Well,
I got back early Friday morning from up the Haul road with a full load of caribou!!
With all the dismal reports coming from up north, my expectations were not high. We pulled into Galbreth Lake around 3 p.m. Sunday and saw one lone bull on one of the ridges. We set up camp and put a late stalk on the bull. Got within 80 yards of him and he spooked. The snow was extremely "loud" to walk on.
Next day drove up towards Toolik lake and spotted 20-30 caribou. Got in real close to a couple, but couldn't close the deal.
Tuesday morning we found hundreds if not thousands of caribou just past toolik Lake. Most on the we made a run up to Deadhorse and saw a couple hundred in the open terrain about 30 miles from Deadhorse. No stalking opportunity. Saw 5 red foxes. Drove back from deadhorse Tuesday night and saw a fox right next to the road. Shot 3 arrows at him and he ducked each one. I've never seen an animal do that before. Each time I shot he would run off and I screamed at him like a rabbit in distress, (or so I thought). He would stop and look at me and then duck my next shot.
Finally I snuck up about 20 yards and knocked him down.
Wednesday we found thousands of them right past Toolik lake. They dotted the ridges like ants. They were everywhere.
My buddy was able to close the deal on a big cow which turned out to be a big bull that had dropped its antlers a couple of days before.
Thursday morning I put a stalk on a nice double shovel bull and after two hours of crawling through the snow I finally got a 40-yard broadside shot and drilled him. He went about 100 yards and fell off an 8-foot dropoff. When he fell both his antlers came off. I'm holding them on in the picture.
About an hour later we found a small group of bulls grazing on the side of a ridge right off the road. We got right on top of them and I had a 15 yard shot on this one bull. He went about 200 yards and fell down. Thankfully his antlers stayed on.
All in all it was a great hunt. Thousands of caribou moving through. We ended up with three caribou and a fox.
This was my first big game hunt with a bow and talk about a rush. We got 8 inches of snow Thursday morning and that made stalking the caribou silent and obviously deadly.
I got back early Friday morning from up the Haul road with a full load of caribou!!
With all the dismal reports coming from up north, my expectations were not high. We pulled into Galbreth Lake around 3 p.m. Sunday and saw one lone bull on one of the ridges. We set up camp and put a late stalk on the bull. Got within 80 yards of him and he spooked. The snow was extremely "loud" to walk on.
Next day drove up towards Toolik lake and spotted 20-30 caribou. Got in real close to a couple, but couldn't close the deal.
Tuesday morning we found hundreds if not thousands of caribou just past toolik Lake. Most on the we made a run up to Deadhorse and saw a couple hundred in the open terrain about 30 miles from Deadhorse. No stalking opportunity. Saw 5 red foxes. Drove back from deadhorse Tuesday night and saw a fox right next to the road. Shot 3 arrows at him and he ducked each one. I've never seen an animal do that before. Each time I shot he would run off and I screamed at him like a rabbit in distress, (or so I thought). He would stop and look at me and then duck my next shot.
Finally I snuck up about 20 yards and knocked him down.
Wednesday we found thousands of them right past Toolik lake. They dotted the ridges like ants. They were everywhere.
My buddy was able to close the deal on a big cow which turned out to be a big bull that had dropped its antlers a couple of days before.
Thursday morning I put a stalk on a nice double shovel bull and after two hours of crawling through the snow I finally got a 40-yard broadside shot and drilled him. He went about 100 yards and fell off an 8-foot dropoff. When he fell both his antlers came off. I'm holding them on in the picture.
About an hour later we found a small group of bulls grazing on the side of a ridge right off the road. We got right on top of them and I had a 15 yard shot on this one bull. He went about 200 yards and fell down. Thankfully his antlers stayed on.
All in all it was a great hunt. Thousands of caribou moving through. We ended up with three caribou and a fox.
This was my first big game hunt with a bow and talk about a rush. We got 8 inches of snow Thursday morning and that made stalking the caribou silent and obviously deadly.
