Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Alaska Western Herd

Want to come hunt out of Kotzbue - 3 of us DIY Aug26-Sept2 or so.... Will we be in hard antler by then? Bugs on the decline? Three of us did three moose a few years ago so we have a bit of an idea what it may be like. Appreciate any thoughts or input.

Time-line is a bit chancy, maybe. Big bulls should just be starting to come out of velvet in that time period. Smaller ones lag behind. They will be damned good eating tho!

The bugs should be healthy....., unless there have been a couple hard freezes.

Both situations are kind of "you pays your money and takes your chances".

I left Kotz 2+ years ago, after 8 years there, and haven't been keeping up with the caribou situation, so that's about it from me.

Do you know where you are going yet? Or who you are using?

The newly remodeled AK Air terminal should be finished by this time. It was shaping up yet when we left.

Just cruised some info on it. Up about 44K in numbers from 2018, when we left.

They seem to be coming around to my way of thinking: that the "pregnant cows only" ("to slow the decline"!) season the last couple years of my residency until at least 2020 was ridiculous. They are now (Jan 2020) proposing bull harvest year around. (younger ones are palatable, even in rut), and calf harvest (50% will be bulls, any taken will not be orphaned to uselessly die anyway if orphaned, and calves are the least "invested" of the population).

I haven't checked 2020 regs to see if it passed or not

I knew the regulation... and objected.......and the rest is none of your business.

I hunted the 40-mile herd the last 2 years, where they are trying to slow the INCREASE. I had no objectiuon to us taking 2 apparently un-calved cows and an orphaned calf last year.

Might run out before August- maybe should have taken another animal. We could have taken 6, total.

Thank you - fantastic info..... If we're looking for best table fare and want to avoid bulls that are too rutted up, what would that look like calendar wise??

I went the same time period at Nome in 2011. Bulls were still in velvet and the meat was good. They also had a more grey coat then. I don't know how different they are further north though.

Just curious, what will one be hunting?

Barren ground caribou is their proper name I believe

Any bull ( depending on individual variation), should be excellent fare until late September. Rut occurs late September thru October. During rut you do not want to kill a big bull as chances are good it will be a "stink bull" tho this is not a certainty.

By the time rut is over, few bulls, even the youngsters, have any remaining fat, but they are again palatable by mid November or so, tho the meat is tougher and not as good than from cows,

Thanks las ...I was going to stay away of oct 1st time frame...stinky rutted up sobs at that time!

But there are a lot of happy cows.....