40 Mile Caribou Hunt Report

VernAK

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Henry,

40 Mile Air does a first class job and like all firms that provide great products at fair prices, the demand often exceeds the supply......as you've found out!

Good luck!

Beware of imposters!
 
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AKBorn

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Henry,

40 Mile Air does a first class job and like all firms that provide great products at fair prices, the demand often exceeds the supply......as you've found out!

Good luck!

Beware of imposters!

Vern,

How did you guys' hunt go? We saw lots of bull moose on the flight into the field, it was looking like a good year for the moose hunters...
 

VernAK

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We took three bull moose; 62" w/bow, 59" w/bow, and 56" with handgun. A very good year for moose in that area.
I had a caribou tag and watched hundreds on the next ridge that never approached our ridge which is fine as I'm only interested in a huge caribou......and we already had near a ton of moose meat on the ground.

We also took an 8' grizzly...old boar.

Weather was about the best ever.

For some unexplained reason, when a caribou herd passes through your moose area, the moose sightings seem to shut down for a few days. John Havard told me he noticed the same phenomenon.
 
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AKBorn

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We took three bull moose; 62" w/bow, 59" w/bow, and 56" with handgun. A very good year for moose in that area.
I had a caribou tag and watched hundreds on the next ridge that never approached our ridge which is fine as I'm only interested in a huge caribou......and we already had near a ton of moose meat on the ground.

We also took an 8' grizzly...old boar.

Weather was about the best ever.

For some unexplained reason, when a caribou herd passes through your moose area, the moose sightings seem to shut down for a few days. John Havard told me he noticed the same phenomenon.

That's awesome. We didn't see any bears up north near the Charley River, saw a black wolf and a grey one. Glad you guys had great weather, we endured a little rain up there this year.
 

rustyN

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New to forum, but have been using it for many years. Love the write up.
I know it’s hard to get on that 40 Mile Air. I’m wanting to use them for 2021. Other than the obvious calling that December day. What can I do to insure a spot. Thanx yall.

I think as a new customer you just have to get lucky.

We've tried for a couple years with no luck, so starting to look elsewhere.
 
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AKBorn

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how would all of you compare 40 mile air to Arctic Air? if You have used one or both?

I haven't flown with Arctic Air, but have flown with 40 Mile Air many times for moose and caribou. I will list the things I like about their operation, the things that matter to you may vary somewhat -

Safety is always a top priority. I feel as safe as you can feel, flying in Super Cubs in remote Alaska.

They have a chilled boxcar in Tok, where your caribou is taken when they pick it up, and stored there until you return to Tok after your hunt. I have had animals in the boxcar for 8-9 days, while we tried to fill other tags. The meat is always in great shape when I pick it up (I also try to take great care of it in the field).

They have 2-3 larger planes and 2-3 Super Cubs that they use daily in their operation, so one plane being down isn't likely to adversely affect their schedule too often.

I have never been dropped too close to other hunters or other camps.

Some years I have called and requested an early out due to filling our tags early. 40 Mile has made every effort to accommodate those requests - but if it won't fit into the schedule for that day, they are honest about that and tell me.

Their operation is organized and efficient; it is evident that they have done this for a long time and invested thought into how they do certain things.

Would be happy to answer questions if you have them, but those are key factors that are important to me when selecting a transporter.
 

VernAK

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Great summation AKBorn!

I might add the float plane operation also.

Mechanics on duty full time to keep maintenance and inspections current.
 

Ag111

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Bringing this thread back to the top because I’m already super excited about Caribou 2020! Had an epic first ever trip into the Yukon Charley with 40mi air this year and am looking forward to taking my dad next year. Best wild game meat I’ve ever had.
 
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Bringing this thread back to the top because I’m already super excited about Caribou 2020! Had an epic first ever trip into the Yukon Charley with 40mi air this year and am looking forward to taking my dad next year. Best wild game meat I’ve ever had.


Well it’s only goes up from there in Alaska!
 
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Bringing this thread back to the top because I’m already super excited about Caribou 2020! Had an epic first ever trip into the Yukon Charley with 40mi air this year and am looking forward to taking my dad next year. Best wild game meat I’ve ever had.

Awesome! Make sure to email Vanessa some time this month to confirm the date when repeat customers can start to book hunts - it is typically December 1, unless that day falls on a weekend, then I think it falls to the first Monday in December.

I won't be hunting AK next year, taking my girlfriend up in June for 12 days. Might do a little fishing while we travel around.
 

Horby

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In late August/early September, I was back in Alaska for another remote flyout caribou hunt. I opted to go again with the bush pilots I’ve been flying with since the mid-2000’s – 40 Mile Air out of Tok, Alaska. They’re really good pilots, run a safe and organized operation, and fly into some really wild country. In addition, they have a chilled boxcar back in Tok where they take your meat until your hunt is over, which is perfect for a meat hunter like me. I skipped my AK hunt last year to take my girlfriend to Alaska, so it was great to see the guys again and get back into the mountains of Alaska.

I’ve had great success finding AK hunt partners on forums like this one; that wouldn’t be necessary this year. A former high school baseball teammate and small game hunting partner back in the day was interested in going, and had never been to Alaska. Tom and I met for dinner back in November; I brought pics from past Alaska hunts, and described how this hunt is much more work than we’re accustomed to hunting whitetails on the East Coast. He was up for the adventure, so on December 1 I called 40 Mile and booked our spot for a 6-day caribou hunt.

