Not counting Turkey season starting next week, this is going to be a big year for my hunting. We are going to start in Alaska doing a fly in caribou hunt with my son, nephew, his first hunt, and the nephews friend. My nephew joined me for my big elk hunt two years ago and was hooked after the first hunt on the first day. I gave him a Hoyt Carbon Defiant and he has been prepping for his first hunt ever since. He and I will go in with bows, my son and nephews friend will go in with rifles. Should be an epic trip!

The capper on the season will be joining a good friend and his son in law for a guided elk hunt. I have killed a few elk but never a branch bull. I am hoping to change that this year. I really want to see my friends get a Bull, especially since I will be there as their guest, but if I have the opportunity, I’ll take it! Really looking forward to this season!

New arrows appropriate for the AK tundra purchased. Time to re sight and change the tape on my sight.

Good luck.

All gear is shipped and our tags have arrived. I’m ready to bolt!

How did you ship your gear?  What carrier?

Hope you did not mail it third and fourth class mail. It can take over a month to get there.
Priority or first class and it will still take time.

A local guide always tells clients and they still mail gear third and fourth class. They then have to scramble for gear.
See above.
Alaska Air flies into almost all the major hubs.

USPS commercial retail (ground). We are west coast, OR, and it took just over two weeks for the boxes to land. Very close to the estimate. The air carrier says east coast shippers are seeing times upwards of 6 weeks. Ouch.

Good input. I cut all the boxes to make sure I was just under the oversize volume. IIRC the class I shipped was commercial retail usps. Each box was $50-$70 to ship but they made it in time. Shipped 5 boxes of food and equipment.

DIY or Guided on the caribou? I've been wanting to do a caribou hunt for years. Canada is out for me and Alaska is getting expensive.

DIY using an air carrier to deliver us. Still not cheap but makes for a great adventure.

Wach herd out of Kotz?

Flying from Bettles to the Nigu river valley. Not sure which herd that is.

Gun case is packed to test the weight. With a Tikka, Tranquilo, S&W 69, Springfield Xdm elite, holsters, bipod, 3 pair long underwear, Jacket and a beanie it weighs 40 lb on the nose.

Haven’t weighed the bow case yet but it will be lighter. Will be able to pack some clothes in with it.

Five bags including bow and gun case for the two of us. Loaded, and out the door at 3:30am. The next 3 weeks are going to be the best of my life!

Stage one complete but not without its trials and tribulations. But I have to say, Alaska and it’s people are incredible!

Attached File
Attached File


On to stage 2! Elk and Mulies!

Originally Posted By SpeyRod:
Stage one complete but not without its trials and tribulations. But I have to say, Alaska and it's people are incredible!

https://www.ar15.com/media/mediaFiles/152968/9BB075DA-E15F-42F9-805F-56E34B13BBCE_jpe-2501899.JPGhttps://www.ar15.com/media/mediaFiles/152968/998BAABD-BCB9-4D06-B162-881F9DAC2564_jpe-2501901.JPG

On to stage 2! Elk and Mulies!

quote]

Excellent!  Hope it is going well.

The elk hunt was a complete bust thanks to a rancher who didn’t want anyone hunting “his” blm. Day one three elk were working down to the property. He showed up post haste and chased them over the hill. End of the am hunt. The pm hunt we went the opposite direction. Forty five minutes later we crest the ridge and he is parked in his sxs on the next ridge. Nothing will use those two canyons with him there. Next hunt we decide to go the extra miles to the most remote part of the property, a real ass kicker. Yup, he is running around in that canyon. I call it and start hiking out and yup, when I make the saddle he is parked within 100 yards of my location. Totally fucked up situation that I am guessing he will get away with. We had the helicopter pick us up and get us out of there yesterday. I wasn’t about to spend the week playing whack a mole with him.

Everything he did was so blatant it was ridiculous. It was also very illegal. After spending $21k for the three of us to hunt my buddy was very upset. I am talking with the outfitter and he is planning on pressing charges against the rancher if he can get the State to move off its ass.

