Alaska DIY Caribou Info

[Tay1480]

My Dad and I are looking into a drop camp style caribou hunt in Alaska. I have been looking at a few transporters that seem like good option, I was just wondering if anyone has had any experience with them. Good or Bad. Or if anyone knows of another company they have used and could inform me about.  The companies I have been looking at are Arrowhead outfitters they seem to have mixed reviews. Another one is Arctic Air I can seem to find much on them. Then also Mike Odin's Alaska adventure can't find much on him either. Any help is much appreciated.

[h20hunter]

Sounds cool. Fyi, I nuked your other thread post. We discourage duplicate posts in different sections.

[Tay1480]

ok I wasn't sure where the best section to post would be

[Dan-o]

Sounds like a ton of fun.

Keep us informed.

[Kazekurt]

The first question you have to answer is where you want to hunt. There are several Caribou herds in AK and very different types of terrain in which they can be hunted.  Are you thinking North Slope tundra out of Happy Valley or Deadhorse?  South Slope from Coldfoot?  Or  Alpine Mountain tops or timber from various locations further south? Are you set on a drop camp or perhaps interested in a drop and float?  Airboat?   There are lots of options for Caribou and all of them can be very good hunts.  40 mile air is a great service in the heart of AK but is often booked by now.  There are a couple of airboat transporters that operate from happy Valley/ pump Station two as well as some air transporters on the north slope.  Anyway,  most of my personal experience is on the North Slope but  there are a lot of other options as well.

[Tay1480]

We are thinking north slope of the brooks range or out of Kotzebue in unit 23. We would be open to other kinds of hunts like a float or air-boat. Did you fly-in or boat? Did you use a outfitter or transporter? Where you successful on the north slope? 40 mile air is very booked they have made a good name for themselves.  Thanks for any info

[idaho guy]

Me and a friend flew out of kotzebue on a diy hunt a few years ago. I think there is only one service out of there? They were good I thought we both got nice caribou, don’t go in August as there is no migration and there were very few caribou I learned hard way September is when they migrate. It was our bad choice on the time frame but bush pilot was good. I can get name if you need it

[jager]

I agree, you should decide where and what type of terrain you would like to hunt.

Also decide what kind of hunt are you looking for...make some criteria for the hunt.
How many days? Do you mind hearing boats or do you want solitude? Do you want to be the first guys in the area for the year? Cast and blast? Do you mind river crossings? Rent camp or bring your own? Lots of questions.

You could plan for this year, Its doable... may be a little tight ...

Stay away from Arrowhead. Personal experience.

Ive been up there twice, next will be a float. Not that I think a drop camp is a bad option
 
You asked about transporters, don't want to tell you what you may already know.

[spin05]

We just went a year ago my son and i. We went on south slope. We used Bushwacker air and he was a excellent transporter. He also hunts north slope. Give him a call http://www.bushwackerair.com/  I agree on the timing of the migration. We went from sept 5th-14th and still almost missed it. Got our animals on the last couple days. If i did it again i may slide that start date to like the 8th or 9th.  If you do a search of my name i did a thread somewere on our trip awhile back.

[spin05]

heres my old thread.   https://hunting-washington.com/smf/index.php/topic,218618.0.html

[fishngamereaper]

Tagging….pre planning a 2021 trip.

[Tay1480]

Nice pictures and bull spin05. Thanks for the information.
 After thinking about some of the point brought up we have decided we don't want to hear boats and would like to be more isolation. We have found I spot with a transport out of kotzebue that we have decided to book. The terrain looks more like a open tundra which is what we want.  We fly into the field sept 13th for 7 days. We are stoked. Any tips or shared experiences would be much appreciated
Thanks again to everyone offering info

[spin05]

We had orginally booked out of Kozuboue but they closed alot of land off to non-resident hunters that year so we canceled and switched.  They may have opened it back up but be sure and ask.  I know a guy in Kotz that rents gear if you need any. Let me know and i can get you his name.  One good thing about Kotz is there 2 guys they fly by the hour there. I hear thats the cheaper way to go. I think it was $800/hr when we were going . So definitly look into that. I dont remember which ones they were thou

[idaho guy]

Nice pictures and bull spin05. Thanks for the information.
 After thinking about some of the point brought up we have decided we don't want to hear boats and would like to be more isolation. We have found I spot with a transport out of kotzebue that we have decided to book. The terrain looks more like a open tundra which is what we want.  We fly into the field sept 13th for 7 days. We are stoked. Any tips or shared experiences would be much appreciated
Thanks again to everyone offering info

sounds like exactly what we did and we did not see anybody else even flying out -of course we were early.   

[Tay1480]

Its through Arctic Air . They do a package where you can rent all the camping gear from them and they supply food for the week. Makes it a lot easier for traveling on commercial flight. We each can bring 80lbs of our gear which includes your weapon of choice.
 Idaho guy: Do you have any pictures of the bulls you guys got? 

[idaho guy]

Its through Arctic Air . They do a package where you can rent all the camping gear from them and they supply food for the week. Makes it a lot easier for traveling on commercial flight. We each can bring 80lbs of our gear which includes your weapon of choice.
 Idaho guy: Do you have any pictures of the bulls you guys got?

I can take a picture of my shoulder mount caribuou. I had awesome pictures and video of grizzlys,wolverine and other hunt stuff but it was on a disk and I lost it! We brought our own gear and food but that is probably who we used if its out of kotz. We got stuck in Kotzebue for a couple days on the way out due to weather and couldn't fly out so thats something else to consider. Maybe you can rent a room at Marthas too you haven't lived till you did that!

[Tay1480]

Sounds like Marthas may be a good time ;-) I would love to see you mount. To bad you lost your videos and pics. How many caribou did you see on your trip?

[idaho guy]

Not very many really we saw the 2 we got that we thought were shooters. It would have been a little different I think from talking to the locals(3 days in kotz  )they said at times they come through like cattle when migrating which you should hit right. You will have a blast. It was awesome being hundreds of miles from a road and no other people or hunters anywhere.

[Tay1480]

nice bull. how hard was it to perverse the velvet? I dont think we'll find any in velvet in sept but you never know.

[idaho guy]

Preserving the velvet was no problem. I had done it with mule deer etc. and I never have done anything in the field other than be careful. my friend I was hunting with knew someone in Anchorage we took it too before I brought it down. He did something to preserve it I don’t remember what 

[fishngamereaper]

@Tay1480

How was the hunt..