Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Alaska Mulchatna Caribou Herd

I hunted this herd in '96 and again in '98. Was thinking of another trip but I keep hearing that the herd is way down from years past (as in the 90s). Anybody have first hand knowledge about what shape the Mulchatna herd is in?

It pretty much doesn't exsist anymore.

It exists, just not at the numbers it did back in the mid-late 90's. The herd is rebounding but still far below past numbers. I know a few guys that still hunt the Mulchatna, they always bring back caribou but nothing the size of years past.

size is down and they've scattered to the 4 winds what's remaining of them. So I hear from pards still working that piece of the country.


worked it from '94 to '02 or so, up there with one of my greatest blessings seeing 10K wild beasties in one field of view

it was simply incredible


can't imagine what it was like in the day to see herds of buffalo that filled the great plains. that's some meat on the hoof!

I missed out on the chance to hunt the Mulchatna during it's hey day, I sure do hope it returns before I get too old.

My wife and I hunted this herd in 1996 on our 10th wedding anniversary. I got a double shovel and was very happy but the guide acted like it was no big deal. He said it was small but I just managed to get it in the house through the doorway.
A herd passed right next to us one day and I saw a huge one I wanted to shoot, but I had said I would let my wife go first, and she couldn't shoot without hitting about three of them with one shot, so she passed. What a memory!
whelennut

You ARE old!

Great story whelennut! When hunters of lesser deer hunt caribou, they are often taken with antler-envy only to find out it is so-so.

Boy, ain't that the truth! On an early winter day in the mid-70's I was sitting on a peak a few miles east of Pt. Hope, with a view for miles in every direction. There were Western Arctic Herd caribou everywhere, as far as I could see. I estimated by counting 100 animals, then extending that visual "block", that I had somewhere around 15,000 (not to one-up you - just so) in view. At the time there were 255,000 in that herd, shortly to "crash" to about 55,000 - the infamous "mysterious" decline of that decade.... but don't get me started...

Thanks for the up-dates. I had 2 great trips to the Mulchatna country. Both were do-it-yourself and hired air taxi to get to the Caribou. Rain, Snow, 50 MPH winds, Griz, Wolves and thousands of Caribou. On the first trip the air taxi was weather-grounded, so our 8 days on the tundra turned into 12. I loved every minute.

McManus: "A Fine and Pleasant Misery"

What has happened to the herd? Why have the numbers decreased so drastically?

We did well there in '96, and went back in '99. (All "do it yourself"). We had to hunt pretty hard for what we got (never did see the "thousands"), probably went too early in the season in 96. In '99 we went two weeks later, and the big boys were polished. Buddy made the book with his that year, but better yet, I took my nephew for his high school graduation present. Per my brother's "sourdough advice" Nathan shot a meat bull that decided to die in a small lake. He still says it was the best trip of his whole life.






"I'm wetter'n hell and lovin' it"!, he yelled.

I hunted the Mulchatna herd in 98. One of the best hunts I was ever on. We flew through Merrill Pass and landed with bluebird skies. Woke up the next day to a change in wind and weather. My Dad and I followed a couple caribou over a hill that opened into a small vallet. When we crested the brow of the hill we saw houndreds of caribou in a small valley getting out of the wind. We picked two bulls together that were de-velveting their antlers on willows. We dropped them both. By the time we got all the meat and capes back to camp the winds were hollowing and it was raining. We were tent bound in a storm for 4 days with 7 guys in a 6 man tent because our gear tent and second sleeping tent exploded in the wind. When the air taxi picked us up, he said gust were recorded at 80 mph. We all got our caribou and had a memorable hunt.


ddj

Hunted the Mulchatna heard in the spring of 98. March hunt, flew a cherokee 6 from Soldotna and circled around looking for animals (same day hunt unit). We found a couple and landed on a frozen lake temps were about -15 during the day and -25 at night. We had 4 bou on the ground before we had the plane unloaded. About 30 animals tried to walk through camp. I've got a video of the hunt. We must have set down in front of the whole herd migrating. For 4 days we had thousands of caribou walking by camp. I've got a video of one spot that looked like that scene from Dances with Wolves with all the buffalo. Complete meat hunt, we ended up with 11 in 3 days. Only limiting factor was how many we felt like processing that day, and how many plane trips we wanted to get home.

yup. In those days it was same-day as long as you were 100 yds from the plane.

1. find caribou
2. land and jump out
3. plane taxis away
4. shoot X # of bou
5. plane taxis back to pick up evahthing
6.go home

Gee wonder what happened to the caribou?

Actually they died out due to disease and over-crowding. They damaged the browse severely, calves were born light, and it was too easy for stuff like hoof rot to sweep through the herd.

The land and shoot was a case of too-little, too late and was a function of trying to kill enough caribou to reverse some of the things mentioned. They started far too late and did not kill enough caribou to do any good.

The local biologists have never agreed to what happened to the Mulchatna herd. By any reckoning there were numerous contributing factors; over-crowding possibly among them, but far from the definitive causal factor.

There is growing expectation concerning the return of a large herd and the local numbers are definitely on the increase.

Good news considering the slow rate of regeneration of groceries.