Unit 13 (AK) Caribou and Moose Hunt this weekend! (9/14-9/17)

[TeacherMan]

I got a Tier 1 tag in Unit 13 for either sex caribou and I decided to take my a oldest daughter with me this weekend to see if we can fill it. It will be our first solo father dauther hunt. We'll head up Friday around lunch time (about a 4 hour drive to our area) and get an evening hunt in and hunt until Monday if need. As with most caribou hunting areas the animals have been in groups, lots of 1's and 2's and groups as large as 300. If we drop a bou the firstday we will stick around at least one extra to see if we can find a legal bull. My buddy got one in there Sunday that was 62". I was suppose to go with him and decided not to since I could only get 4 days off and not the entire week. That would have been my moose, I had first shot this season     

We are taking the wheeler and plan on hunting a Valley that runs about 10 miles behind our camp on the Denali Hwy. Should be a great trip. Forcast calls for as much as 10' of fresh snow  Hopefully its as wrong as usual. Plan on taking tons of pics and hopefully having a good write up when I get back!

[Bean Counter]

Good luck, Teacherman!

Since both sexes normally sport antlers, how do you differentiate?

[CedarPants]

Good luck man.

I was up there last year.  Didn't fill my tag but had an absolute blast.  My hunting buddy flew in up there this morning, I had to pass this year because of work 

Next year.

Can't wait to hear the stories and see the pics.  Great father/daughter time too, something you'll both always remember 

[TeacherMan]

On a small bull you have to see him pee or get a clear look from behind  Usually its really easy to tell because of the antlers. Bulls can have HUGE racks compared to there body size. Cows tend to have very small spindly antlers. Nice having the either sex tag. If my daughter wasn't going I'd be picky and go for a wall hanger but I'd rather just get something with her along.

Good luck, Teacherman!

Since both sexes normally sport antlers, how do you differentiate?

[cohoho]

Good luck an area that I am quite familar... 

[TeacherMan]

Just got back crazy bad weather but a good hunt overal I'll post pic and story later. We got one!

[carpsniperg2]

Hope you had a good time, look forward to the pics!

[TeacherMan]

Well life's been really busy! I'm still learning AK everytime I head out into the woods its in an area I've never been it seems. My daughter and I hunted up off the Denali Hwy on a caribou/moose hunt that ended up being very challenging, mostly for me. I got her out of school early (she's only in 1st grade) and we drove about 6 hours north and got camp set up in between snow and rain storms just before dark. On the way in my daughter and I ended up with a few ptarmigan. The next morning I ran into one of my buddies I worked with so we decided to head into the area together. After about and hour and half my daughter was not happy with life. It was cold, wet and we were not seeing anything. I cut the trip in short with my buddy and headed back to camp. Well just after we left him he ended up on a group of nice mature caribou bulls and took one with a nice double shovels. But I wasn't concerned this was my daughters first real overnight hardcore big game hunt and I wanted her to have fun with it. My caribou tag was good for either sex so I figured I could just trailer up our wheeler and work the rd. system. We got back packed a few snacks and headed out! The learning curve continued for me. We worked a section of rd. that was about 70 miles of dirt. A couple hours later we got to a spot that we decided to turn around but before we did that we snuck in a little grayling fishing. On the way back toward camp my daughter was getting a little down. We hadn't seen a thing. About this time I notice a cow moose moving quickly down the ridge above us in the willows. Well I'm wanting to move fast, that's not going to happen. My daughter doesn't even have her boots on  I tell her to just watch me out my window I'm going to run to the top of the ridge quickly (100 yds) and look over and see if there is a bull with her on the other side. Well I must have disappeared behind a willow for more than .2 seconds because she let out a scream that should have scared everything within a mile. Total freak out. I bolted back down the hill and in the process pulled something in my calve. Well her scream actually caused the cow and nice 45" 3 brow tined bull to cross and go down into the willows below us. We watched them with the spotting scope for a while; not being able to grow a 4th brow on the bull we moved on. At least we seen game! One thing I didn't mention the northside of the Rd. is walk in only to the south you can use wheelers. We hadn't been back in my jeep for 10 min. when I spotted a large group of caribou cutting across a large flat to the north side of the rd. The hike was on. We parked off the side of the rd and cut down into the willows. I was holding my .338RUM in one hand and my daughters hand in the other. We worked our way across the tundra bog for about 45 minutes. After about a mile and a half hike in we had put our self within 351 yds of about 100 animals. We looked over the large herd of mostly cows and calves and picked out the largest bull that was running with them. I had my daughter cover her ears and I let the RUM do its job. 1 shot 1 kill. It was cool seeing the bullet hit him. He was so wet you could see the water explode off of him.

