First thing I thought was............... What`s the limit on Caribou`s up there.
Did you shoot them while they were still in the water ?
Do you have some kind of "special" hunting privilege ?
How about filling in the blanks............................
The herd of Caribou we hunt is the Westrn Arctic Caribou Herd, and is 225,000 strong right now. Mid winter rains has reduced the surviving calf rate and while they are healthy, they are declineing slowly. Thats quite normal. We have 9,000 people in a Game Unit thats larger in size than Indiana and gas is 8$ a gallon here, so we cut out as many middle men and get our meats ourselfs. We are losing 8-9 minutes a day and just starting to freeze up, so we can get through the comming Arctic darkness, and thin ice, no snows.... untill we hunt actively again in deeply cold late February, when theres long enough day light to go some distances from the village. We stock up on basics, like meats and alot of what we haven't eaten from the Summer, and most of that is dryed or frozen in a freezer, but this meat is fat and fresh.I cleaned and inspected the meats myself.My wife and daughter directed me to the Caribou they wanted to look over and I drove to em, comming right up behind them, a perfect brain shot indeed.
Shot from 5 feet away, with a .22lr, no pass throughs to other Caribou, no ricochets, no loud noises, just "pithing" at its most humane a .22 hole through the brain. No sick ones, no wounded, none get away and we limit out 5 per day, each. We did 2 trips and all was well to get such home.We also know the safe Caribou Bull capacity of our boat (10) and the time out was alotta fun.
We dont have any "special privilege" we are hunting under Subsistence laws inthe State of AK, quite legally. We hunted theose two days and burned 30 gallons of gas getting it all out and back, and again. We can use a .22 on Caribou in the rivers legally
The WACHerd passes by or within 50 miles of us twice a year on their Northern Spring and Southern Fall Migration. We travel to and camp among them in late Feb or March again, and the fur that follows also. 5 per day is manageable for the average guy, and keeps a fella from having to repeatedly go out, but to get whats needed as soon as possible. Like Salmon, when they are around, there are lots, when they are not, well, they are not. The herds are always moving, they never stop. Tomorrow may have them 20 more miles away.
what were up against is Rut, and it causes the meat to become disgusting and inedible. Dogs wont eat it. Its awful , but we watch for the signs that say its imminent (stop eating, stomach full of water) and its over. Actually its over 4 days ago for our Herd.
It is that the Caribou dont like being in willows and such and dont linger but basically walk from dense willow trails to the water and keep going. The emerge from the river and walk straight into the dense willows and dont relax untill they are on an open hillside and food they like at their feet. Also, We dont have to pack the loads back over the Tundra , either and risk ankle/foot/back injury's.We just select, POP! and count the Bulls shot or lanced. Then go back and tie the floating Bulls to the gunnels and take them to willows laid on sand, grass or rocks and make clean meats
Then lift into the boat close at hand and go home. Best hunt of the year, we can take extra comforts, arnt far from home and we get alotta Meats for the gas , and besides, the kids love the time out from school, so everyones happy in the end, and well fed to boot.
I have posted quite a bit of this before, Im sure the storys are searchable
