Hello, first post so I will give a little info about myself.
I live in western Montana and have hunted elk and deer for the past 15 years with reasonable success. Mostly archery for elk and rifle for deer. I am relatively young and reasonably fit and am not afraid to put on a few miles here and there to get things done.
OK. I am in the process of putting together a caribou hunt for next fall (2021)with my brother and a good friend up along the haul road. This is going to be a "get our feet wet" trip, with hopefully more to come down the road. I used to live in Ketchikan, AK but never have spent any time in the rest of the state. I have a few bucks to spend but I am trying to make this trip as reasonably priced as possible. I plan to cover costs of most of the expensive stuff(truck, trailer, generator, coolers, freezer, boat,.......) but I am hoping to get it down to $2500 each for my brother and friend (tags, fuel, food). We have most of our own gear already as far as clothing, glass, packs, and camping equipment as well as weapons. Once we have all the gear bought, we can do it year after year with expenses being only food, fuel, and tags.
I plan to get an enclosed cargo trailer with room enough to sleep the three of us, fill it full of gear and head north. I have a crew cab 3/4 ton ram pickup, and plan to get a 12 ft cargo trailer (bring at least a few spare tires for each). I want to get a decent sized chest freezer, throw it in the back of the pickup with the generator, and let it run for the majority of the trip. I plan to get 3 200qt coolers in the event that we potentially kill up to 3 caribou, and rotate the meat through the freezer to keep it cool. I want to hunt (i think) the north slope, unit 26B. Google tells me this is 60+ hours of driving from western Montana. 4 days drive to get there, 6 days to hunt, and then 4 days back, will be a full 2 weeks which is about all i can get off work at a time. I want to go the 2nd and 3rd weeks of august. We will be each bringing archery equipment and 1 rifle to share. I plan to ship my rifle and ammo to (somewhere in) Alaska so that we can pick it up after we drive through Canadia. I plan to hunt from the haul road with archery equipment (and carrying a rifle) to the edge of the 5 mile corridor, depending on where exactly we decide to hunt and how the walking is. If we make it past the boundary we can maybe blast one with a rifle. I wanted 3 full sized men on this hunt for this reason, so we can bone out a caribou potentially over 5 miles away and get it back in one trip. I realize the bugs could be bad. I have heard the walking is tough, so we may not make it to the 5 mile mark. I plan to get us each a set of wiggy's. My old man has a small inflatable zodiak type boat I want to bring in the event that we want to cross the sag. He said we can use it and I will just bring paddles, no motor. I plan to have the freaking time of my life.
I would love to come back with some caribou meat to feed my 1.5 year old meat hound daughter but ultimately this is a scouting/get the lay of the land trip for when I get my airplane in T-4 years.
Tear me apart and tell me what will work and what wont. THANK YOU!
I live in western Montana and have hunted elk and deer for the past 15 years with reasonable success. Mostly archery for elk and rifle for deer. I am relatively young and reasonably fit and am not afraid to put on a few miles here and there to get things done.
OK. I am in the process of putting together a caribou hunt for next fall (2021)with my brother and a good friend up along the haul road. This is going to be a "get our feet wet" trip, with hopefully more to come down the road. I used to live in Ketchikan, AK but never have spent any time in the rest of the state. I have a few bucks to spend but I am trying to make this trip as reasonably priced as possible. I plan to cover costs of most of the expensive stuff(truck, trailer, generator, coolers, freezer, boat,.......) but I am hoping to get it down to $2500 each for my brother and friend (tags, fuel, food). We have most of our own gear already as far as clothing, glass, packs, and camping equipment as well as weapons. Once we have all the gear bought, we can do it year after year with expenses being only food, fuel, and tags.
I plan to get an enclosed cargo trailer with room enough to sleep the three of us, fill it full of gear and head north. I have a crew cab 3/4 ton ram pickup, and plan to get a 12 ft cargo trailer (bring at least a few spare tires for each). I want to get a decent sized chest freezer, throw it in the back of the pickup with the generator, and let it run for the majority of the trip. I plan to get 3 200qt coolers in the event that we potentially kill up to 3 caribou, and rotate the meat through the freezer to keep it cool. I want to hunt (i think) the north slope, unit 26B. Google tells me this is 60+ hours of driving from western Montana. 4 days drive to get there, 6 days to hunt, and then 4 days back, will be a full 2 weeks which is about all i can get off work at a time. I want to go the 2nd and 3rd weeks of august. We will be each bringing archery equipment and 1 rifle to share. I plan to ship my rifle and ammo to (somewhere in) Alaska so that we can pick it up after we drive through Canadia. I plan to hunt from the haul road with archery equipment (and carrying a rifle) to the edge of the 5 mile corridor, depending on where exactly we decide to hunt and how the walking is. If we make it past the boundary we can maybe blast one with a rifle. I wanted 3 full sized men on this hunt for this reason, so we can bone out a caribou potentially over 5 miles away and get it back in one trip. I realize the bugs could be bad. I have heard the walking is tough, so we may not make it to the 5 mile mark. I plan to get us each a set of wiggy's. My old man has a small inflatable zodiak type boat I want to bring in the event that we want to cross the sag. He said we can use it and I will just bring paddles, no motor. I plan to have the freaking time of my life.
I would love to come back with some caribou meat to feed my 1.5 year old meat hound daughter but ultimately this is a scouting/get the lay of the land trip for when I get my airplane in T-4 years.
Tear me apart and tell me what will work and what wont. THANK YOU!
