Silas_Norris
FNG
- Joined
- Apr 13, 2023
- Messages
- 52
Hello All,
Me and my buddy returned a couple of weeks ago from our Alaska Caribou Hunt. It was not my first time hunting Alaska, but, it was my first time hunting Caribou and it was my first time hunting in Alaska without a guide! Thanks to several guys from here at Rockslide that exchanged messages and phone calls with me as I researched and try to narrow down the area and the transporter I wanted to hire to take us in!
We used Zac from Tok Air Service out of Tok Alaska. I am not exactly sure how far north we had to fly but I would guess around 100 miles north of Tok. Zac knows the area as good as anyone and has a really good understanding of where the Caribou herd is (or where they might be heading).
Hunting migrating animals can really stress a man out! As many describe the herd like a "water faucet" that can turn on and off in a blink of an eye. We certainly experienced what that looks like! If you see a bull you may want to shoot, he won't be there tomorrow in most cases! We hunted the last week of August and into the first week of September. The Caribou were just starting to shed velvet! Some were hard horned, some in full velvet, and some had it hanging off their antlers. Most still had some velvet but that was changing by the day!
I chose the 40 mile herd for a few reasons (not sure these were good reasons but my research led me to believe a few things). 1. The fly in hunts for the 40 mile herd were very remote and there would not likely be hunters on every hill top. Not many transporters fly into this area so even if the caribou are grouped up, I do not think we would have been looking at other camps and competing with other hunters. If I am going to hunt Alaska, I do not want to be competing with other hunters. 2. The weather seemed more predictable and pleasant being that it was not along the coast. 3. The terrain looked more interesting than a Tundra hunt. I wanted to be able to walk and move around. Hunting in the Tundra south of the brooks range did not appeal to me like the hunts that took place in the 40 mile country. There is a good "MIX" of terrain in the area we hunted from bogs, to rocky and sandy creek bottoms, tundra, spruce trees, thick grasses and willows. There was also plenty of hilly mountains and drainages which makes stalking a lot easier. I did not hunt with bow, but if I did, this is the area I would want to do that in for sure!
On a slightly separate note one other factor that really helped us on this hunt was the fact that the wind blew consistently through our valley out of the south in the exact same direction pretty much all week long. I am not sure if this is "normal"or not, but it was very consistent wind. Usually when I go out west every year the wind changes every 10 minutes it seems! Not the case for us, the wind was consistent! This made things a lot easier on our hunt!
On the negative side of contributing factors for this hunt: It was warmer than usual for the first few days of our hunt. Highs in the 70s with low winds.
We flew to find caribou on our way to a staging strip with a 206. The plan was for us to wait there at a "staging area" while the pilot would return with the super cub a few hours later to get us into our final hunting spot. Due to the weather being warmer than usual, the caribou were up at a higher elevation than what is normal (around 3,500-4,000' if I heard our pilot correctly). That made things mentally tricky for me as the weather reports suggested that after the first 2 days the weather was going to get much colder (highs in 50s) and in my mind, that means the caribou would likely be moving on to lower elevations. Zac (pilot) explained to us that he could sit us down where the caribou are right now, but the faucet can turn off any time! He said a second option is to put you where I think they might be headed, but, the caribou may not move that way at all. Zac thought the first option was best and we agreed. He also was not sure with the wind if the second option would even work for a landing that day (based on wind direction) and that could mean we would spend the night at the staging strip waiting for the right wind to get into spot number 2. That also did not guaranteee that the next days wind would work to get us in either! So, the first spot seemed to be the obvious choice so there was not much talk about it. We were excited anyways and wanted to get into our spot! Call me lazy, but I hate setting up camp and tearing it all down the very next day! So, the first spot is where we headed!
