Rex J. Nick was hunting near Pilot Station on Native corporation land in Game Management Unit 18, Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta, along the Lower Yukon River on September 26, 2010, when he harvested the new World’s Record Alaska-Yukon moose. He downed it with a .300 Winchester Magnum from 65 yards at 7:30 p.m.
Unit 18 has the most liberal moose hunting seasons of all the units in Alaska. It extends from August 1 through March 15. The limit is two moose for residents and one (bull only) for non-residents. Depending on dates, residents can harvest bulls, cows, and calves.
It wasn’t that long ago, historically speaking, that there were no moose to speak of in Unit 18. It wasn’t until the Alaska Department of Fish and Game implemented a moratorium on moose hunting from 1988-1994; the residents embraced it. The season resumed in 1995. The willow habitat at that time was and still is pristine. It supports a moose population that is growing at 30 percent per year—even with the hunting harvest. That means the population is doubling every three years. Moose are doing so well that they have become an important source of meat for the residents of Pilot Station.
Contributing to the high and growing density of moose is the fact that there is a very low density of people and predators, such as bears and wolves, in Unit 18. This is the perfect storm for increasing moose numbers. Unfortunately, the moose population will eventually crash when the moose have exceeded the carrying capacity of their habitat. In the meantime everyone is having great success filling their tags. Who knows? The next World’s Record may come from the same area before time catches up with the increasing moose population.
According to state law, moose antlers taken in Unit 18 must be destroyed by cutting the skull in half before it is sold. In this case, Rex’s antlers were officially and legally scored before he cut them in half and sold them to Tony Nogy, the current owner. Rex’s bull was verified as the new World’s Record by 2-7/8 points by the 29th Awards Program Judges Panel when it convened at the end of April 2016. The previous World’s Record was taken by Heinz Naef in 2013 along the Lower Yukon River in Yukon Territory. Even though Heinz’s bull (263-5/8 points) was taken three years after Rex took his, it was the World’s Record for three years because Rex’s bull’s score wasn’t verified until it was scored by the 29th Awards Program Judges Panel in 2016.
