Kotzebue Hunt Recap

[brisket]

This will be wordy and picture heavy...

Trip started in Texas for my Dad, Brother and I for a 1st time trip for caribou. 24 hours of flying and layovers we finally made it to Kotz.

2 more small planes in, and we'd made it to camp.


Spent the rest of the day setting camp, glassing the surrounding area, and looking for routes off of the hill we were camped on.



We saw a ton of caribou on the fly in day. A ridiculous amount... More than I thought we'd see given what the group that flew in before us said. What I didn't realize was how limited the "huntable" area is compared to what you can see. More on that later.

We called it an early night and all struggled to go to sleep.

Day 1:
Breakfast and start moving toward the only feasible route off of the hill we were on. Sidebar - the hill we were on was about 600ft higher than the surrounding valley floors, but we were cliffed out on all but one side. The only way down was a mile hike to the far side of the plateau where the slope was gentle enough to climb down. On the way to the route off the hilltop we spotted a group of bulls with some nice ones in it.



Brother saw one he liked and I saw one I thought I liked, so we dropped packs and made a mad dash to get in a shooting position. Caribou are funny critters. I know they saw us running full speed to get to where we would have a good shot opportunity, but they just did not care... Wind was blowing what felt like 50mph so we knew we wanted a close shot. We picked out a spot just on the other side of the ridgeline where when the caribou came over the top they would be well within range. Got there, got set up, and then........nothing. We waited for what seemed like 2 hours. Finally about half the group of caribou came over the hill. The bull my brother had picked out was not in the group, but there was one that I thought I liked. After looking at it some more, I decided I wanted something else, but my dad decided it was good enough for him. Bang, flop.

We were in the process of high fives and hell yeahs, when over the ridgeline I saw antler tops. About 8 sets of them. I hollered get down, caribou!
My brother fell back down behind his rifle and immediately whiffed his first shot. The wind was in our faces, and the caribou seemed like the just wanted to see what was going on so they made a gigantic circle around us. During that circle the caribou came into range and my brother took the bull he'd picked out earlier.

The 2 pictures are taken from the same spot with the down bulls circled in the background



Picture time

 

[brisket]

Spent the rest of the morning taking pictures, cleaning and bagging meat, and glassing for caribou. Turned into a long day so we took light loads back to camp and called it a day

Day 2:
Not as early a morning, with 2 of 3 hunters tagged out on day 1. We were so successful with our plan the day before, we copied it exactly the next day. On the way down the hill it was obvious we weren’t recovered front eh day before so we got to his bull (farthest from camp) and sat down to glass.

Then we got a couple of visitors




Really cool critters, even cooler that they were hanging out at less than 10ft from 3 guys making coffee and glassing. They hung out with us for several hours. While the foxes were spitting distance, a caribou came into view at 500yds. After very little thought I decided I wanted to make a go at getting him.

Although the bull was only 500yds the wind was ripping down the valley. Just when it had stabilized enough that I thought a shot was possible, the wind swapped directions and the bull caught our scent. Needless to say this one got away. At that point we ran out of water and still needed to pack meat back so we started the trip back to camp.




A little bit of pan fried caribou ribmeat and some whiskey later, we called it a night.

 

[brisket]

Day 3:
No changes to the plan whatsoever. Caribou are clearly coming down the ridge line to our east from north to south so we make our way to the same rim as before, which we've affectionately nicknamed the killing fields at this point. On our way there we see our first grizzly of the trip, a sow and her cub making a bee line to the 2 day old carcasses.



We decide we can get out in front of them without too much trouble so we do and go to the opposite side of the valley



From that spot we realized we couldn't see crap so we went for a hike to look for a new vantage point



Here's where the camera work falls off. We crossed 2 valleys before we spooked up a group of caribou with at least 2 for sure shooter bulls in it. For whatever reason, instead of running away from us they ran what seemed like a 2 mile circle to come back to the other side of the ridge we were on. While the caribou were running their circle my dad had the sense to get us over the ridgeline. Just when we were far enough over the entire heard of caribou popped out at 300ish yds. My brother immediately said, "Off my shoulder", which was our preferred way to shoot at running hogs back in Texas as kids. I threw the rifle over his shoulder, lined up on the biggest caribou, yelled "HOLD" for my brother to hold his breath and pushed the trigger. "Down!" yells my dad, and high fives and handshakes ensue.





We spend some time taking pictures and eating a late lunch before processing the bull. That's when the cussing started... I'd shot my bull well beyond what we considered reasonable distance to pack one back to camp.



On the trip back to camp, we found the bears we had seen before had decided to follow us to the next kill site. They never got too close, but it was still a little unnerving to be followed by a grizzle sow and cub. Once we had camp back in sight we spooked another bear at about 30 yds who decided we weren't worth the effort and shambled away.

 

[brisket]

Day 4:
With no tags left and nowhere to fish, we called the transporter to pick us up, They said to be ready by 0700 the next morning. We spent the day playing cards, glassing from camp and hoping we saw a wolf we could go chase. That evening we counted 9 bears in the surrounding valleys. I guess the blood scent had spread by then.

As the evening went on we saw the same sow and cub from the day before making the hike up to our camp. While we watched them we heard some rocks being kicked in camp. Turns out you can;t just pay attention to one set of bears when there's more out there.



With that bear spooked off, we decided to be proactive about running the sow and cub off



The next morning the transporter picked us up.

 

[brisket]

Extra days:
Since we had planned for a longer hunt, we ended up with some extra days to do something with. So we took an earlier flight to Anchorage, rented a car and drove to Seward. We fished for 2 days and limited out on halibut the first and silvers the second.


That's all I've got, sorry it's a little long winded. I wanted to give a big thanks to all the folks on here that helped me out with this trip, both those I talked directly with and those that posted their stories/reviews/recommendations

 

[rooster440]

Great writing.l, even better hunt. You guys did great.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Ownthewest]

Congrats on the awesome hunt! Great write up. Thanks for sharing.

 

[Dexter Grayson]

Sounds like an awesome trip. Mind sharing who you flew with?

 

[brisket]

Sounds like an awesome trip. Mind sharing who you flew with?

Ram aviation. Bryan and his team were awesome for the whole trip.

 

[Wingert]

Great Adventure......Congratulations!!!!

 

[mikkel318]

Thanks for your write-up. That looked awesome!

 

[RCL]

Awesome adventure.
Thanks for posting.

 

[MallardMaster]

Great trip report! Appreciate you sharing this with all of us

 

[Gznokes]

"off my shoulder" "Hold" DOWN!"
great technique and teamwork. There is a lot of hunting history tied up in that moment. Thanks for sharing. Gorgeous bulls and a great hunt.

 

[Thess87]

Congrats!!!

 

[07yzryder]

Man I wish i would have had the time when my GF's godfather invited me up there for a hunt while he was mayor of the town. Looks beautiful and like tons of fun (minus the long hike packing the one out). How does caribou taste compared to deer/elk/moose?

 

[pbs76]

Great story and great success! Congrats!

 

[brisket]

Man I wish i would have had the time when my GF's godfather invited me up there for a hunt while he was mayor of the town. Looks beautiful and like tons of fun (minus the long hike packing the one out). How does caribou taste compared to deer/elk/moose?

I haven't finished processing all of it, but what I've had is very different from deer, but it's different in a good way

 

[Jackal7]

Great writing and photo essay.

 

[Raypo]

Love it! Thanks for sharing...