Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Alaska Caribou hunt guide

Can anyone recommend an outfitter for a caribou hunt there in Alaska. Hopefully reasonable. One guy said he had a hunt in Alaska, but wanted more than a 5 day hunt in Africa, including airfare.

Well you can't compare AFrica plains game to AK. The circumstances are different.

REasonable doens't come often in AK. The places you go and what you do to get you and gear etc... there are remote and folks are not paid in piasters like Africa.

I personally feel better spending my money in America when I can. But if its value for money, if I had a desire to hunt Africa at all, that would be a better value at times.

I don't know enough to know though, is shipping trophies back etc... all lincluded in those cheap hunts?

I'm sorta glad AK isn't cheap. It keeps folks out. For us we are certainly privileged to get to go and see the AK that most folks never will. And because its often not cheap, it stays more pristine.

Good luck.

A non-resident is not required to hire a guide to hunt caribou in Alaska.

A non-resident hunting license is $300.00 and a caribou tag is another $300.00.
Figure on flying into Anchorage to get to the jumping off spot.

For instance, to fly from Anchorage to Kotzebue is around $350.00 RT. Add in another ~$1,500.00 for a transporter to fly you out to one of the the Squirrel River tributaries (RT) and bang your 'bou. You'll be camping on a river gravel bar, enjoying the most beautiful place in Earth.

I'd buy a Black Bear tag for another $225.00 while I was at it as that part of the world has some of the most beautiful cinnamon phase Black Bears.

Take your 7mm-08 or larger caliber rifle (.270 Win works, but don't tell Ingwe!) and have the hunt of a lifetime.

Ed

Now that is what I was looking for. a DIY fly in what I really want. when I said outfitter, I was thinking more along the lines of someone who'd get you there, and back. Used to be a guy up there I knew, but he died several years ago. You have any names for a transporter service. I use a 280Rem or 308, and feel that's plenty.

Rost: I understand what you're saying, but the African outfitters have upkeep and maintenance and camps and staff (that are there all year in a lot of cases). When someone tells me they have a caribou hunt for $8k, I say, yeah, but not for me. I want to get all the caribou, and only have the woodland from NFland so far. The Quebec ones were gone when we got there, but will go back for them. Not rich, and you probably not either, so have to make the hunting dollars go as far as they can.

Airfare rt ANC-OTZ is more like $700. Cheaper if booked well in advance. Sometimes. Trust me, AkAir knows when the Cabela's Army wants to come here. Not likely to get much of a break there.

Air taxis out of here include GoldenEagle, Ram Aviation, Northwest aviation, Back Country Aviation, and possibly Baker Aviation. Those would be DIY.

For guided try Caribou Unlimited Tho that would by an air charter to Ron's camps as he doesn't fly himself. He is also a long time friend, neighbor of mine down on the Kenai Peninsula, and a good taxidermist (full disclosure here.... . )

Also try jake jacobson's outfit. He has an extremely remote Camp and flies his clients in himself as part of the package. He claims in his book it can be cheaper than a DIY. He's on Google, but I think his outfit is "huntalaska.com". Just finished his book. Good read.

He also filled some cavities for me in Point Hope back in the mid '70's. not a bad dentist either! I said "full disclosure", right. Actually, I think that was the last time I talked to him, tho I've seen him in the OTZ terminal several times in the last few years.

Ron keeps saying I should come up to visit his camp on the Squirrel , if not to hunt. I'd love to but for two or three problems. I'm too cheap to spring for the airfare, I can get all the caribou I can eat come about the first of Nov 10 miles out of town most years, and one of us has a real job.....

Not many 'bou pass through the Squirrel during the fall season any more. Maybe a few but nothing like they used to. Every thing seems later and farther east. Ron is a great guy and a good cub driver as well. I've flown with him, was my neighbor( I had to get off the Kenai!)and coinsider him and his family friends.

I was guideing on the Squirrel 35 years ago,we rarely saw another plane and only a few others hunting the general area. And then came Ron,and more planes,and tons of camps,tons of hunters. It's no wonder the caribou avoid the Squirrel,, kinda like the same thing that the caribou avoid the Mulchatna country now. The transporters were bringing in so many rutted-up caribou even the sled dogs wouldn't eat them!

