40 Mile or Brooks Range

[buzzy]

Looking at doing a caribou hunt next year and should be able to get a reservation with 40 mile air thru a friend who wants to hunt caribou and has booked with 40 mile in the past. He's considering going to the Brooks Range instead for caribou next year.

WIth the Brooks Range hunt he has an air transporter he trusts. Any suggestions on which would be a better caribou option? Thanks

 

[soggybtmboys]

Brooks Range, in assuming you mean north slope? North slope can be feast or famine, as you will be hunting a migration and lots of factors come into play... mainly weather and how it pushes the migration or stalls it.

40 mile herd is a bit more static, and 40 mile air has an excellent reputation of getting their hunters on the caribou.

What kind of experience are you looking for? If you are thinking archery, I'd skip the north slope.

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[buzzy]

We will be rifle hunting and wanting a good opportunity at a larger than average bull. Thanks

 

[Dexter Grayson]

Soggy is spot on. I’ve done both and killed good bulls, but they were two completely different hunts. 40 mile is usually on top of the herds location but you’re living on 50lbs of gear. Brooks range is a crap shoot but living in a fat cat camp.

 

[soggybtmboys]

We did north slope with BRA in 2018 and had a very comfortable camp. Bulls were scarce, we missed it by a week and left a few days early before the next big push. We managed 3 bulls out of 8 guys. Marksmanship was 1 factor for 3 hunters, fewer than anticipated animals another. Half our crew were bowhunters and they all struck out.

We are talking about 2021 going again, but this time we will be south of the Brooks someplace.



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[soggybtmboys]

Here is a pic of our camp, we were right off a glacial lake.

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[Dexter Grayson]

Soggy, we hunted that same exact lake in 2017 and did really well! Beautiful spot, wouldn’t mind going back there one day.

 

[Nick Muche]

A spot with 40 Mile Air would be my Plan A. Plan B would not even be a consideration.

 

[soggybtmboys]

Soggy, we hunted that same exact lake in 2017 and did really well! Beautiful spot, wouldn’t mind going back there one day.

It’s an incredible highway in this spot, foul weather pushed them thru the week prior and we picked off stragglers. As weather degraded at the end of our 10 day stay, we had more start showing up.

We got home and one of the guys noticed on MeatEater, they were on the same exact lake in 2013!



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[Dexter Grayson]

Yep, our weather sucked 95% of the time. What’s funny is I just watched that meat eater episode last week and noticed the same thing. Y’all see any Grizz?

 

[soggybtmboys]

Yep, our weather sucked 95% of the time. What’s funny is I just watched that meat eater episode last week and noticed the same thing. Y’all see any Grizz?

Yep, we had a resident bear who would drop by every couple of days.

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[Dexter Grayson]

Yep, we had a resident bear who would drop by every couple of days.

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Lol, we killed two and then had to run a big boy out of camp cause we were out of tags.

 

[soggybtmboys]

Oh man, I wish we could have taken a grizzly, but we were all non residents! We would have taken a bear or 2!

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[AKBorn]

I always go with 40 Mile for caribou, so I am biased toward them - but also feel that (in general) the walking/packing is a bit easier in 40 Mile country than in the Brooks, and you (again, generally) have more choices for a campsite, and I have never set up my tent in a soggy spot as sometimes can happen in the Brooks.

 

[buzzy]

Thanks everyone. We got a spot with 40 Mile air.