Yukon Giants: Northern Alaska Moose Pt. 2 | S5E02 | MeatEater

on this episode we pick up where we left off eight days into a 10-day moose hunt deep in alaska's brooks range my buddy brant mike's lanai have been combing this gorgeous country with little to show for it dang it we found just one small bowl and on our second attempt brandt finally has him in his crosshairs if he misses this chance we'll most likely be headed home as a pair of heartbroken meatless hunters i'm steven runella to me hunting isn't only about the pursuit of an animal it's about who we are and what we're made of i live to hunt and hunt to live i am a meat-eater [Music] eight days ago i flew into this remote lake on the south slope of alaska's brooks range for a 10-day moose hunt with my buddy wildlife biologist brant mixel it's over a week before the rut will really start to kick in but our timing was dictated by weather it won't be many days and the lake we landed on will freeze over sealing off access to this location for the long long winter we found just one little boat though it's legal quarry for brant an alaska resident the first time we made an attempt the moose gave us a slip when i spooked him in a foolish attempt to get his attention with some brush thrashing dang it but the next day we found him again and planned another approach as brant slipped in on him i waited on a nearby hill i lost sight of brant and could only tell that he was in there somewhere up close and personal with some giant critters i had no way of knowing that one of those moose was staring down the barrel of bran's rifle i don't want to take that shot [Music] uh [Applause] is that him come on i think i got him i think i saw her fly [Music] all right [Music] he was standing right here and he turned and i shot and i saw a hair where did you wait when he turned brown i don't wear on him i aimed for the bread basket okay good [Music] good [Music] [Music] [Music] judging by kind of the quantity and color of hair that came off with the hit and the complete lack of blood just think that you raked that thing across top of the shoulders and pulled some hair off [Music] of course you just don't i mean you know you don't know what we do knows there's no blood [Music] anywhere [Music] look at the sun hitting those mounds [Music] [Music] we have two hunt days left and the mountains seem as empty as when we arrived maybe we'll come across that little bull that we've spooked and then potentially injured but it's hard to keep up hope to increase our chances of finding something anything we decide to split up i'm going to hike up the nearby peak to keep an eye on the surrounding hills while brant stays close to camp and calls [Music] [Music] i spend 12 hours glass in these hills keeping a constant eye on a grizzly that keeps feeding its way closer and closer toward my position all the while i continue to fantasize about something that i've been hoping for since we got here a rut crazed bull making his way up our valley in search of females and then almost as though my fantasies actually conjure it it happens finally a bull on the prowl very interesting development right now is here is across the valley the first real size bull like a big bull who's out traveling headed up country i can see him with the naked eye on that hill over there and we have one day left to hunt that's a nice bull man dog gone it look at that thing i gotta run down i'm gonna run down and find brant hopefully i get down hopefully we can just go and try to call and maybe hold that bull's attention and maybe we can find him in the morning man wish we had more time i did a calling session and then i looked up and i saw him coming down [Music] i can't see your books right now but i can't imagine steve coming down this far before dark there isn't almost [Music] once i get close to camp brant is nowhere to be found maybe he caught sight of that bull too it's the only explanation for why he would abandon his calling location i decided to stay put so i don't mess up whatever he's got going on [Music] [Music] oh there he is [Music] that's a nice bowl we've been looking for that guy for a week that bull was definitely responding to brandt's calls but there was no daylight left to go after we have one day left hopefully we can get the jump on him tomorrow just before daybreak we start calling in case the moose is hanging around and searching for the source of brandt's cow calls from last night we give it an hour but we're nagged by the idea that the bull seemed intent on traveling i push ahead to a high spot where i can see farther up valley in the direction he was originally headed i find the bull and i'm surprised by how far he traveled overnight he's a couple miles up valley his antlers almost glowing white against the fall's reddish vegetation i ripped the loudest whiniest cow call i can muster in hopes that he'll hear it those disc shaped antler service amplifiers that pick up sound and the bull turns in my direction he is coming i wave brant forward and keep watching the boat he's coming dead in my direction every time he stops i let out another whale it's like calling a reluctant dog who only comes when you absolutely demand it [Music] he was way up there i already moved him probably more than a mile at a run toward us all right where is he now he's in that timber right there i