Thoughts on caribou tags

[Pygmy]

For Moosie, Dan S., T-Bone and all of the others considering an Alaska trip for caribou...

If you are hunting an area where you have good chances to kill caribou AND if you are interested in getting a good head for the wall, it is a good idea to buy two tags, if the limit is two in the unit you are hunting...

No matter how much you study the things before you go, when you see the first mature bulls trotting across the tundra they ALL tend to look big..Several of my friends have gone up and bought only one tag because they only wanted to have one bull mounted...That's all well and good, but most of them were disappointed that they had only one tag, because the first bull that they shot turned out to be smaller than they thought, and, of course they ended up seeing bigger ones after they had already filled thier tags...

Considering the price of the trip overall, the $325 for a second 'bou tag ain't that much, AND if you consider the fact that you can use it for either a caribou, a black bear, a wolf or a wolverine, it's even a better deal...

Add to that the fact that caribou is IMHO, one of the best eating game meats...To my taste, it is the best I have ever eaten....

A good strategy is to shoot the first decent bull that you see, and then hold out for a real buster...

 

[Moosie]

Pygmy, I think that is a Cool Idea... But the Mulchatna Area that we hunted last year (OK, I'm a Bad Example ) but we were only allowed to get 1 (ONE) tag. Heard numbers were hunting and thus the decline in tags...

NOW, Were Tbone and Me are going next year there is a 5 Bou limit..... Lets Just Say Moosies Getting his Revenge

There should be Plenty of Tags to go around

I agree that you should buy 2 tags in a 2 tag area. Even if you get lucky and Dump a bigger one at first and Hold out for a bigger one and Never See it thats Money well spent. I agree that most people (And guys other then me) have a Hard time telling what a "GOOD" bou is. Some don't have a Hard time but just can't find one....

Thanx for the Advice Pygmy !!

 

[Daniel in Ak]

another food for thought on them wall hangers.I've seen where some nice bulls come by and fellas shoot the first big one they see in a group,when in fact most times there are bigger bulls not far behind.Somtimes as pairs or a few at a time,even the bigger bulls might be less than a day behind,so it pays to wait.Good luck to you all whoever is coming to Alaska this year for bou!

I know where going to try and get more than four this time

Daniel

 

[Moosie]

DANAK, Good luck on your 'bous too !!!

I've heard that More often then NOT that the Bigger Bulls are lagging behind.

With all my Vast AK Experience (Gonig one time ) I came up with my Own theory in the Well hunted areas. the Flyers drop the hunters in the Front of the Herds. The herds Move through and The bulls get Shot. Now there is cows in front. the longer the Hunters pickl them off, The further Back the Bulls are because They all get picked off from the front. If you think About it ...it makes sense

 

[Pygmy]

The "big bulls in the rear" phenomenon was definitely the case when I hunted out of Dillingham in '99...Trouble is, when you're seeing over 1000 animals per day, you can only watch SO many of those big *&^%$#%(*'s walk by before you have to SHOOT one...We were patient, to a POINT and then filled our tags...Of course, after all the tags were full the REALLY big bulls came through, including a couple that would have pushed B&C..As a matter of fact, we had just finished packing the meat from our final bull to our meat cache when a real monster walked by within rifle range of the meat cache... He had everything...B&C or darn close to it..And we had just used our last tag...

 

[lilbiggun]

Not only that but I found that most big bulls lag way behind the main herds. I've seen it a few times that after the main herds came through you will see small bachelor herds of some damn big bulls.

Past couple of years have been wierd. the big boys havent been moving south the way they used to. Very few bulls came in last year at the southern part of the mulchatna range. bou hunting is spotty. nowadays the mulchatna herd is overlyhunted, if you see a good bull, drop it. or fly in farther north. or fly out to the western arctic herd. still good size there.

 

[Moosie]

Above the Artic LINE..... Thats were we're going

 

[lilbiggun]

Oscar, I have 2 words for you. weight limit. need I say anymore .