Hey Rokslide,
Coming out of the shadows because I want access to the classifieds and because I owe it to the site members for all the info I've gathered here over time. The following is some unorganized ramblings about my hunting trip to Alaska. This last year I did a haul road Caribou hunt the first week of season in early August. My step dad and I road tripped up from Southwest MT and spent a week fishing around Homer and Seward and then made our way up to the North Slope for another week of hunting. All in all we put 7000 miles on the truck and had an amazing time. Our redneck meat transportation plan was a chest freezer in the back of the truck with a small generator running at all times to power it. I'm sure this isn't the first time this has been done but we still got some funny looks.
Starting in Fairbanks we met some buddies that flew in and they rented some trucks from Alaska 4x4 rentals. They were great and I would highly recommend them for anyone looking to diy this trip. On our way up from Fairbanks we got our first flat. That was followed by 2 more flats throughout the trip between the three trucks. The road really wasn't that bad provided you aren't planning on going 60. All of our flats came from pieces of metal that I assume is coming off the heavy machinery on the road. We got a tire plugged in coldfoot but it definitely wasnt cheap. As you drive up there are many creeks you go over on your way through the brooks range. We fished a few and found some that were absolutely loaded with fish and some that seemed to have very few. My recommendation would be to give any individual creek five minutes and bail if you haven't had any luck. We found that the good creeks, in the right holes, provided a strike every cast.
Unfortunately I'm not much of a story teller but will provide a list of things that happened on our trip as well as things I wish I had done differently. To set the stage I am in my early 30's, in very good shape, and by most accounts pretty stupid. What is listed is my personal experience and by no account should be considered fact.
What happened
- 3 rifle hunters all got bulls (small through medium size)
-5.1 to 5.5 miles from the road
- Shots taken ranged from 150-300 yards
- 223 77tmk, 270 130 barnes
-4 bow hunters got 0 caribou ( 2 long shots that were both missed)
-Typical Bow opportunities were in the 60+ yard range
- 95% of the caribou (maybe 5K caribou) were all seen in a small stretch of the road system
-Nearly all hunters along the road system were helpful and happy to share their findings
-We got much appreciated buffets in both Deadhorse and Coldfoot
Lessons Learned
- If I was limited on time I would fly into deadhorse next time and rent a truck from Alaska 4x4 rentals there. This would save two days over the Fairbanks option
-Dont leave the road until you've seen lots of Caribou
-Rifle hunt if you are in good shape and not opposed to the idea.
-If Rifle hunting, after finding caribou, camp out at the 5 mile mark and spend as much time as possible out there.
-If bowhunting, don't overlook walking or sitting on the pipeline religiously
-Regardless of bow or rifle, be able to shoot longer distances. I had an opportunity at a large bull at 500 and wasn't comfortable with the distance, Caribou aren't spooky, they just don't stop moving so your killing circle increases significantly if you can shoot farther.
-If you are rifle hunting pack light, we traveled at 2-2.5mph across the tundra with 30 pounds on our back, once we had 60-70 pounds we slowed down to less than 1mph.
Okay guys I'm done rambling. Let me know if you have any questions. Happy to help
Coming out of the shadows because I want access to the classifieds and because I owe it to the site members for all the info I've gathered here over time. The following is some unorganized ramblings about my hunting trip to Alaska. This last year I did a haul road Caribou hunt the first week of season in early August. My step dad and I road tripped up from Southwest MT and spent a week fishing around Homer and Seward and then made our way up to the North Slope for another week of hunting. All in all we put 7000 miles on the truck and had an amazing time. Our redneck meat transportation plan was a chest freezer in the back of the truck with a small generator running at all times to power it. I'm sure this isn't the first time this has been done but we still got some funny looks.
Starting in Fairbanks we met some buddies that flew in and they rented some trucks from Alaska 4x4 rentals. They were great and I would highly recommend them for anyone looking to diy this trip. On our way up from Fairbanks we got our first flat. That was followed by 2 more flats throughout the trip between the three trucks. The road really wasn't that bad provided you aren't planning on going 60. All of our flats came from pieces of metal that I assume is coming off the heavy machinery on the road. We got a tire plugged in coldfoot but it definitely wasnt cheap. As you drive up there are many creeks you go over on your way through the brooks range. We fished a few and found some that were absolutely loaded with fish and some that seemed to have very few. My recommendation would be to give any individual creek five minutes and bail if you haven't had any luck. We found that the good creeks, in the right holes, provided a strike every cast.
Unfortunately I'm not much of a story teller but will provide a list of things that happened on our trip as well as things I wish I had done differently. To set the stage I am in my early 30's, in very good shape, and by most accounts pretty stupid. What is listed is my personal experience and by no account should be considered fact.
What happened
- 3 rifle hunters all got bulls (small through medium size)
-5.1 to 5.5 miles from the road
- Shots taken ranged from 150-300 yards
- 223 77tmk, 270 130 barnes
-4 bow hunters got 0 caribou ( 2 long shots that were both missed)
-Typical Bow opportunities were in the 60+ yard range
- 95% of the caribou (maybe 5K caribou) were all seen in a small stretch of the road system
-Nearly all hunters along the road system were helpful and happy to share their findings
-We got much appreciated buffets in both Deadhorse and Coldfoot
Lessons Learned
- If I was limited on time I would fly into deadhorse next time and rent a truck from Alaska 4x4 rentals there. This would save two days over the Fairbanks option
-Dont leave the road until you've seen lots of Caribou
-Rifle hunt if you are in good shape and not opposed to the idea.
-If Rifle hunting, after finding caribou, camp out at the 5 mile mark and spend as much time as possible out there.
-If bowhunting, don't overlook walking or sitting on the pipeline religiously
-Regardless of bow or rifle, be able to shoot longer distances. I had an opportunity at a large bull at 500 and wasn't comfortable with the distance, Caribou aren't spooky, they just don't stop moving so your killing circle increases significantly if you can shoot farther.
-If you are rifle hunting pack light, we traveled at 2-2.5mph across the tundra with 30 pounds on our back, once we had 60-70 pounds we slowed down to less than 1mph.
Okay guys I'm done rambling. Let me know if you have any questions. Happy to help
