Bambistew
Well-known member
About a month ago the F&G decided that the 'local' caribou herd was doing better than they thought and issued an additional 2500 permits. This is on top of the 800 draw permits, and another 7000 "subsistence" permits which any resident can get. Anyway... I knew this hunt was going to be crowded, but wasn't sure how bad. My father in law drew a permit, so I automatically offered to play guide...
We ended up going up over Labor Day weekend, leaving on Thursday and planning on hunting through to Monday. We had a late start, but still got to our destination around 1:00am just long enough to catch a cat nap before we headed out for the day. Neither one of us had ever been in this part of the state, but I spent a bunch of time researching it and had a pretty good feel for what to expect, minus the 6-8' tall brush which doesn't show up on Google... It was a giant carpet of bushes. We could walk through it, but it was miserable slow going. This pretty much limited us to where we could go.
The first morning, we opted to drive the highway a few miles to get a feel for the area we planned on hiking. In doing so we'd stop and glass about every half mile or so. We probably saw 120-150 animals, but only one medium sized bull. Content with what we'd seen, we went back to where we camped and hoofed it up the hill to a canyon that I had picked out to hunt. We saw a dozen or more animals, but only small bulls and cows. We spent the rest of the day looking this area over, and then headed back to the truck. We easily saw 1000 cars drive by on the highway while we were up high on the mountain. Didn't see another person out walking. This is pretty typical from what I've found for AK. If you can't get to it with an ATV, or run it over on the road... the animals are safe.
With all the people starting to roll in for the weekend we decided to head out to a less popular spot that I had picked out, and to also scout another area. We spent the next day looking it over, turning up nothing but ATV's, hunters, a couple moose (little less than legal) but no bou. A massive storm was rolling in, spitting snow, and driving rain at 30-40mph. The forecast was for more of the same. We decided that all the people and crappy weather wasn't worth it. The tag was open for a long time, so we headed home planning to go back the next weekend.
The following weekend we made a plan to go to yet another spot I'd picked out. Best I could tell there wasn't any ATV trails within a couple miles, and the brush wasn't nearly as bad, I hoped. While spotting it from the road I picked out a monster bull moose lying on the hill side. He was a bit too far away for my FIL and I to pack and was with another bull bedded above a river. I noted his location and planned on returning the following weekend with my wife to see if we could get on him.
We made it to the chosen spot, set up the spotter and started looking. Caribou where much more scarce this weekend, and the one small bunch we found prior was constantly looking over their shoulders as they fed.
we picked out a nice camp site, set up camp and the spotter. After about an hour of spotting the only thing I turned up was a couple grizz and the gimps of a bull caribou. I was unsure how big he was but knew he was a bull. Billy wasn't going to be picky, he'd never taken a caribou and was happy to get any bull. He was about 2 miles off, and in the brush, but we figured we might as well give it a go and see if we can get on him. We packed up and started the march across the swamp and tundra. Along the way we turned up a couple moose and a sweet little out of the way basin full of moose sign. We sat in a small clearing void of brush and spotted the hillside we'd seen the bull, this time we were only 500 yards or so away. After an hour or so, we caught him feeding in roughly the same spot we'd seen him prior. We quickly made a plan and started to close in. The problem was the beaver ponds between him and us were growing in size and depth.
About half way to him, I noticed a blur to our right, he'd dropped off the mountain and was out in the flat feeding. Quickly we made a circle through the swamp and made a dash for his position. Caribou do what ever they want, when they want. If we didn't catch up to him this time, we'd probably never catch him.
As luck turned out as we rounded a small knoll where we'd seen him just prior, he was still feeding in the same area. I motioned for Billy to come closer, and get ready. The shot was about 150 yards... with no rest in sight, Billy lined up on his knee and fired a perfect shot right behind the shoulder. The bull ran 40 yards and piled up.
He was an old bugger, heavy with lots of character and double back scratchers. I think his bez's are about 26" long... His teeth were worn to the gum line and his body was huge. Took us a couple trips to get him back to the truck, as this area requires that meat be left on the bone, and the ribs be packed out. This easily adds another load to the packing. The steaks are better than the bull I shot last year. Caribou is easily becoming my favorite meat.
