Alaska...or Africa?

[KodiakBeer]

The Mulchatna herd has gone from about 200,000 to 100,000 animals in the last ten years. That's still a lot of animals. The trick though (as I spelled out in my note) is to make sure you're flown onto the herd and not just some general geographic locale. You have to make that arrangement with the charter guys, or they'll just drop you into a lake where maybe the herd was last week.

The thing about the Mulchatna herd is that they are the largest caribou in North America. An average bull in that herd would be a trophy bull anywhere else.

 

[AStone]

The Mulchatna herd has gone from about
200,000 to 100,000 animals in the last ten years.

Why do you think that happened?

 

[jim in Anchorage]

The Mulchatna herd has gone from about 200,000 to 100,000 animals in the last ten years. That's still a lot of animals. The trick though (as I spelled out in my note) is to make sure you're flown onto the herd and not just some general geographic locale. You have to make that arrangement with the charter guys, or they'll just drop you into a lake where maybe the herd was last week.

The thing about the Mulchatna herd is that they are the largest caribou in North America. An average bull in that herd would be a trophy bull anywhere else.

Since the thread title is Africa or Alaska I assume a non resident is asking.

GMU 17-NO non resident caribou season in the entire unit.


GMU 19-a-b closed to NR. c-d one bull.


GMU 9-NO NR season.

The non resident is pretty much shut out of the traditial Mulchatna herd range.
They over ate the winter range. The overgrazing at the 200,000 animal level was so bad F&G allowed same day airborne hunts to try to thin the herd.

 

[KodiakBeer]

I didn't know those GMU's were non-resident now. Too bad. They certainly weren't in the past and I had no idea that had changed. I've always had the best luck in 19.

The reason that the herds (all herds) rise and fall is just the normal cycle of nature. Wolves and bears kill a lot more caribou than people. Every 15 or 20 years a herd will crash, mostly because of predator pressure. When that happens, the predators also die off, which gives the caribou herd a chance to grow again. The predators slowly catch up until they overkill the herds and there is another crash.

There's a 30 year study of the relationship between wolves and moose on Isle Royale in Lake Superior which documents this rather dramatically. The island made a good laboratory for this because it's a limited system without hunting, so you can't blame people. It's a boom and bust cycle that's been going on between predators and prey since the dawn of time.

 

[jim in Anchorage]

Well it certainly wasn't hunting. During the glory years of the late 90s I had 10 good landing spots on the GPS and the only other hunters I encountered where $1000 a day guides clients. Needless to say not many of them. Of course predators played a role but I think over grazing of the food resource was a bigger factor. Things grow back mighty slow over there.

It is possible the bulk of the herd simply merged with the Arctic herds.

 

[KodiakBeer]

Well, caribou eat lichens and lichens do grow pretty fast. Even back when the numbers were growing by leaps and bounds, you could fly over thousands of square miles and not see a single caribou. Then, you'd reach a zone where there were bands as far as the eye could see.

I still don't know why caribou do what they do or go where they go, beyond the obvious seasonal movements. We were camped on a rise above tundra lake one year with all our tags filled, just watching them go by for a couple of days. There was one of those little alder lined boggy creeks about 4 feet wide in their path, and each band would reach that creek where there was an obvious crossing from years past, then turn and walk a half mile to another crossing and cross there. Then they'd walk back along the creek on the other side until they reached the crossing they'd rejected and continue on the same path.

We just figured that the first band to reach that crossing avoided it for some reason and every other band just followed their lead. It made no sense at all since if there was wolf scent or something, why walk back to that same crossing on the other side?

They make no sense...

 

[AStone]

They make no sense...

Kinda like humans, especially politicians.

 

[terryknight]

Kinda like humans, especially politicians.

now that's funny

 

[jeepmor]

From reading this thread, I'd choose Alaska based on financial outlay and ability to keep the meat.

 

[AStone]

Alaska will also be livable by mid-century.

Africa will not.

 

[blackops]

Africa would be an awesome trip, but I would probably go to Alaska. Not sure what it is, but I have also though of Alaska as a majestic place.

 

[Cosmoline]

Just don't come up here in March or April*. It's not so much majestic as filthy, nasty, icy and ugly. To paraphrase the great Mr. Whitekeys, breakup is where you can be knee-deep in icy mud and still have dust blowing in your face. My left nostril split open yesterday and I have an anomalous infection in my eye. My feet hurt. I have to walk like Grandpa Simpson because the streets are so icy. Seven months of trash is blowing around in the winds. I have such bad cabin fever I've been learning how cricket is played. Even the moose are a little crazy right now.

Good time to go to Tanzania, I think.

Don't come here until after about mid-May, when the last of the ice has left the lower areas and is dying in the hills. That's when spring bear start to come down to eat grass. And there are very few insects. Plus the heavy overgrowth hasn't come in yet.


*Seriously

 

[Cryogaijin]

Africa, easy.

It is easy because I hunt Alaska every year.

 

[jgiehl]

I too would say Africa....
Of course I would also say I'd go hunting in Alaska as well
Either way I think the question would have to be, which hunt would be the most memorable and also get a lot of pictures to show off that hunt?

 

[CraigC]

Africa, hands down. Alaska is a beautiful place and I'd love to go back but I don't sit and daydream about hunting Alaska the way I do Africa. More hunting and more critters per dollar spent appeals to me, as well as the whole experience. I know guys who have spent $10,000 on an elk hunt only to go home empty handed. You can take a lot of plains game for ten grand. Were I a rich eccentric, I'd spend six months to a year hunting Africa. I'd go to Australia to hunt feral donkeys, horses, camels and everything else that doesn't belong there before I'd blow ten grand stateside.

I mean the meat isn't everything, but I'm not one to kill something just to hang its head on the wall. It just doesn't seem quite right to me.

The meat gets used either in-camp or by the locals. It does not get wasted. Actually, there is probably less wasted than any stateside hunting because native Africans use more of the critter than we do.

 

[Cob]

AFRICA or ALASKA?

Helll, DO Both! You only live once!
7K? go ahead and spend some money, and have some fun in the process... Splurge a bit, You will be glad you did...

 

[doc2rn]

Been to Africa 4 times, wouldnt go back even if you paid me! Alaska all the way!

 

[MAC USMC]

STATEMENT OF FACTS

In Alaska there are no poisonous SNAKES; no warring tribes killing each other; no highly contagious diseases; no bribes required; no poisonous frogs and no difficulties with English communication. Your game meat will not ROT before processing and your trophies will be handled by professionals in the business. ALASKA is part of the UNITED STATES and you are a protected American citizen, not a visiting alien who has NO LOCAL RIGHTS.

Try filing a civil law suit in Africa over mis-represented or non-existant promises to perform services you already paid for, but did not receive.

GO TO ALASKA - MEET SOME GREAT PEOPLE - HAVE A WONDERFUL TIME - BE PLEASED!

 

[coloradokevin]

I'm not a trophy hunter, so I may not be the best one to voice my opinion in this thread.

Personally, I'd go for an Alaskan caribou/moose hunt! First, Alaska seems to be the last frontier-like place in these United States. But, you also don't need to deal with the problems of Africa, and you'd be able to bring your meat home with you.

I don't hunt anything that I don't intend to eat, and I haven't ever had much of an interest in shooting an elephant or big cat. I grew up in a deer hunting state, and hunted deer back there. Now I live in a great elk hunting state, but I still need to get around to doing an elk hunt out here. I'd love to go on a moose or caribou hunt someday, but I don't have much interest in bears.

For me, deer, elk, caribou, and moose are all tasty animals... and that's enough to land them in my crosshairs! Alaska or the western United States would be my choice hunting ground.

Incidentally, it shouldn't cost you $7,000 to come hunt elk in Colorado. I've had out-of-state friends come here for elk hunts on numerous occasions, and none of them ever spent even half of that amount!

 

[NickEllis]

I took my cousin from out of state up to the Aspen area and he shot a nice young bull on his third day. I was hosting him, but I think all said and done he got from his front porch and back again for under a grand.

That being said, I dream of Africa...