Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Alaska 3 Caribou by Dog Team:

Saturday, I went on my typical training run. I forgot to bring a stick that is needed for breaking up fights. Fights are fairly rare in my team. Just my luck: Sure enough, a veteran lead dog locked eyes with a junior wheel dog. The wheel dog glared back with a low growl, took em up on the offer and attacked. over 300 lbs of raging fury broke loose. Two sets of fangs. I'll be damned if some silver back gorrilla-lookin wheel dog thinks he runs the show. I can't loose a dog to injuries. I jumped in their and started punching the tops of their heads and kicking them apart. After 30 seconds of what felt like forever, there was blood everywhere. I lost grip strength and looked down at my cuff, it was wet with blood. I took a knee, I peeled back my cuff, and blood started pouring down my wrist, puddling in the snow under my finger tips. They got me good, right were the big veins and tendons run down your wrist to your fingers. Cinched down my velcro cuff right over the wound to apply the right amount of pressure. I favored the wrist and kept it high, with my fingers rested on my shoulder near my neck. I gritted my teeth, partly from anger, partly from pain, bellowed at them to line up and ordered them to take us home. The training run was over, cut short by 10 miles. I kept my composure and internalized my anger. They could smell my blood, they knew I wasn't happy. Not a word spoken rest of the way. At home: cold compress and tight gauze, swelling went down. Bleeding stopped fully by the next day and turned to clear fluid oozing from the puncture wound. Finally it clotted. Wrapped er up with a tight bandage, and decided to go after winter caribou on Sunday. After all, I needed to do something i enjoy for veterans day aye?

The typical way it seems to be done around here, judging what I've witnessed on the local trails: Many wake up late in the day, jump on a snow machine with semi automatic rifles, and a handgun for close-quarters side-shooting. Cover your headlight with a piece of cardboard(supposedly the caribou don't see you coming), and go chase em down.

With an old 12 ft wooden sled and some dogs, I realized I may be at a disadvantage so got up super early. Hooked up four of my strongest dogs, loaded a full camp and proceeded down the trail by headlamp at 7-8 mph pace. Nobody was on the trail. Finally, mid day a small herd crossed 600 yds up the trail. Wind right to my face, the dogs picked up speed immediately. They could smell them. Got within 100 yds, set the snow hook as quietly as I could and walked to the front of my lead dogs Mao and Prime. I took a knee, racked one into the chamber of the ole 9.3 mauser. Two fat caribou down, another fat one ran off some 400 yds. I held high, missed a couple times but saw the bullet hit the snow under the caribou, with my heart pounding, lined up my last shot, that one rang true. 3 caribou down.

I pulled the snow hook, called up the dogs on the first caribou, and loaded it in the freight sled. Through wind swept snow, we broke trail to the next caribou. Just then, a posse of snow machines jump up on a hill, and watched our recovery. Kinda weird, a posse of nosey men watching you from their tonka toys with their super-fly flashy Klim gear.. By the second caribou, the 4 dogs were overworked, so I decided to just drag the 3rd down hill, to their location. You can tell when a malamute is overworked. They have an ego, and won't admit to the exhaustion. They'll get these deep, heavy woofing sounds when panting. Their motions get sluggish and they loose their fleet footedness. I snacked the dogs real heavy, knowing that we had our work cut out for us. Each dog got a 2 lbs fatty chunk of expired beef that I bought from the local grocery butcher. The dogs became relaxed, with such a fat-rich snack, and just lounged, observing me gut the three caribou.

It was dark by the time I finally loaded the caribou. The dogs stood, and all four of the them slammed their harnesses, with me pulling a shoulder harness in front of the lead dog, to help. The sled cracked and groaned, over the wind swept tussocks. Just 10 ft from the trail, I hear a big "CRACK", followed by an instant stop. The three caribou over low-snow areas of frozen tussocks, strained the sled and cracked my runner. Luckily, the crack was way up front, where the runner sweeps up. A quick field repair: Fishing line and epoxy, and a few hand warmers to heat er up.

