RAM AVIATION 2019

[ARNZ]

Our 2019 hunting season has finally come to an end. My family and I had an awesome year to say the least, but I wanted to share my trip to Alaska with everyone who might be interested in a drop camp style caribou hunt. My hunting partner and I chose to book a drop camp hunt with Ram Aviation. The experience was first class. My hunting partner and I are blue-collar. We both have young families so we wanted to book a trip that would "check all the boxes" on an Alaskan adventure without wrecking the bank. We first began looking for outfitters and it seemed overwhelming. I wrote an email to a Rokslide member who is also an Alaskan Outfitter and explained my budget, roughly 5000$. That gentlemen recommend Ram Aviation. Brian, the owner, had recently purchased RA - so if you are looking at early online reviews- understand that the name was owned by a different couple who ran it into the ground. By the way, that couple is still flying caribou hunters out of Kotzebue so be careful who you hitch your wagon to. Brain and his team were always the first up and flying hunters into the field. This is important because there is not a concession for caribou. Meaning that the outfitter who is up first and putting caribou hunters into hot spots in front of the migration path will claim that territory and ultimately have the best success. Brain's team were professional, responded to email and phone calls in a timely manner, and new the game of caribou migration hunting.

Our trip provided hundreds of caribou to pick and choose from. My buddy shot a good bull the first legal hunting day. We fished for grayling on the fly rod for camp meat and ate 2-4 grayling everyday along with back straps. I shot a good bull the following day and got it back to camp. That night, a grizzly came into camp and stole our caribou hides that were in a dry sack and sunk in the water near a cut bank- about 30 yards from out tents. We chose to bring our own gear and Brain provided a discount to the trip as we were not using his provided gear list. I did however see the gear that he provided and it was much more luxurious than the back pack gear my friend and I flew up with. So if you're not a back pack hunter and don't have your own gear I would highly recommend Brians setup. BRING GOOD GLASS! It is critical to look over the bulls and know which one you want to stock before aimlessly walking around in the clump grass. The clump grass is awful as everyone says. If you want more information on this post feel free to contact me. I can't get all the pictures to upload.

 

[HunterMN]

We booked a Caribou Hunt for September 2020 with Ram. Can’t wait! Glad to hear the positive reports about Brian & Ram. I saw some of the old reviews and was told that it was from the old owners and decided to book on a couple reviews of the new owners, but I was still a little nervous being there’s not many reviews about them. Sounds like we made a good decision!

 

[mooster]

Can you pls post pix of your bou? When did you go? I went In mid sept 19’ with the “original owners”, posted my trip and pix last year.

 

[mcseal2]

Thanks for the write up and congrats on a good hunt.

A couple buddies and I are going this fall in the same area. We are working through our gear list now since we are also taking all our own stuff. We have most of it done, but I keep asking everyone I can what they used for tents, footwear, and if they used a cot? Those are the items we are still deciding what we want to use.

Thanks for the help.

 

[mooster]

Thanks for the write up and congrats on a good hunt.

A couple buddies and I are going this fall in the same area. We are working through our gear list now since we are also taking all our own stuff. We have most of it done, but I keep asking everyone I can what they used for tents, footwear, and if they used a cot? Those are the items we are still deciding what we want to use.

Thanks for the help.

We used our own gear. We used a floor-less tipi w/stove, and cots to get off ground. The tipi was awesome. We brought some extra long w/twist tent stakes and didn't initially use them. However, one day the wind became horrendous, so we deployed the larger stakes and had no issue, were thankful we had them.

The stove was fantastic as it really was nice to warm up at night & first thing in the a.m.. Since the stove is small, you just pick up dead branches off the brush around camp for firewood. At the end of the week, we did start to portage some nice deadwood we found further from camp since we could just strap it to our packs. A lightweight hand pruner would have been nice to cut / size limbs for the stove. It was a bit tiring to break / bend twigs constantly to fuel the stove. A small stove requires constant feeding, but did raise our inside tipi temp to 50's and 60's when it was 20-30's outside.

While we had hip waders for de-planing and fishing, I used hiking boots and gaiters to keep feet dry while hunting. The tussocks are very unstable and at various depths from ankle to knee deep, so hiking books were a must. I was so glad I didn't run w/muck boots. In between the tussocks there is often water puddled, so it very hard to keep your boots dry even if its not raining. I was thankful I had good h20 proof boots as my feet were always dry. The stove helped too dry off boots each night.

Also a must, hiking sticks. And our experience was that the plastic snow flange on the hiking sticks would come off if you weren't careful. The stick would penetrate the tussock and you wouldn't realize when you pulled the stick out that the plastic piece didn't come out w/the pole. My buddy lost both of his plastic pieces rendering his sticks into spears, near useless. I duct taped mine once I realized what was going on. So word to wise, get sticks, get quality sticks, and maybe reinforce them.

Another overlooked item is a foam sitting pad. I was nice to keep butt dry, also comfortable when sitting on rock outcroppings. In my notes it was something worth a very small weight penalty.

I noted that I had a neoprene type shell jacket and rain jacket. I would have been just as well of taking only the rain jacket and just wearing my puffy under as needed. Would have saved the weight of bringing the neoprene jacket.

Single serving, flavored water packets were great. My buddy didn't bring any, and mine were coveted. Just was nice to having something sweet to drink during the week.

We didn't use our camp axe, a hand saw was sufficient. Our Mossy Oak wood/bone/metal hand saw was flimsy, so post hunt we upgraded to a better Wyoming type saw for next year. A saw was necessary to cut larger limbs to make a structure to hang your game bags from, and occasionally to cut firewood pieces.