Now the work begins. So my daughters not even 7 and we are 1.5 mi from the truck and have a 300 lb animal on the ground that I have to pack out. Well in my haste I didn't grab my packframe  There was no way I was just going to leave my daughter down there with a fresh kill so we packed back up to the jeep got everything we needed and headed back in. At this point it was about 5:30 pm. I got the caribou cleaned and quartered in about an hour. I filled my pack with the front shoulders and the hind quarters. Can't legally bone game in AK before 10/21 in this area. I bagged up the rest of the meat and put it about 100yds from the gut pile with my under coat tied to a willow over the top of it. It helped me spot it from a distance plus it was covered in human scent. We packed out that load and got back up to the jeep around 7:30. We both were exhausted. We decided to ge the rest the next morning. Well our camp was almost 50 mi away so we headed back and got back to camp around 9:30 at night. It was a good thing we grabbed snacks earlier because they ended up being our lunch and dinner. The next morning we broke camp ate a couple lunchables for breakfast  and headed the hour and a half to our caribou. We got there about 10am and headed back down into the valley. We got a nice fresh coat of snow that night so everything was very slippery and the wind was blowing about 15 mph and it was raining sideways. My daughter only weighs about 55 lbs. She had on thermals, pants, snowpants, and Frog Togs for her bottom half and her top she had thermals, fleece, camo rain/wind coat, winter coat, and her Frog Togs. Plus a good pair of my wool socks that pulled up to her upper leg and a pair of xtra small Northface gloves with hand warmers in them. She was good! Just before we headed back in a State Trooper pulled up, we talked for a minute and he warned us that there had been a sow with cubs taking peoples caribou in the area so be careful  Fun, fun... Well I took my .338 RUM back in with me along with my .500 S&W. About 100 yds before we got to the stash of meat we stopped and glassed for about 5 minutes. no birds even. That made me a little more nervous. Well we approached cautionsly and all was good! I cut the ribs off the backbone. Put the backbone in a different game bag, ribs in a game bag, and the neck section in another and tied it all to my pack along with the head. I figured this pack weighed about 130 lbs, the first pack was also about 130 lbs. The Caribou weighed in at 240 lbs hanging meat that the butcher plus the weight of the head. Well we made it back to the jeep by noon and my daughter had done it! She had completed her first hunt and you could see she was very satisfied. I'm pretty sure I could have taken a much nicer bull this season but that really doesn't matter to me. My daughter and I had our first big game hunt together and we did it together. She hasn't stopped talking about it and already wants to go again. She will never forget the hunt.

[Widgeondeke]

very cool Teacherman!!! Your daughter must be a trooper to hang in that miserable weather.
Im working up in Barrow and am hoping the caribou come around.

[NWBREW]

That is nothing short of AWESOME. Congrats to your daughter for getting the first big game hunt under her belt............................................................Oh, and to you, Nice bull. 

[X-Force]

They must make them Tougher in Alaska! Very cool hunt. Your daughter is a trooper.

[h20hunter]

That is one hardcore little girl. Congrats on your hunt.

[JColony]

Well done Teacherman! 

[shanevg]

Looks like fun!  What's with the rules that don't let you bone a caribou at this time of year?  I've never heard of that.

[cohoho]

Way to go Teacherman, great job!  Your daughter is hard core!!!!     

Looks like fun!  What's with the rules that don't let you bone a caribou at this time of year?  I've never heard of that.

Alot of areas have different rules regarding how to bring out the meat.   Mainly to lessen the Want and Waste that typically goes on on fly out hunts...  Area 13 had alot of "Subsistence hunters " that were driving 300K RVs and 50K swamp buggies...  You'd be surprised how many citations are written for waste of animal on out of staters and Anchorites going for the trophy aspect of the hunt versus the meat...

[TeacherMan]

She is a very strong willed little girl! She wants to shoot a bear this spring over bait. Last season she got 5 fox and a rabbit on her little trap line with me.

[Ripper]

That's a great story.  Memories to last a lifetime.