What I learned my first caribou hunt

[Voyageur]

What would you recommend for locks on your gun case as I thought TSA approved were required?

My last two trips I've used regular keyed padlocks. One flight with Delta and the other with Alaska.....no problems.

 

[mcseal2]

Yep, just regular keyed padlocks.

 

[Horby]

This is an excellent source of information for planning a caribou trip. Thank you for taking the time to do this.

 

[Slugz]

Thanks sir.
Validated a lot of our planning.
Helped adjust a lot of planning.
Filled in gaps in the planning!

 

[Gsquared]

Yep, just regular keyed padlocks.

Regular keyed padlocks have worked well for me in the past few years.

 

[Slugz]

Thanks sir.
Validated a lot of our planning.
Helped adjust a lot of planning.
Filled in gaps in the planning!

Listened to the Podcast again and teased out a few more tidbits. Thanks!!

 

[eaglemountainman]

mcseal2,
Excellent read! Although its been a few years since my caribou hunt, you had me reliving it over and over in my head. Thanks for that!

Since I'm not a tech head by any stretch, would you mind posting a link to your moose hunt. Thanks.

EDIT Nevermind the link. I found it!

 

[BPollard]

GEAR:

Clothing:

We all used Wiggy’s waders and they held up fine for the 5-10 creek crossings we needed them for. The area we hunted had mostly nice round smooth rock on the bottom or a hard rock bottom. They are sure convenient and light. If I was rafting I’d look at full chest waders or at least Chota Tundra Hippies and a good wading boot. We talked to some hunters who rafted with knee boots and they would not do so again.

For footwear we had a variety of boots. I bought Crispi Hiland Pro boots for this hunt and thought they performed really well. They are expensive and ugly, but were perfect for this hunt. I wanted knee height waterproof capability with good ankle support and there isn’t much out there that provides what these boots do. The other guys mostly hunted in good leather boots with gaiters. I was able to save a lot of steps going through water they looked for a route around. That’s a big deal in the tundra where walking is as difficult as it is. One hunter had some Lacrosse knee boots for camp shoes and wore them a couple days hunting. They were alright but he injured a foot a little due to the lack of stability. He also said if he had worn them another day blisters would have started. The other hunter had 2 pairs of older leather hunting boots that had served him well, but had some age on them. Despite being well treated before the hunt, both were failing due to being constant wet by the end of the hunt. If you are in doubt about your boots they probably need replaced.

-SEE MY THREAD ON THE CRISPI BOOTS!

We all used and liked Darn Tough socks. Only thing I’d change is to have 3 pair for hunting and 1 really warm pair for camp and sleep. The hunter whose boots gave him problems had a pair of Gore Tex socks that saved his feet. He wore them over the Darn Tough inside the leaking boot. He highly recommended people taking a pair on every Alaska hunt after seeing how they saved his hunt.

For camp shoes I took a pair of Tingley ultralight rubber boots I’d had for a few years that were pretty worn. They had some leaks in the top from barb wire and thorns so I cut them off just above my ankle bones. They worked perfect. We also left them in front of the tent door at night for whoever had to answer the call of nature to use. They weigh a pound cut down and wore down as they are. They are ideal camp shoes for a hunt like this.

We all had Kuiu Yukon pants and either Yukon or First Lite SEAK rain jackets. They all performed very well. We all agreed we would not take any non-rain pant on an Alaska hunt again unless we knew there was a reason to. We wore our Yukon pants the majority of the hunt. My second pair of pants were Kuiu Chugach bought a size big to fit over my puffy pants. With the stretch they have they worked well to walk in even being oversize. I wore them on the drier days instead of the Yukons and liked them a lot. They fit inside the Crispi boots where the thicker Yukons I had to put over the boot gaiter. I’d never buy rain pants for a hunt like this that did not have hip vents. The other guys had softshell pants for their second pair and never used them.

All base layers and long underwear we had were merino or Aerowool merino blend. I think the other guys had some warmer ones, mine were 150 weight. They all worked well.

