# Alaskan Mountain Caribou and Grizzly Hunt



## dhosera (Jul 11, 2006)

So figured I'd write this one up and share with MS along with a few other Forums I'm active on. End of August I was fortunate enough to go a pretty epic adventure to Alaska yet again where we were flown into the Talkeetna Mountains. We hired Super Cubs on Tundra tires to drop us up high in the alpine to chase Mountain Caribou and Grizzly. The deal was my brother in law and I would both put in for a Caribou tag and if either one of us drew the tag the other would accompany and hunt Grizzly. Well he drew the coveted caribou tag on his 2nd year of trying so naturally the hunt was on! The Talkeetnas are by far the most scenic of the (3) mountain ranges I've been fortunate to hunt up there. They are steep and rugged above treeline but their colorful rock slides and mountain tops are stunning.
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Aug 23rd I flew from Michigan to Anchorage where my Brother-In-Law (BIL) scooped me up and headed for the local sporting goods store to purchase my tags. Spent the crazy $$$$$ to pick up a Grizzly tag and headed to Palmer Sutton roughly 4 hours away where we'd meet up with our pilot to weigh gear and get a game-plan for the following day. They informed us that most of their strips down low were washed out by flooding and that they'd prefer to drop us up high in the alpine. This meant no wood for a fire, no trees to hang food or meat from and no opportunity for Black Bear or Moose. Real bummer but weather in AK dictates hunting more times than not. They did say that Grizzly are present and that higher elevations would give us more of an opportunity to spot one. So high Alpine it is
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## dhosera (Jul 11, 2006)

Aug 24th - We met the Pilots at 8:30am. They said it was far too foggy but they were waiting on a Delome in Reach text at 9am from a group of hunters that were up high in the same area to get some real time information on how the fog was up in the mountains. We weighed our gear and were barely under the 50 LBS per person allowance! That's right 50 LBS! Including your rifle, ammunition, food, tent, sleeping and everything to survive for a week in the Alpine! I'll never forget when Mike said "You guys actually listened and are light, got an extra tarp & fuel canister?" So we tossed in a blue tarp, a 1/2 fuel canister and (2) pair of Extra-Tough rubber boots. The report came in and they were iffy at best but said they'd try it and worst case scenario we'd land somewhere down low and clear a new strip for them while we waited for the fog to clear. Sounds good to me! So my BIL in one Super Cub followed by me in the other, off we went for a ride through the fog patches and into the stunning mountains. After an hour of some breathtaking views we drop over a tall mountain down into our intended drainage and land on literally nothing but high alpine tundra which they call "a strip". They quickly unpacked our tiny amount of gear and were off in the matter of 5 minutes. It was starting to spit rain so we quickly got the tarp & tents up and jumped in just before the fog rolled in so thick we could barley see 100 yards and pouring rain. This repeated throughout the rest of the day and due to the same day air-born rule in AK we couldn't hunt anyway until the following day. Upon landing we saw (7) Caribou about a 1/2 mile off and one little bull.







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## dhosera (Jul 11, 2006)

Aug 25th - We woke up to absolute soup. It had rained all night and the fog was so thick we couldn't see 100 yds. We found an old tin can and set it up at 100yds according to the rangefinder to check zero on our rifles since they were literally strapped to the plane wings flying in the previous day. One shot each confirmed our zero at what we called the 100yd rock. I was shooting my Sako .300win mag and Aaron had his Tikka .243. It was dangerous to even leave camp to get water due to the fog being so thick, so we stayed put until finally at 2pm the fog burned off. I climbed the mountain behind camp to take a look at a band of 5 rams that we had spotted up in the craggy stuff, but they were a LONG ways off still. Too far to determine legality. I hiked back down and we went to investigate how to cross the river and climb to a pretty neat lookout we could see on the other side of the river from us. The river was glacial coming straight from the craggy head of the drainage where we could see multiple glaciers converge and also where the rams disappeared into. Glacial rivers are extremely silty and thus you cannot see the bottom . O and they are flowing from a glacier so they are ice freaking cold. We took off our boots, pants and socks, found a sandy place to attempt crossing and crossed with the water only being knee ish deep. We hiked the mile or so down to the glassing nob and it was an awesome spot. It was covered in wild blueberries and had a vantage point where we could see the entire river bottom below us as it descended out of the mountains plus you could see where a couple other drainage's dumped into ours. We glassed for hours while we stuffed our faces with blueberries. We saw (7) caribou that night feed out into a green flat that was nearly another mile or 2 down the valley from us, but nothing that we thought was worthy of a 3 mile pack back to camp. Once it started to get darker we made our way back to the crossing and back to camp for a lovely dinner of mountain house chili mac. We were almost back to camp when we see (2) hunters coming out of the mountains towards our camp. We met them on the river and I'll never forget hearing a complete stranger say "Aaron is that you". Turns out it was my BIL's good buddy from work! They were flown in a week prior sheep hunting! What are the chances! They shared the campsite with us for a night before being flown out the next day!


