We have a few licks around where I call home and I have taken moose on them in past hunting seasons, but never got serious about putting up a stand near a lick until this year.

Over the winter worked on a trail over 6 miles in to this big lick. This one is 50 yards across in places and the moose & caribou have it excavated. You can even see it on Google Earth, that's how big she is. Building a new ladder stand just for this spot and pretty excited about the possibilities. Any you Alaskan Hunters ever hunt licks and have any pointers?

A couple of stands so you can be down wind on any given day.

Joking aside, the winds tend to come in from the Yukon and run into the mnts so I'm safe I figure. I was out there again today working on trail, it's a good spot. Moose have the area tracked out & well worn trails. Caribou crap all over the moss, so they will be there also. Bear sign, lots of scrapes and looks like claw marks on every third tree. If any of you guys had a spot like this all to yourself with no other hunters within 6-7 miles, you'd be happy enough too. I spent 600 bucks on steel sq tube & plywood, and should be better than any Big Game stand I have ever owned and permanent. I plan on using the fox pro nx winter for lynx & wolves too.

Sounds like a great spot make sure you keep us updated on your success. I have hunted a lick for moose once but it mostly brought in cows and calf's with one bull, we got that one.

I have hunted a couple other licks and only done good at one; mainly cause there was also a small watering hole close to the lick; and usually a bull or two are taken off that lick.

My lick use to be hunted by the Indians 20 years back and they took a couple bulls there every season, but now the swamp is so grown up, nobody hunts it. But I'm coming at the lick from the opposite side of the swamp and figure will be hot spot.

We usually get our moose, family members got 3 bulls with my moose gun last sept, posted picts. This lick is the most serious I have ever got about a stand and all, spent over 600 bucks in materials so far and I think she's gonna pan out. My nephew is a PJ for Ak guard and splits time between Anch & Fairbanks, sees Alaska outta a pavehawk and gets sent to Afghan every summer for a few months. He'll be hunting outta the stand eventually. Do ya know any of the PJ's?

Moose use the mineral licks to obtain sodium, a rare element for them in a lot of places. They are sodium depleted after winter and depleted even more in spring and early summer when they first eat green vegetation. Peak use of licks is in June and July. By September lick use tapers off. The ones that come to licks in the fall are generally cows with calves. You might kill a bull at a lick in early September but your chances really decline after mid-September. All the sign they leave at licks is impressive, but licks are used mainly in early summer.

You might be 100% correct on the licks, but I know of quite a few nice bulls taken back there years back and I get to it out my wood lot trail; nobody else will access it without going through my yard. The swamp that goes for probably 2 miles on one side of lick has grown up but from the mnt side you still get a good view. Out here, most locals have their own hunting areas that are miles across and everybody pretty much respects each others claims; one nice thing about rural Alaska.

The lick is right up against the mountain with a swamp with several small lakes near it and since it's 5-6 miles from any people, I think some moose stay back there rather than coming out to where the Indians will get them, they learn pretty quick. The Indians just want a few potlatch moose and don't want to work for them no harder than they have to, so I think the moose back there don't get much pressure. Actually, I plan on hitting it in the early August season. In the second season, most bulls are shot on the last couple days, mid Sept. We have subsistence permits, so we have an extended season until about the last week of Sept and that's when I see bulls running crazy everywhere. Last year, family members got 3 bulls in the last few days, we had some luck and split up two of them and shared everything with the village & neighbors; village didn't even get a moose in season and they appreciated the meat for sure.

Caribou back there too in the fall & winter, and I plan on doing some calling with the fox pro come cold weather, wolf tracks in the mud and I saw lynx all winter while back there putting in the trail. For what I'm spending on materials, I could have bought several small big game stands or a used weatherby but been had this on my mind a few years so getting it together finally. Heck , I like spending time out there in that section of woods anyway; got to be a win win.