Post by: TeacherMan on September 11, 2012, 08:34:44 PM
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 :o Hopefully its as wrong as usual. Plan on taking tons of pics and hopefully having a good write up when I get back!
Post by: Bean Counter on September 11, 2012, 08:44:47 PM
Since both sexes normally sport antlers, how do you differentiate?
Post by: CedarPants on September 11, 2012, 08:45:17 PM
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 :cryriver:
Next year.
Can't wait to hear the stories and see the pics. Great father/daughter time too, something you'll both always remember :tup:
Post by: TeacherMan on September 11, 2012, 08:57:45 PM
Good luck, Teacherman!
Since both sexes normally sport antlers, how do you differentiate?
Post by: cohoho on September 11, 2012, 10:21:15 PM
Post by: TeacherMan on September 16, 2012, 10:12:42 PM
Post by: carpsniperg2 on September 16, 2012, 10:15:29 PM
Post by: TeacherMan on September 24, 2012, 11:37:38 PM
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 :bash: 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 :chuckle: 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 :bash: 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.
Post by: Widgeondeke on September 25, 2012, 12:01:05 AM
Im working up in Barrow and am hoping the caribou come around.
Post by: NWBREW on September 25, 2012, 01:08:49 AM
Post by: X-Force on September 25, 2012, 08:40:54 AM
Post by: h20hunter on September 25, 2012, 08:56:10 AM
Post by: JColony on September 25, 2012, 08:59:02 AM
Post by: shanevg on September 25, 2012, 09:22:33 AM
Post by: cohoho on September 25, 2012, 09:36:47 AM
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 :rolleyes:" 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...
Post by: TeacherMan on September 25, 2012, 08:17:31 PM
Post by: Ripper on September 25, 2012, 08:32:55 PM