TOK 8/11/19

[Ag111]

I hunted with Andrew's group and echo his sentiments. 40 Mile Air is Top Notch! They put us right on the animals and we could have all tagged out the first day of hunting. Bowhunting was a bit of a struggle for me with the terrain and vegetation available at our spot. Weather was mediocre to poor most days we were out there. No Bugs, No Bears, No Injuries, No Plane issues... just lots of Caribou, a great camp, and great friends. Easy to see why getting a spot (even for a return client) is so tough. -Mat

 

[Nick Muche]

How many days did you guys hunt for? Glad to hear there weren't any bugs, last year there were gnats like hell wouldn't have it.

 

[Ag111]

We hunted 3 days, had 1 rain day. 5 nights total. It was more than enough for 4 caribou unless everyone is picky about trophy quality. This was our first Caribou hunt so we weren't as choosy as we might be next year.

 

[AKBorn]

We hunted 3 days, had 1 rain day. 5 nights total. It was more than enough for 4 caribou unless everyone is picky about trophy quality. This was our first Caribou hunt so we weren't as choosy as we might be next year.

Don't get too spoiled by the first year awesome success - there have been years when I hunted 6 days, and we saw less than 100 caribou total. It all depends on how and where they're moving, and caribou are unpredictable...

A good bull, is a good bull...antler size is only meaningful to some, and everyone has their own ideas of a trophy! Every bull I've shot has been a trophy, even though I don;t have a single set of antlers in my home to show for it...

Awesome hunt guys, just wish you would have seen a grizzly or two, they are a priceless piece of the Alaskan experience.

 

[robie]

It was an amazing adventure and I'm very grateful to AKBorn for his openness about past experiences and help with logistics. Also a big thank you to others on this forum who answered countless questions and made this dream a reality.

Not sure who recommended TURO for car rental but I can't thank you enough. We got a crew cab extended bed truck that hauled all our gear to Anchorage and back. Stayed at the hotel AKBorn suggested in Tok and ate all of our meals at Fast Eddies. Which is a great restaurant for anyone passing through Tok.

40Mile exceeded my expectations. Vanessa was great at answering questions before we arrived and once here Janoa was amazing to work with. Janoa texted constantly with updates as we got animals on the ground and when we tried to get out of the field (rained in) then when we made it out she kept us in the loop.

Many people told me with caribou you see one you like shoot it, because they might all be gone the next day. I say that to preface "My Hunt". The caribou were really far north west, so it was about 1.5 hours from Tok. They took us out in the 206 to a "larger" airstrip, which meant it was a couple hundred yards instead of 100 yards. Then the super-cubs picked us up 1 by 1 and took us and our gear to camp. We paid for an extra gear load based on Michael's advice (AKBorn), and I would encourage anyone else doing this hunt to do the same.

So 2 of us made it to camp and got to work then 3 hours later the other two made it in. The entire time we were spotting caribou from camp and I was thankful. I was prepared for this to be a hunt and to go days without seeing any or only a couple. That didn't happen, we saw at least 1 to 2 shooters a day and on average I would guess 50 caribou a day. The exception being the fly out day when we had a group of 50, 20 and 20 all roll through our valley and 1 group walk across the air strip. Rest of day 1 I fished and caught my grayling I wanted and the others kept glassing, we saw 3 or 4 shooters the first day and that was more than enough for me.

