Elk licenses have already been applied for and deer and antelope seasons are just a few months away. A lucky South Dakota hunter or two will even get to chase a mountain goat or a bighorn sheep.

But South Dakota is short of moose.

I have a paddled horn fragment that was supposedly dug up from along the river near Gettysburg by an old rancher friend. I imagine few lived there ages past alongside the buffalo. Several neighboring states have seasons but the chances of drawing a tag are slim.

If you are willing to drive, British Columbia has over-the-counter moose hunts with some units having success rates as high as 80%. They aren’t as enormous as their relatives found farther north in Alaska, but a crew of hunters can still swing a week long moose hunt for four or five thousand dollars apiece. Hunters heading north for an Alaskan cousin on a guided hunt can be set back twenty to thirty thousand dollars after transportation and tips for your guides.

While the bulls are much bigger, the success rates in Alaska only average 30%. A persistent hunter who played the odds, might have to hunt for three season before they filled and end up paying more than I spent on my first house to bring home a bull.

But there is another way.

For those who have the fortitude, Alaska still allows nonresidents to hunt moose without a guide. My nephew, Kevin Wilson of Gillette, has made the trip twice and twice beaten the odds. His last bull was enormous and he is now contemplating a bigger house.

His first hunt was in the Brookes Range with its beautiful scenery.  But the river they were on was so low that they spent most of their ten days carrying their moose over and around obstacles and sandbars over which their heavily burden rafts could not float.

For their second trip they left the mountains behind and selected a coastal unit with deeper tributaries but fewer scenic snow-covered peaks to remind them of where they were hunting. The banks were steep and muddy, but they used satellite and topographical maps to study their course and set up on more open meadows and sloughs.

The ninety mile float trip was scheduled to last between 10 and 14 days.  Kevin and his partner saw nothing for nearly a week before their luck changed. Moose number one fell to his partner. Their hunt unit required that all bulls have at least four visible brow points on one side or be greater than fifty inches wide. The first bull taken had six brow points on one side and eight on the other a truly exceptional point total.  Their previous hunt and success allowed them to have the animal butchered and loaded in one raft by noon the next day.

Kevin sent me a note describing his bull taken two days later.

We drifted about 15 yards away from a couple of cow moose grazing on a high bank of willows. They paid no attention to us.  We froze and drifted past them. Once around the corner and out of site, we banked on the opposite side of the river. The opposite bank, was higher in elevation. I drifted across, climbed out, and began cow calling. A bull immediately started grunting.

I finally picked out the horns. Through the scope I could clearly see four legal brow tines and heavy mass.  After calling again he took a half step forward. I was nervous I might lose him or maybe not get a better look, so I took the shot. The bull dropped instantly and I let out a yell.

I hollered for my partner and guided him into the location only to hear him do a little hollering as well. I yelled, while darn near running back towards my boat to get over there, “is he decent?” I never did get a full look at the rack. My buddy replied that he had a 60" soft tape, and the bull was wider than that.

Kevin’s hunts always inspire me to add pages to my wish list.  I’ll need a bigger house.