ryanb
09-23-2012, 11:25 AM
Got back from the now annual big-hunting-trip a few days ago. It was a bit of a trying hunt in some ways, but vip_ruger and myself were successful with a double header on caribou.
On day 1 we made a leisurely hike up to our spike camp location glassing along the way. Just before dusk, we saw a herd of about 8 caribou, with a cranker of a bull still in velvet. He had 5 up top on both sides, but no rear points. Despite seeing many legal bulls on the trip, this would be the biggest bull we would see.
The next day, we had a lazy start to the day. With 2 weeks there was no pressure to get after it. The weather looked menacing, but we made our way up to the top of a ridge to have a good look around at the surrounding plateau. Just as we neared the top, the skies opened up and we set up the sil tarp and hunkered down for a couple hours. After a while, the rain stopped and we were able to start glassing. We saw the group from the previous day, now way over in a different drainage...those caribou just don't sit still. A little ways over we spotted another group of about 10 with a small bull in it, with his velvet handing off in shards. I spotted what appeared to be a smallish legal bull, hard horned up on the side of a high basin. Lower down in the same basin, vip_ruger was able to spot the very tops of a set of bull antlers poking out over a knoll. As we watched the tops move around, we noticed the was another set of tops with it, and then another. Without even being able to see the animals or even the rest of the antlers, we were able to count at least 6 on top of all three bulls, one hard horned, the other 2 in velvet.
Finally the bulls came up over the knoll enough to have a good look. Two of the bulls were decent. We hummed and hawed over whether to make a play on them. It was only our first day hunting after all and we were seeing caribou all over, apparently. I thought we could find bigger bulls, but vip_ruger convinced me a double header would be pretty sweet. I agreed.
They were about 2kms away, and knowing how much all the caribou were moving, we hustled over to where they were as fast as we could, with a good ridge to cover our approach. Half way there, we bumped into the group of 10 with the small bull at 20 yards. They thankfully ran the opposite dirrection to where our bulls were last seen. As we got close to where we last saw the bulls, we saw the group with the big non-legal bull in it about 600 yards below us. I had a look and saw that our three bulls had already moved a ways and joined up with the group below us. We dropped our packs and belly crawled unseen, but in view of the herd to within 450 yards.
vip_ruger wanted the hard horned bull, and I would take the biggest in velvet. We waited a long while for both bulls to be in sight and for a clear shot. Finally as they fed uphill to roughly 400 yards both bulls cleared the other bulls and cows. vip_ruger shot right next to me, but by the time I was on my bull after the muzzle blast he was already at full run, then behind a knoll a millisecond later. We jumped up and ran around a knoll to cut the herd off and they came into sight again, minus vip_ruger's bull. He had to be down. As I tracked my bull I had to wait a bit for a clear shot with all the other animals, and taking care not to shoot the wrong bull. Thankfully caribou are stupid, and they had not figured out what they were running from yet...they were almost running right towards us. As they ran by us at 100 yards my bull broke out ahead of the herd and I was able to drop him in his tracks.
My bull
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y288/rbumali/P1010037_zps33c695bd.jpg
vip_ruger's bull
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y288/rbumali/photo_zpsef65f035.jpg
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y288/rbumali/P1010056_zps04416a83.jpg
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y288/rbumali/P1010061_zps6a28975c.jpg
Unfortunately the rest of the trip wasn't as productive. The weather turned pretty snotty after a couple days. The moose hunting at our base camp wasn't what we hoped, in fact we never even saw a moose. We made a play on a billy, but passed on shooting him because he was youngish.
On day 1 we made a leisurely hike up to our spike camp location glassing along the way. Just before dusk, we saw a herd of about 8 caribou, with a cranker of a bull still in velvet. He had 5 up top on both sides, but no rear points. Despite seeing many legal bulls on the trip, this would be the biggest bull we would see.
The next day, we had a lazy start to the day. With 2 weeks there was no pressure to get after it. The weather looked menacing, but we made our way up to the top of a ridge to have a good look around at the surrounding plateau. Just as we neared the top, the skies opened up and we set up the sil tarp and hunkered down for a couple hours. After a while, the rain stopped and we were able to start glassing. We saw the group from the previous day, now way over in a different drainage...those caribou just don't sit still. A little ways over we spotted another group of about 10 with a small bull in it, with his velvet handing off in shards. I spotted what appeared to be a smallish legal bull, hard horned up on the side of a high basin. Lower down in the same basin, vip_ruger was able to spot the very tops of a set of bull antlers poking out over a knoll. As we watched the tops move around, we noticed the was another set of tops with it, and then another. Without even being able to see the animals or even the rest of the antlers, we were able to count at least 6 on top of all three bulls, one hard horned, the other 2 in velvet.
Finally the bulls came up over the knoll enough to have a good look. Two of the bulls were decent. We hummed and hawed over whether to make a play on them. It was only our first day hunting after all and we were seeing caribou all over, apparently. I thought we could find bigger bulls, but vip_ruger convinced me a double header would be pretty sweet. I agreed.
They were about 2kms away, and knowing how much all the caribou were moving, we hustled over to where they were as fast as we could, with a good ridge to cover our approach. Half way there, we bumped into the group of 10 with the small bull at 20 yards. They thankfully ran the opposite dirrection to where our bulls were last seen. As we got close to where we last saw the bulls, we saw the group with the big non-legal bull in it about 600 yards below us. I had a look and saw that our three bulls had already moved a ways and joined up with the group below us. We dropped our packs and belly crawled unseen, but in view of the herd to within 450 yards.
vip_ruger wanted the hard horned bull, and I would take the biggest in velvet. We waited a long while for both bulls to be in sight and for a clear shot. Finally as they fed uphill to roughly 400 yards both bulls cleared the other bulls and cows. vip_ruger shot right next to me, but by the time I was on my bull after the muzzle blast he was already at full run, then behind a knoll a millisecond later. We jumped up and ran around a knoll to cut the herd off and they came into sight again, minus vip_ruger's bull. He had to be down. As I tracked my bull I had to wait a bit for a clear shot with all the other animals, and taking care not to shoot the wrong bull. Thankfully caribou are stupid, and they had not figured out what they were running from yet...they were almost running right towards us. As they ran by us at 100 yards my bull broke out ahead of the herd and I was able to drop him in his tracks.
My bull
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y288/rbumali/P1010037_zps33c695bd.jpg
vip_ruger's bull
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y288/rbumali/photo_zpsef65f035.jpg
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y288/rbumali/P1010056_zps04416a83.jpg
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y288/rbumali/P1010061_zps6a28975c.jpg
Unfortunately the rest of the trip wasn't as productive. The weather turned pretty snotty after a couple days. The moose hunting at our base camp wasn't what we hoped, in fact we never even saw a moose. We made a play on a billy, but passed on shooting him because he was youngish.