A Caribou for Luke

[Jerry Russell]

I have a story to tell. If you have read my stuff in the past you know I like to try and paint a pretty good picture. This story is about a tradbow hunt with my son. It would be his first hunt for caribou in Alaska.  Many of you have hunted around my son and or have read of his hunts. He is just twenty years old but has a great deal of experience bowhunting. He took his first deer with a bow at age 8 and has taken 11 species big game species with his recurve.  He is passionate about bowhunting and is one of the truest sportsmen you may ever meet.  He has always wanted to hunt Alaska and this is where this story takes off.  This new Tradgang format is new to me so be patient with me as I try to navigate it and get some pictures posted....

  Caribou have always been an addiction for me. It all started when I read the adventures
of Fred Bear in Alaska when I was just a boy. It started a fire that still burns hot in me
today. I made my first bow hunt for caribou in 1998 and just about lost my mind in that
wild place. I would return many times over the next 15 years. After taking my dream bull
of 402 P&Y in 2006, I decided to move on to other adventures around the world. As my
son Luke got older and my stories stirred his desire for Alaska, I knew the day would come
that I would take him there for a trad bow caribou hunt.

My biggest concern was getting him to an age that he could physically handle the rough
conditions and deal with any bear threat should the need arise. As he reached
graduation from high school, we began to plan for the trip. I had hunted an area of
Alaska that was a mixture of rugged tundra that is broken by some very steep and
rugged mountains. The caribou in this region will inhabit both landscapes. Approaching
the caribou on the open tundra is difficult as there is nearly zero cover but getting to the
high mountain bulls is difficult from a physical standpoint. Before every hunt that I have
made here, I have undertaken a serious training program. Even with this training,
Alaska will break your body down. Miles of walking the spongy tundra will sap your leg
strength and the steep mountain climbing, day after day will burn up your lungs. Simply put, there
is no "easy" caribou hunt.
A year of planning came and went, and we headed to Alaska where we met up with my
friend William Newman who would join us on this hunt. He was an experienced caribou
hunter, and after a couple days of jumper flights, we boarded our final float plane to our
destination on a remote river delta. The flight would carry us over rugged mountains
and glaciers where we would see countless mountain goats and brown bears. Watching
my son looking out over this beautiful landscape made for a great start to the trip. Over
and over he would exclaim how beautiful it was.

[Jerry Russell]

A few pictures of the trip

[Jerry Russell]

We would be on the lookout for caribou and would land at a nearby lake when we saw a
good concentration of them. Well, that was the plan but unfortunately, we flew for
almost an hour without seeing a single caribou. A knot started to form in my gut as we
approached the final possible area to hunt. If the caribou were not here we would have
no choice but to just set down and hunt at that location--caribou or no caribou. We were
just a minute from the final landing spot when the plane erupted with "CARIBOU!" A
herd of about 150 animals could be seen in a vast tundra area adjacent to the river
delta. As encouraging as this was to see them, I quickly did the calculation on the
distance from our camp. A LOT of walking would be required to reach them. Under
normal conditions, that would not be an issue, but I was unsure of my ability to cover
that much ground with a heavy pack. I need to back up a few days to explain...
Just a couple days before our trip, I had shot a whitetail with my bow and had brought
my tracking dog to assist with the recovery. We were crossing a beaver swamp and
came to a deep creek. The dog jumped the creek and I attempted to do the same. As I
pushed off for the jump my left leg sunk in the mud, but my body kept going. I felt
excruciating pain and knew instantly that I had seriously injured myself with a groin pull
or hernia. It was all I could do to make it back to the house. I immediately began to
think about the brutal nature of this hunt but knew that if I had to crawl across that
tundra, I was going to Alaska.

[Jerry Russell]

We landed the plane on the river delta and began to task of setting our camp. We were
fortunate to have a very small band of spruce trees to help with wind and some old logs
brought in by the tide made for a neat cooking area. Salmon were dying by the
thousands within feet of camp, so we knew bears would be abundant. This would turn
out to be true as they would come near camp both day and night but never presented
any problems.
After setting camp we climbed a bluff to set up a spotting scope to take inventory of the
valley. We were hopeful that we would find caribou on our side of the river but there was
none to be found. We could see the main herd some 3-4 miles away but getting to them
would present a couple challenges. First was the distance over the hip wreaking
tundra. The second problem was a river that had tidal influence. We had a tidal chart,
and this would control our movement across the one-mile wide river delta. The tides
would sweep in with unbelievable speed. The incoming water would come up the river
faster than a man could walk. Once across, you were there for 10-12 hours until low tide
returned.

[Jerry Russell]

Camp views. 

[Jerry Russell]

Day one of the hunt had us leaving camp after what can best be described as a
MONSTER breakfast prepared by William. That guy was a great cook and his
philosophy was to pack in the calories. We traveled together with a plan for Luke and
me to split from William after crossing the delta. As we approached the high bluff, I was
a half-step from sliding down to the river when a massive brown bear appeared just
below me on the beach. He was just 15 yards away and his size was incredible. I have
seen countless brown and grizzly bears on my hunts but never at this range. He was
unaware of us and walked along hunting for crabs and fish. It was a great experience to
share with my son. Moments later he looked up at up at us and turned and began to
walk toward our group. It was quite obvious he meant no harm and after a moment just
turned and walked away.

[Jerry Russell]

Big breakfast and BIG BEARS!

[Jerry Russell]

I had hunted the area many times and bears were normally pretty scarce. The timing of this hunt, however, had bears at just about every turn.  At no time did we ever feel a threat. We simply avoided them and they us.

