Caribou - August 2014

POk3s

Well-known member
Joined
Aug 20, 2011
Messages
302
Location
Wyoming
Last fall I fulfilled a bucket list dream by going to Alaska. Went on a caribou hunt on the haul road with a guy who has done it 3 or 4 times now. In 2013 he killed a MONSTER bull. 400+". Right place at the right time. Also went with an older guy from Arizona.

So needless to say I had visions of big caribou all over the road.....well, it was very much an off year by his standards. Very little caribou moving. We had 6 full days to hunt and into day 5 we had 0 of 3 tags filled and the pressure was on. Cows were now on the table and after experiencing some very unethical behavior by other hunters it was starting to look very bleak.

Day 6 (last full day) we watched a small bull bed in some willows which completely covered him up. I said, "let's go for it before he moves. He's not huge but it's easily the best chance we've had in 6 days." It was 1.77 miles as the crow flies from the truck. Me and my buddy made the stalk. He had rangefinder in hand as we snuck....and snuck....and snuck. With the wind in our face I started to doubt myself as we were looking at the head of the willow patch and knowing he was not that far up. Looking straight ahead I hear, "TO YOUR LEFT!!!" I turn to see him looking at us and then hear "55 yards". Unbeknown to me that was simply a guess. I put my 50 a touch high and let it fly. There were bushes 15 yards in front of the bull covering his vitals which is the reason a true range couldn't be read. The arrow arched perfectly and blew out the bottom of his heart. Upon ranging the spot later he was 61 yards. Luckily his guess was close enough ;)

A few more stalks were made by my friend as there were caribou running everywhere all of the sudden. He even missed once within the next hour or so. Before I got back to the truck the older gentleman with us also had a bull down! I stumbled right onto it on my way back from the road. The bull ran out of site after the shot and the hunter didn't even know he was down. It was truly awesome to grind so hard for that many days and have 3 shot opportunities the last day with 2 tags filled.

My bull



Other bull
 
Good stuff right there. Looks like a fun hunt. Any more pictures? Would love to do that someday!
 
Yea I've got a few....probably 100 hahaha. I'll upload some more to photo bucket and get 'em posted tonight or tomorrow.
 
Thanks guys. I'll be back up there in a year or 3 Gotta get a bigger bull before I stop ;)
 
Cool adventure.
I had that on my short list at one time. But a guy talked me out of it after experiencing crazy hunting pressure.

What was your experience with numbers of other hunters?
 
Nice story, congrats on grinding it out.

And Diesel is cheaper than gas up there!
 
There's no such thing as "cheaper" up there! Hahahaha


T-bone, there were other hunters around although I don't know if I can put a number on it. Seemed like every time we found some caribou somewhat close to the road another vehicle of hunters would be coming up the road, stop their rigs, and spook them off.

It was definitely cut throat up there. So cut throat that I might backpack in deeper next time or pay for the plane ride.

Had a couple of experiences where guys would see someone from our group stalking caribou only to get out of their trucks and try their own stalk. Didn't make much sense. Even had a local guy throw a tantrum in the middle of the haul road

Long story short I had been stalking a cow caribou for about a half hour. Got ahead of her and was waiting. As I'm waiting a truck pulls up and the guy gets out and just starts walking right toward me. My buddy goes up to his vehicle and nicely tells him that I'm already out there. He then proceeds to start screaming and yelling that "That guy (me) has no idea what the **** he's doing and if I can hunt the caribou then nobody can!!" And then proceeds to run out into the tundra yelling and waving his arms until the cow spooks.

He then gets back in his truck and starts driving off. I stand up and just kind of hold my arms out, palms up, like what the hell. He then flips me off as he drives away.

That kind if stuff I can live without, but really not too many hunters. We probably saw 15-20 trucks a day...and some of those were the same guys we'd continually see over and over.
 
haha well. Don't let my story take away from something you want to do. It really made me rethink what the hell I was doing but I still had a great time. Visited some awesome country, saw some great sites and was able to take a caribou. Some things are you just have to go do!
 
Last edited:
haha well. Don't let my story take away from something you want to do. It really made me rethink what the hell I was doing but I still had a great time. Visited some awesome country, saw some great sites and was able tot make a caribou. Some things are you just have to go do!

Great attitude! You did well buddy. Good huntin'
 
Gastro Gnome - Eat Better Wherever

Latest posts

Forum statistics

Threads
110,808
Messages
1,935,212
Members
34,887
Latest member
Uncle_Danno
Back
Top