Did not realize you would do DIY. Thats the only reasonable way to do it for us also.

Guided, there are just a lot of things that have to be paid, and it takes a lot of cash to cover it. But OTOH 8000 to get a really good one guided fully, vs having to hunt a number of times DIY to get the same quality, well you see the numbers.

BTW its not cheap to fly all your hunting gear around up there either.

ghost:

Here's the web page for Alaska Dept F & G that shows the price of licenses and tags. A nonresident hunting license costs $85 and nonresident caribou tag costs $325.
http://www.adfg.alaska.gov/index.cfm?adfg=huntlicense.prices

You don't need a guide to hunt 'bou. Do a DIY hunt. There are 400,000 caribou in the northwest Alaska herd and each Fall they migrate from the north slope of the Brooks Range, south past Kotzebue. It's one of the last great migrations left on the planet. Go see it while it's still there. Hunt on one of the rivers north of the Noatak River in late September.

I went on my first Alaska adventure in 1987 and have retuned every two or three years since then. I certainly do not claim to be an expert on hunting in Alaska. However, over the years I have encountered problems and had questions. Things that might not even occur to a resident. I wrote down the solutions and answers and I have updated the list after subsequent trips. Here is the latest version.

LOGISTICS FOR NONRESIDENT HUNTERS IN ALASKA

In Alaska, nonresidents are required by law to hire a licensed guide to hunt brown-grizzly bear, mountain goats, or Dall sheep. Someday I may want to hunt one of those species and then I may hire a guide. But until that day, I prefer to do everything myself and reap the greater personal satisfaction and lower cost that comes from doing it myself. A DIY hunt is a lot cheaper than a guided/outfitted hunt and I couldn’t afford to go as often unless I do it on the cheap. So all of my Alaska trips have been DIY climbing expeditions or DIY hunts where we did all the recon and planning (that’s half the fun) and provided all of our own camping gear and food. We contracted with Alaska companies only for watercraft rental or transportation.



A 120 quart Igloo or Coleman cooler is the largest that the US Postal Service will accept without charging extra for over-sized packages. Avoid wheels and small door in the top lid. The wheels make the cooler heavier and they take up room that could be filled with contents. The door makes the cooler leak in the rain. I mailed a 120-quart Igloo cooler via US Postal Service. I think it cost about $50. Had to mail three weeks early to ensure timely arrival or pay premium costs for faster service. It was mostly filled with freeze-dried and dehydrated food and other disposable/consumable stuff. Make sure you insure your mail and mark your name and address on the outside with magic marker, then seal it shut with strapping tape.

On the departing trip I checked only a rifle case and one large duffel bag filled with clothes, hunting items and camping gear. I also take a carry-on that holds travel items, a change of clothing and hunting boots. Make sure that there are no TSA prohibited items in your carry-ons.

You can't carry fuel on board the airlines. Empty your fuel bottle and rinse it out with water so there is no fuel odor, before you go to the airport. You can carry fuel on board the bush plane. The bush pilots prefer unopened gallon containers of Coleman fuel or Blazo.

Gun Case: needs to be very sturdy and have locks. I use a Cabelas two-gun "Bulletproof" gun case, which does the job fine. There are many that aren't as good and a few that are better. Pelican is supposed to offer some real good gun cases. The airlines require the ammo to be in "manufacturers' original packaging" and I put it inside the gun case with everything else. You must declare your firearm at the ticket counter and have it inspected by TSA, then locked. Then you give it to the ticket agent at the counter. Your gun case gets special handling and tracking. That’s why I put all my fragile and expensive optics and electronics in the case along with my rifle. It will be delivered at a location or window separate from regular baggage. But also bring a soft case because it’s a lot more convenient in the bush plane and in the tent. The one I use floats and has hard rubber armor around the scope and receiver group. On mountaineering trips instead of a gun case, I carried a ski bag.

There are some good places to hunt that you can reach by driving from Anchorage but most of the best hunting will be accessed via a bush plane from a hub city. Alaska Airlines is the only major airlines that flies to the hub communities. I have an Alaska Airlines VISA credit card that accumulates air mile points. So I fly for free all the way from my home to the hub community. If you want to hunt in Alaska, you should get one. The other major carriers do not fly to hub communities. I’ve flown on Alaska Airlines to Anchorage, Dillingham, Kotzebue, Juneau, Sitka and Kodiak. On one trip my buddy used Penn Air to fly to Dillingham and they left some people's baggage in Anchorage. He had to wait for two days for his gear to arrive. In the panhandle, you can get to some remote communities on the Alaska Marine Highway ferry system, but you have to adapt your schedule to the ferry schedule. You can also rent a boat in the panhandle.

