Time to go and try for a caribou, moose and black bear

[mdeland]

Boy, seems like break up was just here and now it's that time of year again to harvest game. Time really does seem to speed up as we get older! Where did the summer go?
This year we can simultaneously have both moose and caribou tags in the same area which will be more opportunity for game meat and bow building sinew.
My regular hunting pard Chris is out of state this year but two of my grand kids and their dad are going so it will be great to hunt and fellowship with them. We leave early tomorrow AM so will try and get some pictures to share when I return on the 14th.

[GrumpyBear]

Good luck,and be safe.

[Dan O]

Good Luck Mike, have a safe and successful hunt. Hope you have a bunch of photo's to share along with a good story.
Dan

[bpcr shooter]

good luck!!! stay safe out there!!!

[mdeland]

Well we made it back again with no real trouble but a flat tire from a slow leak when we got back to the put in point. We took one bull with a medium size rack that I encouraged my son-in-law to shoot which he did very well with one shot at 115 yards. We saw over 30 caribou and could have taken probably ten bulls to choose from but as I didn't need any meat and saw no really good racks passed on shooting one this year.
It was a real joy to have two of my grand kids go with. We ended each day with about a half hour of Robert Service Poems around the Yukon stove each night before bed down. It was a great trip! PS It was a wonder my Son-in-law hit the caribou as his trigger guard and screws were so loose they rattled as I discovered when cleaning and oiling his rifle.

[mdeland]

The colors were great as usual and it was a joy to be out there!

[mdeland]

Caribou sure live in beautiful but harsh country!

[Kurt]

Man I wish I could have been on that hunt also. Your right about the beautiful surroundings. I been in the 40 mile area several times but not this late in the season. It surprises ne to see the fire weeds still have a head this late.
The first time up for me I was just north of the dredge and got caught in a very large heard of Caribou that surrounded me passing by. They didn't seem to be spooked.
GOOD HUNT!

Kurt

[GrumpyBear]

Congratulations on a successful hunt and thanks for sharing the pictures with us.

[mdeland]

We didn't see any bear this year and the only moose was a kill on the river bank some hunter made earlier. No wolf track either which we sometimes see. Only one deer falcon this year, a bald and golden eagle each and some river otters on the down leg stretch. Oh we did see V after V of sand hill cranes migrating south at we guessed 5000 ft elevation over our head just before dark on the 5th .
There are four caribou on the other bank in front of Scott in this picture but they blend in so well it is almost impossible to see them through the shore brush.
The second shot is the Slana river country on the way into Tok.

[bobw]

Great photos mdeland, really scenic , congrats to the son in law for the bull, I am somewhat surprised that you failed to check over his rifle before you left, but you did owe up to it. Did you have a bp gun this time or your 338-280? .looks like the raft was pretty full, would you have had enough room to haul any other animals out? Appears to me you must have a little genius in packing for this kind of endeavor? Bobw

[mdeland]

I don't mess with other folks guns unless asked to Bob. I took my 280-338 Mauser which is my favorite big game rifle and Scott shoots a .338 Mag Winchester control feed. The odd thing is we stopped at Glenn Allen on the way in to sight in our rifles at a local range we know of and the .338 hit a 6 inch gong at 200 yards twice near center. I'm surprised he didn't notice the trigger guard wiggling around then.
No, one caribou is hardly noticed in a 14 foot NRS raft.
Here is a shot of Chris and me two years ago with my old NRS 14 footer loaded with two caribou bulls and a 400 lb black bear. Chris had to set up atop the meat pile. These rafts will easily carry a 1000 lbs of meat and gear without a whimper! Notice how high it rides in the water fully loaded.

[mdeland]

Kurt, the dredge is gone now as to many folks were stopping to climb around in the old wreck and were getting hurt. It was fenced off for years but folks still wanted to look it over and take some pictures so the state not wanting the liability had it removed. I've seen caribou once or twice in the same area just after Walker Fork. We did find a new bou river crossing this year that we will be camping at next year if possible. Just after we passed five bou crossed right behind us on to the other bank. Looked like two pretty good bulls but couldn't catch up to them for a good look. Man they can cover the ground in a hurry and it being 70 years old doesn't help either. God willing I still have a few more hunts in me!

[Kurt]

Didn't they move it to Chicken?
I never went inside but I did run the metal detector over the tailings and found a nice picker and a couple coins.

[mdeland]

I didn't hear that but it could be true. I related what I had heard about it being cleaned up by the state. There is another abandoned dredge just below Chicken on the Mosquito fork that you may be thinking of. I was talking about the one along side the road just before Jack Wade junction that heads off to Eagle on the Taylor Hwy.