Went to Adak for the first time this October. I was a really fast turn and burn DIY trip. My buddy and I flew in hunted two days and flew out. Way to short but it was the window we had for time off so well worth the experience.
We hiked about 12 miles in two days. Midday on our first day we spotted 4 bou that were 2500 yrds away. 10 mins after seeing them shots rang out and 3 guys apparently found them much earlier than we did. I wasn't disappointed. Although love bagging game, after the moose hunt we had this year I was really happy to have seen some four legged animals that we were looking for. The other guys only took one. I'm sure it was due to distance and time left in the day to get it from the field. We returned from the field at night fall. Those guys were well into the night.
Day 2, we went a different direction that had rumor of 8 bou being harvested 3 days earlier. We hiked, glassed, and saw no bou, lots of ptarmigan, but no bou.
Takeaways:
-There aren't as many Caribou out there as I though. With peak numbers between 2600-2800, our host said it is currently 800-900. The lichen is scarce and very short, so perhaps this is a good population.
-most people average 1mph while hiking. I was told this and found it to be true.
-if you like ptarmigan there are a lot of them, a coworker had told me to bring a shot gun but that wasn't in my game plan.
-like most hunts, I would have liked to stay longer. 2 days hunting is way to short but something was better than nothing.
-I would strongly consider a spike camp for the fall. Me and buddy did Montague last October for deer and found alternating between a night in the tent and a night on a warm boat was best of both worlds.
-I'll be back. Currently trying to plan January of 24.
We hiked about 12 miles in two days. Midday on our first day we spotted 4 bou that were 2500 yrds away. 10 mins after seeing them shots rang out and 3 guys apparently found them much earlier than we did. I wasn't disappointed. Although love bagging game, after the moose hunt we had this year I was really happy to have seen some four legged animals that we were looking for. The other guys only took one. I'm sure it was due to distance and time left in the day to get it from the field. We returned from the field at night fall. Those guys were well into the night.
Day 2, we went a different direction that had rumor of 8 bou being harvested 3 days earlier. We hiked, glassed, and saw no bou, lots of ptarmigan, but no bou.
Takeaways:
-There aren't as many Caribou out there as I though. With peak numbers between 2600-2800, our host said it is currently 800-900. The lichen is scarce and very short, so perhaps this is a good population.
-most people average 1mph while hiking. I was told this and found it to be true.
-if you like ptarmigan there are a lot of them, a coworker had told me to bring a shot gun but that wasn't in my game plan.
-like most hunts, I would have liked to stay longer. 2 days hunting is way to short but something was better than nothing.
-I would strongly consider a spike camp for the fall. Me and buddy did Montague last October for deer and found alternating between a night in the tent and a night on a warm boat was best of both worlds.
-I'll be back. Currently trying to plan January of 24.