One thing I learned after flying over a few small herds of caribou is that you cannot see them all from the sky (at least I cant). I will admit, I was not impressed when flying over the herds. We flew around for about 45 minutes (much longer flight but 45 minutes just looking for caribou) and we saw maybe 75 caribou if I had to guess. Almost all cows on the top of mountains (I assume trying to get higher to avoid bugs etc). In my mind I thought we would see much larger groups and I also thought that they would be "strung out" for many miles. As we flew I kept waiting to see "the herd" which we never saw. As we landed in our spot I quickly realized that most of the caribou could not be seen from the high fly over we did earlier in the day. That first evening (August 25th), we saw approximately 100 to 150 caribou. None of them were in large groups. No more than 10 or so would be in the same group. They were almost everywhere you looked when you picked up the binoculars. And as soon as a group would disappear over a ridge there would be another group that would appear out of almost nowhere it seemed. We later learned that the cover that looked so low to the ground on these hillsides was actually 4-10ft tall in many areas. I recall on the first evening at one point thinking I was looking at a couple birds flying in between some brush/bushes but as I watched I saw it was a bull caribou and all I could see were his two palmated tops at times peaking over the tall cover. That is when I first started learning that the cover is much taller and thicker than what it appears. The Caribou all seemed to be moving in a western/southwestern direction but it took some glassing to really notice that trend. The migration does not appear to be a exact or precise movement. The end destination might be consistent, but there is always a few caribou doing the opposite of what the majority are doing and there seemed to be a wide range of travel corridors that the small groups were preferring over others. As many of you know, you cannot shoot on the day you fly in Alaska. So, we set up camp and enjoyed glassing until darkness fell (around 10pm). I was even more thankful for that rule on our first day as my buddies excitement was so high I believe we would of potentially tried to shoot a cow if I didn't hold him back! Any caribou he saw with antlers got him pretty excited (the cows have antlers too but much smaller than a good bull).
We were only allowed 50lbs each and that did not include the clothes we were wearing nor did it include our rifles. I chose to bring my Seek Outside Redcliff with the hot stove. This was a great set up for us. Finding wood to burn was not always easy as much of it was wet or not dead/dry etc. We did end up finding plenty of wood to burn (mostly driftwood around the creeks) but had to dedicate a 30 minute walk every day just to get firewood to burn. Having a fire in the tent at the end of a long day of hunting is a feeling that I will not trade for just about anything! It may be better than a good meal at the end of the day! It boosts moral and is a great way to stay warm and dry things out! Allows you to start fresh every day!
Right before bed one night one we finally saw some respectable bulls. There was 3 of them about 3/4 to 1 mile away. These bulls would of easily made the cut on what we would shoot and I believe we easily could of intercepted their route but it was the first day we flew in so obviously we had to just watch them pass! We went to bed that first night full of excitement but I will admit that I was also a little anxious. I have heard many say that they went from seeing hundreds of caribou to 0 for the remaining of their trip. I just had a feeling with the colder weather coming that these caribou were not going to be here for very long.
I will post more as I have time. Here is a few images from day 1.
Me and my buddy returned a couple of weeks ago from our Alaska Caribou Hunt. It was not my first time hunting Alaska, but, it was my first time hunting Caribou and it was my first time hunting in Alaska without a guide! Thanks to several guys from here at Rockslide that exchanged messages and phone calls with me as I researched and try to narrow down the area and the transporter I wanted to hire to take us in!
We used Zac from Tok Air Service out of Tok Alaska. I am not exactly sure how far north we had to fly but I would guess around 100 miles north of Tok. Zac knows the area as good as anyone and has a really good understanding of where the Caribou herd is (or where they might be heading).
Hunting migrating animals can really stress a man out! As many describe the herd like a "water faucet" that can turn on and off in a blink of an eye. We certainly experienced what that looks like! If you see a bull you may want to shoot, he won't be there tomorrow in most cases! We hunted the last week of August and into the first week of September. The Caribou were just starting to shed velvet! Some were hard horned, some in full velvet, and some had it hanging off their antlers. Most still had some velvet but that was changing by the day!
I chose the 40 mile herd for a few reasons (not sure these were good reasons but my research led me to believe a few things). 1. The fly in hunts for the 40 mile herd were very remote and there would not likely be hunters on every hill top. Not many transporters fly into this area so even if the caribou are grouped up, I do not think we would have been looking at other camps and competing with other hunters. If I am going to hunt Alaska, I do not want to be competing with other hunters. 2. The weather seemed more predictable and pleasant being that it was not along the coast. 3. The terrain looked more interesting than a Tundra hunt. I wanted to be able to walk and move around. Hunting in the Tundra south of the brooks range did not appeal to me like the hunts that took place in the 40 mile country. There is a good "MIX" of terrain in the area we hunted from bogs, to rocky and sandy creek bottoms, tundra, spruce trees, thick grasses and willows. There was also plenty of hilly mountains and drainages which makes stalking a lot easier. I did not hunt with bow, but if I did, this is the area I would want to do that in for sure!
On a slightly separate note one other factor that really helped us on this hunt was the fact that the wind blew consistently through our valley out of the south in the exact same direction pretty much all week long. I am not sure if this is "normal"or not, but it was very consistent wind. Usually when I go out west every year the wind changes every 10 minutes it seems! Not the case for us, the wind was consistent! This made things a lot easier on our hunt!
