Caribou

Has anyone been out Caribou hunting yet? I have friends that went North West of Illiamna they told me the Caribou where few and far between.

Cub_Driver

Where they aren't

I can tell you where they aren't. Not by Portage. Not by Tutna. Not by Whitefish. Not in the Bonanza hills. That is all I know, hope it helps

I must have done the same trip. Portage, Lackbuna, Fishtrap, Snipe, Twin, Whitefish, Tutna - not one caribou. Not even a pod of a few.

They must be even farther west.

I will take much the same trip Thursday. If anything changes, I'll put it on the supercub site.

Gary Reeves

Has anyone been up around Sparrevohn and the hills North East? I am thinking the hot temps may have moved the animals into the high country.

Cub_Driver

Where are all the Caribou you ask??? They all went south at the Anchorage International Airport the over last 20 years. There are over 1,000 drop off hunters per year in the area you are talking about every year, mostly "out of staters". They shoot a big rack, often let the meat spoil on the way to an Anchorage dumpster. Jump on a plane heading south and are outta here. I've hunted this area over the last 15 years and have seen the Caribou population plummet. I've seen the same thing with moose in the Koyakuk and Yukon river drainages. We have been the "McDonalds" (cheap and easy) of big game hunting too long and now we are paying for it!!!! Crash

Gee, how lucky we were when living at Umiat. A herd of some 70,000 walked across my wife's land over a 3 or 4 day period. I shot a lot of them but with a Kodak camera.

I returned home after a overnight caribou hunting trip. My friend filled his tag 30 min after leaving the tent the first morning. He took a mature bull but I was wanting him to hold out for a larger one. This was my friends first time hunting in Alaska and I don't think he thought we would have found larger animals. I worked out well for us I had landed in the Revelation Mts on a little 650 foot uphill area with no go around. Funny how long those uphill strips can look until you land on them. I was worried about getting off that strip if we took a large bull so I told my friend I would have to shuttle meat and gear and him to a large landing area. Well He would rather have died up there then wach me fly away. I ended up taking the whole load off in one trip I used the whole runway but was able to get off the ground with a good solid takeoff. I never thought about it until then but what we do up here seems like a every day event to many pilots, many people in other parts of the world would consider over the top. Here I took my friend out in the wilderness he had not slept in a tent since 1982. I flew him through a mountian pass and then another three hours of searching for game in the evening along the revelation mountian seen two brown bears and one caribou. We looked over a few places to land until we found an area I felt good about now we land in a area no one else hase for some time if eveer. We landed about a hour before dark set up camp looked the area over and then called it a night. During the nigh a growling animal wakes my friend up I am not sure why but then he wakes me up? I informed him the wolf was outside and we are inside thats a good thing and went back to sleep. I didnt think of it then but his stress level is running on peak he was going to take the first bull caribou he seen no matter what just so he would not have to spend another night in such a remote area. I asked him as he is sighting in on the caribou are you sure you want to take him we can find a larger bull his reply to me was no way we are getting this over with going home and going fishing. (I think he was a little stressed and he was holding the loaded gun so I stood back)

Its cool though after we returned home he relaxed and relized it was a great trip and now knows what to expect and would enjoy a return trip to caribou hunt some other year. Now we have nine days of fishing ahead of us(ha). I myself had a fantastic time I traveld to a Mountian range I had never been to before and landed in areas few people have ever ventured.

Oh and I did find a heard of about 2000 animals.

Cub_Driver

My thermometer read 88* yesterday right here in Anchorage. The NOAA forecast says more record high temps today. Moose season opens Friday. I can't imagine wanting to shoot a meat animal in this weather.
SB

stewartb said:

My thermometer read 88* yesterday right here in Anchorage. The NOAA forecast says more record high temps today. Moose season opens Friday. I can't imagine wanting to shoot a meat animal in this weather.
SB

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Better have a real fast Cub to get the meat to a cooler in a hurry for sure. What, 3 or 4 hours?
I saw 91 degrees at the FAI airport one day long ago but it gets hotter up there just as it gets colder.

We hung the meat in my cool garage for overnight and butchered it the next day. We cooked the backstraps that evening after leaving them soak in a marinade for most of the day. It was one of the best tasting animals I have had even if the temps are warm proper care of your meat will assure good flavor and not a wasted animal.

Cub_Driver

cub_driver said:

We hung the meat in my cool garage for overnight and butchered it the next day. We cooked the backstraps that evening after leaving them soak in a marinade for most of the day. It was one of the best tasting animals I have had even if the temps are warm proper care of your meat will assure good flavor and not a wasted animal.

Cub_Driver

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I understand that the taste of caribou meat really differs depending on what area the animal is taken and the food available for them to eat. I was told that the herd around the Eagle and Chicken area is the best tasting.
Moose meat is the same also so I am told. I am not a wild game eater although I have tried everything except porcupine. I did use the quills as tooth picks though.