Really disappointing.

Holy cow.  Where was this?

Alaska? Damn.

No, this was NE Oregon. The BLM asked the outfitter to guide on the property, he did really well for a couple years, because they knew the rancher was running illegal hunting trips on it. He owns the 33,000 acres surrounding the property and is using lop tags on it. That is a big Nono!

Here is my write up of the Alaska trip.

So here is the good the bad and the ugly about our Alaska trip. We arrived at Itvilik Lake around noon only one day late going in. Upon arrival my son spotted two big bulls on a ridge and one bull on the lakeside. The unfortunate thing is that the bull on the lakeside had a broken shoulder and was struggling. My nephew ended up shooting that bull the day after we arrived.

The first morning we got up early had breakfast and hike to the top of the nearest peak to start glassing. I immediately found a group of six bulls on a ridge line 3 1/2 miles away. Even from that far away I could see they were very nice balls. My son and I decided to make a move on them. After crossing a little over 2 miles of the hardest terrain I have ever crossed we were within 1200 yards of the bulls. They were bedded until a wolf crossed underneath them and bumped them another mile and a half away. I figured the game was up so we decided to work on the wolf. It sat 1000 yards away from us and started howling. I howled back which got the rest of his pack howling. All told there were six adults and four pups in the pack. We couldn’t get within 700 yards of them.

In the meantime my son had been keeping track of the Caribou bulls They started working towards us at a very slow pace. He figured out where he thought they would come within range and we hiked to that spot. Sure enough the bulls came within 440 yards of us setting us up for a shot. When we were ready to make our move my son asked “should we bring our packs“? I told him to leave them while we made our move. We got within 200 yards of the bulls and my son made 2 shots on the nicest bull hitting with both shots. It took one more shot after following for 150 yards to put the bull down. This is when the shit hit the fan. As we pursued the bull the fog set in. We turned around to get our packs and they were nowhere to be seen. We searched 45 minutes and being dehydrated I decided the safe thing was to return to camp. The next morning my son my nephew and his friend hiked up, found the packs and field dressed the bull. That night we ate some of the finest game meat I’ve ever eaten.

When time came to fly out, three days late due to weather, I checked the meat and it smelled rancid. I was devastated as was my son. We packed the meat out and contacted the state troopers to report it. I felt sick over losing the meat. Then the miracles started rolling. We were one of four groups who were past due and all trying to get on a plane to Fairbanks. We weren’t supposed to get out until Friday or Saturday at earliest. The owner of the aviation company knew we had a Hunt beginning on Friday so when the next plane landed he went out and talk to the pilot. Next thing I knew an employee was telling me get your shit in the truck! We had no idea what was going on. We stuffed trash bags full of stuff and headed to the truck. We got out to the plane and the owner was talking to the pilot kicking stones and bullshitting. He looks at me and says “is that your stuff? Get it in the plane“. We loaded our stuff in the plane and got on board in disbelief. The pilot had four people to pick up at the next stop and gave us two of the four seats. At the next stop he got out of the plane and yelled “I’ve got two seats“. I was happy he didn’t explain why.

We landed at Fairbanks and had a ton of crap to deal with. We couldn’t find any way to transport all of it and the game and the heads and we were struggling. One of the gals at the air carrier came out and said “it looks like you need a truck. Take mine and bring it back when you’re done then I’ll run you over to Alaska Air“. We got the heads to the taxidermist and the meat to the processor. While at the processor the state trooper called and asked where we were. I told him and he said good I can be there in three minutes. When he arrived he interviewed us, watched a video I had taken, and had a long serious talk about the consequences of wasting meat. Which included jail time, steep fines and losing all of your equipment as well as the animals. After talking for a while he figured out that it was a stupid mistake but just that a mistake. He cited me for wasting game meat and we headed off to the airport. He did let my son keep the rack.

