Here's a chance to hunt Dall rams and Alaska-Yukon moose on the same hunt at a much lower fee than you would pay in northern Canada. The outfitter used to operate in the Kenai Wildlife Refuge about 20 years ago. He gave up his special use permit when federal regulations became what he considered at the time to be ridiculously onerous. He began guiding for other outfitters, but when the permit became available once again, he reconsidered. Now he is offering this hunt at an excellent price to build up a clientele.

The price of the hunt is broken into a base price and trophy fees for both animals, or you can just pay a flat rate if you prefer. The outfitter said hunters should have an excellent chance to take either a sheep or a moose but said everything would have to work out well in order to take both a moose and a ram in a relatively short 10-day hunt. He conducts his hunts in an area covering 153,000 acres.

Hunting dates available this year are Aug. 20-29 and Aug. 31-Sept. 9. The second hunt is probably better for moose as the rut is beginning at that time.

"The combination of sheep and moose works pretty well in this area," the outfitter said, "because when the weather is too dry and hot for moose to be active, that's when we can get up in the high country and glass for sheep. And when it's too stormy or foggy or cloudy for glassing, that's when the moose hunting is good. We can switch back and forth each day. I'm suggesting that customers buy a sheep tag. Alaska regulations allow a hunter to use a sheep tag to take either a moose or a sheep. Let's suppose a guy kills his ram fairly early in the hunt. We can then ride out and pick up a moose tag if there's time to hunt moose for a few days."

The outfitter maintains a string of 12 horses. He started hunting with horses in Alaska when he moved to the 49th state from Montana in 1985.

So far he has taken only one sheep hunter and one moose hunter into the area. The sheep hunter killed a monstrous ram that ranks among the top 50 ever killed, much bigger than a hunter should expect. The moose hunter got a 56-incher, a bit smaller than the outfitter expects most hunters to take.

Note: This hunt is not an easy canned hunt. If you're accustomed to hunting out of a nice lodge with beds and hot showers and hunting abundant trophy-class deer or elk on an intensively managed private ranch, this might not be the hunt for you. This is a truly wild Far North hunt in some great game country. There's a good chance of encountering a brown bear, which seldom cause problems, but if you're the type of hunter who is freaked out by having half-ton grizzlies hanging around, you might want to go home before you put in enough time to get your animal as was the case with a moose hunter in 2007. For you trophy ram hunters, a 42- or 43-inch sheep that was estimated to rank about No. 25 on the all-time list of B&C records was seen several times last year but eluded the hunters. One hunter passed on a 38-inch ram while trying for this monster sheep. The outfitter really wanted to take that ram last year and offered his sheep hunter extra days, but the customer left on schedule. We think this hunt is a good bet for the hunter who is in good shape and is tough enough mentally to handle a demanding hunt in difficult terrain.

"I would say sheep hunters should be able to get rams between 36 and 41 inches," he said. "My area is adjacent to an area closed to sheep hunting, and sometimes the big old rams wander into my zone. You don't need to draw a tag to hunt sheep or moose in my area; however, I also operate in a sheep unit where you must draw a tag to hunt rams, and that area gets some really big animals, too. As for moose I would expect almost all the bulls to be in the 57 to 64-inch category. We ride in far enough that we're hunting animals that don't see hunters very often."

Expect to ride from the trailhead to base camp a minimum of 2 1/2 hours. Sheep country is usually at least two hours' ride from base camp.