Airline flight schedules between the lower-forty-eight and Anchorage Airport can be awkward. It’s common to arrive around midnight in Anchorage and depart for a hub community at 06:00AM or 07:00AM the next morning. By the time that you deal with baggage, travel to and from the motel, then go through security, it’s not really worth it to leave the airport and sleep in a motel. As a result it’s common to see people sleeping in the terminal on out-of-the-way benches with their gear beside them.

There are several regularly scheduled regional airlines including Peninsula Airlines (PennAir) that fly’s mostly around the Katmai Peninsula and Bristol Bay. Bering Air uses eight-passenger “Caravan” turbo props and they have hubs in Kotzebue and Nome. They have their act together. I’ve also flown with a couple of services in the panhandle. Air Excursions uses little bush planes. Once they had to leave half of our baggage on the tarmac in Kake because the plane was too small to carry everything. I’ve also flown with Wings. They also use Caravans and IMO seem to have a more professional operation than Air Excursions. Wright Air flies out of Fairbanks to many of the smaller communities, in the region. There's also 40 Mile Air that fly's out of Tok. ERA-Hageland (RAVN) is another regional airlines and they claim to be as big as all of the other regional airlines combined. I suppose that there must be more, but these are the only ones that I'm familiar with. They are operated like municipal bus systems, expensive but a lot cheaper than using a bush plane to get to the smaller bush communities.

If you need liquor, you have to plan ahead to make that happen. Beer is bulky and heavy and considering all the restrictions and costs associated with baggage on commercial airlines, beer is probably not your best bet. So if you need alcohol you probably want to buy it in Anchorage. Pack it in plastic bottles so that it won’t leak and put it in your checked baggage. You can buy liquor in Anchorage but that’s not necessarily true in the hub communities. Some hub communities have no restrictions on the sale of alcohol and some are damp, which means you can bring in your own liquor but there is none for sale in the community. Bush communities with a high percentage of Native American residents are generally dry.

Rent a satellite phone. They are the only way to communicate with your pilot. Look for Outfitter Satellite Phones on the Internet. http://www.outfittersatellite.com/ or http://www.satellitephonesolutions.com/

Prices in cities that are on the road system are only slightly higher than in the lower forty-eight. Kodiak and Juneau are large enough that the prices there are only about 10% higher than in the lower forty-eight. Plan on paying about double in other hub communities and expect prices to be higher than that in bush communities. You cannot carry fuel on an airliner so you have buy your fuel in the hub community. I’ve paid as much as $26/gallon for white gas. Bring everything else from home and avoid restaurants if you can.

Lodging was really expensive too. We paid $150/night for a sleazy hotel in Dillingham, in 2004. Nicer places were even more expensive. If I were to return to Dillingham, I would stay at the King Fisher Inn. They charge $75/person/night. But that includes free use of a car. It's a nice, new, clean B&B and they have two bungalows that can sleep four people each. I paid $100/night to stay at Bibbers B&B in Kotzebue in 2007. It was clean and respectable. In fact, the owner likes to interview hunters to make sure that they’re going to treat the place with respect. In 2009, we returned early to Kotzebue and had to get some lodging without reservations. The only place that had rooms was the Nulagvik Hotel which is about equal in quality to a Motel 6. It cost $245/night. In 2013, we stayed one night at the Best Western in Kodiak and it cost only $108/night. Best of all, try to avoid lodging all together and camp in the bush until the last day. You can reserve/rent remote US Forest Service cabins, in the Tongass National Forest at a very reasonable cost. http://www.fs.fed.us/r10/tongass/cabins/cabin_info.shtml Also in the Chugash NF. http://www.fs.fed.us/r10/chugach -> Recreation.

If you go to Kotzebue, you should rent something (anything) from Walt Maslen at Northwest Alaska Backcountry Rentals. http://www.northwestalaska.net/ . The rental gear comes with free advice and recon that’s priceless.

