State of the Central Arctic Herd

[bigbassfish]

Considering planning my first trip to Alaska for a caribou hunt. What is the health of the herd like these days? I've heard it has slowly been recovering and it would be great to make it out there for 2025, but that would likely mean not going to Montana in the spring for bear.

What are the chances things, regulatory or otherwise, make this hunt more difficult in the coming years if i were to plan on 2026 instead?

 

[fatbacks]

I would just call Alaska Department of Fish and game in Fairbanks and ask to speak with a Caribou biologist

According to the last thing I can find online the area biologist for the central Arctic heard is Beth Lenart
[email protected], (907) 459-7206

You will probably get more solid information than here on the forums


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[bigbassfish]

Thanks! I wasn’t even thinking about that, too busy trying to figure out how to squeeze in enough vacation to make both trips in 2025 lol

 

[bigbassfish]

Is there a timeline for purchasing non res tags for unit 26? From what I can tell, it sounds like they can be purchased at any time before the hunt.

 

[Larry Bartlett]

The Central Arctic Herd rebounded from its lowest point starting about three seasons ago. Bag limits readjusted in 2024 for everyone and the herd in general is doing better and is still growing annually.

GMU 26 has slightly trickier harvest tag availability. It's a registration hunt for the Western Arctic Herd bou in 23/26A. Unit 26B and east/south is over the counter still. If you buy online, make sure you get the metal locking tag which sometimes does not get mailed for whatever reason.

 

[bigbassfish]

We would be hunting 26B, if i'm understanding correctly, if i were to purchase online, i would then be able to print my harvest ticket, and then the metal locking tag would be mailed? Would it be preferable to purchase the harvest ticket and locking tag in person so its not stuck in the mail if this is a last minute decision?

There's still a lot of uncertainty on the timing of this, 10 months out feels like plenty of time and not enough all at once lol. This would be by far the biggest trip I've planned and there's lots of ducks to get in a row.

Lets talk broadheads, the only ones I've ever shot are the QAD Exodus 125gr. My 2023 black bear was a complete pass through at 30 yards, ran about 10 yards and dropped, I couldn't be happier with the way they performed, but i had a hell of a time trying to tune them to hit with my FPs.

Granted, I had only just started shooting seriously for about a year prior, but over the summer I had gotten to where I was confident in my FP out to 60, i could never get the QAD to group well further than 50 or so. Even at 20 yards I was struggling to get them to group together.

Should i start messing around with mechanicals? I really like the simplicity of a fixed head and having one less thing to go wrong, but it sounds like wind and distance are the two biggest challenges bowhunting the tundra. Currently shooting Hoyt Ventum 33 30"DL 65lb, arrows are 465gr Gold Tip Hunter Pros, but I think I want to try micro diameter.

 

[fatbacks]

A lot of the area up there is calf high brush and can be difficult to get within archery range of the caribou. The further you can comfortably shoot with you bow, the higher your odds of killing a caribou. I cannot recommend mechanical vs fixed blade, but I would use something that will fly really well and groups out to 80.

 

[bigbassfish]

That'll be the plan, I'm going to start shooting my bow like a mad man again and messing around with some different builds. We would likely end up going the Uhaul route unless i could find a reasonably similar cost option through one of the dedicated 4x4 rentals, but that doesn't seem likely for the time of year.

I need to look into become a known shipper, from what i can tell Alaska Air Cargo would probably be the cheapest way to get meat and antlers home. I would consider flying meat home on the plane but there's some logistical headaches there too.

 

[bigbassfish]

Ideally we'd like velvet, but i know if you go too early, you can miss the migration all together. August into September sounds like a happy medium atleast as far as the migration and bad weather goes. Is there any recommendations on timing something like this? Would a 10 day rental give us enough time for decent opportunity?