I have finally pulled my finger out and I am starting to plan a DIY caribou hunt in Alaska. All I know so far is that I want to go in 2020 and I am leaning towards 40 mile air. I don't have a lot of camping gear so preferably I would like to rent tents/cookware, etc. I would really appreciate any suggestions on air service/gear rental/what to expect/meat care/everything else regarding this kind of hunt. I've never done anything like this before so any help would be great. Thanks in advance!
First timer diy caribou
- Thread starter irf1983
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There are a bunch of guys on here that can provide you with some good info, going the fully equipped and transported route is going to be pricey. I'm doing my first caribou hunt in august and we are doing it about as cheap as you possibly can for a NonRes it's going to be around $1000. I would guess you are looking at 6k or so to get it done this route. Also are you trying to do this solo? Every transporter I have talked to has been extremely apprehensive about dropping someone solo, not to say they won't do it but they will want to make sure you can handle it by yourself, I contacted 40 mile and was told if I wanted to do a solo trip I needed to convince Leif I was prepared... and not having hunting in AK before or having gear definitely wouldn't be starting off that conversation on the right foot.
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I did a fly out caribou hunt 15 years ago. Was a really cool experience, tons of animals. We went on the opening day in early Aug.
Biggest issues were antlers still have velvet (would have preferred a hard horned animal), bugs were nasty, and I lost a good portion of the meat to spoilage because of the warm temperatures. Getting your own equipment together for an Aug hunt will not be too expensive as you don't need bomb shelter tents or 0 degree bags that time of the year (and you'll own the equipment for future hunts). We took our own equipment and the only hitch was the need to buy fuel for our stove once we arrived in AK (can't fly with white gas or propane). We ate mountain house and pumped water from the lake we camped on. We also ate some fish we caught and some of the caribou back straps.
Good luck to you!
Biggest issues were antlers still have velvet (would have preferred a hard horned animal), bugs were nasty, and I lost a good portion of the meat to spoilage because of the warm temperatures. Getting your own equipment together for an Aug hunt will not be too expensive as you don't need bomb shelter tents or 0 degree bags that time of the year (and you'll own the equipment for future hunts). We took our own equipment and the only hitch was the need to buy fuel for our stove once we arrived in AK (can't fly with white gas or propane). We ate mountain house and pumped water from the lake we camped on. We also ate some fish we caught and some of the caribou back straps.
Good luck to you!
There will be 3 of us. I’m trying to keep the price around 6k per person. A tent and cooking gear are the main things im missing. I suppose a decent wall tent would do for three of us.
Thank you, meat spoilage is definitely a concern, and i would prefer hard horned as well. Maybe i’ll look later in the season.
FLXHunter
Member
Don't know if you read Damon Bungard blog about his Alaska caribou. If you haven't it has a lot of great info, https://www.orioncoolers.com/diy-alaskan-caribou-hunting-adventures-part-1-getting-there/
I went last year with 40 mile air, great company to fly with. Getting geared up isn’t to bad. What will limit you is the 50 pound per person weight limit unless you decide to pay for the extra plane. With 3 guys you can easily split the weight of a backpack stove, tents and food/cooking pot. We kept our gear simple and light. Let me know if I can help with any gear list or necessities etc.
I found some good gear rental stores in Anchorage but I haven't used them. For an odds and ends item they might be good or for that one item you won't use again. But the main reason I like my own gear is I can train with it before hand. When you say you don't have any gear that raises some serious red flags. Do you have any experience camping outside of car camping in a campground? And yet you are flying into the wilderness near the Arctic circle?! It's great you are going with a group, but they've done studies that show that group think can lead to some dangerous situations. You would definitely want to at least hit some backpacker trails beforehand and at least know what it's like camping a two hour walk from your truck a.d doing all the cooking, water filtering, sleeping, etc. They also have some two day wilderness first aid courses. It's good you have 2 years to prepare.
So with 40 mile it's bring all your own gear? I might try this next year.
mdhunter61
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I’ve been fortunate to do about a dozen flyout hunts in Alaska in the past 15 years, and will be going again next year (took my girlfriend up for 2 weeks this summer, so won’t be going up this fall). I have used 40 Mile for 6-7 of these hunts, and will be using them again next year. The challenge for a new customer is that they sell out, or nearly sell out, with repeat customers every year, a testament to their organization and safe flying practices.
One of the best reasons for using 40 Mile is that they have a chilled boxcar in Tok where your meat is stored until you fly back into Tok, so guys who shoot a caribou early in the hunt don’t have to worry about their meat spoiling. It does cost $800 to have your meat, antlers, and hide flown back to Tok, but well worth it in my mind not to worry about the meat spoiling. Last year I shot a nice caribou on Day 2 of our hunt; we stayed in the field another 10 days, had no worries about my meat as it was chilling in the boxcar in Tok (was picked up and flown back to town the day after I shot it).
