Tell us what you like best in your home state.

Mike

Goats, closely followed by deer.

For me it's deer, moose okay, but still too warm for that much work, plus the bugs, does fill the freezer though keeps wife happy. Can hunt deer 5 months of the year, excellant eating, limit is 5 per year, just plain fun!

what I've hunted the most is moose,


what I've enjoyed/ cursed the misery of doing so most is Dalls Sheep


and while I've not hunted them for myself personally, I always enjoyed hunting bears for clients or friends. Just no other thrill like hunting another predator

truthfully I'd rather have a freezer full of moose than sheep though I and my family really enjoy sheep meat, and thanks to docdb we had a meal of it not too long ago.


but I need to start doing some deer hunting. it's time


also need to start doing some wolf hunting, though it's a pretty tough gig.

Sitka Blacktails for me. 5 tags, very long season, multiple ways to hunt them, and great eating.

SHEEP! But, any hunting is good hunting.

Don't know if I have a favorite but I enjoy hunting caribou for the shear number of animals. Not that I want to shoot my limit of 5, me and the Mrs would likely be sick of eating them by the time we got through 5, but that I'm always amazed by the wonders of mass migration. And the opportunity to cherry pick big bulls, if you're in the right place you will have ample opportunities to get a trophy specimen. We saw about 3500-4000 head on our hunt this fall and had great time looking all the bulls over trying to decide which ones we wanted.

Moose, caribou... When you see a big bull moose it's 5 minutes of pure excitement. Caribou same thing thekid said.

And then? What comes then? Hours of agony.



I want to be miserable for days, so its got to be Sheep.

Ptarmigan, off snowshoes. Tracking a flock a couple of miles in fresh snow is the best. More action than moose and less work.

Good stuff guys keep it coming!

Wondering if your location dictates or you all pretty much travel to the game regardless. Alaske being its own country figure everybody travels some.

Mike

You looking for a challenging hunt or a meat hunt? I rather get meats VS the chase or the trophy animals.

I live in Anchorage,(unfortunately), and travel all over the state to hunt. This year alone I hunted bears on Admiralty island in SE, caribou 60 miles south of the artic ocean, moose in the copper basin, and am headed to Afognak next week to deer hunt. I've also hunted the AK peninsula, PWS, and various areas of the interior. I figure that I don't have any kids yet and I moved here to hunt, so I go hunt as often and as varied as I can.

OH yeah! Beyond sheep, I can't make up my mind.--Alpine hunting of any kind - goats, caribou, moose is way up there. Poking thru the weeds for moose has become a favorite also- possibly thru evil necessity of time, locality, and $....

If the Gods favor, the sea ice will be thick enough for the caribou migration to cross over onto the Baldwin Peninsula in a couple-4 weeks. It's running slush ice now. Hopefully there will be some snow cover for the snow machine by then. Rolling tundra hills with willow lines/patches is good!

Meanwhile, Tripper Lab's surgery should be healed up lick free enough by Monday I think, so I'm going out looking for Baldwin strays mid-week on the ATV. The tundra is frozen enough to past "bogging", anyway.

It's all good - and I'm down to fish and chicken in the freezer.

It ain't the species hunted so much as the country?

I think you hit it on the head, even though I"m not Alaskan... its not the species hunted or fished... its the country!

Sheep for me. I think it has something to do with those corkscrew horns on their heads.

The best part of Alaska is the variety though... there is just so much to kill!

I also like the Bou just because you see so many and for their size they usually carry large antlers. They are good eating unless it's a winter hunt bull yuck!! I also like moose because they are giant but a lot of work to skin and quarter those beasts.

Not for me just curious about the locals.

Mike

That.

You can call them in all crazy and orange horned, run the beaches or flame them high up and 200 yards from a mountain goat.

Yep. Looking forward to the kids getting out of diapers and being able to get back up your direction for some variety.

OK- to cover a couple of the above posts:

Here in Kotzebue i am a "subsistence" hunter. 5 caribou per day (cuz that's all you can get on a regular basket or newer poly-sheet sled - if you have a big one. I can get only 3 on my POS folding sled. Which doesn't mean I can't go back for the extras, like last year. 5 'bou in less than 30 seconds. Two runs for retrieval. Short hunting season...

As to the "winter yuck bull" - just don't shoot them in October... Those 5 above were taken November 11, all bulls, 3 of them having already lost their antlers. Below is the largest.



And one of the "antlerless" bulls from second retrieval, kitchen skinned and butchered (my wife was SO happy! )

I hate my local provider ("we walk electrons up one at a time at gunpoint" ) and photobucket. Everything else is random....

Try this for second pic:



All 5 bulls ate good. fatless, but tasty and tender enough...

Nice Las. Love the kitchen skinning area

Reminds me of the time when I was a single fella, that I answered the door of my Spenard apt midway through the butchering set of deer quarters I had dragged up to my second floor home. Thinking it was a bud who lived next door I had promised a steak or two I answered the door complete with bloody horror movie meatcutter's apron and 12" filet knife. Imagine the mutual surprise when it was the cute neighbor chick who'd just moved in down the hall and needed to borrow a screwdriver. Poor girl was speachless for a half minute or so!

Dontcha love living in Alaska?

I do at that Sir. Not that I may or may not have had deer and elk quarters hanging from the porch on my rented Bungalow house during my college days more than once back in OK.

Ha! He looks so natural! oh wait it's not a viewing...

I was hoping some pics would show up! Steelie, orange antlered bucks are nice to look at too!

Mike

Bull from last fall

Wife's kodiak forkie from last Thanksgiving

Though I love being in the sheep mountains and hunting rams, I enjoy hunting rut crazed big bull moose just as much. Sheep are better table fare but nothing can fill a freezer or fill up wall space faster than a big bull moose.

I've been pretty fortunate to hunt and kill most of the species up here in some neat places. I really like hunting sheep followed closely by big caribou bulls in the alpine. I think I like hunting the mountains more than the game that lives there. Something about it soothes my sole.

I can completely relate to that, been caught like that too!!

It's hard to answer this question. The big critters all have their lure. Love the moose. There is nothing like having a huge moose come in, nothing. They fill the freezer up quickly too!

My first elk hunt was this year. I have to say I like the elk meat better. Elk are just so darned fast and elusive compared to moose. Moose get dumb when they're in rut, I hunted the elk and they were all about escape. It was so much more challenging.

I absolutely love helping out the moose by harvesting the grizzlies when I can. The rugs are nice too!

Interesting, having had elk quite a bit and moose a fair amount, we'll take moose meat hands down over elk any day.

Though I often wonder when its cases like that, can it be related to changes in diet at times?

Thought sitka blacktail was good, but not as great as many made it out to be.

Of course our tastes are all different too.

Spot-and-stalk Black Bear (or Grizzly when the opportunity arises). Great county to hunt and lots of opportunity where I live, and great eating (Black Bears).

Maybe Sitka Blacktail if I lived in an area that had them.

Las,

That's good to know on the Bou. I killed one 2 years ago in October and it was not good when it hit the table for sure. My last few were late Aug Bulls that were just fine and a smaller cow this year as I just wanted meat for the freezer. I'm glad to have learned this til on the Bou as I probably wouldn't hunt anymore come winter but may have to give it another go later this year.

I choose bou. Moose is a thrill but the work involved to pack a moose very far makes the experience less and less each tim. Bou can be packed out in 2-3 loads and the abundance in NW AK makes it lots of fun. Unit 13 is getting better as well. The real cool thing with caribou is no 2 racks are the same and when you compare racks from the Mulchatna days, to WACH to Nelchina they are all so different. Very cool