Also if you hunt out of Kotzebue, make sure that your pilot does not drop you on one of the rivers that are close to KOTZ. The pilots like to make short flights because they can make more of them but the best hunting in mid-September will be further away. If you can wait to hunt in early October, the ‘bou might be closer to KOTZ. Most bush pilots stop flying north of the Noatak River on September 30. We flew with Northern Air Trophy, in 2007 and we used Northwestern Aviation in 2009. Both are based in Kotzebue and I would fly with both pilots again. I flew with Tik-Chik Airventures, out of Dillingham, in 2004 and I would use them again also. In 2013, we flew with Andrew Airways in Kodiak. They did a good job while fighting miserable weather conditions. I guess you get use to that if you live on Kodiak Island. Book your bush pilot as soon as you can. Most of them will be booked up before the end of January.



If you are going to be anywhere near a river, then go prepared to fish. Arctic char, Dolly Varden, rainbows, graylings, and pike follow the salmon up the rivers. Cast anything orange into the river. We killed 'em using big orange spoons and orange plastic eggs. My buddy tied some orange parachute chord onto a hook so it looked like a salmon egg and caught several fish using that. I took 6 pound monofilament and the pike chewed it up. I switched to 15# Spiderwire. It's just as light and much stronger. Another guy did well using little red plastic eggs and dropped them into the water just behind a run of spawning salmon where two rivers met.



On each trip, we took a little extra food and each time we returned with some food left over because we were eating game meat and fish. Half of a freeze-dried entre' compliments fish nicely. However, I've heard many stories about bad weather preventing pilots from picking up hunters for several days. A buddy was hunting on the Alaska bush on 9/11/01 and all planes were grounded. He was in the bush for an extra week and had no clue why the pilot didn’t come to pick them up (no sat phone). They ate their extra rations and then they ate lots of game meat, fish, and wild berries while waiting for the plane. In 2013, we experienced firsthand how unpredictable weather can extend your time in the bush. Don’t forget to bring a little extra fuel also.



Clothing – In southern Alaska (panhandle, Kodiak, Alaska Peninsula) it rains so often that things never dry out and you have to be prepared to deal with that and have a way to dry out wet clothing. It’s important to find a dry place to setup your tents and that can be difficult. Elsewhere things actually dry out occasionally and it’s easier to find dry places for tents. Be prepared for temps hovering around freezing. It will probably rain/snow at least once during the hunt and may rain/snow for the entire hunt. You need a set of bib waiders so you can cross rivers, and a Gortex/Nylon Parka. You need a pair of leather hiking boots with really good ankle support so you can cross marsh mounds without breaking an ankle. A pair of Kennetreck Hardscrabble boots is a good choice. On Kodiak you need real, durable rain gear tops and bottoms. Orange clothing is not required in Alaska but it's not a bad idea to wear an orange hat so you friends can spot you at a distance.

If it's warm, you will have to be concerned with keeping your meat from spoiling while waiting to return to the bush community. We put our meat in game bags, kept it clean and hung it up every night covered by a tarp to keep it dry. We saw that some other hunters had placed their meat in a side braid of the river so that the cold water kept the meat cool. We also used Game Saver citric acid spray. You mix the powder with water in a spray bottle and it works great. I ordered it over the Internet from Indian Valley Meat Co., in Indian Valley, AK. http://www.indianvalleymeats.com/about.htm

BTW meat processing and storage was really expensive. De-bone the meat and put it in clean game bags that you bring from home. In 2004, there was a guy operating a huge walk-in freezer in Dillingham and he had setup cutting tables outside that hunters could use to de-bone the meat. In some Alaska game management units, it’s illegal to debone the meat until you arrive at a city that has an airport. It was expensive to keep the meat in his freezer, but well worth it if you compare that to the fines imposed for wanton waste of game meat. There are no public freezer facilities in Kotzebue. Alaska Airlines has a freezer facility in Kotzebue for freezing and shipping frozen cargo, but they will not allow storage overnight. So you have to arrive at the terminal early in the morning and get the meat into the freezer for an afternoon flight. Also, you have to be a "Known Shipper" for the airlines to accept your meat as air cargo. It takes a month or so to get through the TSA red tape to become a "Known Shipper". In Kotzebue, there is a well established network for notifying locals of hunters wanting to donate game meat. All of the panhandle hub communities have freezer facilities for freezing fish and most can also handle meat from big game animals. I’ve read that Alaska Air Cargo is ¼ the cost of Fed EX and UPS, but I haven’t used them myself. There’s a meat processor at 7th and M streets in Anchorage.

