Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Alaska 40 mile caribou herd

I want F&G to manage mosquitoes, noseeums, and other bat chow.

Now you are just being silly

Am I?

Iron, what's the difference between noseeums and white socks. I asked my boss, when I lived in Alaska, if you can't see the noseeums, how do you know they have white socks. Yeah, I got the Chris details for a few days.

Not an entomologist so can’t say w absolute certainty. I call umall [bleep] bastids.

See if this heps ya.

https://dec.alaska.gov/media/6056/10-alaska-mosquito-manual.pdf

Yep, it's a requirement for all Civil Service jobs. My wife had to have one for the VA, and my neighbors that are WG on base had to get them as well. It's so they know what "concessions" they have to make for you, (ex. ergonomic chairs, etc.). They cannot use it against you, as that is a violation of ADA.

Went out to the Maud Rd range this morning, well that was a mistake. I took my .338 WM, .30-06, and new AR15 build I did last week, along with my pistol. I walked up the hill, saw the crowd at the 100 yard range, so I went to the 25 ayrd range and just shot the AR and pistol. Only myself and three other gentlemen there for about the 75 minutes I was there. I a couple of guys coming in with their rigs that were on their way to the Denali to hunt, and I passed three more loaded with trailers coming in on the way out. I pretty sure they were going caribou hunting and needed to sight their rifles in, as they were loaded down with meat wagons, gas, fire wood etc. I have never seen that much equipment for people just going ATVing out there.

That kind of thinking is what got them in a mess for years... the numbers were way too high and they NEVER reached a reasonable kill based on their own definitions of what they needed to kill. As the herd grew they got gutsier about "warehousing" resources. And then the Canadians got a huge shot of our caribou; they decided the accent is better. A?

That makes sense. It’s just pain in the a$$ to keep up
With their management

ADF&G Management puts the moron in oxymoron...

I work on JBER, if you don't mind me asking, what squadron are you hiring on with?

[quoteI work on JBER, if you don't mind me asking, what squadron are you hiring on with?
[/quote]

I just sent you a PM.

Well, we stopped at Winter Summit, and Eagle Summit both, the day before season. talked to folks both places, and in a couple others. Big camps not our piece of cake- some of those guys had been camped up there for 5 days already.

Curiously enough, everyone suggested a different place than their own plans for us walk-in hunters. Imagine that.

We had our own plan and stuck to it. Found a vacant pullout off the end of a spur ridge about 2 pm and settled in. Figured the ATV's back on the main plateau would be pushing caribou down to us on the end. By 9 there were 7 or 8 other rigs there in the pull-out, all with ATV's - maybe 16 or 17 in all. Disheartening, but not unexpected. They did an excellent job of arranging the parking so no one was blocked in in that confined space. No conflicts at all.

Next morning, starting about 4 am engines firing up, about half crossed the creek and went up the other-side ridge, half up our side. When we got hiked up on top, about a mile and half, there were ATV's - a dozen or more - parked all along the ridge as far as the eye could see. Some of them had come some little distance from up or down the road from our pullout. But again, they did an excellent job of spacing themselves out. For ATV [bleep], they were a friendly, considerate, polite bunch. Well, actually for any bunch. We picked a lookout spot midway between two of the ATV parties.

A bit later the action started when the caribou started getting pushed around. I shot a modest bull about 11 am, by 8 pm we had our gear and the meat all down to the truck, two trips each. A mile and half pack, every step downhill except for 250 yards at the road, which was level. Our lungs were happy- our legs not so much. Our rig was the only one left when we got down with our first load - everyone with their ATVs had limited out and had left by 2 pm or so. Had two other parties spent that night there, with 3 ATV hunters on 2 rigs.

We got started up the ridge next morning about 3 hours after light, in no hurry, a bit gimped up, and with a lot less company, only 2 ATVs up on top - the traffic going home had not stopped all night long, much like the night before season opened. Crazy! Danged near bumper to bumper both nights.

My wife had another modest bull, slightly bigger than mine, down by 9, just 4oo yards away from my gut pile, around the curve of the slope, and 20 feet higher in elevation. Repeat of the day before - all finished up & down to the truck by 6 p m
.
Drove on into Fairbanks, arriving at our son's place about 10:30, put a tarp on the ground for the meat, took it out of our camper, and covered it with another tarp. Hard rain that night. Slept in and drove home today, again in rain most of the way, getting in about 10:30 pm.

For another fugging scouting trip, it wasn't so bad.

Wife is talking 2nd ATV, we have one, and trailers to haul it (or them) with......... I guess she liked the circus!

I'm getting too old (71 in a couple weeks) for this backpacking crap, especially after 10 years of not doing any, hunting off my ass on a snowmachine or ATV during our time in Kotzebue instead. Too busy this summer to condition, or even to properly prepare for this trip. Murphy didn't come along, but he sent his Polish, Mongol, Vietnamese buddy instead. You know the guy - Clous Tur [bleep].

Going to bed- maybe post more details (some embarrassing) and pics in a few days- I got meat to process!

Oh yeah, hardly any parts fell off my repaired camper that ate my lunch for the last 3 months...

Laffin...Good story and hunt....Way to persevere! 😎

PS

Listen to the wife and snag another atv. Grins

Great stuff, looking forward to the humor & embarrassing stuff !

I promise I'll laugh with you, not at you.

Get the second ATV and trailer, you will not regret it. I bought a Ranger in May 2016 and a used trailer off an old friend. There's a reason I say old friend, and it's not his age, we don't have a lot to do with each other anymore. Anyways, I quickly found out the trailer was too small for the Ranger and my 4 wheeler. I kept it until last July when I left to work overseas. Plan was to buy a new one as soon as I got home, well I don't have one yet. I'm waiting on either my firm offer, or my wife to get a promotion, which ever comes first. I can tell you from experience, hauling caribou and a four wheeler in the bed of a truck sucks. It's funny, as I've been home 2 weeks today, and the wife has been asked multiple times by some of her co-workers when she's buying me a trailer so we can all go riding together. So, after Monday, she said, "As soon as you get a firm offer and start date, or I get the promotion I am interviewing for soon, go buy a trailer". I hope my firm offer comes in this week, as she won't be interviewing for at least another week. Fingers crossed though.

Word on the street they are going to offer you $9.99 an hour and 2 15 minute coffee breaks.

My son, Josh, his friend, Kevin, and I ended up hunting from the Mt Prindle campground off the Steese. The day before we investigated 12 Mile Summit but it was an absolute zoo. Probably close to 100 vehicles with ATVs there. With us being backpack only, there was just no way we were going to be able to compete, so went back to the Mt. Prindle campground, which was no ATV access. Opening morning we climbed up and hunted the basin south of the campground. It was pretty busy, apparently pushing out most of the Caribou out of the basin. But by about 2 PM, they started filtering back in. Kevin made the first kill, a small bull. While we were dressing and quartering his bull, another small herd came in from the northeast containing a couple of ok bulls. Josh and I started across the basin to try and intercept them. Josh actually ran across the last 1/2 mile to get in position. Things worked out and Josh shot the largest bull. The rest of the heard circled around behind me and I was able to take the next best bull. Then the work started...

1st Caribou hunt and I enjoyed it immensely. The immensity and grandeur of that country cannot be overstated. Simply magnificent.

Josh and his bull.



Me and my bull.

Congrats man!