North Slope Caribou

[partisan1911]

I had a sheep hunt planned last fall but decided against because my wife and I were expecting a little hunter at the same time. Alexander Hunter was born August 8.....right when sheep hunting was kicking off! All in all in what a very good prize.

After the little hunter was all settled in the family started to come for visits. Of course my bro-in-law wanted to come and visit the little guy himself so we figured if he was making the trip up we might as well do a quick hunt up North. The weather turned out unseasonably warm so we didn't see as many caribou as we liked. Regardless, it is too far of a trip to go home empty handed so hunted hard. The furthest shot was by Daryl at 680yds with a .338L using 300gr matchkings. The results of that combination made quick work of the caribou. I was using a lightweight .338L using 225gr accubonds. My first shot was at 400yds. My second shot was 450yds. I was not impressed with having to take a second shot. The accubonds did not perform as I had wanted. Both shots were good hits broadside right behind the front shoulder.

We harvested three bulls making it a short but successful hunt. Daryl headed home to Washington to do some more hunting. He ended up getting a black bear, whitetail, blacktail and an elk. He had a fantastic season to say the least. Here are a couple pics of the trip up North and the trophies.

This Spring we are heading to PWS for a coastal brown/black bear hunt.

Long drive drinking a lot of water.

 

[JARHEAD1371]

Congrats on the baby boy and your hunt. Thanks for sharing the pics and story.

 

[trebark]

took a fox with the bow...nice.

 

[partisan1911]

That is our friend Matt, he hunts caribou with the recurve bow as well. We met him up on the slope where he and his dad were hunting. His dad ended up taking a big caribou with his bow.

 

[HUAINAMACHERO]

Congrats!!!
Specially in your baby boy. My baby boy was borned this past monday also. Good times coming for us, hunting with the little kid is a BIG dream for me.

Very nice story, I bet you had to do a lot of work to get all that meat out. One question, why do you take the complete skull out instead of just the part that holds the antlers? Do you that to do an european mount?

Anyway, thanks for sharing it with us, very nice pics.
Keep us posted on your coastal brown/black bear hunt.

 

[partisan1911]

My little boy turns 7 months in a couple days. Every day has been awesome with him. In fact I can't recall any bad days, even when he cries or wakes up in the middle of the night.

Neither my goats or caribou are record book animals but I don't have much to contribute to this website as far as technical knowledge. I offer what I can since I take so much information from here.

I did a European mount with one of the small caribou since I already had a big shoulder mounted caribou. The big reason we didn't cut the scull plates off was because........we were being lazy and they don't weigh that much. We cut the skull plate off of Daryl's at camp because he was doing a shoulder mount.

The terrain is horrible up there! It is flat but it is like walking on basketballs on top of a trampoline. After the shot we took quick pictures, butchered up the caribou and started walking so we could get back to camp at a decent hour.

We have around ten days set aside to do the bear hunt in the Spring. Daryl is doing most of the planning for the hunt. I expect a couple nice trophies as long as the weather does its part.

 

[Long Dog]

Young Hunter does not know what he has to look forward to yet, but with a name like that he is going to need to be a bonafide hunting machine. I am sure we can arrange that.

Bro, nice picture of you at the Arctic Circle sign. We may want to censor that picture.

Always a good time hunting with you and the bear hunt should be a great time. I look forward to it. 45 days and counting, should be another experience of a lifetime.