It has rained or snowed every time that I have been to Alaska and you need to be prepared to hunt in the rain and bad weather. But there have also been some sunny days on each trip. Imagine how clear and clean the air is in a place where there are no cars and the air is washed clean by rain half the time. Setup a rain fly outside your tent so you are not confined to the tent in the rain. Limbs from willows and alders make for passable poles. We used several strategies for rain shelters; driftwood and the oars from the raft on one trip, just the rain fly and poles only on another trip, and on other trips we simply took a 6-man dome tent with a big vestibule. Each strategy has its’ pros and cons.



I was expecting to encounter insects in Biblical swarms. But they weren't as bad as I had expected. We all had repellent but we didn't need it all the time. When we did need it, it worked. This was the situation in the spring and fall. I suppose that they may be worse in July and August.

If you are going to use a raft, then take some good hip waders. Make sure to assemble your raft and check everything out before your pilot leaves. When we floated out of Dillingham, we had two rafts for four people. One of the pumps didn't work. If they had been alone they literally would have been up a creek without a raft because the pilot left before they knew the pump was bad. Also one of the valves had a slow leak and we had to keep refilling that raft. In 2009 we had to cross a fast flowing river. Three of us had bib waders and we locked arms while crossing so we were OK. But the fourth guy had hip waders and he couldn’t cross because the water was too high/fast and his waders would have filled with water and pulled him under.



I have used USGS maps and compass wandering and exploring over North America for more than 50 years and I am really confident with that system. But I got to use my GPS on one trip and learned what extra features it has to offer. It was worth the investment and I will carry it on future AK adventures. Mark the degrees (improve what's already there) on the margin of your map for pinpoint navigation, then have your map laminated at Kinkos.

We carried small Motorola two-way radios in case of emergency. We didn’t use them though, because radio recon for hunting is illegal. If you communicate via radio, your hunting is done for the day.

We used Leupold 10x42 binoculars in 2007. In 2009, my buddy showed up with a pair of Schwarovski 15x56 binos ($2,000) mounted on a tripod and used them to spot a black bear from five miles away. So I bought a pair of Oculus 15x56 binoculars ($320) and a tripod. I've used them for spot & stalk hunting Coues deer in southern AZ. They have excellent resolution. Vortex 15x56 binoculars ($1,200) are also supposed to be real good. We all attached our binos with chest harnesses.

I use to use a wood/blue rifle and my buddy used a Remington 7600, blue with synthetic stock and Leupold Scope. We didn’t have any corrosion problems until we got back into a warm building. Moisture condensed on the cold barrels and they rusted inside the gun cases and I had to re-blue mine when I got home. It’s probably not a good idea to open up a gun case and dry your rifle inside the airport terminal. TSA might frown on that. They have no sense of humor. I tried using a silicone impregnated gun sock on a subsequent trip but the barrel still rusted. I finally bought a T/C Icon Weathershield 30-06 rifle with a Leupold VX-3 scope. It’s heavy and ugly but extremely durable, weatherproof and MOA accurate. We met some native subsistence hunters who use small caliber rifles and shoot caribou from a boat, at close range while they are crossing a river. They said that it is part of their overall strategy to waste as little of the animal as possible.

We used MSR “Whisperlite” and/or MSR “Dragonfly” stoves, plus MSR “Alpine Guide” pots. Don't forget a frying pan. We fried the fish in 1/8" water plus a little margarine. I didn’t see any butane for sale in hub community stores. So, if I had taken a butane canister stove, I would have been out of luck and would have to buy another stove before going into the field. I only saw white gas and propane for sale in the stores.

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We used a Cabelas XPG Expedition, 4-season, 4-person tent for two people, which weighs 13#. That tent has lots of room so you don’t get on each others nerves so much. On a float hunt the only weight you have to worry about is that which your bush pilot will impose so as not to overload the plane. We’ve used an REI Base Camp-6 tent for our rain shelter and I thought that the wind broke a tent pole. When I got home, I discovered that the problem was simply a loose ferrel that easily popped back into place. Whatever tent you use, make sure that you use every single extra tie-down that the tent offers, to combat wind.