 We dropped into the river delta and were happy to discover that it held firm sand and
traveling would be easier than we expected. My leg injury could be felt for sure and I
had no idea how long I would be able to carry on but to be completely honest, my hope
was to at least make it far enough to see my son take his first bull. His first chance
would come very quickly.
As we climbed out of the river delta and onto the tundra, a smaller group of about 20
caribou lay bedded before us. To say there is little cover is a big understatement. All
movement is via a belly crawl and "cover" is often no more than 12" willow brush or the
tiny undulations in the ground. We shadowed this group for some time and amazingly
we were able to get ahead of them as they approached the main group of 150
animals. With a quarter mile crawl, we inched into a group of 5-7 bulls. I held my breath
as Luke inched forward for the shot. It is difficult to estimate range in these open setting
and his shot passed an inch or so under the bull. Disappointed, we crawled away from
the big herd to regroup. Luke just kept repeating "this is awesome" over and over. I was
in heaven watching this unfold for him.

[Jerry Russell]

Difficult stalking conditions on the sparse tundra.

[Jerry Russell]

The remainder of the day we shadowed the big group hoping a bull or two would peel
off to a position for a stalk, but it never happened. I knew form previous experience that
attempting a stalk on these big herds often results in pushing the entire group out of
your valley. We would be content to be patient and wait on stragglers and lone bulls.
Day two found us across the delta early. We split from William and headed East. We
reached an elevated glassing point and saw the big herd where we had left them the
night before. They were in a flat area that did not provide for a possible stalk. We did
see a lone bull off to our West, but I was sure that William would soon spot him and
attempt a stalk. This would be the case and William took the bull later that morning.

[Jerry Russell]

William’s nice bull

[Jerry Russell]

We made a two-mile circular stalk to get down wind of the big group and we did that to
reach a small brush area in hopes that they would split up to bed during midday. We did
this and then completed the stalk with a quarter mile belly slide into the willows. We set
up in the small willows and waited. A smaller group of bulls broke away and began to
feed our way. There were two bulls that we wanted a crack at but with 20 sets of eyes
on us, we could only hunker down in tundra holes as the group split around us. We had
several bulls within range but elected to pass on them. We would be forced to lay there
for several hours before the herd would be far enough away for our exit. One
noteworthy encounter we had was a big brown bear picking up our track and following
us for a few hundred yards. I assumed that he was just curious and simply faded back
into the river grass when we showed ourselves to him. We ended the day by meeting
up with William and helping him to pack out his bull. Before dropping into the river delta,
Luke glassed six bulls high above us on a steep mountain side. I noted how rugged and
steep the mountain was and told Luke that we would keep these bulls in our back
pocket should we run out of options.

[Trenton G.]

This is awesome so far! Sounds like an incredible hunt.

[wayne rollinson]

I am really impressed with your story I feel I am there with you, there are some truly wild places left for us to be in awe and look forward to reading some more, regards Wayne.
ps I just looked at your web page, interesting to see you work a bavarian

[joe vt]

Great read!   I am looking forward to the rest of the story.

[Jerry Russell]

I am really impressed with your story I feel I am there with you, there are some truly wild places left for us to be in awe and look forward to reading some more, regards Wayne.
ps I just looked at your web page, interesting to see you work a bavarian

My Bavarian Mountain Hound is a phenomenal tracker for bear, deer, hogs and turkey. 

[Jerry Russell]

Day three began like the others with the long delta crossing. I was encouraged with the
pain level from my injury. I had developed a method of walking that reduced stress.
Only when my legs slid outward would I feel the blinding pain. I would go down like I
had been hammered to the ground and Luke would help drag me to my feet. I knew at
this point that I was going to make the rest of this adventure. There was absolutely no
way I was going to miss watching my son shoot his first caribou.
Glassing would not be needed today as the main group had moved to a point near the
river. We shadowed them, and they began to fragment for midday beds. I had used
this shadowing tactic many times with great success in the past. In some cases, waiting
on position, terrain and wind might take eight or more hours. Pushing the situation is not
something you want to do with so many eyes watching.
The group was in a terrible spot for a stalk due to their slight height advantage over us.
To get within our "shadow range" of 100-200 yards, we would have to drop our packs
and snake crawl 1/2 mile. That was bad enough but to complicate matters there was
significant water between us. This made the stalk miserable at times. We made the
crawl in about an hour and found ourselves following behind a group of 60 bulls as they
quartered away from us into the wind. I knew we would not be able to overtake them,
but my experience told me that at some point during the day they would try and rejoin
the main herd. I knew they would turn South when they made their move. Several hours
later, they made this move.
We were in a perfect position as all we needed to do was choose a couple good bulls
and make a lateral move to intercept them. There were two great bulls in the group and
we found ourselves at a great spot for the interception. We had a small ridge of about
two feet in height that allowed us to maneuver to where we wanted to be. As the bulls
got close I gave Luke a tiny bump in the ground to hide behind and I crawled ahead to a
spot where I could film his shot. This is where things got wild and crazy.

[wayne rollinson]

Hi Jerry I work one with deer and wild boar along with a Hannovarian they are superb workers it would be interesting to see them working bear, regards wayne

[Jerry Russell]

My YouTube channel- Russell Outdoor Guides,  has several videos of Bear Dog tracking bears. He has found them as far as 3.7 miles and regularly tracks them 20-30 hours post shot.  He saves the bacon of MANY bear hunters each year. A tremendous asset to my guide service.

[Jerry Russell]

Waiting out the bulls on the open tundra requires knowing when to push and when to get into position and wait them out.  A nap can pass the time...