Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Alaska Caribou success

I spent the last several days in unit 13 chasing caribou. Yesterday I found a few and made a stalk. We ended up circling one another without either knowing where the other was for a while before I finally got a shot. I was thinking about 250 yards and it turned out to be right at 200 yards so I hit a bit high but the 400 Whelen did the job.

I tried the 300 grain Barnes TSX bullets this year and while they penetrate like crazy I don't think I'll use them again for a meat hunt. The 400 grain bullets do a great job without the blood shot mess to deal with. I think I'll save the TSX's for bears and shoot 400's for meat.

The bullet entered on the right side about the third rib from the last and angled across to the left shoulder, cutting the top of the lungs.

It ended up being a 3/4 mile pack to the truck with two big loads. The aches and pains are gone now, for the most part.



Entrance wound



Exit wound

Nice job. So the 300gr TSX over penetrate?grin

Three head of big game with three different bullets from the 400 Whelen and I've yet to recover a bullet. That's okay. I like a hole on each side.

Good job, them smaller ones sure do taste good!

Two holes are better than one.

Nicely done, August bou = good vittles

Congrats! Had your POI been a bit lower, I bet your damage would have been a lot less. Nice cartridge choice btw.

Small or young bull I presume? Not much 'butter' - as in none- on that critter by the looks of it. (Variation in condition among these animals always amazes me - where the one next to it could have a solid half-inch or more all down its back.)

Enjoy some good eating!

Not a bull. Decent sized cow. No calf with her and turned out to be dry. While I wouldn't turn down a nice bull I've always been primarily a meat hunter.

You're right on the condition from animal to animal. I've seen the same thing. Two buddies and I killed three cows on a mid October hunt several years ago. All three were dropped withing 50 yards of each other. Two were thick with fat and one fairly lean although all three were nearly identical in body size.

Well, then my initial thought was actually even closer; just didn't know if your hunting area allowed cows. (I actually prefer cows if I have a choice.) My boys were involved in a local reindeer cull this summer and took a couple mature animals. One was the sweetest fat animal, the other a solitary cow - seemingly separated from the herd, (wherever it was...we never saw it), by warbles and perhaps bears. That cow was full of milk and lean as could be. Your critter looks in good condition in spite of a lack of fat.

The unit 13 drawing tags were any caribou this year. This one was running with 8-10 other cows and calves though a 150 yards behind them. She was trotting quartered away when I shot.

Despite having taken cows with and without layers of fat, I've never noticed a difference in meat quality. They have all been good quality meat. A mid to late September bull, that's another story. I'll let them pass every time in favor of a cow.

Well, it looks like you 'done good' and with a cool cartridge to boot. Congrats!

I've played with a lot of cartridges over the last 40+ years but I've come to like the 400 Whelen better than any of them.

Nice work. I'm hoping to take an early season bull next year. I'll be carrying my 30-06 and hopefully putting some meat in the freezer and a European mount on the wall.

It's funny how everybody knows that wood stocks and blued steel don't work in Alaska. Everybody except Alaskans.

Cool gun and hunt, thanks!

Thanks. Yeah, I cut class the day they were teaching about synthetic stocks and stainless steel. Probably skipped that day to go huntin with my blued steel and walnut stocked rifle.

I've been weighing the idea of toying with my #1-S 9.3x74R in the hinterlands this fall for moose. That PRVI 285 RN in a blued steel rifle seems like a modern day oxymoron if there ever was one, but I don't see me ever moving that rifle, at least not until after, or shortly before my hands are dead and cold. A fleck or few on the gun won't be deal breakers if it happens. (Or there;s the handy little #1-A 270 which is already pretty beat up, or I could use the also handy Model Seven in 358 Winchester hasn't a speck of wood or blued steel on it, or..... ) I may just come back here in a few weeks and give you some credit for the rust on my 9.3.....

9.3x74R in a Ruger #1. Now that is cool. You need to smack a moose with that one. You can blame the rust on me. Of course a little Johnson's paste wax on the wood and metal before the hunt and it should be good for some serious bad weather hunting.

I'll be alternating between a 9.3x57, a 10.75x57 and the trusted 400 Whelen for moose this season. All blued steel and walnut.

I do need to exercise the 9.3 a bit more. I got it from the late member, Timberline, a few years ago.

...already seven years to be exact


http://www.24hourcampfire.com/ubbthreads/ubbthreads.php/ubb/showflat/Number/3296857

The only thing worse than a bit of 'wear' on a nice rifle is to leave it sitting alone in a dark, cold safe.

Lots of clients from the lower 48 ask me about gun selection for bou and I always tell them to bring up the rifle they are most comfortable. Too many come up with cannons thinking caribou are thick bodied animals. I have taken them with .243, 270, 30.06 and .308. For just joy of hunting caribou the .243 is my favorite because it can really reach out there and bring them down at long distances and very little wasted meat. 1 shot and 1 kill.