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## dhosera (Jul 11, 2006)

Aug 26th - This day started much like the last being socked in with fog & light rain. Throughout the morning gaps in the fog and rain we were able to see a few caribou high on the mountain across from camp. I think there were (15) total but feeding up and away from us. With our prior caribou experience we knew we'd likely never catch them so we sat and watched how this day would play out. The fog & rain never 100% cleared off coming and going throughout the day. Late that evening the fog stabilized allowing for a few hundred feet of elevation view of only the valley floor while the majority of the valley being hidden. Around 6pm we near simultaneously spotted movement across the river directly across from camp and yelled caribou. As soon as I put the glass up I knew this was no caribou and up from the lower valley a Grizzly was moving parallel to our location. We sprang into action grabbing our guns and packs. The wind was blowing steady down valley and the bear being 1/2 Mile or so across from camp was headed up the drainage. As long as we stayed relatively parallel we should have the wind, so we bailed towards the river, lost elevation and out of view of the bear. Off came my boots and pants to cross as Aaron just trudged across getting wet and not caring. There was a large washout where a creek came tumbling off the mountain and I told Aaron we should try to make it there as we'd have the high ground and should be near where the bear might appear. We were running across this boggy, grass flat when the bear crested the rise in front of us. We dropped to the ground unfazed by the saturated boggy ground. Im not sure if he caught our scent or saw us but the gig was up and he started running quartering away. I ranged him at 305yds and then at 313 as I yelled out yardage to Aaron as the bear ran. I remember dialing my scope to 300yds as I tried to get steady on my pack. The bear slowed and turned straight away as he walked up a sharp rise in the tundra and as my cross-hairs met his neck I sent one. The bear crumpled as we heard the tell tale whomp of an impact. As soon as I chambered another and acquired the target the bear was up spinning and tossing tundra high into the air. I missed the 2nd shot and as I squeezed off the 3rd all I heard was a "Click". I yelled to Aaron to shoot because I was out as I racked the gun out came an unspent round! I had of all things a factory dud! I stuffed another round in and hit the bear hard again and he came to a rest. I'm sure we did a little man hugging as the Adrenalin was flowing. It took a while to gather our packs, scope covers, clothes, reload and walk the nearly 400yds across the tundra towards the bear. We slowly approached the bear as he laid on his belly facing directly away from us and I dare say nearly 15 mins had passed. When I got to 15-20yds suddenly his head swung around and he was up on all 4's in the matter of seconds as he turned towards us. Aaron drew his 10mm Glock and started throwing lead his way and turns out missed every single time as I put one in him from the .300 to finally put him down for good. We couldn't believe what had just transpired as I had just taken a big old boar Interior Grizzly with a beautiful blonde coat and chocolate brown legs. We took photos and got to skinning for the pack out back to camp. We got back to camp at dark and quick made up a mountain house as crashed into our tents
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## dhosera (Jul 11, 2006)

August 27th - We awoke late in the morning to clearish skies and COLD. We would go on (2) large hikes this day putting on over 5 miles. We started down from camp on the same side of the river as we had spotted some Bou skylined the night before a couple miles down from camp and we wanted a look. With only a small bull found we headed back to camp for lunch. We crossed the river and sat on top of our "glassing nob" with the blueberries. We again had an encounter with a small bull at 20yds but no shooters.







