kybuck20032001

I am thinking about flying to alaska renting a car and hunting caribou, anyone know of an area with good numbersthat someone like me might have a chance of taking a caribou

Pygmy

About the only place where you can do that with a reasonable chance of success is the Haul Road ( pipeline corridor) north of Fairbanks...

Hunting within 5 miles of the road is bow only...If you want to hunt with a rifle you have to hike 5 miles from the road across bug infested tundra...A long way to haul an animal back to the truck...

Caribou are unpredictable critters and it's kind of hit and miss as far as seeing animals..Also will be lots of other hunters doing the same thing you are..Not exactly a pristine wilderness adventure..

My advice if you want to experience Alaska is to save your $$ and hire an air taxi to drop you in a good area and do a DIY hunt, or save a few more $$ and go on a guided hunt...

Alaska ain't like the lower 48...In most cases you don't just get in the truck and go hunting, at least not with a good chance of success..Even Alaskan residents have to pay to be taken by boat or light airplane into the better hunting areas...

kybuck20032001

I THOUGHT THE HAUL ROAD HAD FAIR NUMBERS OF CARIBOU, WOULD A BOW HUNT A GOOD OPTION? THANKS FOR ADVICE

dayna0306

I did the haul road hunt in 2001,I had a great time and we both got good bulls .I like to walk so the 5 miles in and out every day didn't bother me.Take or rent a raft to get across the Sag.the ground is higher across the river making it eazier to get the 5 miles away and a gps to know when your good. I had less then $2000 in the whole hunt from pittsburgh to fairbanks and then the 500 mile in the rental suv.Some more advice ,had to run a grizz off the next day to get the antlers and cape back from one bull. Take your own beer, the dead end towncalled dead horse is dry.You will have toUPS your antlers home from fairbanks ,thanks to the restictions of the airlines,the cape is taken home as luggage.One more thing ,you will need a credit card for gas in dead horse.The pump will not take cash.Goodluck and if I can help let me know.


[/align]

kybuck20032001

Did you see many caribou while traveling the highway and while hunting? How did you decide where to park and walk the 5 miles? How long should I give myself for the hunt? What time of the year did you go I want to make sure the antlers are hard. I want to thank you for your help, I have tried to get some info about alaska for a long time. Everybody usally says get an outfitter, hire a fly in service.

dayna0306

I saw very few along the road but I only wanted one. Could have shot a couple with the bow but didn't take it.There are pullouts here and there ,that is were we camped by the suv . Made about 3 camps maybe 100 miles apart .I spotted a few across the river a few miles away about 30 miles south of dead horse and crossed the river and stayed on high ground eazier walking and less water to slog though. The hunt was 14 days ,that gave me about 9 days of hunting.Do not tell the rental company were you are taking their ride to. I think we went early sept. the velvet was off 50% of the bulls and you could strip the velvet from the one that aren't. I took a preservative to save the velvet and did ,my buddies had the velvet hanging off. There were no bugs to speek of ,lucky for us.After that hunt ,If you are like me you will be returning for moose.


[/align]

AK Jeff

Most of the replies have hit on the basics, but here's some more info.

You won't be renting a car and traveling anywhere that has caribou. All of the rental car companies forbid taking cars up the Haul Road or any other gravel highways (there aren't many up here). You'll have to rent a large truck and that'll be considerably more expensive than renting a Ford Focus.

Dayna has given you a lot of good advice, but things have changed in a few ways in the seven years since he did that hunt. It'll cost you a lot more than $2k to do the hunt. Your non-res caribou tags and hunting license will run the better part of a grand (if you buy two caribou tags). I'd expect to pay close to a grand in airfare to get to Fairbanks as the rates are skyrocketing lately. You should expect diesel to run close to $5/gallon or more in Deadhorse and Coldfoot and you'll have to plan ahead to bring plenty of reserve fuel as fuel stations are very few and far between.

Expect to have tons of company. That hunt has been way over publicized and as a result there's no shortage of people that go up there. You'll be hard pressed to find a turnout that doesn't have at least a couple of camps parked in it and the caribou can be very sporadic. Predicting caribou is harder than predicting the weather. If you want to hunt hard-horn the biggest bulls should be shedding their velvet in late August/early September. Be fore-warned that that is also the most popular time for people to hunt up there so your likelihood of running into some yeah-hoos is pretty good. There's always some morons up there that have heard caribou are stupid and you can walk right up to them. Invariably the end up blowing somebody else's hard worked stalk by just walking or even running straight at them. Trust me, it happens every year. Last year I drove the 60 miles of road south of Deadhorse after work one evening. I stopped counting, but I saw in the neighborhood of 40 camps, and I saw a whopping 1 caribou. That was a dink of a bull and there were five guys converging on him from all sides. It was a pretty sad sight really, and in the end the bull took off and nobody got him.

Don't short yourself for time. Alaska isn't conducive to weekend warriors. The drive alone is a hard days drive each way, and that's if the road conditions are good and there aren't any washouts. You should plan at least five days of hunting if you want to be successful. The caribou can be thick as fleas one minute and then gone for a week. The five-mile walk is an option, but don't plan on it unless you're in damn good shape. It's not a bad walk out, but packing through tundra with multiple loads of caribou meat and antlers is absolutely miserable.

I hope that didn't completely rain on your parade; it's just better to hear the short and skinny of it before you get a bunch of money and high expectations tied into the trip. Frankly, for how much you'll have to invest to get that far you might as well spend the extra money on a fly out so you can have some solitude and a more Alaskan experience. Holler if you have any more questions and I'll do my best to answer them.

AK Jeff

joshw020

Jeff, do the odds get any better if yougo all the way up the highway. . . to P???do Bay? (I have no clue how to spell it [8D]) . . . I mean that as in less2 legged company/more animals?

kybuck20032001

Hey, thanks for the tips. From the sound of things I would have to get at least five miles from the road. Would there be any good streams or rivers in that area to float.

dayna0306

Have you thought about moose hunting ,you can do a compo humt but not on the tunda[ no moose].From what Jeff said I am lucky I did the hunt in 01,we saw maybe 4 camps in 200 mile when I was there,and a few road hunters.In 03 I returned to moose hunt .I took a air taxi out of dillingham in unit 20 ,out of 3 of us we got one bull moosea 58" and a large bull caribou. After working for 2 years I returned for moose for myself with 3 buddies in 05,I shot a 58" and a black bear,my friend shot a small bou .The added cost of the air taxi made the hunt around $3,000 but to fly over the alaska country in a float plain was something I will charish the rest of my life.From what I hear, that caribou heard is in a bad way lately.My advice would be to save up and do the fly in,Thanks for the heads up AK Jeff.


[/align]