soggybtmboys
Lil-Rokslider
2 years of planning and prepping has come and gone, and it went by faster than we thought. I would like to extend a heartfelt thank you for answered questions and a great forum for research, everyone had a hand or influence in our hunt whether it was known or not. We went up and had a great time up on the North Slope from Aug 19th- Aug 28th, our transport service was Brooks Range Aviation, and we are very pleased with their services.
By the numbers:
We had a group of 8 (large camp we know), half were bowhunting, half had rifles.
4 were experienced travel hunters, 4 were new to it, me included.
We killed 3 bulls out of 8 hunters. But, the rifle hunters were 75% and should/could have been 100%. My brother passed on some young bulls early in the trip, and ended up missing a bull on day 9 at 257 yards. Our 4 bowhunters went 0 for 4, with 2 opting for rifles in the waning days of the hunt, and missed some shots. Big props to our 2 die hard archers whom did not relent and finished up how they started with their bows in hand, with Huntmaster passing some opportunities on young bulls.
In the realm of potentials, we potentially could/should have been 6 for 8. Not bad for sight unseen hunting with 8 hunters new to Alaska for the first time, and half rookies to travel hunting. Despite going 3 for 8, we all were successful and learned alot, and we all came home with something that cannot be had by punching a tag. It was by far the best hunting trip I have been on, and our group and chemistry was incredible and made the trip that much more fun. 4 more travel hunters were born on this trip!
Our gear held up as expected with very few issues. Weather was interesting with the swings daily. We did not get weathered in our tents for any expected amount of time, we are either upper midwest hard heads used to some nasty stuff sometimes, or we didn't get slammed with what the slope will typically toss at a 10 day adventure there.
Animals were scattered, with some sightings not what we expected. Small cow groups with calves and young bulls were the norm, few mature bull groups....but we did see enough to pick off a couple of good bulls. I think the weather prior to our arrival pushed some animals thru, and it letting up stalled some to come thru. When we did have some weather and temp drops, it seemed to increase sightings and movement. Towards the end of our stay as weather was heading in and cooling off, it looked like it was picking up, with the most action we had on the evening of day 9.
We had a grizzly in the neighborhood,but he was no bother once he figured out what we were, and had some numbers. He gave us a little scare on day 2, when he took short run at 4 of us for a better look.
It was a fantastic trip, and one we would like to do again in the near future. Alaska is an amazing place and the raw beauty of it, is quite amazing. Hard to find the right words. I will post some pics and I am including a short video of our trip. I will try and answer any questions in an attempt to pay back what was given to us. I would recommend BRA to anyone, Judy was great and service was pretty good.
YouTube
By the numbers:
We had a group of 8 (large camp we know), half were bowhunting, half had rifles.
4 were experienced travel hunters, 4 were new to it, me included.
We killed 3 bulls out of 8 hunters. But, the rifle hunters were 75% and should/could have been 100%. My brother passed on some young bulls early in the trip, and ended up missing a bull on day 9 at 257 yards. Our 4 bowhunters went 0 for 4, with 2 opting for rifles in the waning days of the hunt, and missed some shots. Big props to our 2 die hard archers whom did not relent and finished up how they started with their bows in hand, with Huntmaster passing some opportunities on young bulls.
In the realm of potentials, we potentially could/should have been 6 for 8. Not bad for sight unseen hunting with 8 hunters new to Alaska for the first time, and half rookies to travel hunting. Despite going 3 for 8, we all were successful and learned alot, and we all came home with something that cannot be had by punching a tag. It was by far the best hunting trip I have been on, and our group and chemistry was incredible and made the trip that much more fun. 4 more travel hunters were born on this trip!
Our gear held up as expected with very few issues. Weather was interesting with the swings daily. We did not get weathered in our tents for any expected amount of time, we are either upper midwest hard heads used to some nasty stuff sometimes, or we didn't get slammed with what the slope will typically toss at a 10 day adventure there.
Animals were scattered, with some sightings not what we expected. Small cow groups with calves and young bulls were the norm, few mature bull groups....but we did see enough to pick off a couple of good bulls. I think the weather prior to our arrival pushed some animals thru, and it letting up stalled some to come thru. When we did have some weather and temp drops, it seemed to increase sightings and movement. Towards the end of our stay as weather was heading in and cooling off, it looked like it was picking up, with the most action we had on the evening of day 9.
We had a grizzly in the neighborhood,but he was no bother once he figured out what we were, and had some numbers. He gave us a little scare on day 2, when he took short run at 4 of us for a better look.
It was a fantastic trip, and one we would like to do again in the near future. Alaska is an amazing place and the raw beauty of it, is quite amazing. Hard to find the right words. I will post some pics and I am including a short video of our trip. I will try and answer any questions in an attempt to pay back what was given to us. I would recommend BRA to anyone, Judy was great and service was pretty good.
YouTube