Day 2 we woke up to rain and lots of it. We all came from central time zone, so 5 am AK time was sleeping in. Got out tried to look for caribou and decided we would get back in the tents to see if the rain would let up. At 11 we couldn't take it and decided to hunt in the rain. For anyone wondering the caribou move in the rain, they simply don't care from what we saw, only downside is visibility is poor. 2 of us went high and myself and Ag111 went down valley. We made it half a mile and found bulls feeding, a quick scan and I saw the one I wanted along with several others that called that hillside home all week. Ag111 was using his bow and we had a couple close by that we thought we could get on, so he was up first. We made our stalk and got to within 30 yards but couldn't determine sex with the above waist willows. He wasn't going to be picky with a bow but not being sure they were bulls saved them. After that I was up we got into position at 250 out which is a comfortable shot for me but I didn't have shooting sticks nor did I want to shoot that far free hand. I wasn't thinking I wouldn't have anything to lean against but there was nothing, I told Mat (Ag111) that I had to get closer for a freehand shot. So we crept up and he fed towards us. Hindsight being 20/20 I should have let Met try for him, he didn't know we were there and we could have gotten closer and even if they spoke they only go 40 yards and look back. Well at 100ish yards I was confident I raised up and 1 shot with the 300WM the 215 bergers did the job and he dropped. My hunt was over 2 hours after it began and I couldn't have been more excited. We got to work and hauled him the mile back to camp.

Day 3 I was now a spectator and we were on a mission to get 1 with a bow in very unfriendly bow country. The basin was a high alpine basin with no trees or pinch points just a large valley animals rolled through. We hiked all day and had some close encounters but nothing panned out. We eventually hiked up to our two buddies just in time to help them pack out two caribou they had shot. They found a great place to sit that the animals would funnel through and pop over a ridge into our valley or the next so they got to look over all of them.

Day 4 with the inReach we new more bad weather was coming so today Mat needed to make it happen. We hiked down valley and saw the two resident bulls we had been seeing since Monday and as luck would have it they were near a large ditch we could sneak up. We made our way up without them knowing we were there and got with 70 yards and planned out our stalk. Moving through the willows Mat got within 25 yards when the big boy spooked and he bolted to about 45 yards, while Mat came to full draw. He was using the Garmin sight and when the bull stopped he ranged him and let an arrow fly only to watch it sail just under him. Unfortunately the Garmin caught a willow bush in front of him and no the bull and gave him a wrong pin. For anyone in a similar situation range the head then move to the body. It was deflating to have that slip through his hands but we stayed positive and followed these bulls for 5 miles. They quickly settled back down and just began to feed, but nothing we did put us closer than 100 yards from the bulls. We eventually followed the back to camp at which point I asked Mat if he wanted me to grab my rifle, he paused but said yes, one way or another the hunt was ending that day with one of those bulls. We followed them up the mountain as heavy fog rolled in. We got above them and right on top of another group of bulls which Mat put a stalk on, at 50 yards Mat drew and held there for a solid minute with a quartering to shot. Neither of the bulls would turn broadside and they bolted. The big bulls at this point were 350 yards below us bedded and I asked if he wanted me to dial him in and let him shoot. He's not a rifle guy and didn't feel comfortable at that yardage. At that point the bulls got up and we watched them walk down the hillside we were on 200 yards behind camp and up the other. Nothing to do other than get our crap and head after them. We walked by camp and the other guys retold our story from their perspective. We ate a bar and then headed up after them. We made our way through chest high willows until Mat finally found antler tips, great thing about big bulls even when they are bedded those tips still stick up. At this point we were 500 yards out, and had 2 small pine trees to put between us and the bulls. I told him if we can get to the second pine tree we should be about 270 yards, so we eased up. At the 2nd pine tree I got the gun and tripod ready while Mat still wanted to put an arrow in one. We made our way up and they picked up some movement when we were still 250 out. Crap. They were about 70 yards from the top of the ridge and slowly moving that way. It was now or never and I set him up on the bipod on the rifle. My gun is zeroed at 200 so I told him to aim high shoulder instead of me dialing. During this I had seen the big bull stand up and I stepped about 10 yards behind Mat and put my binos right on the big guy. Mat said ready and let one fly, nothing! Not a flinch and I didn't see the bushed move. Crap! Load another, boom! Nothing! I only had two in the magazine but I had several on the butt stock so I put another in, boom. Nothing! I'm freaking out at this point thinking my rifle got bumped and something was wrong and this bull was going to get away and his hunt was over. I quickly put another bullet in and this time didn't hold up my binos I just watched as a 4th boom went off and out of the corner of my eye I see the smaller for the two bulls collapse. I couldn't help but laugh and let out a sigh of relief. I thought he had missed 4 in a row to only find out he had nailed the caribou 4 times and was wondering why the hell I kept telling him to shoot after the bull dropped on the 1st shot and was barely able to get back up for shots 2-4. Shot 4 was a neck shot and there was no movement after that. The other 3 were a nice grouping about 2 inches low of center, despite me telling him high shoulder adrenaline takes over and the cross-hairs went mid body right behind the shoulder. And just like that our hunt that I've been dreaming of for close to a decade was complete.