I think caribou hunting is like antelope hunting, lots of glassing, lots of driving, and lots of animals. I have good friend who also has this permit, we'll be going up in October to chase them some more.
We ended up going up over Labor Day weekend, leaving on Thursday and planning on hunting through to Monday. We had a late start, but still got to our destination around 1:00am just long enough to catch a cat nap before we headed out for the day. Neither one of us had ever been in this part of the state, but I spent a bunch of time researching it and had a pretty good feel for what to expect, minus the 6-8' tall brush which doesn't show up on Google... It was a giant carpet of bushes. We could walk through it, but it was miserable slow going. This pretty much limited us to where we could go.
The first morning, we opted to drive the highway a few miles to get a feel for the area we planned on hiking. In doing so we'd stop and glass about every half mile or so. We probably saw 120-150 animals, but only one medium sized bull. Content with what we'd seen, we went back to where we camped and hoofed it up the hill to a canyon that I had picked out to hunt. We saw a dozen or more animals, but only small bulls and cows. We spent the rest of the day looking this area over, and then headed back to the truck. We easily saw 1000 cars drive by on the highway while we were up high on the mountain. Didn't see another person out walking. This is pretty typical from what I've found for AK. If you can't get to it with an ATV, or run it over on the road... the animals are safe.
With all the people starting to roll in for the weekend we decided to head out to a less popular spot that I had picked out, and to also scout another area. We spent the next day looking it over, turning up nothing but ATV's, hunters, a couple moose (little less than legal) but no bou. A massive storm was rolling in, spitting snow, and driving rain at 30-40mph. The forecast was for more of the same. We decided that all the people and crappy weather wasn't worth it. The tag was open for a long time, so we headed home planning to go back the next weekend.
The following weekend we made a plan to go to yet another spot I'd picked out. Best I could tell there wasn't any ATV trails within a couple miles, and the brush wasn't nearly as bad, I hoped. While spotting it from the road I picked out a monster bull moose lying on the hill side. He was a bit too far away for my FIL and I to pack and was with another bull bedded above a river. I noted his location and planned on returning the following weekend with my wife to see if we could get on him.
We made it to the chosen spot, set up the spotter and started looking. Caribou where much more scarce this weekend, and the one small bunch we found prior was constantly looking over their shoulders as they fed.
we picked out a nice camp site, set up camp and the spotter. After about an hour of spotting the only thing I turned up was a couple grizz and the gimps of a bull caribou. I was unsure how big he was but knew he was a bull. Billy wasn't going to be picky, he'd never taken a caribou and was happy to get any bull. He was about 2 miles off, and in the brush, but we figured we might as well give it a go and see if we can get on him. We packed up and started the march across the swamp and tundra. Along the way we turned up a couple moose and a sweet little out of the way basin full of moose sign. We sat in a small clearing void of brush and spotted the hillside we'd seen the bull, this time we were only 500 yards or so away. After an hour or so, we caught him feeding in roughly the same spot we'd seen him prior. We quickly made a plan and started to close in. The problem was the beaver ponds between him and us were growing in size and depth.
About half way to him, I noticed a blur to our right, he'd dropped off the mountain and was out in the flat feeding. Quickly we made a circle through the swamp and made a dash for his position. Caribou do what ever they want, when they want. If we didn't catch up to him this time, we'd probably never catch him.
As luck turned out as we rounded a small knoll where we'd seen him just prior, he was still feeding in the same area. I motioned for Billy to come closer, and get ready. The shot was about 150 yards... with no rest in sight, Billy lined up on his knee and fired a perfect shot right behind the shoulder. The bull ran 40 yards and piled up.
He was an old bugger, heavy with lots of character and double back scratchers. I think his bez's are about 26" long... His teeth were worn to the gum line and his body was huge. Took us a couple trips to get him back to the truck, as this area requires that meat be left on the bone, and the ribs be packed out. This easily adds another load to the packing. The steaks are better than the bull I shot last year. Caribou is easily becoming my favorite meat.
I think caribou hunting is like antelope hunting, lots of glassing, lots of driving, and lots of animals. I have good friend who also has this permit, we'll be going up in October to chase them some more.
Last edited:
