Brooks Range Caribou Hunt

[Machias]

We set up camp.  The tents were brand new, very nice tents!  We used the old military cots which are virtually bombproof, they were very nice!  The camp cook set was a joke, it did have the items listed, but were not really suitable for camping for a week for 4 guys.  One tiny pot and a skillet without a lid, which was really needed up there in those temps.  The propane tank looked like it had been pulled from the bottom of the river, but it did work!  The raft was more like a kid's toy.  One of the guys in our group had ordered a second raft, which was a tad better.  Only one of us used the raft and that was to float back across the river once. The item that slightly ticked me off was the fishing gear.  We asked what the gear was like and was told they buy new fishing gear each season.  They were not $200 fishing rods but good $60 setups.  The four rod and reels we got were complete junk.  Three weren't even usable.  The boot dryers, don't even both getting them.  Picture holding a lighter below your both of your boots and you get an idea on how good these work.  Ryan picked up my meat the night I killed my bull as promised.  I took my 20 gauge up since there were supposed to be a bunch of ptarmigan to hunt.  I did see 3, but they flushed quite a ways out.  I think Ryan's son had been hunting them for a few days before we got there.  Super good kid and will be quite the hunter...actually already is quite the hunter and fisherman at age 11.  So all of the above is not something that would make me not use Ryan again, I really like Ryan, so I really want to be fair.  But the next thing is why I would hesitate using his services again.  Where we were camped, if the migration was on, which it was NOT, probably would have been fine.  But there were several camps above and below us on the River.  Pretty much no caribou could get to us without running into other camps.  We heard several shots most days above and below us.  This is not Ryan's fault, but in 7 days of hard hunting I saw 8 caribou.  4 bulls that were running like their hair was on fire after being shot at a couple of times before getting to my spot.  They were out about 325 yards and I saw them for about 3 seconds.  They were the first caribou I saw and it was day 3.

[Machias]

Before we left, several guys who had been up here before said don't walk and walk, find a high spot and glass.  The tundra is amazing stuff.  Swamps, one huge thick sponge with Nerf balls stuffed into the sponge and throw in a bowling ball here and there.  Day 4, about midway through the day I see a nice bull, probably 1000 yards out, just feeding.  I watched for a few minutes, figured out some terrain I could possibly get closer and started my stalk.  He dropped out of sight over a little hump.  I get over there and nothing.  It's flat as hell and he's nowhere to be seen.  How in the....I decided to go further.  Finally spotted another caribou.  I put the sneak on this caribou.  Belly crawled the last couple of hundred yards.  Young bull, well at least I thought so, but wasn't sure.  I got to about 140 yards and watched it sleep for about a half an hour.  It finally woke up and started feeding right towards me.  I decided if I could positively ID it as a bull I was going to shoot.  I was able to finally see it was a bull and had it standing there broadside at about 90-100 yards.  I talked myself out of the shot, it was really small.  Unbeknownst to me one of the guys in my party was watching the whole time and was silently screaming SHOOT, Holy crap shoot man!!     I was back at camp and started thinking that was a dumb move, your going home empty handed.  Next day, two of the guys in my camp, guys that I just met for this trip, hardly left camp.  They mostly fished and only left camp a couple of times.  Hey, their money, their hunt.  Anyways they decide to go for a walk about.  They are in a huge bowl, that the other guy had been glassing for 5 days.  They spot a bull and drop down and start shooting, at about 700 or 800 yards.  The bull runs off unscathed, the other guy who had been hunting his tail off shot at the bull around 500ish yards and clipped the front leg.  I could not see any of this, but could hear the shots.  I got ready in case it was several animals.  Finally a bull comes into view.  Limping, but moving.  I watched it for about 30 seconds, thinking it might lay down.  I wasn't sure how hard it was hit.  Then it lifted it's head and took off at a pretty hard run.  I realized he was hurt, but not too bad and would go a long ways.  At 140 yards I took out both of his lungs and down he went.  Not a big bull, but one that I am happy to have taken.  As a group we saw one more caribou across the river, which one of the guys put a long stalk on, only to find out it was a cow. 

[Machias]

We caught a lot of grayling and some really nice Arctic Char.  One of the guys in camp caught about an 8 pound char.  We ate a lot of char for the week.  The food we shipped up was borderline horrible, except for the packet of biscuits and gravy.  The Jetboils were a huge plus.  So everything Ryan promised (minus the fishing gear) was provided.  He did everything he said he would.  It wouldn't take much in my opinion for him to do a few minor things and I'd recommend him.  Hopefully some of the other guys from WA that were up there hunting with him will chime in if I am being overly critical and unfair.  I have a bunch of videos and photos to post, but with my slow internet it will take a while.  Back at Deadhorse, the Aurora Hotel was the bomb, $150 a night, BUT all the food you can eat and free laundry.  The last part that was irritating was, we were told we could purchase wax boxes at the Alaskan Airline outlet for shipping the meat back.  Nope, there haven't been waxed boxes for quite a while.  So we had to scrounge up some boxes to send the meat back, but they did have a cooler and a freezer for the meat.  Meat and horns made it back fine, costs me $225 to send the meat and horns back.

[ctwiggs1]

Fred,

First off, congrats!  Glad you took a nice bull, and glad you were able to fix someone else’s mistake while doing it!

REALLY appreciate your review.  Me and another guy were considering a hunt with the same outfitter over the next few years and were on the fence.  Honest reviews from upstanding individuals such as yourself help the next guys make educated decisions.

Curtis

[Machias]

Last nite in camp.

[Machias]

[Machias]

[Machias]

[Machias]

[ctwiggs1]

Did we just see the inside of your mouth??

[Machias]

[Machias]

Did we just see the inside of your mouth??

Coat pocket!!   

[Machias]

[Machias]

[Machias]