Anyone hunt with North Star outfitters

[boliver29]

Just seeing if anyone has hunted with them


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[AU.MASHnKS]

I will be in 4 weeks.

 

[boliver29]

Let me know how it goes


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[Jdeck09]

Just seeing if anyone has hunted with them


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They have a pretty active facebook page. You might be able to track a couple guys down that way. From an outsider perspective, they seem to be decent and communicate. I feel like the end of the month produces better animals compared to the start of season but thats just me looking at photos.

 

[Nontyp]

3 times with them. They are good people and will put more space between their camps than the others up there

 

[RyanT26]

They run out of or at least used to run out of the same boat ramp as a couple other airboat outfitters. Talked to them very briefly two years ago as we were going out with another outfitter, they seemed decent.
Main thing to remember you’re going to be sharing that river or the different river channels with at least 2 other airboat operations. Northstar and Deadhorse seem like they communicated well and tried to stay out of each other’s way. There was newer group up there that was stepping on a lot of toes and dumping hunters on top of other camps.
About all you can do is hope that the migration is moving well and be ready to cover ground if needed.

 

[Jackal7]

Our group of four heads out with North Star on 9/3. Any reports from prior groups would be great. We have not used this transporter or hunted NS before, just SBR, so any advance information that is shareable in public would be great. Thx.

 

[Pochuck]

Our group of four heads out with North Star on 9/3. Any reports from prior groups would be great. We have not used this transporter or hunted NS before, just SBR, so any advance information that is shareable in public would be great. Thx.

How was the trip?

 

[BiggA]

And more updates on North Star Outfitters?

 

[T3ninja]

Yes. Went with them this August. Never again.

 

[RyanT26]

Yes. Went with them this August. Never again.

What specifically was no good?

 

[T3ninja]

Comms were terrible. We were lied to, and I feel we were misled. An extra $500 deposit requirement that was never mentioned when we were told we were able to get a second tag. Among other things.

 

[boliver29]

Did you kill anything


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[T3ninja]

My group killed 3. Northstar seems to have some good spots, but I feel they are trying to capitalize on people that are going on their first trip like this. They had camps stacked every 3/4 mile or less in the section we were. We asked about other hunters in the area and how many camps they had, those questions were avoided and not answered.

 

[boliver29]

Would a spike camp be a good idea


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[T3ninja]

Would a spike camp be a good idea


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I’ll pm you

 

[boliver29]

Ok


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[llynbrmm]

We went through North Star mid August. I assume it will be the same for any of the outfitters that drop off via airboat, but just something to make sure your expectations are set correctly, ours weren’t. North Star has 12 groups set up on a 20 mile stretch of river. 2 other outfitters utilize the same river. There will be a group set up every mile on either side of the river. In that country you can see 10 miles, so you’ll see all these people. Our first day we saw 23 people and 0 caribou. If any caribou come close to the river, a minimum of 3-4 groups will see them and whoever’s camp happens to be closest would get a shot. We saw 2 spikes close to the river the entire week. I assume opening few days there’s caribou along the river and it’s great hunting but they must leave quickly. Not sure where the migration was, but we never saw big groups. We drove up from Fairbanks and We saw a couple large groups right after crossing the Brooks, but none where we hunted. Killed 3/3 bulls, the only 3 we saw the whole week. 2 decent “meat” bulls and one probably year and a half bull. 2 were killed 2 miles from camp, one 5 miles out. I know North Star advertised a 90% kill rate, I’d be surprised if last year was 50% based on talking to them before/after and watching their Facebook page after we were done. We could watch the groups around us, we saw 2 bulls killed out of the 4 groups we could see closely. Our 2nd day actually a group crossed the river and killed a bull directly behind our camp. Was still an amazing experience, but honestly if/when I do it again I’d probably not pay the outfitter and hike in. Or pay a little more and fly-in so you won’t be so close to people.