We all had puffy pants and jackets. One guy had a Superdown Pro jacket and Ultra pants. He liked them and had them under his Yukon’s at camp and on longer glassing sessions. No issues with moisture on the down. The Jacket was his pillow at night and he slept in the pants. Another guy had the Kifaru Lost Park puffy pants and jacket, plus the discontinued Kuiu Kenai zip off pants. He took the Kenai pants during the day and used the LPP pants at camp. That set-up worked well. I took the First Lite Uncompaghre puffy pants and would not do so again. They worked ok and were comfortable, but were not noticeably warmer than my old Kenai zip off pants. I’d take those to conveniently go on and off under rain gear if I was going again, plus a warmer Superdown Pro or LPP pant. I used a Kifaru LPP jacket and it worked well.

For mid layer shirts two of us had Kuiu Peloton 240 hoodys, one had a FL Kiln. We all liked what we had. I also had a Kuiu Hybrid 3DeFX jacket I used a lot both hunting and sleeping. Other guys had vests or merino pull overs that filled a similar role. On my moose hunt during long sits calling I wished for one more layer several times. This fits that role perfect. Over or under the 240, under the rain coat or rain coat and LPP. Going again I might take my Superdown Pro set plus the Kuiu Kenai pants and Kutana Hybrid jacket. It’s some synthetic back-up to the down and added warmth, while only adding about 1.5lbs. I might just take an LPP jacket and pants instead of the Superdown Pro, any combo like that would work great.

That’s already to much time spent on clothing, but in Alaska it can be pretty important. There is no walking out to the truck if conditions go to hell. We all had gloves and beanies. Ours are older versions, but something like the Kuiu Axis beanie is about perfect for this hunt in our opinion. Merino liner gloves and a warmer over glove that’s at least water resistant is also nice. We all had Superdown Pro or similar glassing mittens or glommits. None of us used them, but none of us were sorry to have them for their weight. A really warm waterproof glove is probably a better idea.

Other Gear:

Quality shelter. We used a Cabelas Alaskan Guide 6 man tent. It worked great for us but is a heavy shelter that takes 20 minutes or so to set up with 2 guys by the time you tie all the guy-out strings. With 25 imitation MSR Cyclone stakes off Amazon it weighed 28.5lbs. The stakes it comes with are metal and really heavy. The vertical walls maximize usable space inside for cots and gear. It was also really nice on our last full day in camp to be able to bring our camp chairs inside. The Inreach showed the wind chill to be around 14 and the air was plenty damp. We were tagged out and done packing meat the day before. We stacked the cots and were able to sit on our chairs inside the tent to talk and finish off our whiskey. Our SeekOutside 8 man tipi would have worked just as well on our hunt, but we chose the tent due to wind and possible bugs. We ended up finding an excellent camp site with good wind protection and temps were cold enough bugs were never an issue. If we do a float hunt in the future we will likely go with the tipi or multiple smaller tents from Hilleburg or Kuiu.

We had synthetic sleeping bags between 0 and 20 degrees. I had an older 20 degree Kifaru Slickbag and was never cold, but I had a HPG Mountain Serape I threw over the top at times. Together they are heavier than a good 0 degree synthetic bag but not a lot more than a lot of warm bags. I find having both on a hunt like this versatile enough I haven’t spent the money on a new Slickbag. By layering right inside it I have never slept cold in that Slickbag over multiple years in several states down to 0 degrees. Dried a lot of wet layers wearing them inside it or throwing them in the footbox also, it’s been a great bag.

We used Thermarest or Helinox cots. They all worked well. We would not really have needed them because we set the tent up on nice level black sand. Our pads would have been fine without them. If I was to go on another hunt like this and skip the cot, I’d take a ¾ length or full length Therarest Z lite pad to put under my air pad in camp, and carry in my pack to sit on glassing. As it was we took a 4 section piece of a Thermarest for glassing and the cots.

Camptime Roll A Chairs are nice at camp, and for glassing from a ridge close to camp. We carried them some of the time. They are about 40oz each, but having something with a real back to lean against while sitting upright is nice. I like them better to glass or shoot out of than a Helinox type chair.

