Alaska Caribou Hunts
Alaska Caribou, Nomads of the North!
We offer 2 or 3 Fully Outfitted Unguided Caribou hunting trips each year starting/leaving out of Anchorage. You will need to have at least one other hunter to hunt with you. The Alaskan Barren Ground Caribou trips are fully outfitted fly out spike camp hunts that take place in the the low rolling foot hills on the Northwestern side of the Alaska Range. You are provided a “suggested personal gear list” and detailed lists of all the equipment/supplies, food and drinks included by Alaska Bush Adventures for your hunting trips in Alaska. We strongly suggest taking advantage of the information provided on the FAQ (frequently asked questions) page within this website, as it will have these lists and much more helpful information to help prepare you better for a hunt with Alaska Bush Adventures.
We have Guided hunts for Moose, Brown & Black Bears, however we only offer unguided fully outfitted hunts for Caribou. Over the years it has been the highest success rates for our hunters, 100%, in Alaska. Generally, most hunters are skilled enough to experience an unguided Caribou hunting trip without bearing the higher cost of utilizing a Guides assistance.
Other than your personal gear, we supply the hunting and camping gear along with food and hot/cold drinks that is necessary to undertake an Unguided Caribou hunting trip in Alaska. The Tents are Extreme Weather types able to tolerate the fall weather of Alaska, pack frames, 2 burner cookstoves with fuel, LED Lanterns, basic kitchen cooking and eating utensils and other supplies. The camping and hunting equipment/supplies to ensure a thourough package of the essential items nessesary for this hunt. We will provide you with list of the food items for your meals, hot and cold drinks and another list of the camping, hunting supplies/equipment for your trip.
The food and drinks we supply are high quality and very similar to what you would find at home in your own kitchen pantry. We also provide nutritious and tasty Auguson Farms freeze-dried meals & Mountain House Dinners for you and are nice to have when you come in from hunting late in the day.
You will receive a “Personal Suggested Equipment” list to help you pack appropriately what you will need to bring for your hunting trip. Including an “Unguided Hunters Outfitted/Supplied Equipment/Gear” list which has a detailed breakdown of the camping and hunting equipment we provide for your hunting trip. Both of these lists can be found in the FAQ websites page.
We recommend coming around the end of August or early September before the weather turns colder. Bull Caribou Antlers will be in Velvet until after mid-August. Hunting dates are flexible from 8-15 to 9-21 for a 10-day or so time frame. If you are interested, please call me and I will go over the logistics and share with you more about these hunting trips as well as other important & interesting points.
You will have a comprehensive Itinerary from the time you step off the plane in Anchorage all the way through to when you leave for home. We recommend an economical priced Hotel very close to the Airport for the nights while in Anchorage. It has a large walk-in freezer for your game when you get back to town. The Hotel will pick you up at the airport once you have arrived & the next day they will take you to the Flight Service which is transporting you out & back from the field.
If you want to donate some of your meat, we can take care of that for you also. As well as some information for Meat Processors & an Expediting/Taxidermist Service if you want help with your Trophies in any way, including a finished Caribou Mount for your home. This company is in Anchorage, but they take your Trophy to Montana via a refrigerated truck and finish it there. That makes it much easier to get your Mount back to your home.
Alaska’s Barren Ground Caribou are the nomads of the Far North and are constantly on the move to find new feeding areas with new sources of nourishment. With their massive long arching main beamed antlers and impressive beautiful white manes, they are remarkable in appearance and will make a great trophy of a lifetime. Alaskan Caribou are predominantly the Barren Ground subspecies with only one small herd of Woodland Caribou in the Wrangell-St. Elias area of South-Central Alaska. Caribou populations are stable and increasing in the areas we offer hunts for Caribou hunters. With long main beamed antlers that are massive and impressive along with their white manes, they are remarkable in appearance and will make a great trophy for life.
Calving areas are usually located in alpine mountain meadows and open areas. Alaska Caribou tend to calve in the same general areas year after year, but migration routes used for many years may suddenly be abandoned in favor of movements to new areas with more food.
Caribou movements can be triggered by changing weather conditions, such as the onset of cold weather or snowstorms, or by decades of heavy hunting and constant harassment of airplanes from Air Charters, scouting for places to drop off potential hunters. Once they decide to migrate, Alaska Caribou can travel many miles in a day. Unfortunately, it now has become necessary to invest in getting farther away from the urban cities to find the Caribou herds in larger numbers than in the past.
The majestic trophy Alaska Bull Caribou ranges throughout the northern arctic tundra, mountain tundra, and alpine mountain ranges in Alaska. Alaska Caribou in our great state are distributed throughout the wilderness in over 30 different herds and ranges. As fall progresses different Alaskan Caribou herds may mix together on ranges into the Winter until Spring arrives, when they will split up into smaller groups and travel to their traditional caving grounds.
Alaska Caribou have large, concave hoofs that spread widely to support the animal in snow, wet bogs, and soft tundra. Alaska Caribou are strong swimmers and their feet are very useful as paddles when crossing rivers and lakes. Alaska Caribou are the only member of the deer family in which both males and females grow antlers. The antlers of adult bulls are large and massive.
The antlers of cows are a stunted version of the bulls and are slender and irregular in shape. As late fall comes so does the change of an Alaska Bull Caribou’s color from mostly brown to a white-necked mane with a whiter rump, white feet leggings, and white body side stripes. The weight of adult bulls averages 300 to 350 pounds or more.
Alaskan Caribou in Northern Alaska are generally smaller than Alaska Caribou in the Interior and in Southern parts of the state.
Calving occurs in mid to late May in Interior Alaska and in early June in Northern and Southwestern Alaska. After calving, Alaskan Caribou stay in post-calving groups to help avoid predators. Alaska Caribou stay in the high mountains and around snow packs, where the wind and cool temperatures protect them from the summer heat and insects such as mosquitoes, gnats, white socks, and warble flies.
After cooler temperatures arrive in August, Alaskan Caribou spread out and feed heavily on new willow growth, grasses, sedges, and lichens, called reindeer moss, to regain body weight for the Winter.
Velvet on Alaskan Caribou antlers is rubbed off and they acquire a dark brown polish in late August and early September. It is after this period of time that large bulls approach the beginning of the rutting season and the start of fall migrations. Mature bulls add thick fat deposits on the back and rump, which is used to provide greatly needed energy during the rut and into winter. Sparring and fighting begin mid to late September, depending on the onset of cooler temperatures. Bulls shed their antlers in late October / November, but smaller bulls and non-pregnant cows may not shed their antlers until early Spring. Pregnant females usually retain their antlers until calving in late May or early June.
These types of hunts can be very exciting, highly successful, and an enjoyable experience in Alaska’s great wilderness bush country.
You will want to be in good shape to have a more successful and enjoyable trip. You may want to carry a video camera to capture your hunt and daily activities so you can forever remember your Alaskan hunt.
You can also enjoy excellent Sport Fishing during this hunt for a variety of Alaska Sport Fish. Depending on where you are placed by the bush plane, you may be able to catch Rainbow Trout, Arctic Grayling, (Char) Dolly Varden, Burbot, Northern Pike from the lake you are dropped off at.
Alaskan Barren Ground Caribou hunting trips
Thank you, Master Alaskan Guide/Outfitter Hugh Les Krank and Registered Guide/Outfitter Ryan L. Krank.
Call us at 480-657-3174, or fill out our contact form and we’ll call you to make your Alaska hunt happen.
