"I feel like I am the luckiest man," said Nikolaevsk hunter Akaky "Kenny" Martushev.

To the many onlookers who had gathered to see the rack in the back of Martushev's truck at the bank and post office earlier in the day, he certainly was.

Patience, however, played as much a role as luck for Martushev and his hunting buddy Eosaf Reutov, as they battled freezing rain and fog for 15 days near Tustumena Lake before picking out this massive bull on Oct 12.

During the trip the hunting party crossed paths with at least 15 bulls and 50 cows.

Some of the bulls had spreads of more than 65 inches, trophy-size in nearly every Alaska hunter's book.

"We saw lots of bulls," Reutov said. "Some were 60 inches, but he didn't take them."

Martushev said he was looking for the big one he saw earlier in the week.

"We called him out (a couple days earlier), but only saw part of his antlers, and didn't have a clear shot," Martushev said.

"We had seen five bulls and 30 cows (that day) and then on the way back to camp we saw that bull," Martushev said.

The big bull had a harem of five cows with it. Eventually it stepped away from the cows and Martushev dropped it with two shots from his 7mm rifle from about 200 yards.

As they slogged toward the downed moose, Martushev was sure he had shot the moose of his lifetime.

"When we came up to him, (Reutov) said 'Awe, he's about 68,' and I said 'How much do you want to bet he's 70?' And sure enough."

At 70 inches the rack measured nearly five inches wider than the Boone and Crocket record for Alaska-Yukon moose set by John A. Crouse in 1994 near the Fortymile River.

Martushev's rack also has some unique characteristics, such as a large drop brow tine on the right and a long point jutting out from underneath the left paddle.

These extra points detract from its Boone and Crocket score, which emphasize typical looking racks, but the rack would still score above the 60 percentile of the 720 Alaska-Yukon moose on record.

The moose rack had four brow tines on each side and weighed close to 80 pounds.

Fortunately for Martushev, he and Reutov had brought horses with them to pack out the meat and rack. Even with the extra help it took the pair 10 hours to haul the more than 600 pounds of meat and the rack back to their truck.

On their way out an Alaska Department of Fish and Game officer checked their drawing permit and license, and told the pair the 70-inch bull was the biggest he had seen so far this year.

Martushev, who has been hunting moose the past nine years near Caribou Hills, agreed.

"I've never seen one that big, ever," he said.

Ben Stuart can be reached at ben.stuart@homernews.com.