On the negative side of contributing factors for this hunt: It was warmer than usual for the first few days of our hunt. Highs in the 70s with low winds.
We flew to find caribou on our way to a staging strip with a 206. The plan was for us to wait there at a "staging area" while the pilot would return with the super cub a few hours later to get us into our final hunting spot. Due to the weather being warmer than usual, the caribou were up at a higher elevation than what is normal (around 3,500-4,000' if I heard our pilot correctly). That made things mentally tricky for me as the weather reports suggested that after the first 2 days the weather was going to get much colder (highs in 50s) and in my mind, that means the caribou would likely be moving on to lower elevations. Zac (pilot) explained to us that he could sit us down where the caribou are right now, but the faucet can turn off any time! He said a second option is to put you where I think they might be headed, but, the caribou may not move that way at all. Zac thought the first option was best and we agreed. He also was not sure with the wind if the second option would even work for a landing that day (based on wind direction) and that could mean we would spend the night at the staging strip waiting for the right wind to get into spot number 2. That also did not guaranteee that the next days wind would work to get us in either! So, the first spot seemed to be the obvious choice so there was not much talk about it. We were excited anyways and wanted to get into our spot! Call me lazy, but I hate setting up camp and tearing it all down the very next day! So, the first spot is where we headed!
One thing I learned after flying over a few small herds of caribou is that you cannot see them all from the sky (at least I cant). I will admit, I was not impressed when flying over the herds. We flew around for about 45 minutes (much longer flight but 45 minutes just looking for caribou) and we saw maybe 75 caribou if I had to guess. Almost all cows on the top of mountains (I assume trying to get higher to avoid bugs etc). In my mind I thought we would see much larger groups and I also thought that they would be "strung out" for many miles. As we flew I kept waiting to see "the herd" which we never saw. As we landed in our spot I quickly realized that most of the caribou could not be seen from the high fly over we did earlier in the day. That first evening (August 25th), we saw approximately 100 to 150 caribou. None of them were in large groups. No more than 10 or so would be in the same group. They were almost everywhere you looked when you picked up the binoculars. And as soon as a group would disappear over a ridge there would be another group that would appear out of almost nowhere it seemed. We later learned that the cover that looked so low to the ground on these hillsides was actually 4-10ft tall in many areas. I recall on the first evening at one point thinking I was looking at a couple birds flying in between some brush/bushes but as I watched I saw it was a bull caribou and all I could see were his two palmated tops at times peaking over the tall cover. That is when I first started learning that the cover is much taller and thicker than what it appears. The Caribou all seemed to be moving in a western/southwestern direction but it took some glassing to really notice that trend. The migration does not appear to be a exact or precise movement. The end destination might be consistent, but there is always a few caribou doing the opposite of what the majority are doing and there seemed to be a wide range of travel corridors that the small groups were preferring over others. As many of you know, you cannot shoot on the day you fly in Alaska. So, we set up camp and enjoyed glassing until darkness fell (around 10pm). I was even more thankful for that rule on our first day as my buddies excitement was so high I believe we would of potentially tried to shoot a cow if I didn't hold him back! Any caribou he saw with antlers got him pretty excited (the cows have antlers too but much smaller than a good bull).
We were only allowed 50lbs each and that did not include the clothes we were wearing nor did it include our rifles. I chose to bring my Seek Outside Redcliff with the hot stove. This was a great set up for us. Finding wood to burn was not always easy as much of it was wet or not dead/dry etc. We did end up finding plenty of wood to burn (mostly driftwood around the creeks) but had to dedicate a 30 minute walk every day just to get firewood to burn. Having a fire in the tent at the end of a long day of hunting is a feeling that I will not trade for just about anything! It may be better than a good meal at the end of the day! It boosts moral and is a great way to stay warm and dry things out! Allows you to start fresh every day!
Right before bed one night one we finally saw some respectable bulls. There was 3 of them about 3/4 to 1 mile away. These bulls would of easily made the cut on what we would shoot and I believe we easily could of intercepted their route but it was the first day we flew in so obviously we had to just watch them pass! We went to bed that first night full of excitement but I will admit that I was also a little anxious. I have heard many say that they went from seeing hundreds of caribou to 0 for the remaining of their trip. I just had a feeling with the colder weather coming that these caribou were not going to be here for very long.
I will post more as I have time. Here is a few images from day 1.