mean the more i called the more he came if i didn't call he'd stop and stare he's moving at a clip but the question is whether we can get him worked up enough to cross the river if not it'll be a long poke with the rifle to shoot across that canyon probably too long he's looking [Music] yeah he heard you he's coming now hard man he loses interest fast man he's got to keep hitting them because he's got a short attention everything's fine till we get down there that he's gonna smell us [Music] and all the excitement i almost forget to acknowledge to myself that this is one of those moments that will stand out forever in my life we're calling a bull moose across miles of terrain as we luxuriate in every step that he [Music] takes i'm gonna mow down a little more yeah i'll call him with you as the bull gets closer i become almost certain that he's got four brow tines so he's legal for me oh he's right there that's what i'm saying but it just feels right to let brant have this opportunity plus that way there's no need to worry about making an inaccurate assessment for brant any bull is legal oh my god he's in the river [Music] our big bull has moved into plain sight he's in the river but we don't want to be cutting that thing up in the middle of a river what way is he gonna go he's he's just walking down the river right now downstream yep okay let's go he's going back across you got a shot maybe grunt something [Music] uh [Music] hit him again hit him again hang down holy cow what an animal man i can't wait to see him [Music] nine days of arduous hunting and finally success [Music] but once we reach that moose we still have many hours of work ahead of us just never prepared for how big they are [Music] four on the left legal bull he's 50 inches i bet you these things are just like such a dead giveaway of his whereabouts oh it is so much easier to spot the large bulls than the cows like last night when we were watching him on the hill i couldn't see his body anymore but those antlers were just glowing what a monster well let's get this guy cut off yeah yeah we're sitting around acting like something ended when it only just began butchering a bull moves can literally wear you down it's nearly impossible to do it without feeling it the next day this is the world's largest deer you could stuff a whitetail up into his chest cam [Music] after a couple of hours of sawing slicing pulling and dragging the bull is reduced down into pieces that can be loaded into our inflatable pack rafts these things weigh just six or seven pounds but they can support a few hundred pounds of meat [Music] cold water never felt so good [Music] um [Music] getting yourself into a meat crisis where the freezer is dangerously low on protein almost seems worthwhile when you can resolve it in such a glorious moment of triumph and abundance [Music] we carefully float hundreds of pounds of meat back toward our camp and i revel in the peculiar odor of blood mixed with water halfway down we stop for a lunch break [Music] we are exploring the taste of this canyon here with moose that came from the water's edge [Music] and the grain that came from the water fresh uh red meat tends to be pretty tough but grayling is about the gentlest most tender fish on the planet so they'll go well together [Music] this time yesterday i had categorized this as the worst hunting trip i've ever been on this time yesterday i was actually like trying to calculate how much i'd get when i sold all my hunting equipment and quit hunting and um whether it be enough to finance a new like maybe i had to start golfing i don't know and and now i'm just recommitted man anytime you call in an animal and fool them is awesome but seeing an animal that big just come on a rope i mean no doubt about it he was responding to our calls and didn't have a clue we were there it really is just like a high quality meet man oh look at that oh that looks amazing it's just a cool thing that you can come here and have a set of experiences like yeah it's been an amazing trip [Music] man stuff is good somehow the emptiness of this place we just hunted 10 days without seeing a single person does it really make me think about the lack of people instead i wonder even more about the hunters who passed through here before this is close to the entry point for humans in the new world who discovered this land after making their way across the bering land bridge they lived on step bison wooly mammoth muskox and certainly moose i can almost feel their legacy in the air and taste it in this flesh the world feels new and vibrant in this untouched wilderness and thankfully like then there are still giant animals running around and also like then there's still plenty of mystery left at the turn of every corner you

Channel: MeatEater

Views: 985,338

Keywords: MeatEater, Meat Eater, Steven Rinella, Steve Rinella, MeatEater Full Episode, Hunting, Hunt, Outdoors, Northern Alaska, Moose, Moose Hunt, Alaskan Moose, Alaska Moose, Part 1, bushplane, wilderness, remote, remote hunt, Season 5, MeatEater season 5, Meat Eater Season 5, Episode 2, Ep 2, Season premiere, Season 5 premiere, new episodes, new episode, Brandt Meixell, lakeside, wild game, Yukon Giants, Northern Alaska Moose, Yukon moose, Big-antlered Yukon moose

Id: wvC_egaANoI

Length: 21min 17sec (1277 seconds)

Published: Fri Mar 19 2021