We had a few tools that were worth having and relatively lightweight:
-Gransfers Bruks Outdoor Axe (building meat rack, tent stakes)
-Russia military TI shovel (buried human waste, dug holes for meat rack poles)
-Bahco Laplander folding saw (bone saw and used on meat rack)
-Leatherman PSTII (lightweight multi-tool for fish and general use)

Take a glassing tarp. I used a little 5x7 poncho tarp I had for a glassing shelter one day, but mostly carried and used my Seek Outside DST tarp. It’s really versatile and quick to set up. We put our gear under it while processing two caribou in the rain, glassed under it on other occasions. That piece of gear will always be with me in Alaska.

We used my Seek Colorado tarp as a cook/lounge area outside camp. When visibility is terrible and rain is falling, it’s nice to still be able to be outside the tent in the camp chairs. We hunt hard, but during some conditions your chances of spooking animals and making your area less productive are greater than the chance of shooting one. We cooked our better meals during times like this while still being able to see animals around camp. We had one group of caribou cross the gravel bar right by camp while sitting under there. If there would have been a shooter bull we would have had the easiest pack-out ever.

Good read thank you

 

[Fivefuchs]

Like I did after the moose hunt I wanted to put up a post about what I learned on my first caribou hunt. I got a lot of help from people here in preparing for both hunts and want to do my part to pass on what I learn. I do a review after each out of state hunt like this for myself anyway, to hopefully increase my skill level and decrease my packing list as I gain experience. I may as well share it with all of you.

I think being a first timer giving advice can be a double edged sword. On one side I probably think to mention things an experienced caribou hunter might take for granted. On the other side I have only been on one hunt and have only that experience to go off of. What I’m saying is take my advice for what it’s worth, a lot of hunters with a lot more experience are available to help you on this site. They were very willing to help me and I am very thankful for that.

To start I’ll give a little background on our hunt. We flew out of Kotzebue on 9-16 and back to Kotzebue on 9-24. We were lucky to get out a day early. Weather ranged from the upper 40’s for highs to single digit lows. Three of us hunted from one camp unguided but flown in by a transporter. They used a pair of 206’s and landed on a gravel bar.

Our hunt was done from a base camp with weight split between 3 people. Our gear excluding clothes we wore in and our binos/harnesses was 250lbs. Our food we would consume in the field was not counted against our weight limit but rifles were. We went with a more comfortable and heavier camp than we would have on a float hunt. We had a 10x10 tarp to cook under, camp chairs, Thermarest cots, and a Cabelas Instinct Alaskan Guide 6 man tent.

We each carried a Rite in the Rain notebook on our hunt and kept a journal for ourselves. We each also had a section in the back for tips, gear ratings, and anything else we wanted to share after the hunt. This is compiled from our conversations, experiences, and notes. I may be writing an article on the story of the hunt, so I’m going wait to share that part for now. This post will be on tips and gear.

HUNTING:

We all got caribou, no giants but we tagged out. I shot a nice bull that fit the description of what I realistically expected from researching this hunt. We did not see any really big frame bulls with great fronts and tops. We saw bulls with great fronts, big frames, and few or no points on their tops that we passed early. I think that’s just the luck of the draw hunting migrating caribou, others hunting with the same transporter at the same time shot some really large bulls that had everything I could want. You have to hunt what is there and be prepared not to fill your tag if you hold out to long. No matter your skill level or ability to cover country, luck is going to be involved when hunting anything migratory from a fixed location. It’s just part of hunting. This may play into your decision between a drop camp or float hunt.

Hunting caribou is about much more than the harvest of the animal and if too much focus is put on that I think it can really take away from the experience. I was fortunate enough to harvest my bull on the third day we could shoot. Having that out of the way really let me relax and take in the whole experience. There is a beauty to that remote country and its inhabitants that it’s worth taking time to appreciate even if it means slowing down to do so. You won’t regret taking time to take in the whole experience later.