I buried one caribou in the snow, and stuck a six foot pole beside the caribou with a little red ribbon attached. Figured I'd limp the old freight sled home with just two caribou, and return for the third before first light. Me, the sled, full camp, food, two caribou: 800 lbs on them four dogs. I had to help up the steeper hills. By the time I got home, my legs started locking up with bad cramps. I'd stretch, lay back down, and they'd lock up again with the slightest of movement. Took a few hours of rest, before I recovered from those cramps. I drank some baking soda water, in hopes that the sodium would help.

Next day, back down the trail for the third caribou. The winds blew so hard, that all that was left of that six ft pole, was one foot tall end of the stick, with a little red ribbon. The winds blew strong, and drifted everything in. Thankful through my exhaustion, that I remembered to set a tall enough marker. That was an easy run home. There was a snow machine broke down on the trail, the lead dogs did a stoopid thing: they jumped in the freight sled and started eating snow from the sled because it smelled like fish or meat. Took forever to clear them out of that poor guy's UHMW sled, and line em up back on the trail. The guy got a chuckle at least and wasn't upset about it.

Anyhow, hope all of you vets had a good weekend too. Whew, now for some winter fish next weekend with the crazy Malamutes.........

nice story

Sounds like fun.

Ive held off riding my snowgo, but that time has come.

Fat Cows and close , in the few hours of daylight is pretty lucky, it seems they have taken the Noatak rout again this year.

Im glad no one claimed you were dumping meat. I got bawled out to adnausium along that trail last year when I went back for a couple carcasses, blue tarped', skin'd and gutted and a guy was pulled up to load them on his sled, claiming they were abandoned. LOL!!! I just returned it as I laughed and cussed rather diligently and in detail at him and his assumptions, which finally shut him up, as I loaded my sled.
10 minutes later he was blazing away at his own damn Caribou.....LOL!!

Now I'll have to ride over your way, the trails firm and solid. Ive seen my kids pix of Caribou on the ice over your way...... Im jealous!

Gawd, they're everywhere you go ain't it

I might throw out that I have a ''bender'' for sled runners, if your looking for such.....

In my 8 years in Kotz, I also noticed that if I left at first running light, I'd have the country all to my self for several hours. Usually. Sundays were often good for more. Hangovers and church.....

And Hey, a Bravo is almost as good for getting close to caribou as dogs, and I didn't cover my headlight. Just eased up on them at an idle, keeping as much downwind and out of sight as possible. Those high speed snowmachines snarling 2 miles away will get caribou running before they ever see them. Both ways. Might be because of the caribou having been previously "positioned" at 40-60 miles an hour.... sometimes for miles on end....

After a few such times of being "positioned", even the Bravo, quiet as it was, would send them running if they heard it. The last winter, I had a AC Turbo 1100 there (for my wife- a fast woman...), and it was nice and quiet. Even more so than the Bravo. I just never trusted it enough to take it out hunting alone, as I usually went.

I'm already missing that country. Should be snowmachining this week (up there) - but down here on the Kenai, it's still raining.

I've owned a lotta machines over the years. 1974 ski doo olympic, 1978 kawasaki snow jet (my teenage years). 2000 wide trak lx, 1988 ski doo tundra, 1974 ski doo elan, 1976 250 twin elan, 1999 340 bear cat, 2000 440 bear cat, 1999 Polaris Trail long track 500.

Never in my life, have I happened upon animals so easily, than when I made the switch to dogs. I'm worried that internal combustion, has made mankind a bit gelatinous and soft. I'm addicted to internal combustion engines and sold them all, so the temptation isn't so conveniently available.

Saturday, after the bite wound, I came up on the local NPS Law enforcement guy. He was stuck in a snow drift on a new two stroke polaris. I called the dogs off trail, at his orange gloves he was flashing. When I got to him, he stood on my brake, while I looked over the situation. A quick lift of the track, and out of the hole I buzzed, with a bit of aggressive application of throttle. I got a little out of hand, had a moment of joy at the thrilling speed. I kinda stole his snow machine for ah bit, while he stood there on my dog sled. I hauled a s s round the landscape, jumping snowdrifts.

Just can't trust anybody these days.....

