Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Alaska Caribou?

Can anyone recommend a good guide for Caribou in Alaska? I want to take my dad on a trip, and what I have been looking at doing is one of the trips where a bush plane dumps you off along the migration route and it is DIY from there (doing this to try to save a bit of cost). Can anyone recommend a good outfit that does this, or thoughts/opinions from people that have done this type of hunt before? Thanks in advance for replies, guys.
Northerner

40 Mile Air , Tok, Alaska. Look them up on their website. Everything is pretty much self explanatory. We have used them for years with every satisfaction. We're going on a drop off Moose hunt this fall.
They're not cheap, but what is these days.
Regards,
Scott

Northerner:

Check your PMs.

KC

And be very aware, it can be the best hunt you've ever seen, or you can go days if not the whole hunt, without seeing an animal.

I"d be flexible and time flexible enough and hope to find a service that you could call back via sat phone and move you at least once if the need arises.

I have been referred to 40MA by several people now. Seems like a very reputable outfit.

Theyve been around a while... with a good rep, so much so that there seems to always be a waiting list IIRC, and you may not be able to get on with them for a couple of years possibly?

We do see them fly almost every year so I know they are getting out there for sure.

I have flown with 40MA since the mid-70's for sheep, caribou, and moose. While there are a few top-notch air taxi services all across Alaska I can personally certify that I've NEVER had a bad experience with 40MA. You have no guarantee of getting an animal but they wouldn't have been in business this many years without putting their hunters in good places.

Ridge-top SuperCub hunts for moose are extremely limited and mostly taken up by regulars like me. But as far as I know their caribou hunts are not nearly so limited in number.

It has been quite a few years since I've hunted caribou with them but as I recall they offer ridge-top hunts, river bottom hunts, and air strip hunts (with correspondingly increasing chances of other hunters being around). Check them out. You might be able to do better but I can promise you that it would be easy to do worse than flying for caribou with them.

That brings back some old memories. I did a fly-in non-guided hunt with 40 Mile Air back in 1987. Great trip. Didn't catch a migrating herd but we still found caribou.

If the tundra rats are around ...Bow = boo hunt gun = boo eating ..1st one is fun 2nd one is picking targets imo

Normally I would point you towards unit 23 but that is a mess right now. The RAC-Subsistance board had recommend closing unit 23 and the largest caribou herd in the state down to all non qualified subsistence hunters starting this fall.

non qualified subsistence hunters-ie native/local hunters.

Unit 23 harvested 500 bulls from out of region hunters and 13,000-15,000 bulls and cows were taken by" qualified subsistence hunters" in 2015 and by removing the 500 out of region hunters the Feds are going to increase the size of the herd! This is pure politics at the local level with out any data to support the closure.

I have started to work with a pilot in unit 26c and 25a so that is where you might want to look until the mess in unit 23 clears up.

For you guys who want to gang up and carpet bomb the Subsistence board with letter I will add the names below. The real concern is now that the local population and figured out how to shut down hunting in the most prolific unit in the state and one that is larger than Indiana your unit will be next! You guys who hunt in Unit 13....Get ready.

Ahtna...Unit 13 has made it know for years that they want to take over the management of all game in unit 13 and now they have they tool/template to make it happen. It will happen and soon so get ready!


Please contact


Voting Members of the Board
Tim Towarak, Chair - Unalakleet
1011 E. Tudor Road, Anchorage, Alaska 99503 Phone: (907) 786-3888 - Fax: (907) 786-3333

Anthony Christianson, Public Member - Hydaburg 1011 E. Tudor Road, Anchorage, Alaska 99503 Phone: (907) 786-3888 - Fax: (907) 786-3333

Charles Brower, Public Member - Barrow
1011 E. Tudor Road, Anchorage, Alaska 99503
Phone: (907) 786-3888 - Fax: (907) 786-3333

W. Bruce Loudermilk, Regional Director - Bureau of Indian Affairs
3601 C St., Ste. 1100, Anchorage, Alaska 99503
Phone: (907) 271-1828- Fax: (907) 271-1750

Bud Cribley, State Director - Bureau of Land Management
222 West 7th Avenue, 13, Anchorage, Alaska 99513-7599 Phone: (907) 271-5080 - Fax: (907) 271-4596

Herbert (Bert) Frost, Regional Director - National Park Service
240 West 5th Avenue, Anchorage, Alaska 99501
Phone: (202) 208-3884 - Fax: (907) 644-3816

Geoff Haskett, Regional Director - U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
1011 East Tudor Road, Anchorage, Alaska 99503
Phone: (907) 786-3542 - Fax: (907) 786-3306

Beth Pendleton, Regional Forester - U.S. Forest Service Federal Building, Post Office Box 21628, Juneau, Alaska 99802-1628
Phone: (907) 586-8863 - Fax: (907) 586-7840

Lets not forget that in the interest of "preserving the herd " that this last winter the locals got ADF &G to institute 4 months of "pregnant cow only" season at a time when the animals are migrating thru all the villages.

WTF did that accomplish.. I know thats your point...

I wouldn't piss in your ear if your brain was on fire

Bear::


This thread was directed to the hunters on the fire, not the want to bees. Stick with something that you know something about.....Like Palin's panties and leave the government over reach discussion to the hunters.

What would a commie know about hunting? Your in the rental game dood. Pocket the loot as it were. Your motto is there's a sucker born every minute, and now that your squeezed out you come crying.

Democrats should really just eat chit and die.

A very mature reply....

Just an FYI...the chairman of the board, Tim Towarak is originally from Unalakleet, kind of the southern end of the NWACH range. It was the local hunters from Unalakleet who asked F&G for a strong limitation of the moose season in their area in order to rebuild the herd several years ago. They are part of Unit 22A, but they have a more specific season of a very limited nature right in their area. And the herd has come back.

"The locals" are often generalized as being ruthless when it comes to the resources, and perhaps there is some truth to that in some areas. However, there is certainly the other side as well. With that in mind, I suspect that one would expect a rather conservative approach to management of the herd.

But I believe that the herd which once approached an estimated half-million animals - and was expanding its area, perhaps in search of better food sources- is now suffering from over-grazing of the range. (I know we saw a decline in both the condition of the animals - less fat on them, and in fewer twin fetuses among the cows we killed.) Trying to hold the population steady may not be the way the managers want to go. Who knows? I'm sure there are many different opinions when it comes to caribou management. I know the lichens that are a major part of their diet don't just spring up and flourish overnight.

Klik:

Do you think there is any real possibility that they would actually close unit 23 to caribou hunting this fall? That could be a real mess for all the the people who have given deposits to bush pilots for this fall season? They have already issued hunting licenses and caribou locking tags to people. Would they rescind those tags? Tell people to hunt elsewhere?

If the herd is over-grazing the range, then further reduction in the herd would be healthy.

KC

I would imagine the Department has considered those angles and would not jeopardize hunts that are close since it isn't like the herd has a sudden major disease or anything. (I'm sure there are some conditions that would blow plans out of the water regardless; I don't see the herd needing that.) But I would watch things closely if I was thinking much beyond this fall. I'm sure that some of the villages which have always relied on caribou for a major protein source will have the highest priority, especially as the state's fiscal issues begin to crunch rural areas harder.

A democrat governor helps too