looking for Caribou in October

[xmohuntr]

any suggestions for a late season Caribou hunt with rifle closer to Anchorage? Is the 5 mile hike on the haul road worth the time?? Would like to fly and camp for a night or 2 is there any areas that have cover for a good camp spot?

Thanks

[AkHunter45]

You might be better off flying into the Peninsula for caribou, the Haul road is a long ways from Anchorage. You could fly into Dillingham, Illiamna, or King Salmon and charter out of there. Gotta watch those bulls in October though, they will probably be in rut still and the meat is virtually unedible.

[xmohuntr]

any charter suggestions??

[rugger]

yuck

rutty bulls- don't chance it. Shoot the cows.

[Matt]

I wouldn't pay a charter to take me out to shoot a cow.

[Alaska Gray]

It's up to you what you want to do. You will pay $$$ to get flown out and in Oct. you could be stuck for a few days due to weather. Haul rd. Walking the 5 miles out. Well it's a little easier due to everything being frozen. But thats a long drive.
Like the other post the bulls will be in rut. Some people don't mind the taste but my 2 cents I hate it when there in rut. I rather shoot a cow. Taste like chicken

[.338 mag.]

Late Caribou Hunt

If you want to find out how tough you are and how strong your gut is, shoot a bull caribou in the rut and eat it. October is a good month to do that in. You will be sorry you pulled the trigger. My honest opinion.

[TradBow]

AMEN 338!!! Senseless legalized want and waste!!!

[akhunter02]

yep

All I can say is NASTY NASTY NASTY, but on the other hand, if you like the taste of urine its fine table fair

[Akres]

My experience has been, if you wait until after the 20th of October, it is relatively safe to shoot a big bull. The smaller bulls are still in mild rut, as I don't think they got what they needed to get it out of their systems. Just don't go out and shoot a mediocre bull until February or you will be sorry. The herd bulls clean up faster than the smaller ones.

[xmohuntr]

so wait until after Feb? When do the racks fall?

[Brian M]

The larger bulls start losing their antlers as early as November. Smaller bulls keep them longer, and the cows will often have antlers all the way through March. After the end of September, you really should look at caribou hunting as a meat hunt, in my opinion. If you're going to be making the meat into sausage, a mid-November bull would be fine, but if you're hoping for steaks and hamburger, I'd shoot cows only.

-Brian

[martentrapper]

Xmo.......you have the legal right to look at this hunt anyway you want. You also have the legal obligation to abide by the regs. We had a long discussion on this forum, recently, about just what satisfies the states salvage laws. As it is currently enforced, your required to bring all edible meat back from the field, and keep that meat in an edible state for 2 weeks. I don't think you can use the rut as a reason to say the meat was inedible. Beyond the 2 week period, you can do whatever you want with the meat(can't feed it to the dog or use it for trapping bait). I've even known LEO's who have shot animals their wives and kids refused to eat (not in rut) who ended up throwing meat away.
I've shot mature bulls as late as Oct. 10, and they have been fine. it is more likely to get rutty animals in Oct. but it's not a guarantee. Sometimes you can observe the animals and tell which ones are rutting, and you can also tell, sometimes, which ones are fat.
If you don't want to risk getting a rutty bull and choose to not hunt, or shoot cows, cool. If you want a big rack and a beautiful cape and are willing to salvage the meat in Accordance with state law..........that's all anyone can require of you.

[Matt]

If this is such a big issue then why does F&G allow the killing of bulls during this time of the year when the meat tastes like piss?

[Olaf]

Meat and Rut

I was told the bulls get that awful taste from drinking cow urine. My experience has been you can shoot mature bulls in October and they taste great as long as there is a bigger bull in the group, the theory being that the bigger bulls won't let smaller bulls drink the cow urine. If you shoot a big bull during october it taste TERRIBLE. Don't know if this theory is scientifically true or not but it sure seems to be true from personal experience.

Luke