The only thing that I regret about the caribou hunt in ’07 is that we were not as selective as we could have been. We saw thousands of caribou and it reminded me of the Serenghetti Plain on some National Geographic TV special. Both of us shot respectable bulls before noon on the first day that we could legally hunt. You cannot hunt on the same day that you fly. But we saw bigger bulls while carrying meat back to camp.

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On that trip, we rafted 80 miles back to an Eskimo bush community and flew back to Kotzebue on Bering Airlines. Meeting an Eskimo family and spending the night in their home, was one of the highlights of the trip.

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My buddy took some T.T.C. (Taxidermy Trophy Compound) https://www.bringmin.com/catalog/index.php and used it to treat the capes in the field. It’s lighter than salt. If you are not returning to the lower forty-eight immediately, put some “Stop Rot” on the cape. I left mine at the meat processor for two weeks and instructed them to keep it frozen. They put it in a cooler (not a freezer) and it was ruined.

US Postal Service: You don't want things to get lost so mark your name and address on the outside of all packages in such a way that it can't possibly get lost, torn off, etc. They will accept some really odd looking packages so long as they are within certain dimensional restrictions. I have mailed two sets of caribou antlers via US Postal Service and they arrived in perfect condition. Cut the skull plate in half and nest one antler inside the other, tape them together and cover all the points with cardboard and duct tape. It looks really awkward but works fine. I also mail back my large duffel bag full of clothes and camping gear. I used the same cooler to carry frozen meat, as my luggage on the plane and I mailed my gear home, again with USPS. I froze the meat, put it in the cooler and it was still frozen when I got home.

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OTHER THINGS I HAVE LEARNED

I hate marsh mounds.

Bush-whacking through second-growth rain forest is a PITA.

Don't setup your tent on frozen muskeg. It looks inviting but sooner or later it will thaw.

Use a sleeping bag with synthetic insulation if you are going to camp in southern Alaska.

A bull moose is bigger and heavier than a horse. Plan accordingly.

You need to own all your gear and be an experienced camper. You need to know what you are doing in the wilderness, must be self-sufficient and know how to survive when everything goes wrong. Once the plane leaves, you are on your own until it comes back.

Have a backup plan, contingency for emergencies. Expect some gear to break or fail and be ready to repair it or adapt to do without it. Expect someone to get injured or sick and be prepared to care for them.

You need to be proficient at wilderness navigation so you can hike three or four miles from camp into unfamiliar country and get back to camp at night, in the fog or in a howling blizzard.

Good luck, have a great adventure and a safe hunt.

KC

I have not found USPS shipping to be 40 bucks on a cooler...

We sent a moose shed home years ago, single side, not a big box, not heavier than that cooler, appx 100 bucks...

All of it adds up and rather quickly cost wise.

Still cheaper than guided.

Don't know if they still do it but I've used Lake Clark Air out of Port Allsworth twice for drop hunts on the peninsula and both were successful hunts with nice bulls. You fly from Merrill Field to their facility, then from there to a good hunt area, scouting all the way. Have had them put me on hilltops with water nearby and Caribou nearby, take a day to setup camp then hunt. Very reasonable.

KC, as always, a great presentation. You really should be writing for some sporting rags!

Toot:

I've been working on that article and a few others for twenty years, improving them a little at a time. I think a sporting magazine would require higher production rate than that. But thanks for the kind words.

KC

rost:

You're right. I just checked. A 14"x14"x28" package, weighing 30# will cost $50 to mail from Colorado to Kotzebue, using the lowest rate and therefore the most time. Three weeks ought to be enough time. If it weighed 49#, it would cost $80. Might cost more from Maryland, which is where the OP is from.

KC

P.S. I changed it. Thanks

When did you go?

Mulchatna herd numbers are way down.

Think he went in 07 maybe? Mulchatna herd is non existant from what my sources tell me, compared to what it was....well maybe not quite that but not anything I'd fly to Aniak or such for again. Right now anyway.