I've only had 5 - John Deere 300 (along with the Bravo, my favorite), a JD 600 - both circa '75, '93 Bravo, '93 AC 440 Cougar, and the 2012 AC1100. The latter 3 are all in the yard here.

I just need some snow!

I had a mid-20's coworker in Kotz tell me running down caribou with a high speed machine Is "the only way we can get them".

He didn't respond when I pointed out that his people had been eating caribou for at least 10,000 years before the snowmachine came along.

I might have gone a bit overboard with a comment more or less along the lines of "if you know how to hunt......"

Never did know how to shut up when I was ahead.

what color is your snow machine?

Chip,

The second you have a sled built, I grab that up real quick like!

I really enjoyed that, thanks.


mike r

The wife and I ran our dogs untill the late 90's when our family had grown beyond our capacity to use them as transportation.

My wife had grown up with dogs and , of course, so had her family.

People stopped drying fish for sale in villages, so ''Gassing up the dogs'' became a matter of finding food on the fly.
I cant hunt Seals, and when, after 10,000 or so years it became illegal to feed dogs Caribou, we would have had to find another method of support.
Getting a $ paying job to keep the dogs fed defeated the idea of using them anymore for roaming around Subsistence hunting, fishing and gathering, and were not into sports, so dog racing wasnt a venue , either. Feeding a working dog takes as much as feeding a grown man, and we had only 12 dogs.

When we hunted with Dogs, it was a matter of me taking the stalk on foot while the wife, and later the sons kept the dogs , untill needed.
Once Caribou are ''Educated'' with any hunting method, Snowmachines, dog teams, people walking, they are as skittish as a Caribou herd is when theres Wolves around. Caribou are always moving, walking, migrating and the ''replacement Caribou'' will show up and they may or may not be educated....
Often, I would work up above the Caribou and have the wife drive the dogs to where the Caribou could see them and they would, naturally, run up hill, often right to me.
This was also the time in my life when I put long shots to effect, and became proficient at shooting moving animals.


When you have Caribou run, and they all do after the first shot or before, the fat ones, like puppies, fall to the back, and when they run a bit, the fat ones, without calfs , fall to the rear of the bunch. If you rely on meat and fat, thems the ones you want.
If you are on a snow go, have them run and come up from behind, you can move up the line to the Caribou you selected, and by pulling up along side, they will break away out of the line and they will want to rejoin the herd. Stop your ride and take your shot. Then you get your shot before they rejoin their buddies. No wounded 'others'' in the line,, no mistaking that , but its a quick shot on a positioning move that basically clears them from the others.

Using this same method, when separating Reindeer from the Caribou they have mixed with, diligent herders could remove and herd 10-20 Reindeer or shoot feral ones that they cannot turn back (read this as a $$$$ marketable, domestic meat). Reindeer that were shot from a Caribou herd were done up close and personal, a pistol actually touching the head/neck. This is legal on 'Domesticated livestock'' and if you are or work for the owner. Shooting from a moving snowgo require that the barrel actually touch the animal or there's the larger chance of bad shooting. I
Reindeer herding in th region ended in the winter of '95-'96 450,000 Caribou left the Northern Seward Peninsula with 38,000 reindeer.....

You can run into all kinds of people hunting by Kotzebue.........North of the trail across the Baldwin Peninsula is folds, hills and valleys that allow you to sneak up on the Caribou, while south of the trail, it is wide open. Takes different kinds of techniques to get them dead, depending on where you are.

For Wolves, we would keep quiet and get the dogs to howl, and then trail slowly home, howling along the way. I would dress in black and when we had Wolves on our trail, I would drop off and lay down, quite seeable, and let the wife keep going. When they arrived, I would rise up and start with shooting the furthest away and keep on untill I had them all.






Still, today I have ''Monster'' our best hunting Malamuit and a habit of sled building......and he still tugs a line, but for fun or short walks........but the sleds on my kitchen table right now, a present for my grandsons 2nd birthday.




A most excellent thread, and I'm still jealous!.....LOL!!

If you throw down some dimensions, I will get started soon, if you want to make your old runners into ''false runners'', atop a set of new ones, we can salvage your ride as it is, most likely. I just need a side picture of your ride and length...

