Home Forums Hunting & Shooting General Big Game Got one. Finally.

Down to 3 roasts in the freezer, until today. Scored not 2 miles out of town, after spending too much time digging out of 2 unseen holes I found on the unplowed road in flat, flat, flat light. Should have been out on the windswept lagoon ice. Or maybe not at all. Couldn't see much definition on the snow, bare eyes was best, but I was running with amber goggles for the wind.

Funny thing, sweaty and exhausted, and with the dangerous flat light, I'd abandoned the idea of hunting, but decided to take the 6 mile loop back to town, on the higher, more windswept portion. I'd heard shots up by the AF radar dome when I was digging out the first time, so went up there (about a mile past the loop intersection road) to see what I could (and found another hole before getting there....that one only took 15 minutes to get out of- the first had been over an hour. Not a good idea to put a snow machine into a hole thats 6 feet deep and exactly machine sized in width and length!). Could be, but wasn't hard on the scope settings, it turned out.

At least one fresh kill site (blood spatter, head, lower legs), and maybe 1 or two more by blood spatter sites, but no remnants. Or all 3 of those guys might have shot her. They had passed me on the far side of the lagoon while I was digging out the first time. Over where I should have been traveling.

Headless and legless animals work better in the toboggans. Glassed lower ground from dome hill-top but saw nothing.

Headed back to the Loop intersection to follow that around, as it looked less drifted than the lower ground, ;just on a wild-hair off-chance. No one had been around the loop yet, from the lack of tracks.. Half a mile down the loop, I spotted an antler-less bull on a hillside 347 yards away. Easy shot, but not legal until February. Stupid regs!

A quarter mile on, terrain feature change showed me about 20 animals, about 3/4 mile away back toward and in line with the dome, in a depression that couldn't be seen from up there. I had looked! A couple nice, still-antlered bulls in the bunch, but mostly cows and calves. Works for me.

Low ground and 15 mile crosswind let me get within 124 yards, motoring slow and quiet. Windscreen for a rest, with a half body height, low hold under hair (rifle is zeroed for 300), and she was down. The rest took off, and I don't do running shots if I don't have to. One animal was enough for today, anyway. I've got all winter....

Gutted, legged, and headed, I loaded her in the sled with a tarp under for blood, and then it was just a 15 minute run back to the house.

It IS better to be lucky than good!

I'll skin her tomorrow and check that Superperformance GMX hole.....first animal i've used it on. Looks about like the SST holes...

Good deal! You worked for that in a different sort of way <G>

las:

Congratulations. Looks like that one will fill the freezer for a while.

KC

Nice work.

What rifle did you use?


Okie John

Bravo! She should be a tasty one. We've got a pineapple express going on down here right now. You're in the right place, except for those holes you keep finding!

Nice. Meat in the freezer is a very comforting feeling.

Jeff

Nice!

Mauser 98 - 27 inch heavy barrel .30-06, 150 gr GMX Suerperformance. Inch groups at 300 if I can hold it steady enough!

Looks like a baby.

Congrats. Here's where I profess my caribou ignorance- I thought that was a little bull. I didn't know both cow and bull caribous grow antlers, so I googled it. But to be fair, I've never seen a caribou .

It's the "good eatin'" size.

Good deal...!

Good job. Looks like a nice bou. Congrats

Yup!

Good job, Las! I bet she's as tender as veal.

IMHO, caribou from that part of Alaska taste better than from anywhere else.

Ed

I agree, there is some good eatin there. I've only shot a few up in that area myself but they were good eating, for sure.

I've shot bigger cows for sure. And bulls 3 times her size. She was at least twice- maybe three times the apparent size (from TV shows) of your Texas Whitetail does, Reloder. Probably as big or bigger than your bucks. So there! . Caribou up here tend to run a bit smaller on average than those farther south in Alaska.

I'm not adverse to shooting the "babies" either, and have..... they are the best! If I'm going to have to shoot only cows by stupid regulation, I would willingly take her calf, also, if it hangs around, as it is likely doomed to predation, exposure, etc., without a clue how to survive alone. Can't - same time they restricted bull taking, they eliminated calf taking also. But not cows accompanied by calves....

She was a fully adult cow - her calf of the year started back to make contact, then went with the rest of the group. Hopefully it will survive by doing so. Many times they won't leave but will hang around where they last saw mom, and that is almost certainly a death sentence and waste, but I guess the predators and scavengers have to eat also. I did pick out a cow that did not have a calf in obvious proximity, but I guess it was off a little way goofing around with others. the Eskimos refer to lone cows as "barren", but likely their calf did not survive this time around. but they are almost certainly pregnant again, after rut.

As I may have said a few times before - this 3 1/2 month long "pregnant cows only" season is just ludicrous, when bulls are perfectly edible after rut by the 2nd week in November, and usually before. No fat on them tho, but I don't eat fat, so I'd take one of them by preference - and have when it was still legal. Calves also. I've taken two "orphaned" and all alone calves in past years, before current regs. With the the limit 5 a day, tagging a calf is no hardship in the meat department.

Pregnant cow hunting is a helluva way to "slow the decline" (the nominal reasoning for these regs- actually it is cultural/political) of a population which seems to have been stable for the last 3 years at just over 200,000. In fact, last year saw excellent calf survival, with the heaviest average birth weights ever recorded.

Objectively, the current regs are just a PITA, and totally meaningless as to affecting the herd size either way.

With luck, I'll get one or two more this winter, and get the freezer fully stocked again.

Just jerked the lower jaw for F&G's age/nutritional studies. From the looks of her most excellent teeth I'd guess she was no more than 3, maybe 4. Only sectioning and staining will be definitive, tho. So I killed all her future calves too.

