Last year - Sheep, This year Caribou!

[Hambone33]

I fell into this one. Sitting in the airport waiting on my plane and Alaska Airlines comes on and asks if anyone is willing to give up thier seat on an overbooked flight and get a free ticket anywhere they fly. OF COURSE! So now I have a free flight to Alaska. Next day at work I tell my co workers about my good fortune and one of them says he has a brother-in-law in Fairbanks who loves to hunt. Well, he gets me lined up with his BIL and I call. Make a long story short, I'm headed to Alaska in Sept. for a Caribou hunt off the Dalton. This is a working man's hunt not guided. Those of you who saw my posts last fall on Sheep in Idaho know that I am too cheap to pay a guide but the guy I'm going with knows what he is doing so I'm looking forward to a good trip. Won't have the rugged vertical terrain but will have to do a lot of "tussok hopping". Let the workouts begin! Heck, just going to Alaska and driving up to the Arctic Circle is good enough for me, getting a 'bou will be icing on the cake.

Anybody have good advice on hunting caribou this way? I'll be taking both bow and rifle and I know about the 5 mile corridor and how hard it is to do.

 

[guppie9]

A lot of people wait until later in the season when the snow has fallen. It is usually easier to snowshoe/ski than to "tussock hop". Either way, it is a fun hunt...good luck. The other thing is that our state senate, in all their glory, is trying to eliminate the ban on ORV's in the Dalton corridor. If that happens, it could make your hunt a little more difficult/crowded. Certainly no reason to avoid coming up for a hunt, though.

 

[Erik in AK]

Hambone,
I work where you'll be hunting. Invest the effort and walk in. I recommend two spots that your BIL should know about. 1) the gravel pit/university research site at Kuparuk River or 2) Galbraith airport.

With #1 you walk the whole 5 miles but the first two are on road, and at #2
the distance is cut by half. There's a gravel pit at the back of the airport. From the back of the pit you are already 2.5 miles in from the road plus you get a gravelly creek bottom for another halfmile.

If you bowhunt get in the habit of picking a likely spot during the day and being in position by first light the next day.

congrats and good luck

 

[Hambone33]

Thanks for the info. You are right, he does know about those areas. I talked to him on the phone last week and he mentioned one of those as an option - if the caribou are there. Can't wait to get up north and start chasing those critters around.