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Author Topic: Caribou from the Haul Road  (Read 9132 times)

Offline cohoho

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Caribou from the Haul Road
« on: September 02, 2007, 03:07:49 PM »
Well we made it back from our trip North and had a great time, got two Caribou, one bow, other rifle.  No Bears, or wolves anywhere, was looking forward to those guys again this year.  It was HOT, especially this time of year and terrible bugs, but fun, fun, fun.

Offline boneaddict

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Re: Caribou from the Haul Road
« Reply #1 on: September 02, 2007, 03:44:32 PM »
great bulls....the flies spotted ya without the headnet though...here they come.  I guess that answers the question I had for ya in the pm, whether or not they were in Velvet.  I really wnat to go up and hunt them when they are hard boned.  Most of those NW territory hunts etc, seem to be in August when they are in Velvet.  MAN that would be fun.  Maybe next year.  Since you flew, do you donate the meat, or how does that work.  Are you able to salvage the capes or do you worry about it.  Sorry for all of the questions, just trying to figure out what the heck to do. 

Offline cohoho

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Re: Caribou from the Haul Road
« Reply #2 on: September 02, 2007, 04:12:33 PM »
Donated some of the meat to a couple friends, but have some made up into different stuff at a local place in Anchorage (Indian Valley Meats) and have them fed ex it here once they are completed.  The capes were in bad shape due to bugs and me being annoyed by them and wanting to hurry up and finish de-boning the meat, the second after humping back 5 miles with 90-100lbs, didn't want the extra 30 lbs.  Got a buddy that goes up in mid-late Oct, though temp is really cold, minus type temps, the capes are excellent; thick and whites manes and horns are fully out and colored nicely, the meat of bulls is awful during the this time (Oct) period due to the rut, so there are huge trade offs.  Problem I have is always trying to figure out how to bring some color to the fresh out of Velvet by staining or other methods to make them look appealing versus bone white...... 

Offline actionshooter

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Re: Caribou from the Haul Road
« Reply #3 on: September 02, 2007, 11:34:29 PM »
Looks great, how about the play by play  :)
 Love caribou hunting!

Offline cohoho

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Re: Caribou from the Haul Road
« Reply #4 on: September 04, 2007, 11:30:39 PM »
It all started when I was a little kid.........  Actually drove up from Anchorage after flying in the night before, stayed at a buddies house, we drove straight through 14 hours.  Filled up in Fairbanks and then again in Coldfoot.  Gas is about $4.00 a gallon in (90 miles south of camp Cold Foot) & (120 miles north of camp and Deadhorse).  We always camp at a place called Kaparuk River where it crosses the Haul Road, about 200 miles north of the Arctic Circle, plenty of water and close to either Toolik lake area or the Slope Mountain DOT station, normally the area we hunt.  We rarely drive the road looking, normally get off the road about 1/2 - mile depending upon where the "True" road hunters are.  Man some of these guys will destroy your stalk, seems almost like a sport to them.  The first day we hit a small section of the road, saw alot of Muskox but no Caribou, till we decided to turn around and head back to camp and get ready for the following day.  It was about 1/2 mile past the last Muskox when I spotted three Caribou off the road about 800 yards, two juniors and one really nice Bull, so off I set after it thru a drainage that put me about eighty yards from all three, sometime during the stalk the littlest one I thought busted me and began moving to my right causing the others to follow, I was able to get behind a row of small willows and position ahead, let me tell you, you can not pace a Caribou, walking or not, it just doesn't happen.  For some reason they stopped and where looking not at my direction bout the opposite side, so I thought I had a chance, got to within sixty yards now, then it happened, one or the road warriors was running full steam straight across the field after the very same animals I had been on for 45 minutes.  No way they didn't know I was there due to my buddy watching everything through his bino's, sad part was the little one was angling towards me at the time and the other two close tracking.  Had my happy words with the idiot and we headed back to camp for dinner.  The next morning we headed out the five miles to the rifle corridor, through the worst stuff that nature can put on the ground, soft mattresses with bolling balls mixed with fluffy pillows scattered around for fun.  We saw no caribou at all, put an additional four or five side tracking the area, glassing and observing, nothing at all was there.  14-15 miles and never saw a Caribou.  Next day similar feat was to be accomplished but my buddy had sore feet, a couple blisters he wasn't ready to reopen so we decided we spend the day staying 0-3 miles off the road and play with the bows, we were out about 8 hours when I finally had two Bulls pop right out under my nose feeding directly to us.  I was able to get into a small depression and wait it out, 1 hour later and 4-billion white socks (bugs from hell) they walked towards me and got to the fifty yards zone and the first busted me.  The second had his head away and didn't care, but I knew if I didn't do it then he would have figured his partner was not feeling like everything was right.  So I kneeled, about this time the second one turned sideway and kept feeding, the other moved away as if he knew I wasn't after him.  Pulled back and let him have it with a really lucky shot at about fifty, I'm good to about thirty not fifty, but this time the arrow hit the mark, he jumped a bit and traveled about 75 yards before stopping with his buddy, slowly he started to sway then he hit the dirt, tried to get up a couple times but finally stayed down. It was too bad my hunting buddy didn't have his archery certification cause the other hung around trying to figure what we were doing to his friend once the knives came out. A nice pack out only about 1 1/2 from the road..  Got to love the Eberstock Back Pack, best I've ever used....  Period.....  My second came a bit easier, depends upon how you look at it, we hiked out this time the right side of the road thru the same crappy ground but upon getting there we found two nice bulls traveling together up a ridge towards us, one bolted due to the bugs and was down in the water rolling the other watching, my buddy hit the watching one at about 200 yards and I went after the rolling one, which got up and gave me a great 250 yards shot with the Kimber Montana .308.  From there we had three guys fully loaded with meat and two racks, almost 3 1/2 hours to cover the return trip loaded up.  About 80lbs per pack is what I could figure.  Had a couple Red Foxes visiting the camp and a small family of Arctic Foxes up the street, didn't open till 1 Sep....  Awesome trip and would recommend it for anyone, either archery (must have archery certification) or rifle (must be out past five mile corridor), cost is low, except if you have to pay for rental car and airline, I guess then it jumps in price pretty quickly...  We did run into a bunch of guys that drove from Idaho, neat bunch of guys...  Altough fun is high.  Normally success is good, but it wouldn't be called hunting if there was a guarantee would it.....