Here are notional costs for a 2-man hunt with 40 Mile Air, including the extra 200-pound gear load and a rental van from Anchorage. You may opt not to have the extra gear load, and could opt to fly into Fairbanks and have 40 Mile fly you to Tok for a fee (they do mail runs and flights to Fairbanks as part of their business). That way you wouldn’t have to rent a van, but you would have to figure out how to get your meat back home.
$2,300 Bush flights into/out of the field (for 1 hunter and 50 pounds of gear)
$450 Half of the $900 cost for a 200-pound gear load
$800 Cost for flying your meat, antlers, and cape out of the field if you get a caribou
$800 Roundtrip airfare to/from Anchorage from your home (estimate)
$200 Excess baggage charges (depending on # of checked bags)
$400 4 nights lodging (2 nights in Anchorage or Fairbanks, 2 nights [split cost] in Tok)
$450 Half of the cost for renting a U-Haul van or truck
$200 Meals in Anchorage or Fairbanks and Tok
$160 Non-resident hunting license
$650 Caribou tag
$150 Groceries/supplies in Anchorage or Fairbanks
$75 Gas (325 mile drive from Anchorage to Tok)
$75 Half of Satellite Phone Rental cost + cost for minutes used
$250 Cash for incidentals, snacks, miscellaneous
$100 Pilot tips (optional)
As you can see, this list totals approximately $7,000 and doesn’t factor in any taxidermy costs, or the costs for shipping meat and antlers/cape back home. Not cheap by any means – but worth it in my opinion.
As someone said earlier in this post – if you haven’t done a real wilderness hunt before, try to bring someone who has. Alaska can be a harsh place to learn what works and what doesn’t in the remote wilderness; people die just about every year. When I was up there this summer, an experienced hiker was killed by a grizzly less than 20 minutes from Anchorage, and a woman died trying to save her child who had been swept downstream by swift currents in the high spring waters. The child was playing in the shallow water near shore, and stepped into a deeper area and was swept away. You’ll rub into things in Alaska that you don’t encounter in other places.
Best of luck, whatever you decide. It’s the experience of a lifetime in my mind.
One of the best reasons for using 40 Mile is that they have a chilled boxcar in Tok where your meat is stored until you fly back into Tok, so guys who shoot a caribou early in the hunt don’t have to worry about their meat spoiling. It does cost $800 to have your meat, antlers, and hide flown back to Tok, but well worth it in my mind not to worry about the meat spoiling. Last year I shot a nice caribou on Day 2 of our hunt; we stayed in the field another 10 days, had no worries about my meat as it was chilling in the boxcar in Tok (was picked up and flown back to town the day after I shot it).
Here are notional costs for a 2-man hunt with 40 Mile Air, including the extra 200-pound gear load and a rental van from Anchorage. You may opt not to have the extra gear load, and could opt to fly into Fairbanks and have 40 Mile fly you to Tok for a fee (they do mail runs and flights to Fairbanks as part of their business). That way you wouldn’t have to rent a van, but you would have to figure out how to get your meat back home.
$2,300 Bush flights into/out of the field (for 1 hunter and 50 pounds of gear)
$450 Half of the $900 cost for a 200-pound gear load
$800 Cost for flying your meat, antlers, and cape out of the field if you get a caribou
$800 Roundtrip airfare to/from Anchorage from your home (estimate)
$200 Excess baggage charges (depending on # of checked bags)
$400 4 nights lodging (2 nights in Anchorage or Fairbanks, 2 nights [split cost] in Tok)
$450 Half of the cost for renting a U-Haul van or truck
$200 Meals in Anchorage or Fairbanks and Tok
$160 Non-resident hunting license
$650 Caribou tag
$150 Groceries/supplies in Anchorage or Fairbanks
$75 Gas (325 mile drive from Anchorage to Tok)
$75 Half of Satellite Phone Rental cost + cost for minutes used
$250 Cash for incidentals, snacks, miscellaneous
$100 Pilot tips (optional)
As you can see, this list totals approximately $7,000 and doesn’t factor in any taxidermy costs, or the costs for shipping meat and antlers/cape back home. Not cheap by any means – but worth it in my opinion.
As someone said earlier in this post – if you haven’t done a real wilderness hunt before, try to bring someone who has. Alaska can be a harsh place to learn what works and what doesn’t in the remote wilderness; people die just about every year. When I was up there this summer, an experienced hiker was killed by a grizzly less than 20 minutes from Anchorage, and a woman died trying to save her child who had been swept downstream by swift currents in the high spring waters. The child was playing in the shallow water near shore, and stepped into a deeper area and was swept away. You’ll rub into things in Alaska that you don’t encounter in other places.
Best of luck, whatever you decide. It’s the experience of a lifetime in my mind.
