Of Mosin's and Winter hunting.

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caribou

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This was just me and Agnes , doing our March thang.....we were mid hunt when a rock under the snow made all efforts point to getting home.Our bodys and the need for parts demanded such.

Was too bad, as the day before , right before sundown, we crossed tracks with a Bear that was actually raiding our camp gear, so we followed 'em, took the night off and apon recommencing, nailed that rock with our lower left A arm.

soooo with a 6 foot steel bar, a blow torch and a sledge hammer, we untweeked the tweek from the A arm as best we could and proceeded homeward over the course 3 days at 20 mph, pulling our traps, piling firewoods and breaking camp.Friends came and took our 8 fat Caribou home to Noorvik, so we hauled only 4 home ourselfs.

We had fun though, and , nicely enough , we have a stash of gas down there, and a replacement A arm on my front room floor :D

Nothing like being alone with the wife on a Caribou skin sleeping bag in our tepee, skins and meats all done quite well.


500 or so Caribou.....the dark lines and dots in the background are all Caribou, hundreds of small bands we were amongst.
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Our friendly neighborhood Brown Bear chewed up a cashe of camping equipment we left behind the day before. Chewed up a steel rifle case that stayed locked, our cooking pot set, 2 5 gallon gas jugs that were full (he musta loved that stuff) and he popped a propane 1 lb'r......wish I seen that! he musta been hungry as he ate our food box, plastic tape, cardboard and all, with frozen Caribou meats, dryed fishes, bread, chocolate and coffee.
We had left the gear because we were planning a Mountain top steak out for 3 or so days, when less than 5 miles from camp we became swamped in Caribou. Agnes dropped the fat females we were after and the load back to camp filled the sled. we had worked till dark and that Bear hit our cashe first, then the gutpiles and stack of discarded Caribou hides from the catch....

Then he buried the mess ~~LOL!!~~ and we hit his trail.


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I set traps and gatherd fire wood for the upcomming Spring. Gots lotsa Fox's, and one day, whilst wacking wood on the beachside, the wife rode ourt and came back with a nice Kusigiq type Seal. We rode out and I took her picture, but we left the Seal by the wood pile ~~LOL!!~~

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Same 'ol tepee, same **** great hunting grounds.
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Nice write-up and photos! Thanks for sharing with us.

Geno
 
Looks like a hell of a time. Thanks for sharing the story and pictures.
 
April 10, theres a " first season wrap up" episode a 9pm on Nat Geo. Something we didnt know about till today, and the second season begins on April 17th.
weve been at our usual selfs :D
 
I hope this one makes it on "Life Below Zero". :D Would make for a great episode, how to survive by good ol' redneck engineering. :D I envy you guys, but I'm way to old to get along very well up there. My joints hurt just lookin' at the pix. LOL!

Only thing in season down here now is rabbit and squirrel. I enjoy chasing squirrel, but they're not exactly like chasing caribou. :rolleyes: Of course, there are hogs, but they haven't moved through here since October. Not sure where they went. But, hey, some states have squirrel and rabbit seasons and don't have hogs, so I can't complain TOO much. :D Sure would be fun being mobile on the snow chasing caribou, though. You guys got the LIFE up there! I'm glad we didn't have the net 30 years ago. Someone posting such threads might have convinced me to chuck it all and move north. :D But, not being a Native, I'd probably still not be able to chase caribou this time of year, right?
 
It appears that "Murphy's Law" is alive and well in Alaska. Anything that can go wrong will go wrong at the worst possible time. Good luck,and good hunting Caribou! :cuss:
 
Yeh, Murphy's law just hit my lawn tractor.:banghead: Oh, well, I got a year out of it for $350. But, that's another story.

See, if I lived where Caribou lives, or even where Art lives, I wouldn't need no stinkin' lawn tractor. But, there'd be other stuff for Mr. Murphy, I suppose.
 
Hunting Caribou is not an issue for anyone, the lands owned by local Native folks and in common, as shareholders, by their land manageing corperation is simply "private property" and permission to hunt on such is easy to get, via their offices in Kotzebue, but most lands are federal parks, wilderness and wildlife refuges, State lands and such too.

"Natives only" applies only to hunting Sea Mammles, Walrus, Whales, Seals, Otters and Polar Bears......... thats a Federal Thang.....

Natives up this way own the lands in common, and therefore its wide open and fenceless and roadless, and thats why its Huntable as it is with great herds and such, all in balance with its natural self.

Murphy often drives my machines, Im just a passenger to Fate.....
 
Thanks for letting us see the life you live. Everyday is an adventure for you. So it seems to me anyway.
 
New Season LBZ

The first episode is in the can. Sue finally killed the bear that was stalking her and ridded herself of the demons with the bear. She actually sighted in her bear rifle and only took 2 shots to kill him.The Hailstones were just doing their thing. Eric is back and Glenn is gone hopefully forever.Andy must have taken anger management since he did not blow up at Kate while putting the fish wheel that he wasn't going to use anymore in the river.:evil:

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The first episode is in the can. Sue finally killed the bear that was stalking her and ridded herself of the demons with the bear. She actually sighted in her bear rifle and only took 2 shots to kill him.The Hailstones were just doing their thing. Eric is back and Glenn is gone hopefully forever.Andy must have taken anger management since he did not blow up at Kate while putting the fish wheel that he wasn't going to use anymore in the river.

I agree with your assessment 100 percent. :D Now, Sue seems to have a real flair for melodrama, should consider the theater, perhaps. :D If she's going to keep living up there, she might take some marksmanship classes, but seems to be improving on her own. Amazing how well one can do when their rifle shoots straight, though. :D She took her shot from a rest, prone, good thing, too. She's no Eric, but she's improving. Of course, Eric is a licensed hunting guide. I like his segments, knows his stuff.
 
Just a comment on Sue's semi-automatic bear rifle. I can't seem to figure out the caliber. The cases look large enough to be 30/06 to me. Something tells me it is a 308. Anybody wish to comment? I am asking because it bothers me.:cuss:
 
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