That night we ate caribou and the next night we ate caribou again. If you do this hunt you owe it to yourself to take bacon and toss it in the creek and an onion or two.

Friday it rained all day so getting out was a no go. Saturday was the most beautiful rain free day we have had since getting dropped off Monday. We woke up to caribou all around us. Just as a note to anyone else with a group of 4, a gear load and animals to get out it was a while before we got out. First guy left at 11:30 and least got picked up at 5:30, so if you do this just be patient if the weather is good they will get out you but it might be a while.

If you fly home with your horns here is how we wrapped it up. I took home a very large deadhead I picked up and mine and here is the packaging. I took all my game bags and a plastic bag and put that around the skull and the antlers got wrapped.

 

[Ag111]

Nice write-up Andrew!

I'm reading your post while sitting here in my office munching on my left-over Caribou roast from last night. Never had Caribou before...These things taste sooo dang good!

I will add a few recommendations of my own from the trip.

1) Bring a tent with a vestibule. My Hilleberg Niak was amazing in the crappy weather we had but the vestibule is too small for this type of hunt. I had a hard time getting in and out of boots/rain gear and finding places to lay out damp gear. Next year I will be bringing the Nallo 3 GT.

2) Bring a camp chair. After Andrew broke his Helinox chair we were down to 1 chair (mine) for 4 people. It was a popular item so bring one. There are some good ones on Amazon for less than $30. I brought the Marchaway brand and sold it to a group of hunters who had just been dropped in.

3) Bring softshell Nylon pants for hunting. I wore my Kuiu Attacks for the entire hunt beneath my rain gear. They are awesome pants but did not dry overly fast. Next year I will go with the Kuiu Kutana or similar ripstop-nylon type of pants.

4) Bring top of the line rain gear. I lived in my Chugach jacket and pants, Andrew lived in his Yukon jacket, our buddy Gary lived in his Firstlite rain jacket and pants. Our other buddy Chris was having a harder time staying dry in the generic cabelas stuff. The rest of us were bone dry the entire time.

5) Bring waterproof gloves. I screwed this one up by bringing merino gloves and a pair of northface windstopper gloves. Both got saturated and the windstopper gloves never dried (lots of elastane). Next year I will bring the Kuiu Yukon gloves or something comparable.

6) Archery gear. Although I was unable to get it done, bow hunting caribou is lots of fun and seems to me to be very achievable. However...what a headache trying to keep everything dry, protected, fletchings undamaged, etc. There are much easier hunts for hauling around archery gear. This hunt, with its 7 airplane rides, 12 hours of driving, unpredictable weather, and stalking through Willows, was a real challenge. The Garmin Bowsight was a champ... I was so hard on that thing its ridiculous. It still works great. I lost multiple fletchings, had lots of screws rust on the bow, string was in bad shape from stalking through Willows and other things. Not sure how avoidable some of these things are. I may bring the bow again next year... but I am definitely more open to rifle hunting Caribou in the future.

 

[Ag111]

I wanted to clarify something on the Garmin bow sight because it will throw some people off.

There was a guy on here from last year who posted about a loop-hole in the AK hunting regs that allows the use of the Garmin sight on specific types of hunts. Still unsure, I reached out to ADFG and asked a game warden. He responded that the Garmin is Illegal on Archery-specific hunts, but it is LEGAL on a general-weapon registration hunt such as the one we were on. I thought this was an interesting piece of info to know.