the undercarriage when running on rough trails. Both of these additions are well worth the added cost, but they may be contributing to another problem.

The cab tends to trap engine heat and the skid plate may be preventing sufficient air flow around the engine to reduce heat buildup in the cab. The engine never overheated or even warmed beyond normal, but the heat in the cab kept accumulating. The warm, 70-degree weather didn’t help either. By the time we got back to the truck and trailer, the cab seat was almost too hot to sit on and the metal framework over the engine was too hot to touch.

I’ll be calling the dealer to enquire about a remedy. My hunting partner suggested installing a fan near the engine to better ventilate the hot air. I would expect the dealership might have some ideas as well. As the weather cools, this won’t be as much of a factor affecting comfort as it is now.

Howard Delo is a retired fisheries biologist with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game. This column is the opinion of the writer and does not necessarily reflect the views of the Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman or its parent company, Wick Communications. You can leave Delo a message by emailing sports@frontiersman.com.