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## dhosera (Jul 11, 2006)

August 28th - Today was our last hunting day so we planned to go hard! We awoke early to a beautiful bright sunny day. We ate a big breakfast, filled our packs & water bottles to head up to the head of the valley. We gained almost 2,000FT of elevation to a stunning perch at the head of the valley. I wanted to go up and thru the pass as we had been seeing caribou filter in and out all week. The pass was beat down with tracks & sign from both Bou and grizz but I was able to peer into the next drainage and didn't see anything. We stayed high all day but retreated back to camp as evening fell worn out and defeated. Aaron said the hunt was a success even though we didn't pull a caribou, we had plenty of opportunities. Aaron had already eaten as I was preparing my dinner on top of the spotting rock behind camp. I glanced behind camp and out of a large shale drainage that hadn't held an animal all week came a small bull caribou 1/2 mile from us. I yelled at Aaron and told he we were killing that bou, lets go! He looked at me reluctantly and gathered his rifle & pack. The bull was working away from us as we struggled to gain ground. The bull made it up a huge hill before we could get to it and Aaron said he didn't think he could make it. I told him no way I was going home to face my sister without a caribou and I took his pack and started up after it. He followed begrudgingly I crested the hill and ranged the bull at 287yds but Aaron couldn't make it before he fed out of sight behind an even larger hill. Up Aaron came and we beet feet to cut him off when he came around this large hill. We were both dripping in sweat, huffing & puffing. We made it before the bull popped out and set up for the shot, but the bull surprised us, spotted us and took off up the hill. It was over! Aaron said no way he could go after it as we sat there defeated. This is where my stubbornness in life finally pays off as I said no way I'm not going after him. I told Aaron I'd go up after him and maybe he'd circle downwind if chased where Aaron would be waiting and could get a shot. I scurried up the mountain and after 20 mins crested the top to see the bull standing there and wouldn't ya know it he spooked, circled back downwind right to within 250 yds of Aaron! We both couldn't believe it worked! Reality set in and we were now 1.5 miles from camp, Aaron's legs were junk, its getting dark and the plane is coming at 9am! I made fast work hacking off a front & rear quarter for my pack while Aaron took a front quarter. We got back to camp after dark, I finished dinner and crashed.


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## dhosera (Jul 11, 2006)

August 29th - Up EARLY we headed back to the kill site. Nothing was on the kill when we got there to our surprise. We finished the butchering. I packed the rest of the meat while Aaron took the rack. We made it back to camp before 9am to find out the pilots would be there around 12noon. Well 4 pm rolls around and we finally hear the roar of the plane! The pilots asked if we cared to do a little scouting as we were the last clients of the day and to that we obliged! For the next 2 hours we flew thru the mountains viewing Sheep, Caribou and one big fat Grizzly. What a treat! We flew mere feet off the ground, did loops, test landings and were treated to some of the best sightseeing flying one could imagine. 

The rest of the trip consisted of driving the 8 hours back to my sisters house, processing caribou, fishing with a friend on the ocean for Halibut & hanging out with my nephews (2 & 4yr old). Overall a stunning trip and can't wait for my 2019 Alaska Adventure which is shaping up to be pretty cool pending we don't draw a tag somewhere


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## MallardMaster (Nov 17, 2003)

Right on!! Thanks for the fantastic story. Were you able to hunt the Grizzly without a guide because our brother was a resident? I am just trying to remember how that went. I just heard it on a podcast Wednesday as well and forgot already.
Regardless....heck of an adventure and your pictures do a great job telling the story.


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## brushbuster (Nov 9, 2009)

Awesome Man! I love your Alaska stories. Well done to you both!


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## brushbuster (Nov 9, 2009)

You guys only had to pay for one flight out each? no meat flights?


