Reading the other post like this, I figured I'd share my hunt this year as well. I flew in to a spot I kind of just randomly picked that looked like it would have moose habitat. Long story short on that part, it wasn't the greatest moose area. Didn't see moose crap all over the place like most of Alaska, we figured no worries, we'll call them when it gets a little colder. That never happened because we left before it got cold enough to get em moving.
Day one, I land, and we're right in the middle of the caribou migration in the area. There's 100 caribou within 100 yards of the airplane. This continues for the next 4 days.
Day two, sitting in my little chair in camp next to the tent in the morning, my buddy spots some white dots on the mountain, I get the spotting scope out and it's 3 rams! One looks legal from that distance, so we take only essentials in our packs and go after him. Took only about 30 minutes to close the distance so I could get a really good look and the one guy is a nice ram, but I'm not really a sheep hunter, and aside from stuffing a harvest ticket in my pocket when I'm in the area, have never hunted sheep.
So we get even closer, and I study him for 20 minutes. At some point they notice us, but could not care less. I finally decide he's legal and close the distance more, 70 yards and take him.
We get him all quartered out and back to camp, and I'm so happy I could care less about any moose. We talk about just taking some caribou and going home, but we had come here to moose hunt, so to this point we're only enjoying watching all the caribou. Some really nice bulls in the groups.
I decided to make a trip out to get the head/cape in the freezer, since I really don't know what I'm doing with it and I'd like to mount it.
I get back and my buddy had decided the meat hunt was over. We're really just after meat and could not care less about trophies or antlers, as he'd taken 3, a couple nice bulls and a cow. I wasn't thrilled because compared to moose caribou is trash, but lamb is one of my favorite things, so I'm excited to have some wild mutton. That's more than enough meat to fill a couple freezers. By the time we were done the weather had turned and it took another 2 days of waiting to fly out, a trip for the meat and a trip for my buddy and camp. Lot of flying that day.
After the fact, it's pretty funny to think about how I took so long to determine if he was legal. ADFG aged him at 16, 38 1/8, 12 7/8 bases. Full curl with double brooms. I need to find a really good taxidermist that won't take 3-4 years to do it.
Here's some photos.
Day one, I land, and we're right in the middle of the caribou migration in the area. There's 100 caribou within 100 yards of the airplane. This continues for the next 4 days.
Day two, sitting in my little chair in camp next to the tent in the morning, my buddy spots some white dots on the mountain, I get the spotting scope out and it's 3 rams! One looks legal from that distance, so we take only essentials in our packs and go after him. Took only about 30 minutes to close the distance so I could get a really good look and the one guy is a nice ram, but I'm not really a sheep hunter, and aside from stuffing a harvest ticket in my pocket when I'm in the area, have never hunted sheep.
So we get even closer, and I study him for 20 minutes. At some point they notice us, but could not care less. I finally decide he's legal and close the distance more, 70 yards and take him.
We get him all quartered out and back to camp, and I'm so happy I could care less about any moose. We talk about just taking some caribou and going home, but we had come here to moose hunt, so to this point we're only enjoying watching all the caribou. Some really nice bulls in the groups.
I decided to make a trip out to get the head/cape in the freezer, since I really don't know what I'm doing with it and I'd like to mount it.
I get back and my buddy had decided the meat hunt was over. We're really just after meat and could not care less about trophies or antlers, as he'd taken 3, a couple nice bulls and a cow. I wasn't thrilled because compared to moose caribou is trash, but lamb is one of my favorite things, so I'm excited to have some wild mutton. That's more than enough meat to fill a couple freezers. By the time we were done the weather had turned and it took another 2 days of waiting to fly out, a trip for the meat and a trip for my buddy and camp. Lot of flying that day.
After the fact, it's pretty funny to think about how I took so long to determine if he was legal. ADFG aged him at 16, 38 1/8, 12 7/8 bases. Full curl with double brooms. I need to find a really good taxidermist that won't take 3-4 years to do it.
Here's some photos.
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