Moose hunts and meetings

We’re a little more than half way through moose season. Some friends are already finished harvesting their moose and are in the process of butchering the meat. Other friends are out hunting as we speak. And still other friends are planning their hunting time for the closing days of the season.

I haven’t gone out yet but plan to do so in the final week or two of the season. I’m slow for a couple of reasons. First, I prefer to hunt when the weather is cooler and visibility is better. Insects are a pain while sitting and glassing or calling a moose plus the warmer temperatures put more of a rush on getting the meat properly processed.

I’m also a bit of a procrastinator this year!

My hunting rifle for this season is a little on the unusual side and, quite frankly, I haven’t finished developing a good handload for it yet. I’ve got all the components and will put together some loads, hopefully before this column is printed. A quick trip to the shooting range and I should be good to go, at least for the short term.

I enjoy firearms of all types and shoot some of each of the “standard” type rifles: bolt-action, semi-auto, lever-action, break-open, and single shot. I especially enjoy hunting with single shot rifles, probably because of my long association with muzzleloaders. However, in my moose hunting experience, I have never shot a moose which fell quickly after only one shot.

As a result, several years ago, I purchased a double-barreled, side-by-side, 54 caliber muzzleloading rifle specifically for hunting moose. I’ve not had an opportunity to harvest a moose with this gun yet, but I know I’ll have a readily available second shot if needed when the time comes.

I’ve looked at the various modern double-barreled rifles (mostly English or Italian) available over the years and quickly decided the four or five figured price tags they commanded were way beyond my means. And then I stumbled on my current hunting rifle. The Baikal firearms company is a Russian firm known for making good quality, accurate, sturdy, and inexpensive (by comparison) firearms for the civilian world market. I actually have a couple of different Baikal-made firearms which have proven to be accurate and very functional.

These Russian made firearms are not necessarily “pretty” guns, usually having only a passable quality of finish and wood-to-metal fit with very plain wood-grain stocks but, I swear, you could throw them under a tank tread and they would still function after being run over!

This current rifle is a double-barreled, side-by-side in 45-70 caliber. Because it’s a break-open action, cartridges for it must not be loaded to the highest pressure levels possible for a 45-70, but loads heavier than the minimum can still be used. I’m handloading to reach that “middle ground.”

The gun has a unique adjusting mechanism to regulate getting the two barrels to shoot to the same spot with various loads and, while the rifle will never be a target grade gun, I can easily regulate the two barrels to be accurate enough for a minute-of-moose broadside shot within 150 yards or so. With the 45-70 caliber, 150 yards is about as far away as I would try a shot anyway, especially using the lead bullets I plan to reload.

My taste in firearms could be labeled a bit eccentric I suspect, but that’s one of the fun aspects of gun ownership. If you don’t enjoy what you do, why do it?

I want to remind you to submit your cards and letters to the Board of Fisheries Board Support folks at Fish and Game regarding an agenda change request to overhaul the orderly manner currently used to end the commercial drift fishery in Cook Inlet. Such change will undo most of the good management only recently mandated through regulation change by the board. Also mention you’d like to see the next Upper Cook Inlet (UCI) board meeting held in Anchorage as neutral ground. Or, if you’d like, suggest the meeting be held in the Valley where no complete UCI Board of Fisheries meeting has ever been held!

Contact information can be found on the Fish and Game website. Deadline is October 1.

If the board wants to hold their meetings in areas specifically affected by their regulations, then we merit a meeting being held in the Valley before a similar meeting should be scheduled on the Kenai Peninsula!

Howard Delo is a retired fisheries biologist with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game. You can leave him a message by emailing sports@frontiersman.com.