Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Alaska AK Caribou Outfitter

Anyone have any opinions on who has the best caribou hunting in AK? I'm looking to book a trip for 08' and want to go with the best outfit I can find -- I've heard that drop camps often tend to be placed in areas that may not be quite as good as the areas that the fully guided hunters are in - True or not?? Guessing that caribou hunting isn't much more difficult than antelope hunting just logistically more complicated - How much does a guy need to spend to get a good hunt with a lot of trophy potential and is the fully guided route the best option??

I am bias because I live up here and operate a rental service here but unit 23 tops them all. We have 460,000+ caribou to choose from and an area the size of Indiana with lots of rivers to float and enjoy. 100% of my floaters bagged bulls this year. Shoot me a pm and lets talk!


Walt
www.northwestalaska.com
Kotzebue, Alaska

I'd also contact Larry Bartlett of Pristine Ventures, he wrote the book on float hunting caribou, no, really, he did write the book. Go to his website and check it out and see if he might have what your looking for in a caribou hunt.

I just returned from a drop hunt in Unit 23 N. of Kotzebue near the Squirrel River. If you can hunt and are in good walking condition, you can get nice caribou by yourself in this area. It will however, be a lot of work, we packed four caribou three miles apiece, so you need to get your legs in shape. As a matter of fact, we rented our tent and kitchen from Walt in Kotzebue. The people may put their guided hunters in better areas, I can't answer that, but there are plenty of big bulls in the area to go around.

Is a moose/caribou combo a possibility or is one better served to do one or the other? ---- NWAlaska PM Sent

You can do both but the key is to focus on one animal first thentry for the other. There are tons of places you can go to get both on the same trip. Like I mentioned earlier, contact Larry Bartlett at Pristine Ventures, he runs a hunt planner and can get you into the animals.

Just returned from a hunt in the Kilbuck Mountians out of Bethel with Papa Bear Adventures. This was our second hunt with them and will not be the last. They are a first class operation. With that being said, our first hunt was in 2004 and it was a struggle to find caribou. On this hunt, we saw close to 3000 caribou in the first 5 days and didn't see any at all after day 5. We were in the right place at the right time on this last hunt. You know that you are in a good place when several of the cows are wearing tracking collars. Don't expect the caribou to walk into your camp, although it does happen, normally after everyone has tagged out and carried the last caribou for 4 miles up hill. Our caribou this year averaged 2 miles from camp so you need a good pack frame and boots.

"Don't expect the caribou to walk into your camp, although it does happen, normally after everyone has tagged out and carried the last caribou for 4 miles up hill. "

Rollin' here.