Caribou Hunting?
 

If you could pick any place to go for Caribou with a high success rate, where would you go? How much do you think it would cost?

Non-Guided or Semi-Guided hunt.

I've wanted to go on a Caribou hunt for some time now, but I've not really done any research on it. What better place to start than here?

RE: Caribou Hunting?
 

I would do a semi-guided hunt for 2 bulls in the Mulchatna caribou herd of Southwest Alaska. range for unguided is 1100-1500 for 2 bulls and semi guided is 1700-2000- and fully guided is 3-4K. Not too bad for the highest success rate in Alaska.

RE: Caribou Hunting?
 

I was looking for the same information, me & a few of my Florida hunting buddies are wanting to hut Caribou, but have no idea of where, how, & how much. Are the above prices just the hunts or is that including lodging, food, etc?
I'm trying to plan a hunt for next year (Sep or Oct) What are the open seasons in Alaska? Can you hunt anything else while up there (Bear, Moose)?

RE: Caribou Hunting?
 

It depends on the outfitter, most of what I have found is that the guided hunts include lodging/food and the partially guided ones as well. On the do-it-yourself hunts you typically supply everything. Typically you can do a 2x1 guided hunt for like 300-500 bucks cheaper per person BTW.

RE: Caribou Hunting?
 

There is no reason to not self-guide caribou in Alaska if you can rough it. If you cannot tent-camp, you are best suited for somewhere else (Canada) because Alaska caribou hunting is not typically done in restort-type places.


You can do a do-it-youself hunt drop camp for about $2,000 per person. IF it were me, I would access the Mulchatna herd from Bethel via Ptarmigan air. You could also try Aniak or a few other places.

There are other herds as well than can be hunted, but they are more expensive to reach, but the hunting is probably less crowded.

RE: Caribou Hunting?
 

Also,

Be aware that the $1700 does not include your tickets to Alaska nor your cargo for getting your meat home. It may or may not include camping equipment, depends on the outfitter.

Time of year, August - September. October caribou are in the rut and are inedible due to hormones in the meat. Caribou meat IS tainted by the rut, and is not fit for human consumption.

RE: Caribou Hunting?
 

Good point AlaskaMag about the tickets/cargo. I forgot to mention that. Shipping the meat/antlers/capes home can cost upwards of $1000 in and of itself.

RE: Caribou Hunting?
 

Artic Circle

RE: Caribou Hunting?
 

Hunted out of Quebec last year,met the guy I booked with in Buffalo NY , I drove but some of the others flew in and he provided transportation, we drove up to the hunting area and in 3 days we probably saw 20 thousand caribou, everyone killed 2 each and we drove home with the meat,total cost was$2000 which included everything you needed from the time you left the states until you returned, we boned our meat out and brought it back in coolers, I went on this hunt because it was the cheapest hunt that I could find,I really enjoyed the experience but the actual hunting was boring, about 98% of the hunters killed their caribou from the road but, we chose to go into the woods to make it more exciting, at one point where I was standing in a swamp I had caribou on both sides of me filing past at arms length, I would have had to step back to take a shot, one herd took about 15 minutes to go past me , I chose not to kill one that far from the road( about 3/4 mile uphill to my truck in 2 1/2 feet of snow. my advice is to go as soon as you can go because prices have been rising a lot in the last 2 years.

RE: Caribou Hunting?
 

In all the years i've shot caribou in Alaska, and i've shot quite a few, i've never had one "tainted" from the rut or anything else.

The only meat i've had go bad was when one time i was stranded in the Brooks Range for quite a while, and lost some sheep meat before i got it all smoked!

Now bear meat, that's a diff story, as it really depends on what they've been eating as to wether you will want to eat them!!

Drilling Man

RE: Caribou Hunting?
 

i have no idea where people get there information from{ no offense to anyone everyones lifestyle is not the same} but i get caribou all the time mostly in the winter . its when you hunt them you can tell which ones look good. i started to hunt here in my home town over 30 yrs ago and i cant even tell you how many caribou i have taken. man if people pay that much to hunt i hope they get what animal there after. most of my life i have been hunting and bagged all kinds of aminals. i will be going for a muskox soon. if you really want to hunt give me a call i dont charge anything . I am not a guide . i would just injoy the hunting

RE: Caribou Hunting?
 

