liquidorange

is it possible to fly up to alaska rent a vehicle and hunt caribou on your own? i read in a hunting magazine a while back that you could drive a remote road called the HAUL ROAD and hunt and stalk your own caribou. is this a do-able hunt or am i dreaming?

wtexpipeliner

Yes you can do that. However you will never see a bou. Anywhere you can drive in Alaska has been shot out years ago, many years ago, 60 years ago. Or you can't hunt there.

I flew to Alaska 11 years ago in my own plane and still hired a bush pilot to take me to bou. Three hunters three bou.

My suggestion is to fly there commercially and hire a flying service to put you on a drop camp. 11 years ago that could be done for $2000 a gun with three guns in the group.

My Wife and I plan to fly up commercially and rent an RV for a week to sight see, not to hunt.

Alaska is a sever place go prepared.

Wtex

whitetails & muskies

Don't know anything about the drive in option. Several years ago, a friend and I visited a buddy of ours that worked for a flight seeing helicoptor service. He got us hooked up with Illiamna Air Taxi service and the three of us did a do it yourself moose hunt. I won't get into all the details, although the lake we were supposed to drop into was way too rough to land in, so we eventually set down in a lake that was in the transistion area of tundra/mountain range. We wern't really in moose country or caribou country. We did see some of each of the different species...and several grizzlies. I passed a small bull moose the first morning, and never saw a bull within range after that. We did see several caribou, some of which were okay bulls, but I had two at home from Quebec that were big and our tags could be used for either moose or caribou, so I let them go. When we circled the lake we were to originally be dropped into, we saw two different "huge" bull moose and when we circled the last time and had to leave the area, I could have cried (well not really). The one was welllllll into the 60 inch range and clean from velvet, the other still had remnants of velvet and was in the high 50's close to 60.

What an awesome trip it was though. Like I said we saw grizzlies (one very close and long blonde/gold hair..beautiful animal) and much more abundant wildlife. An the auroa borelais the one evening was just absolutely spectacular. From horizon to horizon, there was almost every color you could imagine.

Again, it was quite a few years ago, but the outfit again was Illiamina Air Taxi service and they took us in and out and flew over a few times throughout the week to check on us.

liquidorange

thanks for the info! im looking at going hopefully soon.i see old adds for RUSTS fly service for like 1295$ a man but im looking at all options.

CJW

I know three guys that did a self-guiding, fly in drop-camp thing. They had 100% success for caribou.

I don't know if this is relevant or not, but if you want to hunt grizzly up their you must have a guide. They had many within range, but couldn't shoot any.

FWIW
CJW

liquidorange

i think you need a guide and tenthousand dollars to hunt the brown bear. think i will stick with the caribou and the bullwinlkles

Howler

I'm going to Ak this fall with my best friend and his dad on a combo hunt, guided. BUT, I have relation that live up there and they sent a book to me to read that is written by a Dennis W. Confer that goes through a lot of detail on a "do it yourself" hunt for caribou and moose. I would highly recommend this read to learn every thing you need to know to do it yourself. According to this book, you could do a caribou hunt for near $1600 and a moose hunt for near $1800! The book was written about 6 years ago, so I'd guess those numbers to be a bit low now, but still puts a hunt like this into the "affordable" range.
The book is titled "HUNT Alaska Now" SELF-GUIDED FOR TROPHY MOOSE AND CARIBOU.

DM

I lived in and hunted in Alaska for 25 years, and it is true, anything that you can drive to is pretty much shot out!!! The place is covered up with "road hunters" just like every place else!! And, now that that everyone has to own a horse, anyplace close enough to pack an animial out of is covered too!!

That doesn't mean i didn't get game, BUT, i lived there and over the years found little pockets of game to hunt, that is when i wasn't flying in to hunt. Although i never used them, Russ's fly in service does a lot of fly in hunts, and is probably as good as any fly in service.

It's a vast area, and depending on where the caribou happen to be, will determine how many you will see. I shot a lot of them, and i always loved hunting caribou better than moose anyday!!!

Drilling Man



Drilling Man

beej99

Liquid,

I would disagree to an extent. I lived up there and still chat occasionally with guys that hunt the haul road. If you go to the Alaska thread in the West forum, you can talk with guys that hunt the road every year. ArcticBowMan has killed several bou on the haul road in the last two years. He has also taken numerous other kinds of game.

However, I would agree with teh other guys that your luck is much higher to get game and to get a trophy if you do a drop camp.

Also, with the road, there are rules....it is bow only up to 5 or ten miles in. No motorized vehicle use (no ATV's) once you are off the main highway. So, if you are gonna go all the way up there, it is probably in your best interest to do what the other's have recommended and fly in or float in.

beej

Half

Yea you can totally hunt haul road like that. Its like going to kansas and hunting whitetails. These guys are yeahoos! just call game and fish to see what you need to do to get leagle fly into Fairbanks drive to haul road shoot a boo and go home its not "Shot out" and but you do have to time it rite but remember this is Alaska and it can kill you in lots of ways good luck.