Dale
09-07-2008, 03:09 PM
Day 1
25tikka goes high up the hill and I stay low. A little while into the walk I notice some caribou up high, pretty much where 25tikka should be. Wow big bull and a few others. I watch them for about 5 minutes and look for 25tikka in the process. No 25tikka. Well I start planning my stalk as they are about 1km away. Look back towards caribou with binos and... what the heck... big caribou falls over.....then I hear the crack of 25tikka's .257 weatherby. Bull number one on the ground. I hike up and the then the work begins. We pack back as much as we can back to camp (about 4km) and bury the rest of the meat under a huge pile of rocks. We figure it should be safe until the next morning, as we had seen no bear sign. Well I guess we were wrong.
Day 2
I start out early to hunt and then 25tikka and Dave will come up behind a while later to get the rest of the meat. I get to the top of the hill....whoa.... big sow grizz with a cub. She already had the carcass buried. I guess we were wrong about the bears. In addition to the bears, there were wolves and fox running all over the place. I didn't hang around to long as she was starting to get a little closer to me. You see at this point I was only 150 yards away or so. I radio back to camp and let them know what has happened. I leave and check out the top of the hill. I come back awhile later and the bears have gone. Still not sure if they have gotten into the rock pile but I still do not want to get to close. I take off and start hunting again and leave the grizz and meat up to the boys back at camp. About an hour later I notice a group of caribou down in the valley about a 1km away. They disappear over a hill into a little ravine and don't come out the other side. I figure, right on, they bedded down. I jog towards them, drop my pack about 300 yards from where I figure they are and then stalk towards them. I get to a rock on top of the hill they crested and there they are, about 200 yrds away, bedded. There is one big bull, a little bull and two cows. I get the binos on him and start counting points, damn I can only see 4 on each side, its just the way his head is turned and he is not moving much as he is sleeping. Why did I leave the spotting scope in my pack?? I can see a little depression in the land that runs parallel with the hill so I crawl another 75 yards or so down the depression towards the bou. I then belly crawl to a little rock, the only cover I have between me and them. At the rock I am about 125 yards to the big bull. I put up the binos and start counting again....YES....he has five on the left side. Now to make the shot. Well since he is bedded facing me I have no shot. I figure I will just wait it out and they should get up shortly. Well finally after an hour and twenty minutes something alarmed them and up they got. I anchored him with one shot to the chest with my 270wsm. Bull number two on the ground. My first caribou so I was pretty excited, still am. No grizz on this one so that was a bonus. 25tikka and Dave managed to save another quarter off of his caribou so we lost some but I guess the grizzlys were quite appreciative.
http://i145.photobucket.com/albums/r221/baschukda/Caribou2008002.jpg
http://i145.photobucket.com/albums/r221/baschukda/Caribou2008021.jpg
25tikka goes high up the hill and I stay low. A little while into the walk I notice some caribou up high, pretty much where 25tikka should be. Wow big bull and a few others. I watch them for about 5 minutes and look for 25tikka in the process. No 25tikka. Well I start planning my stalk as they are about 1km away. Look back towards caribou with binos and... what the heck... big caribou falls over.....then I hear the crack of 25tikka's .257 weatherby. Bull number one on the ground. I hike up and the then the work begins. We pack back as much as we can back to camp (about 4km) and bury the rest of the meat under a huge pile of rocks. We figure it should be safe until the next morning, as we had seen no bear sign. Well I guess we were wrong.
Day 2
I start out early to hunt and then 25tikka and Dave will come up behind a while later to get the rest of the meat. I get to the top of the hill....whoa.... big sow grizz with a cub. She already had the carcass buried. I guess we were wrong about the bears. In addition to the bears, there were wolves and fox running all over the place. I didn't hang around to long as she was starting to get a little closer to me. You see at this point I was only 150 yards away or so. I radio back to camp and let them know what has happened. I leave and check out the top of the hill. I come back awhile later and the bears have gone. Still not sure if they have gotten into the rock pile but I still do not want to get to close. I take off and start hunting again and leave the grizz and meat up to the boys back at camp. About an hour later I notice a group of caribou down in the valley about a 1km away. They disappear over a hill into a little ravine and don't come out the other side. I figure, right on, they bedded down. I jog towards them, drop my pack about 300 yards from where I figure they are and then stalk towards them. I get to a rock on top of the hill they crested and there they are, about 200 yrds away, bedded. There is one big bull, a little bull and two cows. I get the binos on him and start counting points, damn I can only see 4 on each side, its just the way his head is turned and he is not moving much as he is sleeping. Why did I leave the spotting scope in my pack?? I can see a little depression in the land that runs parallel with the hill so I crawl another 75 yards or so down the depression towards the bou. I then belly crawl to a little rock, the only cover I have between me and them. At the rock I am about 125 yards to the big bull. I put up the binos and start counting again....YES....he has five on the left side. Now to make the shot. Well since he is bedded facing me I have no shot. I figure I will just wait it out and they should get up shortly. Well finally after an hour and twenty minutes something alarmed them and up they got. I anchored him with one shot to the chest with my 270wsm. Bull number two on the ground. My first caribou so I was pretty excited, still am. No grizz on this one so that was a bonus. 25tikka and Dave managed to save another quarter off of his caribou so we lost some but I guess the grizzlys were quite appreciative.
http://i145.photobucket.com/albums/r221/baschukda/Caribou2008002.jpg
http://i145.photobucket.com/albums/r221/baschukda/Caribou2008021.jpg