As of Wednesday morning, 11 moose had been harvested in the Chilkat Valley since the Unit 1D hunt opened Sept. 15.
Of the harvested bull moose, seven are in the spike fork category, two are three-brow tines, one antler spread of more than 50 inches and one sub legal.
“It was a busy weekend. They checked in at least six moose over the weekend,” said Alaska Department of Fish and Game wildlife biologist Carl Koch. “The last time we had that many spike forks in the entire season was 2018. Spike forks are typically, although not always, yearling bulls. That tells me recruitment is probably pretty good.”
With two weeks left in the hunt, Koch said he’ll likely keep it open if hunters refrain from shooting sub legal moose.
Koch attributed part of the hunt’s success to the good weather. Last year, hunters only harvested 14 moose, one of the lowest harvests in recent years. Some hunters attributed poor weather conditions to the low harvest.
This year, James Hart shot a moose within a half hour of his first day hunting. He said the early harvest was bittersweet.
“I always dream about it and think about it, getting one right off the bat, but it also kind of took away from being out in the field a little longer, and just being outside,” Hart said. “It’s very enjoyable but I also miss being out there.”
Hart hunts with his brother and father, Ted and Glen Hart, every fall.
“We pack it out together, butcher it out and divide it up between the three households,” James Hart said.
He said he’s eaten moose every day since the successful outing.
“Sometimes I make Mongolian Moose,” he said. “It’s like Mongolian beef but Mongolian moose.”
Koch reminded successful hunters to salvage the lower five inches of the animal’s jaw to provide to Fish and Games staff when they check the moose in so scientists can analyze the teeth.
“They send it to a lab,” Koch said. “They grind them and look at rings, like rings in a tree, it will tell you how old the moose is by examining the teeth. It’s a super important metric. The hunters like it, too.”