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## brushbuster (Nov 9, 2009)

dhosera said:


> Aug 26th - This day started much like the last being socked in with fog & light rain. Throughout the morning gaps in the fog and rain we were able to see a few caribou high on the mountain across from camp. I think there were (15) total but feeding up and away from us. With our prior caribou experience we knew we'd likely never catch them so we sat and watched how this day would play out. The fog & rain never 100% cleared off coming and going throughout the day. Late that evening the fog stabilized allowing for a few hundred feet of elevation view of only the valley floor while the majority of the valley being hidden. Around 6pm we near simultaneously spotted movement across the river directly across from camp and yelled caribou. As soon as I put the glass up I knew this was no caribou and up from the lower valley a Grizzly was moving parallel to our location. We sprang into action grabbing our guns and packs. The wind was blowing steady down valley and the bear being 1/2 Mile or so across from camp was headed up the drainage. As long as we stayed relatively parallel we should have the wind, so we bailed towards the river, lost elevation and out of view of the bear. Off came my boots and pants to cross as Aaron just trudged across getting wet and not caring. There was a large washout where a creek came tumbling off the mountain and I told Aaron we should try to make it there as we'd have the high ground and should be near where the bear might appear. We were running across this boggy, grass flat when the bear crested the rise in front of us. We dropped to the ground unfazed by the saturated boggy ground. Im not sure if he caught our scent or saw us but the gig was up and he started running quartering away. I ranged him at 305yds and then at 313 as I yelled out yardage to Aaron as the bear ran. I remember dialing my scope to 300yds as I tried to get steady on my pack. The bear slowed and turned straight away as he walked up a sharp rise in the tundra and as my cross-hairs met his neck I sent one. The bear crumpled as we heard the tell tale whomp of an impact. As soon as I chambered another and acquired the target the bear was up spinning and tossing tundra high into the air. I missed the 2nd shot and as I squeezed off the 3rd all I heard was a "Click". I yelled to Aaron to shoot because I was out as I racked the gun out came an unspent round! I had of all things a factory dud! I stuffed another round in and hit the bear hard again and he came to a rest. I'm sure we did a little man hugging as the Adrenalin was flowing. It took a while to gather our packs, scope covers, clothes, reload and walk the nearly 400yds across the tundra towards the bear. We slowly approached the bear as he laid on his belly facing directly away from us and I dare say nearly 15 mins had passed. When I got to 15-20yds suddenly his head swung around and he was up on all 4's in the matter of seconds as he turned towards us. Aaron drew his 10mm Glock and started throwing lead his way and turns out missed every single time as I put one in him from the .300 to finally put him down for good. We couldn't believe what had just transpired as I had just taken a big old boar Interior Grizzly with a beautiful blonde coat and chocolate brown legs. We took photos and got to skinning for the pack out back to camp. We got back to camp at dark and quick made up a mountain house as crashed into our tents
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Im not surprised the pistol missed.


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## steelyspeed (Apr 10, 2016)

What a cool hunt, thanks for sharing!

Am I missing something with the regs? Is your BIL considered next of kin?


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## HUBBHUNTER (Aug 8, 2007)

Great write up! Congrats!


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## brushbuster (Nov 9, 2009)

steelyspeed said:


> What a cool hunt, thanks for sharing!
> 
> Am I missing something with the regs? Is your BIL considered next of kin?


Guide rules allow for immediate family members, father, brother,sister son, daughter,sister,mother, must accompany durring hunt.that includes in laws as well


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## steelyspeed (Apr 10, 2016)

brushbuster said:


> Guide rules allow for immediate family members, father, brother,sister son, daughter,sister,mother, must accompany durring hunt.that includes in laws as well


Cool I didn’t know. Thanks!


Sent from my iPhone using Michigan Sportsman mobile app


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## Joel/AK (Jan 12, 2013)

Cool adventure. Love reading stories from back home.

Brushbuster, you'd be surprised the deals you can get. Late 90's 4 of us hunted the mulchatna herd. Flew out of soldotna. We shot 19 caribou. They came in mid hunt and pulled the meat that we had, end of hunt they sent in 2 planes to pull us, meat and antlers out. Cost was $500 a person.

Deals are out there


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## brushbuster (Nov 9, 2009)

Joel/AK said:


> Cool adventure. Love reading stories from back home.
> 
> Brushbuster, you'd be surprised the deals you can get. Late 90's 4 of us hunted the mulchatna herd. Flew out of soldotna. We shot 19 caribou. They came in mid hunt and pulled the meat that we had, end of hunt they sent in 2 planes to pull us, meat and antlers out. Cost was $500 a person.
> 
> Deals are out there


Yup, this trip sounds like a pretty affordable way to go unlike the hunter assembly lines that operate out of the Northslope. My bush flight out of kotzebou is only going to be 675 per person for an hour flight, however if we were going to fly cubs that would have been 900.


