A
Anonymous
Guest
Took the boy out for caribou Friday night and Saturday. We had planned to camp through Sunday, but it wasn't necessary.
Saw a lot more action that the last couple of weekends...the animals are herding up into large groups. We hiked in by headlamp at 0'dark hundred to a ridge 4 miles back that we've been successful at before. This particular unit is crawling with road hunters and the animals get positively spooky within a mile of the road- back a ways and they start acting like caribou again.
We got on a herd of about 100 as soon as the sun came up, they were two miles away and outside of our unit boundary...so we sat there while they milled around. And while they milled around some more.
A couple other members of our party were pretty antsy to move and head in but I was convinced they'd move closer at some point. And when they did...they were at the base of our ridge within 5 minutes. Caribou are faster than they look. A short 1/4 mile stalk to the edge of a plateau and we were 200 yards out, about 100 feet up.
The three shooters each lined up on an animal and fired within a couple seconds of each other. My frequent partner absolutely flattened a big bull with his Weatherby Fibermark in .375 H&H using a 260gr PT (while overkill for a caribou, overkill still winds up in the freezer) and another friend fired twice and knocked over a large cow with his Browning .300WSM.
Evan took his little 7-08 carbine and zeroed in on a bull that was off by himself a bit, rested the rifle over his pack while sitting...and drilled him with a 140 gr Fusion at about 225 yards. The bull went down in a heap with a splash, falling into a shallow creek. The bullet hit the spine but went through and kept sailing.
The caribou all fell within 20' of the creek...which we came up that evening with an inflatable canoe to float all the meat out. Pretty nice floating the meat out on water rather than muscling it over the tundra on your back.
Saw a lot more action that the last couple of weekends...the animals are herding up into large groups. We hiked in by headlamp at 0'dark hundred to a ridge 4 miles back that we've been successful at before. This particular unit is crawling with road hunters and the animals get positively spooky within a mile of the road- back a ways and they start acting like caribou again.
We got on a herd of about 100 as soon as the sun came up, they were two miles away and outside of our unit boundary...so we sat there while they milled around. And while they milled around some more.
A couple other members of our party were pretty antsy to move and head in but I was convinced they'd move closer at some point. And when they did...they were at the base of our ridge within 5 minutes. Caribou are faster than they look. A short 1/4 mile stalk to the edge of a plateau and we were 200 yards out, about 100 feet up.
The three shooters each lined up on an animal and fired within a couple seconds of each other. My frequent partner absolutely flattened a big bull with his Weatherby Fibermark in .375 H&H using a 260gr PT (while overkill for a caribou, overkill still winds up in the freezer) and another friend fired twice and knocked over a large cow with his Browning .300WSM.
Evan took his little 7-08 carbine and zeroed in on a bull that was off by himself a bit, rested the rifle over his pack while sitting...and drilled him with a 140 gr Fusion at about 225 yards. The bull went down in a heap with a splash, falling into a shallow creek. The bullet hit the spine but went through and kept sailing.
The caribou all fell within 20' of the creek...which we came up that evening with an inflatable canoe to float all the meat out. Pretty nice floating the meat out on water rather than muscling it over the tundra on your back.