Next I had to change my flights to get home ASAP. I searched up Alaska air and clicked on the phone number to make the changes. Unfortunately I got a scam site where they could change your itinerary but only if you clicked a link they sent you to “confirm the purchase“. I refused to click the link which really pissed them off. By this time I was in the airport and they were threatening to cancel my reservations if I didn’t click their link. I went to the gate agent and explained what was going on. She just laughed and said “they can’t cancel your reservation if I check you in right now“. She save the day and we got home on time incredibly.

Two hours later I was on the road to my next hunt. iPhone rings and it’s the Alaska state police. “Steve we have a problem, I had a trooper check your meat and he said it’s fine. Something on the outside of the game bags was rancid causing the smell but the meat is good.“ I immediately called the air carrier who said they had people who wanted meat so I was able to donate it. The trooper followed up with a call and said now we have a dilemma. “I wrote you a citation for wasting game meat but the meat is good.“ I was like OK? He says “I guess I’m gonna have to tear up the citation“. Can’t say how professional this guy was through the whole process.

So that was the finish of an absolutely incredible hunt in Alaska with my son, my nephew and his friend. Totally epic and everyone agreed the greatest adventure any of us have ever been on. FWIW, hiking on the tundra is exhausting! We averaged 1 mile per hour for the whole trip. It is like hiking on a 2’ think sprung with random depths and bowling balls that push your feet in random directions. Brutal!

Great write up man.  Glad you had at least half turn out well.

That Oregon land owner was a POS and occasionally (once) I have run into conflict out in W Colo over access.  Land owner thought he could lock out some prime elk hunting for his outfitter with a gate on his grazing lease, which was BLM, locked.  Took CPW a couple days, but the lock came off.

I have run into some pretty cool landowners too.  One old guy saw us glassing the elk on his ranch property that adjoined FS land that we were hoping would jump the fence.   He came up on an ATV and asked us what we were up to.  Told him and he said just come on thru his gate.  Took two cows and were very grateful for that.
Nothing like humping tundra for meat, we were able to back the truck up to them.

This is becoming a bigger and bigger problem.  I have seen it in Montana while deer hunting and we are now dealing with it in Idaho as well.  Hope Oregon does something with blatant harassment.

Yes there are some really nice ranchers out there. It’s the ones who have monetized the hunt that are often the a holes.

Walking on tundra is a really good work out.
Slow and steady wins the race on tundra.


We have had blood and stomach contents sour bags before. Especially in wet weather.
Have you seen the bags that are treated to keep flies off and help the meat not sour?

If you have tundra brush available use that to lay the meat on and rotate the meat. It will keep it off the ground.
Can even smoke the meat if needed with the tundra brush.


Some state fish cops are nice and some are real assholes.

Looking forward to more pics.

A lot of that shit going on in MT with all the new ranchers.

Does Oregon have hunter harassment Laws?
You should also file a complaint with the state and talk to hunting groups.

Thanks for the tips. If we go back we will use them. After the fact I thought I could have made a bed of rocks to offer airflow. We did rotate the meat twice a day.

The State Trooper was very professional. I am glad we got an experienced professional one.

Yes he was in direct violation of the law. But it is going to be his word, “just working the ranch” vs ours. I don’t have a lot of faith in the state.

The really good news is how the outfitter handled the situation. He stepped right up and offered to replace the hunt with a horseback hunt next season. I have liked this outfitter since I first spoke with him. Solid dude!

Gotta be hard trying to prove some AH like that was interfering with a public land hunt.  Sorry again to hear that.  Some of those pricks need a tune up bad.   They will meet some bubba who will be happy to accommodate them someday.

Sons velvet euro arrived today. It is still an amazing animal. He chose well! The flash is washing out the depth of the brown in the velvet. I’ve never seen velvet like this before. Major kudos to the taxidermist who did the work and the guy who built the shipping crate. Not a single piece of loose velvet in the crate.
Attached File