Reflective game bags (Black OVis) vs. non-reflective? It was nice to be able to shine the flashlight to navigate straight to the bags at night. Also to see if any eyes were nearby. My buddies bags were reflective and we realized how nice the reflective ones were. Also bring tags to mark your game bags to ensure your bags aren't mixed up back in town w/someone else's. We took care of our meat and would have been disappointed to leave home w/someone else's meat not as well cared for. My buddy had some neoprene gloves that were awesome for butchering an animal in wet tundra in freezing weather.

"40 mile" walkie talkies sucked. We only got about 1 mile max in open tundra. We will get better ones next time as we had to split up to watch opposite ends of our hunting area in search of the very few animals we saw that weren't 50 miles away "tundra time". We could cover 1 mile of average tundra in an energetic 50 minutes. Not all tundra is equal. There was one glassing point we found a mile another way that was quite easy to walk to due to large amount of rock in that area. I guess its luck of draw where your dropped and what you might find. I'd be prepared for worst, and enjoy it when its not so bad if you get lucky.

Since we crammed our duffel bags so tightly, we actually accidentally turned on headlamps during travel. Good idea to reverse the batteries while traveling. We brought a solar charger & battery bank that we shared. No issues.

Our Platypus 16L water bladder wouldn't close properly. We filled it daily. Was proper size for us, but ziploc closure sucked.

 

[mcseal2]

Great info, thank you very much.

We have a Seek 8 man tipi with a stove we used on our moose hunt and a lot of western trips. We keep debating if we want to use it or not. Half the people loved theirs like you and others wouldn’t take it back due to wind. I have the stakes like you describe plus 18” Kifaru SST stakes. One of the guys goimg with me ordered a K3 pack from Mark at Exo last week and he said he would not use the tipi again due to wind.

Guess it wouldn’t be Alaska or the adventure it is if it was predictable!

 

[mooster]

In the 8 man tipi, we also ran the liner to deal with condensation. It was never an issue. If the tipi wasn't taught tho, the sides can drape into the interior. You can see some drape in this photo. We had two men, our packs, gear, cots, full size camp chairs, and a ton of wood inside to keep it all dry. We felt like were living high on the hog. Note rock on stove is for radiant heat and also kept coffee cups warm.

 

[mcseal2]

We run the liners also and I know what you mean. When it's wet and not as tight the liners can sag in a bit. I sure like my tipi. It seems that some people end up where wood is available and love the stove, others say they have nothing to burn. If I was pretty sure I could have the stove burning it would be really hard to convince myself to use anything else.

Thanks for the replies and pic. It looks like you found a decent spot to pitch it too, pretty dry and level looking ground.

 

[mooster]

oh yeah pretty camping spot

 

[ARNZ]

Here’s a pic of the bull I shot. 90 yds. I debated about bringing my bow and wish I did. There are some areas that are very doable with a bow. I felt like I could have closed the distance to under 40.

 

[ARNZ]

Can you pls post pix of your bou? When did you go? I went In mid sept 19’ with the “original owners”, posted my trip and pix last year.

 

[mooster]

Nice !

 

[ARNZ]

View attachment 157215

 

[HunterMN]

Nice!! Congratulations on a great hunt! What work good for boots where you were at? Waders or just boots and gaiters?

 

[HunterMN]

View attachment 157213
oh yeah pretty camping spot

Nice looking set up. We are doing an outfitted hunt with Ram, but I’ve been looking at getting a tipi tent for future hunts out west.

 

[mooster]

Nice looking set up. We are doing an outfitted hunt with Ram, but I’ve been looking at getting a tipi tent for future hunts out west.

Tipi was roomy!

 

[ARNZ]

We booked a Caribou Hunt for September 2020 with Ram. Can’t wait! Glad to hear the positive reports about Brian & Ram. I saw some of the old reviews and was told that it was from the old owners and decided to book on a couple reviews of the new owners, but I was still a little nervous being there’s not many reviews about them. Sounds like we made a good decision!

Good luck buddy. They’re solid.

 

[ARNZ]

Thanks for the write up and congrats on a good hunt.

A couple buddies and I are going this fall in the same area. We are working through our gear list now since we are also taking all our own stuff. We have most of it done, but I keep asking everyone I can what they used for tents, footwear, and if they used a cot? Those are the items we are still deciding what we want to use.

Thanks for the help.

I used my same setup that I’ve hunted out of for all my back pack trips. Ultra light tent- north face 2 person, big Agnes air pad insulated, big Agnes 20 degree bag. Some of things I would recommend: extra tuff hip boots for river crossings, a good pair of gaiters and boots for the clump grass. Tyvek or a back packing tarp to keep gear and meat out of the rain and sun. There’s not really any trees so we cut willows and made a meat shelf. Ran tyvek over the top to keep the sun off. If you have the weight and room look into a portable propane boot dryer if one even exists. If your putting down miles you’re going to get wet feet in that country. Extra socks. I like farm to feet merino wool.

 

[ARNZ]

Nice!! Congratulations on a great hunt! What work good for boots where you were at? Waders or just boots and gaiters?

I would recommend hip boots for the river crossings and fishing. For the clump grass boots and gaiters. I hate recommending footwear because everyone’s feet are different. I wouldn’t skimp on boots or gaiters. I like sitkas gaiters.

 

[VernAK]

Tipi was roomy!

TWINCEDAR,
Is your sleeping bag Cabela's TransAlaska model?