KC always good articles. Shipping has gotten just flat stupid... I tried to ship some over the counter meds to a friend from TX... 5 pounds 2nd day air UPS, over 200 bucks... normal ground, over 100 bucks... Ouch... 12x12x12 package.

Lucky the USPS was handy, and sent a small 2 pound package for starters for 5.95, and would arrive the same day as the 2nd day UPS....

There isn't anything cheap in AK, but I was please to find that AK air charges one fee for oversize/weight etc.... and as such will be brigning more moose meat home next time... was thinking over size and overweight were each fees, they told me at the gate, once you hit either, its one flat fee. Considering a standard 70 qt cooler meets their standard size and I can get 100 pounds of frozen meat in it easily, with room for a bit of clothes... no brainer...take a couple coolers home.

Oh yeah, compare shipping your clothes home USPS vs 50 or 75 for each extra luggage.... sometimes its as cheap to buy a plastic tote or three and toss in and come home with it right away....

We are lucky, we have great friends, adopted family, in 2 places in AK... we take gear and just leave it...including firearms.

Oh yeah... rust and guns... Ultra bore coat for the inside... and whatever thats called for the outside from same folks... amazing stuff. Coated my complete 700 trigger after taking it all aprat. Coated 3 times. Hard rain and you dry it out and its all fine...

Oh yeah, one more thing I learned... if you are totally by yourself, and find a legal moose, 50 inch plus, have a very good mental mind set, because once you pull the trigger, its great and I love the work but its going to take some time... 645pm last fall, by myself, and managed to get it all done loaded on 6 wheeler, find my way back out of the bush to the trail and 12 miles back to friends house... by... 4am... was in bed by 5am! Nothing to it, but its a mental game. And please take your time, and stop and rest and eat and drink... no place to hurry adn slip and cut yourself etc...

Thanks for all the information. Reading through this lets you know what's there, etc. Been camping, etc. since 1959 when dad and I (a bit younger then, lol), went on a 2 week Elk hunt in the Abasorkas, south of Big Timber. slept in a 2 man, 2 piece pup tent with military surplus sleeping bags. There, too, a matter or mental attitude. I had, and need to get a new, Bushnell two way GPS unit. You click in where you are when you leave camp, and it'll show you the way back later on. Would definitely want one of those along (gave the one I had to my PH in Africa). Was telling a guy here, you can't believe how big some of the areas you have to hunt are in Alaska. Been there back in 1996, but only did a drive around. I figure I should be able to score a caribou pretty well, and if not book, at least "I" decided to shoot it. Was a guy up there in Anchorage used to run these DIY drop hunts. Had a video out on it, but I loaned the video to a guy who sat it in front of the heater vent, and melted it. The man who ran the hunts has since died. I have another lead on someone to fly us in, so building some information. Just need to get on it and start getting things set up. Guy from PA wants to come along, but I been after him to go to Africa, so he might do that this year. But I can still come up by myself, or maybe find a buddy. I'd love to see a BIG Moose up close out in the boonies, but for some reason, never been real big on shooting one. Anyway, again, thanks for all the input. IF I get up there and hunt caribou, will let ya'll know and put up some pictures, if I can figure out how. BTW, if anyone up there interested, I have a pre-64 model 70 in 375 I want to sell. Has 2 stocks, one for hunting, classic style, laminated and the original one. I ran the serial number on this one and was made in 57, if I recall right. If anyone interested drop me a PM and we can maybe do e-mail and I have pictures of it.

PS: I'm going to save this to a file, so handy. I have a bad habit of forgetting where I saw something.

Are you thinking about doing the hunt alone or with someone else?

Wow Thanks for the great information. My wife and I went in 1996 and hunted the Mulchaatna herd. It was hard to decide which animal to shoot. The bulls seemed to keep themselves behind cows.
We stayed in the tent the first three days of our five day hunt because of fog.

KC,

Great info! Thanks for taking the time to put it all together.

NW Arctic herd is diving too still good numbers tho.

KC's advice is priceless for anyone attempting to do it themselves but as others have pointed out, prices and game patterns and numbers change over the years.
Make sure to do your homework and talk with the local AK F&G biologist in the region and as many of the local air taxi services as you can.
And then realize that there is a lot of physical work involved at every step of the process.

tag

A lot of relevant information contained herein.

Tag