Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Alaska Weekends on my butt...

Two in a row - danged playoffs!

Got off work a couple hours early and I'd heard a rumor of 40-50 caribou sighted in a willow patch a few miles out of town, just at dark last night. Figured they would be long gone/chased off by tonight, but I needed the fresh air, and a chance to work my camera. 0 degrees, blowing 10-15, but clear.

Changed into sno-running clothes, grabbed the two go-packs, booted the rifle, hitched the sled, tucked the new Canon with telephoto under the parka and off I went. I'd not ever run that section of country, even tho it's only a few miles out, so that was the main deal.

Sure enough, I found lots of fresh tracks making time for elsewhere directly into the wind, so I followed them, still into new country to me. Several miles later from a ridge top I spotted 6 coming the other way, straight downwind toward me, about 1 1/2 miles away. Not spooked, but seeming like they had someplace in mind. Looked like a good ambush time. It also looked like they were all the same size, and I couldn't see antlers yet of course, but I figured them to likely be bulls - fodder for the camera, illegal to shoot.

Snow machined about half-way toward them and stopped out of sight/sound behind the point of a low ridge. I figured they would come out on the flat just below and off the point of the ridge. Taking the camera I walked toward where I'd last seen them from my previous stop, using a low hill in the distance as landmark. Using the binocs every step or two, I saw the first one before I'd gone 25 yards - and it had seen me - or my head anyway. Ducking down real slow, I retreated to the machine, un-booted the gun, chambered a round, and waited. Within 10 minutes it was in view, and within another 10 the other 5 were also.

For the life of me, I couldn't make one legal. I THINK they were all bulls, but I could find neither penis sheathes or vulva patches at 271 ranged yards, through the 8X binoculars. Probably a good thing I spaced that the rifle scope goes to 10X. Damed thing might have gone off! The sun was down, but still had over an hour of daylight, but I wasn't real enthusiastic about dressing something out tonight when I've already got one in the freezer (gave the other two priors to kids and friends).

So I tried my hand with the new Canon Rebel T5 and telephoto, without any real hope of getting usable pictures, between the fading light, no tripod, and that lens isn't image stabalized (Same lens that came with the package, but with IS runs as much as the whole original package- over $500. I gotta get me one of those.... ).

But for hand-held, it didn't work out too bad - only about half of them were too blurry to keep. I need to get a filter package too -these got pretty blue after computer enhanced. Actually the originals looked more natural, and closer to actual conditions. Learning curve here....

Despite having to keep an eye on me, the first one bedded down, and eventually the others came up and also bedded, at which point they got boring and I started the machine to leave. They jumped up and tore out of there!



Second from right looks like a bull that's shed his antlers, which makes me think the rest are bulls also, tho the far right one looks a little suspect as a cow. Only way to be sure tho is seeing a vulva patch, penis sheath, or one peeing. All hard to do. Easy way is to shoot one with a calf! Or shoot one and ground-check it... (I jokes!)