We flew into the mountains on August 29; the caribou were still scattered all over the mountains, and not yet showing any consistent travel pattern. 40 Mile opted to fly us far north into the Charley River country, about 125 air miles north of Tok and deep in the mountains. The flight into and out of the wilderness is always one of the highlights of these trips.

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We were dropped on a ridge that 40 Mile hadn’t used before this year; the couple hunting there before us had both been successful, and it offered a great view of several travel corridors, so we opted to give it a try.

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While we began to set up camp, we had some interested spectators on the top of the ridge…

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My typical camp setup – sleep tent in foreground, and cook/gear tent in the background. We don’t bring any food into the sleep tent.

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Our sleep tent with the bear fence in place. Probably didn’t need it at this campsite, but had it with us, and it only takes a few minutes to set up (except for tying all of the ribbons on the electric wires).

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As we were finishing setup of the bear fence, this guy came down to investigate, and got within 150 yards or so of the tents! He was as big as any bull we saw later, a trophy to be proud of…if it wasn’t fly-in day.

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Tom all geared up and ready to hunt, with my backup pack and Kifaru Gunbearer setup for the rifle. That pack has hauled a lot of meat over the years.

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Our camp, with mountain in the background, taken from the knob where we watched a saddle with multiple travel corridors.

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If we walk in this direction, after a while we will get to Canada…

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We were fortunate to see lots of caribou on a daily basis, more than I’ve seen on any previous hunt in the 40 Mile country. When a group without shooter bulls would pass, I would sneak a little closer and take some photos.

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As we were about to head back to the tents for some dinner on Hunting Day 2, I glanced back at the saddle before leaving, and saw a group of 6 caribou coming with 2 nice bulls. I called Tom back to the rock outcropping we were sitting on, and he started to get setup; the caribou were about 400 yards out at that point. He had bumped his scope against a rock when we were preparing to head back to camp, and we were planning to check the zero after dinner; so I handed him my .338 Winchester Magnum. The caribou walked to within about 160 yards of us, and he dropped this nice bull with one shot.

We got him caped, field dressed, quartered, and hauled the meat back to the ridgetop just before dark. Tom was elated with his bull, and it wasn’t a bad pack as meat packs go – only about ½ mile, and the terrain was easy walking.

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I had caught a bug just before flying into the field, wasn’t sleeping well, and felt a little run down on this trip; so I decided I was going to shoot a bull close to the ridgetop for an easy pack (if the caribou cooperated, of course). On Day 3 we didn’t see any shooters close to the ridge, so I took photos of some of the smaller caribou that passed through. I didn’t try too hard to stay concealed, so they would notice me and wonder what I was…

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On the afternoon of Hunting Day 4, I saw a bald eagle fly onto a rock outcropping about 400 yards away, and convinced myself that was a positive sign. A short while later, 4 caribou came up the ridge from the trees, and a nice bull was leading them. I let them keep coming, and shot him when they were about 150 yards away. I’ve shot bulls with much bigger antlers, but this bull had the heaviest body of any I have shot – lots of prime meat for my sisters and family in Anchorage! I was only about 250 yards from the part of the ridge where the planes could land, so we didn’t even put the meat in the backpacks – we carried it to the ridgetop by hand.

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After I shot the largest bull, the 3 others with him hung around for a while, trying to figure out what happened to their buddy. Gave me a chance to take some pics of them right on the ridgetop, only about 150 yards from camp.

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After spending a couple hours the next morning trimming and bagging the meat, I called 40 Mile for a meat haul, and to see if we could get an early flyout since we had filled our tags. They had lots of flights scheduled that day, so it didn’t look likely at first. But Jake stopped by to grab the caribou a few hours later, and told us if we could get camp taken down they could fit us in that evening. We took camp down in wind and rain, and Jake and Leif came back around 6 PM to get us and our remaining gear. After drying the tents and gear in our hotel rooms for a couple of days, I was able to get everything clean and stored up for the next adventure.

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Awesome trip. I know it was awhile ago but could you elaborate on what camera and lense you are using that enables you to take good close up pictures as wee as slightly distant pictures of animals?
 
OP
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AKBorn

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Awesome trip. I know it was awhile ago but could you elaborate on what camera and lense you are using that enables you to take good close up pictures as wee as slightly distant pictures of animals?
It's a Nikon Coolpix pocket camera, with a 12.1 MP resolution and a 10x zoom lens. I bought it about 10 years ago after getting tired of lugging a bigger camera around in my pack, this one fits in a front shirt pocket so it gets a lot more use!

It's easy to take good photos in that country, just take 4 times more pics than you think you should, and weed out the bad ones on your laptop when you get home.
 

SDHNTR

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We floated the Charley last year and I shot a great bull about 1/4 mile from the bomber. I read the book post float but wished I had read it before. It's an amazing story, and means more when you've been in that country.
I’ve been in that country, killed caribou not a few miles from the Charley and I don’t know this story. Please tell me more.
 
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AKBorn

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I’ve been in that country, killed caribou not a few miles from the Charley and I don’t know this story. Please tell me more.
The story is described pretty well earlier in the thread, and the book title is up there as well.
 
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