The kiddy sled has 'False runners'' on it, as you can see.....

Dang man! I got ah litter ah pups on the way. About any minute. A litter from my best lead dog and my kindest female. Yah, the demise of the sled dog in the north country has been a bizzare thing. It's my honest opinion that 5-9 dollars a gallon of gas isn't as sustainable as a small team. And the parts on a machine.

Yah it's weird though, that these guys work their heart out, pulling meat that fed for many thousands of years prior. After all that hard work and loyalty to me, they get expired beef I scrounge from butchers. But, fish is too easy as well. Could use more beaver carcass though.

Some of the elder mushers that I've talked to have gripped about it. Rod Perry, who ran the first iditarod, told me that back in the late 60's, he would open the hatch of his Volkswagen beetle, jam a piece of plywood in there, and load that platform down with sled dogs during moose hunting season. He'd use them for pack animals, pack out a whole bull moose. He'd stack all of the moose meat in the volkswagen beetle, while passing all these fancy tracked rigs. When they made moose-in-bone regs, he stopped using pack dogs. Talked to a few elders in noorvik at a bourough meeting, in the 90's they too stopped using dogs.

I once thought of getting out of dogs, and it was the scariest, most empty feeling. Couldn't do it.

My freight sled is still good, but when you have a 14 footer of any width done up, i'll be the first one to jet over there, ah.........gee haw over there. I'll PM you my phone # so we do some bullshting.

If you ever get board, watch this here revival of the working dog with our eastern neighbors:

https://www.nfb.ca/film/qimmit-clash_of_two_truths/

That is way cool man!! Thanks for sharing!!

Hey Luke, thanks. This 30 mph winds 400 yd shooting with the ole nine-three mauser is outta my element. It was all I have left for loaded ammo. Walking through crusted snow with an 8.25 lb scoped bolt action with full winter gear is doable, but a bit much. I know you use those swift a-frames. You'll be pleased to know, that those pure copper swifts even reliably expand on a smallish cow at 400 yds. 63 caliber, 276 grains. Went from breast bone, clear through to the hide near the tail at about 1600fps. No more of this heavy stuff. Time to go 200 grain accubond @2700 fps from the 6.75 lb scoped 358 winchester

Do you run ice nets, Mainer?

I used to go about 1 mile north of Pipe Spit and set 7 inch mesh for Sheefish. The little guys slip through and the big ones stay. 60-90 a pull was a [bleep] of feed. The Sii run untill X mas through there pretty heavily. A regular Salmon net with 5 inch mesh will do fine down there with xtra weights and a few floats removed.....

From flying over it, it looks like the place is ok, but the spit itself has open water to its northwest.

Mornin Chip,

I'm usually tied up with boat building, mileing up dogs, kennel chores and day job. I'd like to send a net under the ice one ah these days! There are two 16 yr old boys who go set a net for me. Then too, Chuck Scaefer over in Ivik as well. They are catching them by the hundreds over there right now! The mals eat about 300-400 lbs of fish and 200 lbs of dry dog food a month. Sheefish @ 40 cents a lb, which aint too bad aye? Oh, my 12 ft freight sled has a model number and name: it's an 800 cc Smakaho Magnum 156"

Busy night last night, packing away lots of meat, and a litter of pups came. Very good looking litter:

Three fiery-cinnamon red colored pups with the traditional white masks, white paws, white-tipped tail. Two Steel Grey colored pups with white tipped tails, white paws and white mask. Very long bodies and tall legs.

Sounds like some awesome pups. Small litter, big pups.

""IF"" you ever , just happen to part with 1 or 2 I would be interested.

If I count right, your not getting rid of any..... I think a 9 dog work team is almost ''perfect'' in pull and management.

Mainer, enjoyed your story, it was well written and told...Keep em coming. Your tales of dogs, sleds, and hunting are interesting to many in the lower 48. Footnote: Try not to get bit anymore. And, I speak dogenease...Your 4 sled pullers were bitching you out for not bringing the other dogs..Grin 😎

Wow I dont look here often but that is way more than great, and yea North West Florida is way low in the 48. The reason I dont look here is cause its a dream to go. be safe in your trips and good hunting.