Last fall I fulfilled a bucket list dream by going to Alaska. Went on a caribou hunt on the haul road with a guy who has done it 3 or 4 times now. In 2013 he killed a MONSTER bull. 400+". Right place at the right time. Also went with an older guy from Arizona.
So needless to say I had visions of big caribou all over the road.....well, it was very much an off year by his standards. Very little caribou moving. We had 6 full days to hunt and into day 5 we had 0 of 3 tags filled and the pressure was on. Cows were now on the table and after experiencing some very unethical behavior by other hunters it was starting to look very bleak.
Day 6 (last full day) we watched a small bull bed in some willows which completely covered him up. I said, "let's go for it before he moves. He's not huge but it's easily the best chance we've had in 6 days." It was 1.77 miles as the crow flies from the truck. Me and my buddy made the stalk. He had rangefinder in hand as we snuck....and snuck....and snuck. With the wind in our face I started to doubt myself as we were looking at the head of the willow patch and knowing he was not that far up. Looking straight ahead I hear, "TO YOUR LEFT!!!" I turn to see him looking at us and then hear "55 yards". Unbeknown to me that was simply a guess. I put my 50 a touch high and let it fly. There were bushes 15 yards in front of the bull covering his vitals which is the reason a true range couldn't be read. The arrow arched perfectly and blew out the bottom of his heart. Upon ranging the spot later he was 61 yards. Luckily his guess was close enough
A few more stalks were made by my friend as there were caribou running everywhere all of the sudden. He even missed once within the next hour or so. Before I got back to the truck the older gentleman with us also had a bull down! I stumbled right onto it on my way back from the road. The bull ran out of site after the shot and the hunter didn't even know he was down. It was truly awesome to grind so hard for that many days and have 3 shot opportunities the last day with 2 tags filled.
My bull
Other bull
So needless to say I had visions of big caribou all over the road.....well, it was very much an off year by his standards. Very little caribou moving. We had 6 full days to hunt and into day 5 we had 0 of 3 tags filled and the pressure was on. Cows were now on the table and after experiencing some very unethical behavior by other hunters it was starting to look very bleak.
Day 6 (last full day) we watched a small bull bed in some willows which completely covered him up. I said, "let's go for it before he moves. He's not huge but it's easily the best chance we've had in 6 days." It was 1.77 miles as the crow flies from the truck. Me and my buddy made the stalk. He had rangefinder in hand as we snuck....and snuck....and snuck. With the wind in our face I started to doubt myself as we were looking at the head of the willow patch and knowing he was not that far up. Looking straight ahead I hear, "TO YOUR LEFT!!!" I turn to see him looking at us and then hear "55 yards". Unbeknown to me that was simply a guess. I put my 50 a touch high and let it fly. There were bushes 15 yards in front of the bull covering his vitals which is the reason a true range couldn't be read. The arrow arched perfectly and blew out the bottom of his heart. Upon ranging the spot later he was 61 yards. Luckily his guess was close enough
A few more stalks were made by my friend as there were caribou running everywhere all of the sudden. He even missed once within the next hour or so. Before I got back to the truck the older gentleman with us also had a bull down! I stumbled right onto it on my way back from the road. The bull ran out of site after the shot and the hunter didn't even know he was down. It was truly awesome to grind so hard for that many days and have 3 shot opportunities the last day with 2 tags filled.
My bull
Other bull