Take way more pictures than you think you need to. Describing a hunt in a place like this to family and friends is hard with pictures, it’s even harder without. None of the three of us wish we had taken less pictures.

Tundra is every bit as hard to travel in as you hear or read. I’ve heard a mile in the tundra described as equivalent to anywhere from 5 to 7 miles in the mountains. I think that is pretty accurate. We found travel best along the river and near the edge of other large sharp drop offs. The flat ridge tops had the worst tussocks with the biggest gaps between them. Walking on the worst of it is like trying to do a stair-master as someone drags it bouncing down a rough road. Stepping on the top of the tussock made it fall to one side or the other. Stepping between tussocks meant sending your foot into a hole of unknown depth, likely between 1.5 and 3ft. It’s tough traveling, but not so tough I don’t already want to go back. Just be prepared for some type 2 fun. Trekking poles make a big difference.

Water comes out of hills where and in what quantity it wants to. Sometimes streams near hilltops are to wide and deep for knee boots. You can’t always get across without going far out of your way upstream. Going down may or may not show you a place they get wide enough to cross. Often it’s best just to put on waders and cross at the best place near you rather than spend a lot of time looking.

Caribou seemed fairly easy to get within 250 yards of. We took longer shots on our bulls, but that was more due to terrain and the herd’s direction and speed of travel than them being scared of us. Nothing paid much attention to seeing us until we were within that distance, sometimes much closer. Wind is a different story, once they smelled a human they were leaving. I’m sure we did not smell very good after a few days in the field, humans may have had the same reaction.

Our caribou were taken at 500, 300, and 330 yards. The first was shot prone at 500, two shots but the first would have done the job with a little more patience. My bull was shot standing over my tripod at 300 yards, and the last was shot sitting over trekking poles at 330 yards. Due to terrain only the one bull could be shot from prone. I’d recommend having yourself and your equipment prepared to shoot from at least kneeling height. Two of us had 300 win mags with 180gr Nosler E tips and one had a 7mm Rem Mag with 160gr Nosler Accubonds. All worked well. Rifles that big are not needed for caribou but that’s what our lightweight rifles are chambered in. I would not recommend going to light in rifle or caliber. Caliber due to bears, weight due to stability from less than ideal positions. All our guns will weigh between 8 and 9.5lbs fully loaded, with sling, and ready to hunt.

Great info! Thanks for taking the time to write it up.

 

[salzman11b]

Great Read!

 

[TM0218]

Good thread to read, both for entertainment and information

 

[KChunter71]

@Skullwhite_designs here is the thread man.

 

[LBuchser]

@mcseal2

As everyone else has said, amazing write up! So thorough, well layed out and an absolute wealth of info for everyone. Thank you!

Just a few questions that I'd love to hear your thoughts and experiences on. Perhaps I missed one of these somehow. If so, I'm sorry. A couple of these questions are for others reference as well.

Did you donate any meat or did you bring it all back? If you didnt donate and you brought it all back, do you have a good idea how much your meat weighed - (100lbs-150lbs?).

Can you briefly touch on the bone-in regulations?

Can you touch on luggage - How many "bags" did you have to fly back home with (ie. Gun case, pack w/ gear, antler box, two totes with 50lbs of meat = 5 bags) and possibly the fees?

 

[carsonhunts406]

Awesome breakdown of the hunt, really helped in trying to plan a diy caribou hunt if my own in the future!

 

[mcseal2]

@mcseal2

As everyone else has said, amazing write up! So thorough, well layed out and an absolute wealth of info for everyone. Thank you!

Just a few questions that I'd love to hear your thoughts and experiences on. Perhaps I missed one of these somehow. If so, I'm sorry. A couple of these questions are for others reference as well.

Did you donate any meat or did you bring it all back? If you didnt donate and you brought it all back, do you have a good idea how much your meat weighed - (100lbs-150lbs?).

Can you briefly touch on the bone-in regulations?

Can you touch on luggage - How many "bags" did you have to fly back home with (ie. Gun case, pack w/ gear, antler box, two totes with 50lbs of meat = 5 bags) and possibly the fees?

