Can you ballpark the trip cost? (assuming I'm paying my part of a 4 guys trip)...

If you have a wife and she texags- feel free to give a wink and tell us what you told her.

college of AG said:

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Can you ballpark the trip cost? (assuming I'm paying my part of a 4 guys trip)...

If you have a wife and she texags- feel free to give a wink and tell us what you told her.

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Ram Aviation: $3500 (included air transportation, camping gear rental, and food)
License and Tag: $750
Hotels/Extra Baggage/Miscellaneous: ~$500 per person
Flights: Not sure since I used miles/points
Personal Gear: This will be dependent on what you already have

I think we talked about it being between $5-6,000 all in per person.

Great hunt

That would definitely be in our budget. Based on the research I've done recently this might be a good direction to go. (Although I might have to look up the Alaskan self defense laws regarding grizzlies)... I plan on sleeping with my 500 S&W under my pillow after reading this thread.

Tx-Ag2010 said:

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That would definitely be in our budget. Based on the research I've done recently this might be a good direction to go. (Although I might have to look up the Alaskan self defense laws regarding grizzlies)... I plan on sleeping with my 500 S&W under my pillow after reading this thread.

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dad always took a 44 mag when we went fishing without the boat. we never had to use it. when we got bears in our yard, birdshot to the rump out of a 12 gauge sent them on their way.

Can you say more about the bears? How did you try to secure meat? Any run ins near your tent ? Next time would you try any different ? Electric fence or anything ? Did y'all do bear spray or just pistolas

This is epic! Bucket list item for me.

Terrific post.

100% would take an electric fence next time. Someone told us about that and I thought they were messing with us! Then saw it on a MeatEater episode when we got back.

The problem with that part of AK is there are no trees so you can't really hang the meat. We tried to make our own hanging poles but the bears literally snapped the wood pole like it was nothing. The first couple of nights we had the meat hung up about 40 yards from our tent. Bear or Beas destroyed that area after the second night. We would wake up yell and shoot near the bear. It would run off...then come back 30 minutes later.

Thursday night I woke up and could hear the bear breathing on our tent near my head...definitely the most freaked out moment of the trip for me. We started yelling and jumping around and he took off. Turns out we think he had passed real close to both of our tents and was sniffing around camp. Never messed with any of our food...just interested in the caribou.

It was weird the first night back in civilization in our hotel...in the tent I'd gotten in the routine of putting my pistol, extra mag, and flash light next to me in the same spot each night. I even woke up in the hotel and needed to pee and I laid there for several minutes before I realized I could just get up and go to the toilet

Man what an awesome trip and story!

This summer I was up in Anchorage for my cousin's wedding. I was drinking with her husband's dad at the reception and it came up that I like to hunt. We were both pretty loaded but I remember something along the lines of a hunt invite. May need to start squirreling away spare change and give him a call.

Crazy for sure ! Bring two fences next time. One for camp and one for the meat. Although they may still get to the meat.

Thanks for posting. DIY Alaska Caribou has been on the list for my buddies and I, trying to get it on the calendar in the next 2-3 years.

lazuras_dc said:

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Can you say more about the bears? How did you try to secure meat? Any run ins near your tent ? Next time would you try any different ? Electric fence or anything ? Did y'all do bear spray or just pistolas

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Next time I'm taking a battery operated, motion censored Halloween decoration...

I made an attempt to make a scare bear it failed miserably

I think we had so many bear experiences because of our proximity to the water. It was close to transitioning to winter, the bears were on a mission.

The most entertaining thing on our rainy day was sitting at our watch point watching a bear roll around eating the guts off the two carcasses from the day before.

That was the happiest bear I have ever seen

This is the coolest story I've read in a while. How did you go about choosing an area of this unit to set up your base camp and hunt from? i.e. did you have any outfitter tell you to "go here" ish? Also, are those 6.5CMs from Horizon? How was it bringing the suppressor?

Edit - Looking at Ram's website it looks like they're basically your outfitter for an unguided hunt. I thought they were just an aviation company. Did they tell you to hunt this area? I just would have no idea where to start scouting google earth to choose an area within a unit I'm hunting.

reddog90 said:

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This is the coolest story I've read in a while. How did you go about choosing an area of this unit to set up your base camp and hunt from? i.e. did you have any outfitter tell you to "go here" ish? Also, are those 6.5CMs from Horizon? How was it bringing the suppressor?

Edit - Looking at Ram's website it looks like they're basically your outfitter for an unguided hunt. I thought they were just an aviation company. Did they tell you to hunt this area? I just would have no idea where to start scouting google earth to choose an area within a unit I'm hunting.

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Yeah...the air transport companies know generally know where to deliver you to make sure you end up in the path of the caribou. I'm sure they would have dropped us wherever we wanted in Unit 23, but we just went with their suggestion.

Yes...all 4 rifles were Horizon Firearms. Aggie2 in my story is Derrick Ratliff, President of Horizon. Bringing a suppressor was no big deal...no extra paperwork for Alaska.

I had my 6.5CM but ended up shooting my caribou with Derrick's 6.5PRC with the suppressor because it was the last day and we were trying not to carry as much weight.

clinte234 said:

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reddog90 said:

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This is the coolest story I've read in a while. How did you go about choosing an area of this unit to set up your base camp and hunt from? i.e. did you have any outfitter tell you to "go here" ish? Also, are those 6.5CMs from Horizon? How was it bringing the suppressor?

