Caribou - Lets See Them!

[Bambistew]

I think caribou are one of my most favorite animals to hunt, and often overlooked due to the perception they are easy. The opportunity to hunt them has dwindled more in the last 10 years than than any other animal in NA. A true monster bull is far and few between, and the days of migration hunts and filling multiple tags are long gone. I think caribou may be the fastest population declining animal in the world, and easily one of the most taken for granted. I've been fortunate to get to hunt them for many years, and tagged along on many hunts in between.

Lets see what you have and share some of hunt with us.

A few to start out...

 

[BAKPAKR]

@Big Fin, anything to post here?

 

[EYJONAS!]

Its a dream to chase those critters. One day!

 

[Buschy]

Eighteen years ago I was blessed to take two bulls in two days out of Kotzebue.

 

[kiwi hunter]

You have been truly blessed, Bambi

 

[Brittany Chukarman]

30+ years ago when the Mulchatna herd was strong

 

[jdf]

2022 Alaska DIY Archery Caribou i harvested with my wife.

 

[F250]

The Quebec/Labrador caribou. 4 bulls in two trips during the fall season. These were self guided at a float plane drop camp early ‘90s. 1 bull and 3 cows in two trips during January winter hunt. Self guided on snowmobile and snowshoes staying with Natives in construction trailers. Quebec caribou season closed several years ago due to population decline. Incredible animals that live in an environment being destroyed by Hydro Quebec’s flooding massive areas of the subarctic to build reservoirs for producing power to sell.

 

[CPAjeff]

Alaska 2021 - one of the best hunts I’ve ever been on. Experiencing Alaska was incredible, camp was full of great people, and there were plenty of laughs!

 

[Bambistew]

30+ years ago when the Mulchatna herd was strong

View attachment 298810

That is a very nice bull, looks like it maybe B&C? Any more pictures?

I really wish I could have hunted that herd in its prime of 200,000 animals in the 90s. The count this year was around 12,000 I believe and has been struggling for years. Brucellosis is rampant and predator numbers are high. F&G killed 100 bears out there this spring with hopes of boosting calf survival, it will be interesting to see if it works. There is about 1/3 the caribou today as there was 30 years ago in Alaska. Our local herd went from 45,000 just 5 years ago to 8800 this last fall count and no open season in the near future.

 

[knute78]

2010 Middle Fork 40 Mile River, and 2014 North Slope Brooks Range

 

[SaskHunter]

The Quebec/Labrador caribou. 4 bulls in two trips during the fall season. These were self guided at a float plane drop camp early ‘90s. 1 bull and 3 cows in two trips during January winter hunt. Self guided on snowmobile and snowshoes staying with Natives in construction trailers. Quebec caribou season closed several years ago due to population decline. Incredible animals that live in an environment being destroyed by Hydro Quebec’s flooding massive areas of the subarctic to build reservoirs for producing power to sell.

Still kick my self in the azz for not taking the opportunity to hunt caribou when I was a Quebec resident...

Dream hunt for sure!

 

[Brittany Chukarman]

That is a very nice bull, looks like it maybe B&C? Any more pictures?

I really wish I could have hunted that herd in its prime of 200,000 animals in the 90s. The count this year was around 12,000 I believe and has been struggling for years. Brucellosis is rampant and predator numbers are high. F&G killed 100 bears out there this spring with hopes of boosting calf survival, it will be interesting to see if it works. There is about 1/3 the caribou today as there was 30 years ago in Alaska. Our local herd went from 45,000 just 5 years ago to 8800 this last fall count and no open season in the near future.

I rough scored him and came up short. As I recall it was a time consuming process compared to a deer and I could have been off. His beams were a little short.
I'll try to find some more pictures. That was before digital cameras so I'll have to find my old picture albums.

 

[Rainer]

Caribou are my favourite NA species. I fear I’ll never get to harvest one with a bow in my lifetime. With the herd falling in Newfoundland and the ones in Nunavut

 

[buffybr]

Caribou are also one of my favorite animals to hunt. I shot my first caribou on a DIY hunt out of King Salmon, AK with 4 of my friends back in 1980.

I didn't hunt them until 1999 when I went on a Dall sheep hunt in the Mackenzie Mountains of Canada's Northwest Territory where after I got my Dall ram, I shot this Mountain Caribou...

In 2004 I went on a combination Musk ox and Central Canadian Barren Ground Caribou hunt east of Inuvik, NT where we were allowed to shoot 2 caribou. I had a long debate with myself on shooting this bull because his bez points were weak, but he ended up winning the 1st Award for CCBG Caribou B&C's 31st Big Game Awards.

I didn't hunt caribou again until 2017 when I finally went on a Quebec caribou hunt. It was the last year that Quebec allowed non-residents to hunt caribou, and I hunted in the last group of hunters that hunted in that camp that year. I turned down dozens of bulls until I spotted this guy.

B&C published that picture in their 30th Big Game Awards book,

and I was very humbled to learn that they will also publish that picture in their upcoming 15th Edition of their Records of North American Big Game book. That's an honor that this old DIY hunter from Podunk, Montana could ever dream of.

Then, back to reality, in 2020 I booked a Woodland Caribou hunt in Newfoundland where I only brought home Tag Soup as in a week of hunting them, we didn't see a single caribou.

 

[elkrchr]

Late September, 2001. Was blessed with the opportunity to hunt the Mulchatna herd before the decline. Hope to hunt them again if I can draw a NR limited entry tag.

 

[ThunderNocked]

No Caribou so far but hoping to go use my bow next week.
we will see what happens!

 

[mdhunter61]

I love hunting caribou more than any other animal! All of the pictures below are hunting in the 40 Mile country, flying out of Tok. I shot some caribou in the early 2000s flying out of Dillingham and Iliamna, but would have to dig up those photos in a box somewhere...

2010 Bull. The guy I hunted with that year shot the nicest caribou I've ever seen taken in the 40 Mile country (I've been hunting there since 2006).

2014 Bull. Was mostly moose hunting that year, but shot this guy on day 8 of the 10 day hunt. A 2 mile pack back to the ridgetop for me and my buddy.

2017 Bull. Another 2 mile pack back to camp. A couple of days after I shot this bull, we were over on that ridge again and a grizzly had moved the carcass down into the trees.

2019 Bull. I had caught a bug and wasn't feeling that great, so I said I'm gonna stick close to the airstrip and save myself a pack job. Shot this guy 200 yards from where the Cub picked him up.

2023 Bull. One of the smaller caribou I have shot, couldn't pass up the 250 yard (all downhill) pack back to camp. The only set of antlers I have ever kept; this was my last remote Alaska hunt, so I kept them as a memento of all of my AK hunts.

 

[mdhunter61]

Late September, 2001. Was blessed with the opportunity to hunt the Mulchatna herd before the decline. Hope to hunt them again if I can draw a NR limited entry tag.View attachment 299026

Yea, I hunted the Mulchatna herd in 2002 and 2004, the decline was evident in both of those years. On a 10 day moose/caribou hunt in 2004, we saw about 1600 caribou in 10 days, but saw less than 20 shooter bulls among that 1600.

 

[Bigjay73]