USA-I hunted Quebec for caribou only seen 8 all week bagged 2 big bulls. hunted in Aug. there wasn't any roads for hundreds of miles. Flew in on a plane. You hunted in the snow and seen 20,000 caribou and hunted by the road. Where is this place located and how big were the bulls. I hunted with Safari Nordik for $4,000.

RE: Caribou Hunting?
 

They are referring to the drive in winter hunt in zone 22B which is east of Radisson on the James Bay flats. Very cheap hunts, huge herds but the best bulls have already dropped thire antlers by then. Hunts are on the snow from late November thruogh March.Costs less than half of a typical flyin Aug-Sept hunt.

RE: Caribou Hunting?
 

Washingtonhunter! check out Newfoundland for Caribou and moose ,I've been considering going there Caribou and moose combo Pkg.I've been reading that thier success rates on both are very high .

nubo

RE: Caribou Hunting?
 

Thanks -TerryM- Also nubo-- I hunted Newfoundland last fall the caribou are no where as big as Quebec. I hunted moose bagged a nice bull with the rifle. Seen 4 other smaller bulls scrubs. But seen about 20 caribou bulls.

RE: Caribou Hunting?
 

BUCKSLAYER1, the camp we hunted out of is KISKIMAASTAKIN, their website is www.clik.to/kiskim ,if nessesary I can find you the number of the fella that booked us, his name is Dave Benedict. As far as antler size I'm not sure what to tell you , the two bull's that I took measured about 34 to 36 in wide by abot 36 in high with double shovels, I'm more concerned about the hunt and everything that it entail's than I am about antler size. The sheer number of animal's is overwhelming and that by itself was worth the price of admission. As someone else stated their were a large amount of blockhead's ( already dropped their antler's) but I saw thousand's with antler's and some that were very impressive, it seemed that the guy's that used snowmobile's had the largest antlered animal's and out of our group of 8, 6 peoples kill's had larger antler's than my caribou did. the meat was delicious. The downside is the time on the road, loooong and very boring until you get to the ice road and then it get's hairy, we only had one truck slide off the road, but a good share of the ride was whiteknuckle driving on sheer ice, but that is part of what made the trip so spectacular.

RE: Caribou Hunting?
 

Thanks for the information USA

RE: Caribou Hunting?
 

Hi, I just returnd from a Dec.2-5 caribou hunt with Northern caribou adventures.
caribou hunt,but it certainly will not be my last.
The drive was terrible,650 miles of deep snow and blizzard conditions, but the were well maintained and we could average 45 mph.
The outfitter was great! Although the hunt is not guided, they put us in the very best areas and brought in snowmobiles and packed out their clients caribou.
They told us to shoot an animal anyplace we wanted to and they would retrieve it,they sure stuck by their word.
A hunter shot a trophy bull 430 yards of trail and they went to it on the snowmobiles and packed it out.
They packed two out for me and refused to take a tip!

Now for the downside,the temps ranged from -19 F to 13 F above. The snow was 3-4 foot deep and packed powder. the wind was almost a constant 20 mph. not ideal hunting conditions but bearable.
The big bull had mostly dropped their antlers,I saw hundreds of animals each day dozens of them were big bulls with only one antler or no antlers, I never saw even one trophy bull.
There were lots of hunters and several trophy bull were killed, but the ratio per hunter for the big boys was only about 2%.
I hunted three days and was very selective, I killed 2 very symetrical double shovels, but they were far from trophy class.
The group I went with consisted of 11 seasoned hunters and we all limited out as did everyone in the camp.
I think if we had booked the first week of season in Nov. we would have all taken big bulls.
The outfitter told me that the bou were not nearly as numerous but the big antlers were there and if we had hunted as hard as we did, we could have all taken trophys!
Anyhow, I highly recommend NCA, they are top shelf people.
Good hunting, Remember, Fences and pens= SLOBS!
Larry