Thanks, las. Great story. If not for you i would have no idea what others in my country do to get meat. Many down here would spend big bucks to spend a week with you.

How come our bud Iron never posts such. Is he an Anchorage city slicker or something?

Oh he's something all right.....

i'm telling you guys that butchering game without canine supervision since my dog died just isn't right! I'm tempted to go borrow the Lab next door.....

I've got a scrap pan going for him anyway.

las, I always enjoy your stories. Lots of fascinating info re your country, etc. Good on you!

I have some great memories of young bull caribou steaks in a huge cast iron skillet with some bacon and diced onions all frying on a wood stove in a log cabin with icy rain beating on the roof. Warm and dry with good friends, hard to beat. Mountain caribou in northern BC. Good eats... and a long way from my haunts this morning.

Best to you this winter!

That's "Mr. ironbender" to you sport!

We don't have 'bou wandering all around here, usually. At least not legal animals.

Our caribou hunts on the KP and low-percentage permit draw hunts. In many years of applying. I've yet to get lucky.



On occasion they will cause a traffic jam.

Nice!!

Taking a break from butchering, right now.

Sled loaded with survival/dressing gear and machine topped out when it started lightening in yesterday about 11:30 AM. Problem was the lighter it got, the foggier it got. Temperature about 14. By 12:30 i could barely see runway lights 400 yards away. fug-it- I decided to run the loop road anyway. Had heard no machine traffic (them Eskimos are smarter than me???), but I'd gotten lucky that way last week, so WTF.

And it might lighten up on higher ground, a mile out. So it proved. Visibility improved to a mile and a half or so. Cut out through the basin where I killed last weekend, which had been riddled with droppings from pass-throughs, with no luck. Just short of the wind-farm, I cut a left, East, tho my mind insists it is South. Gotta pay attention to those discrepancies - even just a couple miles from home.

A mile or so later , crossing a big flat, i saw a line of 30 or so caribou traveling single file, roughly parallel to me, off to my left. Really should have seen them earlier. I was totally exposed, but they hadn't twigged to me. I shut down and ranged, to no effect. Whether it was light condition, distance, or slightly cold batteries, the Leupold 800i wasn't registering. I don't shoot at range without. I estimated 600-700 yards, beyond my comfort level.MYy eye-ball estimates on flat ground or across water really sucks. Last weekend, I thought the animals were about 300 - range finder said about 125. Who ya gonna believe? Range finder was right.. One shot, one kill.

They were traveling toward a willow line, so I waited until they went out of sight, then motored forward. Hadn't gone far before the leaders re-appeared, now going left to right across my front. Then they started to feed. I made a couple hundred yards exposed, slow and quiet, without them twigging, until I was behind a screen of brush on a low knoll. My finder called it 327. Good enough.

Just for Reloder, I picked out a really big cow first. Then a second one larger than last week's.

OK- I'm lying... but both turned out larger in body.

The bigger one was obviously older, both by body size and teeth wear. The second had a smaller jaw size, but was larger in body than last week's kill. So it goes.

I just dropped two cows, standing broadside, clear of the others, before the others reacted and moved off at a fast walk. Crusted snow is hard on these critters, and I don't blame them. It is a real pain to walk through, but the snow machine likes it.

By the time I'd gutted the big cow, fog had closed in to 200 yard or so visibility, which was slightly spooking, GPS and compass. in pack not with standing. I ripped the guts out of the smaller cow, loaded them in the sled, then followed my tracks back.. Nice that it wasn't blowing. I had to go slow in that flat light as to not lose my back-trail. I did once, and had to make a small circle to regain it. In a mile or a bit better, the windmill towers ghosted out of the fog and I was home free. Literally - about 3 miles. Arrived home about 3:30.

Skinned out the big cow on the lagoon ice out back of the apartment. By the time I finished it was dark, so I did the smaller one by electric yard light in front, and cleaned up the bloody snow by shovel. I knew those new-fangled electric lights would come in handy sooner or later!

Jeez, another epic adventure. Congrats on getting meat and not getting lost.

Christmas deliveries may be slightly late. Fat man really should mark his team. Jolly , my ass!

Certainly different hunting.. Glad for the story.. Enjoy the caribou!!!!

Congrats on your success, enjoyed the details.

No field pics- when I decided to go off-road, I went to text my wife, but I'd forgotten the iPhone... technology creates whole new problems...

But I wasn't worried about her worried - much . As my oldest son said when he got into a problem inadvertently skiing off-limits years ago, " I've been with Dad in enough rhubarbs, that I just figured it out". (the ski-patrol was organizing to look for him when he got back to the lodge).

I'm still wondering if that is good or bad....

Processing burger meat.

Looks like a great way to get your winter meat supply. Also a good way to enjoy the outdoors.

Good job, that'll be some fine eating!

It's good! Farts are ferocious. Gave half a cooler to my old hunting buddy here in Soldotna , recovering from cancer episode.

Ironbbender's new knee might get him a package or two ifnhe begs...

Begging.

Lemmee buy you lunch while you're in the banana belt. Call me.

Ha. Yup. I wuz rite. A cityslicker.

Las, that does sound a bit more stimulating and disconcerting than when folks in downtown Houston or San Antonio brave the coyotes to get dinner at the local grocer for sure. Thanks for the update.

Heres hoping Irons knee gets well.

It's doing great, thanks. 7 weeks tomorrow.

Laig with the new knee has become my 'good leg'.

Glad to hear it, Mike.

All I need now is for las to answer his dang fone!

Allright. Good to hear.

Nice one, sounds like an adventure.