DavidAk
New member
Well, I had a good two weeks off..one week hunting Mulchatna caribou and one week hunting Prince William Sound for black bear.
We saw a few bears on the boat trip in, but didn't get any bears on the hunt. Due to some miscommunication, we ended up not having a raft for the trip..hiking the forested shorelines is a tough way to go! It's hard to sneak up on the bears without approaching from the water. Also, though there were lots of pinks in the streams, and we saw a couple bears feeding on them, there didn't seem to be much activity along the streambanks. I believe the bears had pulled off in favor of the ripe blueberries, which were plentiful. Possibly the bears will return to the streams when the berries are gone? Not sure if this is the case. Regardless, all the bear scat we saw was full of berries.
The caribou hunt was fun, we shot a total of 14 animals. All were cows. We held out the first few days hoping for some bulls, but the only ones we saw were far far away, so we filled our tags on the cows. We had to do a lot more walking this trip then usual, but accomplished what we wanted. Lots of meat for winter.
There was lots of brown shirt troopers out patrolling, they flew into camp while we were out hunting and checked our meat stash. Also landed next to us while hunting and checked licenses, etc. They also hiked to a carcass with us and examined for wanton waste. We got a clean bill of inspection and they left us alone after that, though we saw them every day flying over in planes and a helicopter.
One group of non-res hunters was cited for wanton waste and removing antlers from the field before salvaging all meat. The officer produced a one-gallon ziplock of meat as evidence. This was told to me by our pilot, who also flew these hunters.
I tried out some new gear on this trip: Wiggy's (packable) waders, Helly Hansen Impertech rain gear, my Bibler tent, a Bushnell Yardage Pro rangefinder, and it was my first kill with my .375 and the first real test of my Zeiss Conquest.
All in all, good times and a full freezer..what more can a guy ask of two weeks off?
cheers,
Dave
We saw a few bears on the boat trip in, but didn't get any bears on the hunt. Due to some miscommunication, we ended up not having a raft for the trip..hiking the forested shorelines is a tough way to go! It's hard to sneak up on the bears without approaching from the water. Also, though there were lots of pinks in the streams, and we saw a couple bears feeding on them, there didn't seem to be much activity along the streambanks. I believe the bears had pulled off in favor of the ripe blueberries, which were plentiful. Possibly the bears will return to the streams when the berries are gone? Not sure if this is the case. Regardless, all the bear scat we saw was full of berries.
The caribou hunt was fun, we shot a total of 14 animals. All were cows. We held out the first few days hoping for some bulls, but the only ones we saw were far far away, so we filled our tags on the cows. We had to do a lot more walking this trip then usual, but accomplished what we wanted. Lots of meat for winter.
There was lots of brown shirt troopers out patrolling, they flew into camp while we were out hunting and checked our meat stash. Also landed next to us while hunting and checked licenses, etc. They also hiked to a carcass with us and examined for wanton waste. We got a clean bill of inspection and they left us alone after that, though we saw them every day flying over in planes and a helicopter.
One group of non-res hunters was cited for wanton waste and removing antlers from the field before salvaging all meat. The officer produced a one-gallon ziplock of meat as evidence. This was told to me by our pilot, who also flew these hunters.
I tried out some new gear on this trip: Wiggy's (packable) waders, Helly Hansen Impertech rain gear, my Bibler tent, a Bushnell Yardage Pro rangefinder, and it was my first kill with my .375 and the first real test of my Zeiss Conquest.
All in all, good times and a full freezer..what more can a guy ask of two weeks off?
cheers,
Dave
