This is my wife's first year hunting and our first time hunting Alaska. Zone 1 and 4 of the Fortymile Caribou hunt closed a few weeks ago while zones 2 (roadless) and 3 (4.5 hour drive to trailhead) remained open. Reports of success were coming from the Chicken Ridge Trail in Zone 3 so we got up early yesterday morning and met some friends with unfilled tags at the trailhead. We drove in and made our first stop about 5 miles from the main road. While out walking around, we jumped three respectable bulls. One stopped broadside at around 400 yards but I did not take a range until after missing very low. The other two also missed because the collective group guessed the range to be 250-300 yards. The bulls went over a ridge and a passing ATV hunter shot one of them. We got word that the main group was 10-15 miles deep and near the trail. We saw a few more groups but did not do any shooting. We came around a bend in the trail and saw a group about 1000 yards out but close to the trail. We drove up where we thought would be a good spot and started closing the distance. The group had been moving angled towards us and I was leading the stalk followed by my wife and one of the other hunters. I rose up to see the tops of antlers and dropped. I moved to the top of a rise and set the sticks up for my wife. She is still learning her Tikka and it was on safe meaning she could not chamber a round. The bulls became aware of our presence and she told me to shoot. It was only around 120 yards so I did not bother with sticks. I settled the crosshairs on a bull and let the 6.8 O’Connor bark. I saw him go down and then heard Caleb’s 300 bark and another bull dropped. While we were admiring our work, we saw a group moving along the edge of a hill below us. I got my Mrs. Anschutz set up but they moved out of view before she got a shot. We went down to check their location, I looked to my left, and there was a nice bull feeding about 600 yards away with a perfect lane to stalk closer undetected. We got to our perch and I got a range on him. He was with a group of about 15 with a few other bulls at 270 yards. I gave a point of aim and then something must have spooked them because they started coming right at us. They stopped and started feeding again, this time at only 70-80 yards. A cow moved to about 35 yards and had us pinned. The bull never gave a clear shot and after about five minutes of waiting, my wife decided a different bull would do. I reminded her where to aim and she sent a 140gr Accubond directly into the lungs. He went down and then got up. She sent a second shot into the lungs and he was down but she did not want to wait for it to expire so a final shot to the heart ended the ordeal. We now had two bulls on the ground between her and me, and three for the group. I told her to stay there so I knew where to bring the car up to shorten the pack out. I had to pass the others in our group to get to the car and there was another group of Caribou within 100 yards. I told my Clay who still had a tag and his wife decided she wanted to fill her tags. I grabbed his rifle and we went over. His wife placed a Partition from his 270 into the heart of a bull and then shot her second bull a few moments later. I saw it do the classic run downhill trying to stay on his feet and knew he would be down. At this point we had lots of gutting and gilling to do so I went to work on my wife’s bull. A few hours later we had two bulls worth of meat in the roof box (maybe a little overloaded) and the heads loaded in back because I forgot my saw and we both wanted antlers. A long drive home ending at about 2am, a shower and the hanging of quarters and processing of tenderloins and neck meat before work. Going to stop at Sportsman’s on the way home from work, get a grinder, and finish processing the quarters. Probably going to turn these into steaks, burger, and jerky. Very proud of my wife for her first big game animal and am glad I got another chance at one. Pictures to follow.
Fortymile Caribou Success
- Thread starter Anschutz
- Start date
SaskHunter
Well-known member
Congrats to you both!
Caribou is up there on my dream hunt list!!!
Caribou is up there on my dream hunt list!!!
Hunting Wife
Well-known member
Great hunt! Bucket list animal for me as well.
Mtnhunter1
Well-known member
Congrats on the hunt! Love the smiles in the photos. I had the same experience with the ELD-X, damn things will not stay together in game but they sure do shoot good.
For me it did too much damage. Ribs were destroyed on both sides (3 missing on hit side), inside tenders a bloody mess, backstraps torn up, and even the brisket was bloodshot on a lung shot (they were in tatters). I'll be loading NABs from here on out. This was factory ammo I bought for brass.
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mdeerjunkie
Well-known member
Congratulations!
Hey, wait a minute! I didn't say that!
How did his quote put my name on it?Because I started to quote your post above and IDK what happened. We were quite busy yesterday afternoon. Luckily it was a short pack out so I was able to make it in two trips each. More cutting to come this evening.Hey, wait a minute! I didn't say that!
kiwi hunter
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- Jul 21, 2013
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- 1,182
shot right there
JohnCushman
Well-known member
Awesome!
Got all of the quarters boned out and packaged last night. Had a little bit of spoilage but a lot of bloodshot meat on the shoulders (what was left of them) of her bull and one of mine had some. I've still got some steaks aging in the fridge, some ground meat to finish up, and jerky to season and get in the dehydrator. While trimming the silverskin off, I set the dehydrator for 18 hours and loaded them up as they came off. The resulting "jerky" is Beagle approved.
Mtnhunter1
Well-known member
Yup, mirrors my experience! You will enjoy the Accubold results.
Sask hunter
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- Sep 20, 2016
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- 3,252
Congrats
I like two holes with one shot with enough expansion to make that second hole larger than the first. I was more than impressed with the performance of that bullet out of the 7mm HT, the first two shots went through both shoulders and exited with an exit wound about the size of a quarter. It turned at one point and I could see the exit wound.
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