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## brushbuster (Nov 9, 2009)

Hey Dhosera, what is the name of your transporter?


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## brushbuster (Nov 9, 2009)

dhosera said:


> Aug 26th - This day started much like the last being socked in with fog & light rain. Throughout the morning gaps in the fog and rain we were able to see a few caribou high on the mountain across from camp. I think there were (15) total but feeding up and away from us. With our prior caribou experience we knew we'd likely never catch them so we sat and watched how this day would play out. The fog & rain never 100% cleared off coming and going throughout the day. Late that evening the fog stabilized allowing for a few hundred feet of elevation view of only the valley floor while the majority of the valley being hidden. Around 6pm we near simultaneously spotted movement across the river directly across from camp and yelled caribou. As soon as I put the glass up I knew this was no caribou and up from the lower valley a Grizzly was moving parallel to our location. We sprang into action grabbing our guns and packs. The wind was blowing steady down valley and the bear being 1/2 Mile or so across from camp was headed up the drainage. As long as we stayed relatively parallel we should have the wind, so we bailed towards the river, lost elevation and out of view of the bear. Off came my boots and pants to cross as Aaron just trudged across getting wet and not caring. There was a large washout where a creek came tumbling off the mountain and I told Aaron we should try to make it there as we'd have the high ground and should be near where the bear might appear. We were running across this boggy, grass flat when the bear crested the rise in front of us. We dropped to the ground unfazed by the saturated boggy ground. Im not sure if he caught our scent or saw us but the gig was up and he started running quartering away. I ranged him at 305yds and then at 313 as I yelled out yardage to Aaron as the bear ran. I remember dialing my scope to 300yds as I tried to get steady on my pack. The bear slowed and turned straight away as he walked up a sharp rise in the tundra and as my cross-hairs met his neck I sent one. The bear crumpled as we heard the tell tale whomp of an impact. As soon as I chambered another and acquired the target the bear was up spinning and tossing tundra high into the air. I missed the 2nd shot and as I squeezed off the 3rd all I heard was a "Click". I yelled to Aaron to shoot because I was out as I racked the gun out came an unspent round! I had of all things a factory dud! I stuffed another round in and hit the bear hard again and he came to a rest. I'm sure we did a little man hugging as the Adrenalin was flowing. It took a while to gather our packs, scope covers, clothes, reload and walk the nearly 400yds across the tundra towards the bear. We slowly approached the bear as he laid on his belly facing directly away from us and I dare say nearly 15 mins had passed. When I got to 15-20yds suddenly his head swung around and he was up on all 4's in the matter of seconds as he turned towards us. Aaron drew his 10mm Glock and started throwing lead his way and turns out missed every single time as I put one in him from the .300 to finally put him down for good. We couldn't believe what had just transpired as I had just taken a big old boar Interior Grizzly with a beautiful blonde coat and chocolate brown legs. We took photos and got to skinning for the pack out back to camp. We got back to camp at dark and quick made up a mountain house as crashed into our tents
> View attachment 365007
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Good thing that dud round wasn't in the chamber when you walked up on him haha.
Do you know if your brothers 10mm. Had a factory barrel or not? Reason I ask is I have a glock 20 with factory barrel but notice that accuracy is lacking when I use 230 grain bullets in either buffalo bore or double taps. I'm looking at getting a lone wolf replacement barrel.
That's some wild **** man, glad you put that Bruin down without injury to yourselves.


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## Joel/AK (Jan 12, 2013)

brushbuster said:


> Yup, this trip sounds like a pretty affordable way to go unlike the hunter assembly lines that operate out of the Northslope. My bush flight out of kotzebou is only going to be 675 per person for an hour flight, however if we were going to fly cubs that would have been 900.


Not sure the going hourly rate, is 675 good?

One nice thing about Talon Air out of soldotna is that any legal animal is free. We could shot our 5 caribou, a moose, bear, etc and no extra charge. Plus they had an agreement with high adventure air that if Talon couldn't get us out high air would get us out, no extra charge. $500 is a dang good price, we used them for quite a few years. They have an otter and a couple beavers.

Of course that was the unwritten resident discount, non-res was much higher.


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