Offline boneaddict

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Re: Caribou from the Haul Road
« Reply #5 on: September 05, 2007, 06:20:29 AM »
Awesome.....one of these days.

Offline actionshooter

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Re: Caribou from the Haul Road
« Reply #6 on: September 05, 2007, 05:59:23 PM »
I have always wanted to try this, but have never talked to anyone who has done it. How many caribou did you see total?  I'm surprised its only 14 hours from Anchorage, I thought it was a lot farther. What is the caribou range along the haul road? Which herd is it?

Offline cohoho

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Re: Caribou from the Haul Road
« Reply #7 on: September 05, 2007, 10:54:59 PM »
14 hours of hauling butt, the road from Anchorage to Fairbanks is about 6 hours, from Fairbanks north it is about 8 hours.  We had three guys and only switched driving once for a quick nap.  The trip used to take quite a bit longer due to gravel and rough conditions, but DOT has really stepped up paving the past few years, heck I'd take a big RV if I had one and hunt from comfort, the roads are that good.  I grew up on dirt roads so my thinking might be alot different than others.  This time there weren't alot of animals maybe 50 or more, now that is extremely low and counting them on distant ridges.  Been there when you could count them by the hundred on the same ridges.  I think that they are coming later and later each year since 2000.  Next year it will middle Sept for, at least the Velvet will be all gone and the horns will have some color.  They are from the Central Arctic Herd, encompassing Game Management Unit 26 and estimated by F & G at about 27,000 animals.  They range from north to south as the weather pushes them towards the mountains and off the Ocean, normally along the river drainages and pipeline. A really good book on Caribou Hunting is by Larry Bartlett, "Caribou Hunting, A Guide to Alaska's Herds".  Which can be gotten from www.pristineventures.com for about twenty bucks or so... He has several other pretty good books out also... On float trips mainly but a great sourse of information....

Offline actionshooter

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Re: Caribou from the Haul Road
« Reply #8 on: September 06, 2007, 05:41:11 PM »
Thanks, I'll look into that

Offline archery288

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Re: Caribou from the Haul Road
« Reply #9 on: August 11, 2008, 08:53:10 PM »
 :drool: :drool: :drool:  I am pumped now!!! Well more than I was just seein a few fresh bou!!!  :chuckle:

Offline PacificNWhunter

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Re: Caribou from the Haul Road
« Reply #10 on: August 13, 2008, 07:01:07 PM »
AWESOME...can't wait to get back up there and do some hunting!

Offline cohoho

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Re: Caribou from the Haul Road
« Reply #11 on: August 13, 2008, 08:40:13 PM »
Archey 288 Where are you going for your hunt?  Funny your tag line...  I see some comparison...  We used to post our sign while Caribou hunting, had several folks ask what we charged........  My buddy's nick name was Hoofty- Cause he was so cheap-(The guy had money pouring out of his pockets) we never took a plane , just everything by foot....

Offline Jackjr

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Re: Caribou from the Haul Road
« Reply #12 on: August 13, 2008, 09:09:25 PM »
Would love to do that some day :)

 


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