I have been back for a month now, but hit the ground running as soon as I landed, so I finally got a chance to post this.
I went on a two-man drop hunt for Caribou (Western Arctic Herd) with a friend of mine in late August. We flew out of Kotzebue, Alaska with RAM Aviation (who, by the way, run a fantastic, professional air service). We were dropped off along the Noatak River, Brooks Range. We set up camp along the river, setting up our tent & kitchen in the willows, and filling our collapsible water jug in the river (we were told we should not have to worry about Giardia in this area, which I am told is not entirely true)...
We began glassing the following day...
The weather was in the high 30's-low 40's...We were there two days before we saw the first Caribou, and they were 2 miles away from where we were (two miles from camp)... Along the way, we saw a beautiful bull Moose, Grizzlies, a Wolf, all kinds of Birds, and breath-taking scenery/colors across the Tundra...
On the third morning, we woke up in the early morning hours, before light, to the sound of river rocks being scattered around right outside our tent...during a long, suspenseful wait, we listened attentively to try to decipher what creature had caused the sounds...at Dawn's early light, we discovered a rather large set of fresh tracks belonging to what must have been a Sow Grizzly, and those of her (yearling) cubs...I figured they most likely were walking the river, and when they came across our campsite (nestled into the stunted willows along the riverbank) they spooked and scattered the rocks...
Days three and four found us spotting small herds scattered around, observing their movement and trying to figure out stalk maneuvers in a landscape with so very little cover high enough to hide a human (unless they're low-crawling)...I got to make a really good stalk on four excellent bulls, which began at around 200 yds. The bulls had bedded in a tight group while being glassed, and I decided to get after them. They were in blueberry brush (ubiquitous there), up on the edge of a hilltop knoll, with only their antler tops visible, which made the first 100 yds. go quickly....checking the steady wind to make sure I still had the crossing left-to-right, I kept moving...at that point I hunched down as close to the ground as I could, while still moving as quickly as I could (not terribly quick), dodging from brush-clump to brush-clump until I made it to around 75 yards... from there it was a low-crawling affair, pushing the bow ahead of me as I went...moving slowly, praying that they would not get up, I made it to 17 yds., when the fletching on one of my Kaiser Kustom arrows raked a blueberry branch...the closest bull's antler tops quickly turned in my direction...I froze...
Topic: 2014 Alaskan Caribou Bowhunt (Read 1758 times)
