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Hunt trophy barren ground caribou in the Brooks Range of northern Alaska |
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Consider hunting caribou in the western Brooks Range about 100 miles above the Arctic Circle. Hunter success is usually high, especially for guided hunters, and you also can add a moose. There is no extra charge if you take a black bear or wolf. The caribou come from the largest herd in Alaska, the 545,000-animal Western Arctic herd. About 4% are harvested per year, meaning many bulls have a chance to get old and grow large antlers, occasionally big enough to make the Boone and Crockett Club record book. Fishing is excellent for Arctic char, grayling and salmon, depending on your hunting dates. The outfitter has guided the past 20 years. We've worked with him for 17 or 18 years. He runs the operation with his sons, who were born and raised in the area. He hunts country so remote that it is accessibly only by airplane. You usually hunt on foot quite close to your camp, and the outfitter has four-wheelers that he has flown in to retrieve game meat. Hunting is by spot-and-stalk, calling or rattling.
Rich LaRocco of Hunts.Net took this photo during his hunt. "I passed on a lot of good bulls," Rich said. "I could have shot a lot bigger animal than I ended up with because I was too picky until the end." |
Note: We suggest considering the guided hunt because hunters have far more mobility because each guided hunter has a four-wheeler to cover hunting territory as far as 20 miles from the main camp. Until the last couple of years semi-guided hunters also did well, but the number of caribou moving through the area has declined due to warmer weather in the fall. When caribou migrate through in high numbers, semi-guided customers hunting on foot have done well with 90 percent or more taking bulls, but if you're hunting during a period of low numbers, you'll appreciate having an ATV and the ability to cover more territory. It's not that caribou numbers are down in this herd. Jim Dau, a biologist with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, told me, "This herd is still very large," he said. "We photographed it last July, but we probably won't finish our count until spring or summer. In the past four to six years, the caribou have been migrating off the north slope two or three weeks late. ... The last five and six years have been really warm, long summers and warm falls, and that's got to be the reason."  Rich LaRocco of Hunts.Net with his bull. He passed on much bigger bulls earlier in the hunt.
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