Edit - Looking at Ram's website it looks like they're basically your outfitter for an unguided hunt. I thought they were just an aviation company. Did they tell you to hunt this area? I just would have no idea where to start scouting google earth to choose an area within a unit I'm hunting.

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Yeah...the air transport companies know generally know where to deliver you to make sure you end up in the path of the caribou. I'm sure they would have dropped us wherever we wanted in Unit 23, but we just went with their suggestion.

Yes...all 4 rifles were Horizon Firearms. Aggie2 in my story is Derrick Ratliff, President of Horizon. Bringing a suppressor was no big deal...no extra paperwork for Alaska.

I had my 6.5CM but ended up shooting my caribou with Derrick's 6.5PRC with the suppressor because it was the last day and we were trying not to carry as much weight.

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I knew he looked familiar in that group shot.

Slick

Follow Up: The Bears

When we arrived at our camp there were two other hunters waiting to be picked up. They had been there for the previous 6 nights and had each managed to get a caribou. They told us about having issues with the bears and how most of their meat had been eaten or destroyed. We initially did not believe them and thought they had tossed some meat so they wouldn't have to pay to bring it all back. By the end of our time in Unit 23 we will no longer doubt their stories!

Night 1: Bear spotted 75 yards from camp

Night 2: First two caribou have been harvested. Meat is hanging in game bags 30 yards from camp. Bear comes in makes a little noise, we scream and yell, fire a couple of shots at the ground near the bear, the bear takes off. We check the meat the next morning...one rack of ribs is missing and oddly enough, proof of sex off of one of the caribou. Weird bear.

Nights 3&4: Bear or bears destroy entire "meat hanging setup" and steal one cape. Luckily we are able to follow a salt trail into the alders and find the cape on the ground fairly unscathed, but with all of the salt licked out off of it. Lots of yelling; lots of warning shots.

Night 5: We now have 3 caribou near camp + fresh blood on clothes from a late in the day field dress. Bear actually comes into camp, circles both tents, breaths on our tent about 2 feet from our heads. Lots of yelling; lots of warning shots!

Night 6: Forget this! We give up and move all of our remaining meat down to the river bank....still in game bags; cover it in tarps, put the boat on top of it....sleep really well because the meat is 150 yards away from us. Wake up to find an all out "meat party" went on at the river bank. Meat and game bags all over the place. Fresh bear and coyote tracks all over. We gathered up all of the meat and salvaged what we could. Each time we lost meat we took pictures to document what happened. That was the advice given to us in case the game warden/trooper questioned us about bringing 80 pounds of meat and 4 sets of antlers out of the tundra!

Legendary trip!!!!

I didn't realize coyotes were all the way up in that area. Interesting.
In hindsight, anything else you could have done to prevent bear theft of meat? It seems like the bears have learned that where people are, meat will be around somewhere.

There's a podcast I've listened to (think it was Cody Rich from The Rich Outdoors) where the guest was talking about sleeping with all his meat inside or at the entry of his kifaru paratarp to "protect it" from the grizz. This guy and his dad apparently have a lifetime of backcountry hunting experience and do this "all the time". He told a story of a young grizz waking him up at night and scaring it off.

I think I'd call that "plan B".

Ya screw that

We talked about keeping the meat close to the tent...right by the door, but we just couldn't bring ourselves to do it. They make battery powered, portable electric fences. We will probably try that if we have the chance to go again...but honestly I can't imagine a little shock doing much to keep a bear away from an easy meal. My only bear experience has been with black bears in New Mexico...so I was surprised that the grizzlies never got into our food. They were locked in on that caribou meat only.

Apache said:

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I didn't realize coyotes were all the way up in that area. Interesting.

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We were surprised to see their tracks as we hadn't heard them the whole time we were there!

Thanks for sharing and MOBGA.

Found where iphone puts together videos for you -- this is what it came up with for our trip.

Looks like an amazing adventure. Did y'all do any fishing?

wonder if a lot of your bear issues were related to the fact that the camp was regularly/historically used as a hunting camp? And if the outfitters are going to stick people at the same camp week after week seems they could do something more to keep hunters' meat from getting ripped off. 55gal poly barrels or something?

I'm curious how you guys kept the bears out of your food stashes?

Not having trees is rough.

NRD09 said:

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wonder if a lot of your bear issues were related to the fact that the camp was regularly/historically used as a hunting camp? And if the outfitters are going to stick people at the same camp week after week seems they could do something more to keep hunters' meat from getting ripped off. 55gal poly barrels or something?

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We were the second group out there all year, not sure how long it had been before then

Troutslime said:

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Looks like an amazing adventure. Did y'all do any fishing?

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We all went prepared to fish...brought equipment and purchased licenses. However we ended up having very little down time since it took me until the last day to get my caribou. By the time we made it back to camp each day we really didn't have much sunlight left.

lazuras_dc said:

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I'm curious how you guys kept the bears out of your food stashes?

Not having trees is rough.

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Our food was literally in two large plastic storage containers. The bears walked right by them multiple times and never touched it. We also accidentally left out a little bit of cooked caribou one night and that didn't interest them either.