We donated most of our meat. One guy in our group had a friend who works at the nursing home in Kotzebue, we donated the meat to the elders there through her. We brought home a total of about 95 pounds of meat.

Each caribou we shot would yield about the same amount of meat as a really big bodied muley buck. They look much bigger bodied, but so much of their mass is lungs and guts, the meat is not that much.

Bone in regulation to my understanding means all the quarters and the ribs come out on the bone. That's what we did.

We had a lot of luggage, and paid extra for it. We each had a Kuiu 9000 taku bag plus two other pieces, either gun cases or totes. The Kuiu bags are oversize but held our packs, boots, and other bulky gear. We had our optics in our carry-on bags. Coming home we had an additional antler box and a fish box with almost 100lbs of meat.

Going again, even though our Exo or Seek packs are technically oversize for carry on bags, we saw lots of other people use them without issue. We could have saved some baggage by using them that way. We took all our own gear and food from home and had a fairly comfortable drop camp. Not over our weight limit GE and us agreed on, but bulky. There are ways to reduce bulk by either renting camp in Kotz or taking more of a backpacking camp. To us the additional hassle was worth it to have our camp kitchen and area outside of the tent to hang out in bad weather. We had camptime Roll A Chairs, a 10x10 Seek tarp, and a plastic tote for a table. When it was socked in and raining and we couldn't glass we spent a fair amount of time out there. We also had a 28lb Cabelas Alaskan Guide Instinct 6 man tent that took up most of a tote. Flying into the field we moved a lot of items from the totes into our packs or Taku bags and took only one tote.

For fees I'd just check Alaska air. I don't remember for sure and they may have changed. Covid was changing things so regularly before our hunt I'd hate to give outdated information.

 

[LBuchser]

We donated most of our meat. One guy in our group had a friend who works at the nursing home in Kotzebue, we donated the meat to the elders there through her. We brought home a total of about 95 pounds of meat.

Each caribou we shot would yield about the same amount of meat as a really big bodied muley buck. They look much bigger bodied, but so much of their mass is lungs and guts, the meat is not that much.

Bone in regulation to my understanding means all the quarters and the ribs come out on the bone. That's what we did.

We had a lot of luggage, and paid extra for it. We each had a Kuiu 9000 taku bag plus two other pieces, either gun cases or totes. The Kuiu bags are oversize but held our packs, boots, and other bulky gear. We had our optics in our carry-on bags. Coming home we had an additional antler box and a fish box with almost 100lbs of meat.

Going again, even though our Exo or Seek packs are technically oversize for carry on bags, we saw lots of other people use them without issue. We could have saved some baggage by using them that way. We took all our own gear and food from home and had a fairly comfortable drop camp. Not over our weight limit GE and us agreed on, but bulky. There are ways to reduce bulk by either renting camp in Kotz or taking more of a backpacking camp. To us the additional hassle was worth it to have our camp kitchen and area outside of the tent to hang out in bad weather. We had camptime Roll A Chairs, a 10x10 Seek tarp, and a plastic tote for a table. When it was socked in and raining and we couldn't glass we spent a fair amount of time out there. We also had a 28lb Cabelas Alaskan Guide Instinct 6 man tent that took up most of a tote. Flying into the field we moved a lot of items from the totes into our packs or Taku bags and took only one tote.

For fees I'd just check Alaska air. I don't remember for sure and they may have changed. Covid was changing things so regularly before our hunt I'd hate to give outdated information.

Awesome, thank you!

 

[coloyooper]

This thread is outstanding. Looking forward to heading up to AK at the end of September!

 

[Skullwhite_designs]

This is an excellent write up. What are the better dates to make this trip? Late aug? Early Sept? Mid Sept? I plan on booking with GE as well. Thanks!

 

[Larry Bartlett]

Damn McSeal that is a tight right up.

I use a standard canoe paddle for a shooting stick sometimes and it makes a huge stability difference.

Great way to think out a meat rack too. Nice job buddy.

 

[mcseal2]

Thanks Larry, I learned a lot from your book. Great read!