First time Alaska trip questions

[wilterdink54]

My wife and I are planning a 2 week trip to Alaska this coming August. We are hoping to make a portion of the trip into a caribou hunt and I am looking for a little bit of advice. A buddy of mine lives up there and told us that a good option would be the 40 mile herd. I did some research and obviously found that there can be tons of pressure there and what not. He said that he spent a day out on the Steese highway hunting this year and had lots of opportunities. Another friend that lives in Seward said that his experience with this hunt is that it is so over crowded that it isn’t even enjoyable and also mentioned that all of the people on 4 wheelers makes it tough to get to game first.

So now I am kind of confused and don’t know what to believe. We are also possibly open to a fly in or jet boat hunt if there are any reasonable options for that.

Thanks in advance!
Brant


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[AKBorn]

It would be pretty hard to make a fly-in caribou hunt a "portion" of a 2-week trip to Alaska, it would very quickly gobble up most of your stay. Let's say you tried to do a 5-hunting day flyout hunt (doing less than 5 days is pretty risky due to bad weather days in the tent, caribou movements hard to predict, etc.). Your rough itinerary would look something like this:

Day 1: Travel to Tok, Delta Junction, or wherever you are flying out from. Check in with transporter, pay fees, weigh gear, etc.

Day 2: Fly to hunting location

Day 3-7: Hunt caribou

Day 8: Fly out of field

Day 9: Depart for other parts of Alaska, possibly with meat and antlers that require care and tending

The above assumes that you are able to fly in and out on your planned flying days; weather often dictates a 1-2 day delay in fall bush flight schedules. That would leave you 4-5 days to spend seeing the rest of Alaska, possibly while trying to keep your meat well cared for.

Not impossible, but would leave only a few days to see the rest of a state more than twice the size of Texas.

 

[AKBorn]

And just my opinion, the 40 Mile hunt via ATV and Chicken Ridge isn't for me. I fly to Alaska to leave the lower 48 crowds behind; this hunt is more of a meat hunt than a remote wilderness adventure, due to all of the other people doing the same thing.

 

[SaltySailor]

A lot of the horror stories people hear about hunting the 40 mile herd stem from when chunks of the herd stray to close to the road. A lot of people are simply road hunters for this hunt, and when a large chunk of the herd comes face to face with a large 'firing line' of 'hunters' taking pop shots from the ditch without care or regard for other people, it makes a recipe for a crappy time. Tons of stories of bullets flying over heads while gutting, other people claiming your caribou before you get to it, watching caribou go down in your scope before you pull the trigger, calves/multiple bou getting hit from careless shots into groups, etc. Some people thought the solution was to check the face book page or fish and game updates for when the herd was within striking distance from the road via ATV, but so did a few thousand of their best friends, and the same situations happen down ATV trails.

I don't even bother with this hunt as I have closer opportunities and chances for crowd-less hunts, but I have friends and co-workers who manage to head up and harvest an animal from time to time and have the random good experience. You have to get the intel on what zone they are in.

 

[wilterdink54]

Hey thanks for the tips everyone. We are going to hold off on the caribou hunt and figure out another hunt to do in the lower 48 for this year.

Thanks!


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[Spartans171]

Any key learnings from your hunt and must have items you would recommend