BrentD
Well-known member
You might check with Papa Bear Adventures out of Bethel. They have two Beavers and a Supercub. In 2015 we did a moose hunt for less per person than you are talking about and we used their tent, inflatable boat and motor and a few other things. Not sure how much caribou habitat they cover, but I know they do at least a little bit of it. Bears and moose are their mainstay.
Have a darn solid plan for how you are going to get your antlers and meat home and exactly how much meat you are taking in what condition (frozen?). We invented on the fly and it worked, but we could have done better and easier if we had known what we didn't know we didn't know, if you know what I mean.
Good luck.
Have a darn solid plan for how you are going to get your antlers and meat home and exactly how much meat you are taking in what condition (frozen?). We invented on the fly and it worked, but we could have done better and easier if we had known what we didn't know we didn't know, if you know what I mean.
Good luck.
mehunter61 is very knowledgeable on these fly out hunts. He helped me out a lot with info before our hunt. His numbers are pretty spot on. We didn’t have flight cost to Alaska, but we did have fuel for driving there. The refrigerated meat locker is very nice to have in August. 40 mile air also has a bunk house you can stay in the night before your fly out.
First - FORGET the wall tent idea. Way too much weight for a fly-out.
Check out a local REI for rentals of tents, stoves, water purifiers, etc. They offer lots of equipment rentals at reasonable rates. Just DO NOT tell them the gear will be used for hunting - they tend to be "greenies". You may have to join, but its free.
Check out a local REI for rentals of tents, stoves, water purifiers, etc. They offer lots of equipment rentals at reasonable rates. Just DO NOT tell them the gear will be used for hunting - they tend to be "greenies". You may have to join, but its free.
Going in six weeks. Here are some pertinent items I've established for our trip:
1. Bringing our own tents/ gear. Even if you have to put a few dollars into shoring your equipment up, it's still better to have stuff you can A) tailor to your personal tastes and B) become familiar with prior to entering the field. Also, rental gear, in my experience, is frequently stretched to its limits to produce as great a financial payoff as possible before replacement- i.e., it often sucks.
2. I'm using Arrowhead Outfitters, which fly out from the northern Dalton Highway. Hunted Alaska a few times before, but this will be my first fly-in caribou hunt. I'll be posting a full report on my experience afterwards.
3. We'll be there for the last half of August- this timeline is designed to give greatest access to peak migration numbers on the North Slope, decent weather, best pre-rut meat quality and lower volume of insects. All of these factors change with timing; to your question, if you're there from mid August onward, the climatological data says you probably won't have to worry about your meat getting too warm. Worst comes to worst, bone it out, double bag it with black contractor bags and sink it in a chilly waterway.
4. If financially able, flying in or pack rafting to then hunt area seems to be the gig. Apparently, your chances of success are directly proportional to your willingness to work and skill if you do either of those, whereas even a very motivated and proficient hunter is much more likely to encounter circumstances out of his control when hunting from the road.
Again, I'll post a full report on our experiences on here when we're back... I'll be excited to see exactly where I was right and where I was wrong.
mdhunter61
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Good luck on your hunt! One note on your item #3 - if you are able to keep the meat on the bone, it will be easier to care for. Deboned meat tends to spoil easier and requires more care typically.
I have hunted near the area twice, but not with that service.
It is bigger country than I thought it would be. It is a different ballgame compared to where I've hunted in Wyoming. I have wished I could shoot farther both times I was there. You will not catch a Caribou, Black Bear, Moose, or Wolf that is on the edge of range and walking away from you. This year I invested a lot of time and money toward shooting farther.
The Caribou can be herded up, but there are stragglers from the herd. I believe there is a hard quota - which if reached - could end the season early - which could happen if the herd is near an area near a road when the season starts.
Not sure how helpful I can be because I didn't use that service, but I could share further thoughts not specific to that service if you want. Send a pm.
It is bigger country than I thought it would be. It is a different ballgame compared to where I've hunted in Wyoming. I have wished I could shoot farther both times I was there. You will not catch a Caribou, Black Bear, Moose, or Wolf that is on the edge of range and walking away from you. This year I invested a lot of time and money toward shooting farther.
The Caribou can be herded up, but there are stragglers from the herd. I believe there is a hard quota - which if reached - could end the season early - which could happen if the herd is near an area near a road when the season starts.
Not sure how helpful I can be because I didn't use that service, but I could share further thoughts not specific to that service if you want. Send a pm.
mdhunter61
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Unit 20 is divided into several zones. Zones 1 and 3 can be accessed from the road system, and the hunts in those zones tend to open and close within several days if the animals are near the road. Zone 2 is where the flyout hunts occur, and that zone typically stays open for the entire season as the hunting pressure is much lower.
damonbungard
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I finally got around to making a video of my hunt
