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Drop Camp 'bou Hunt - Out of State Hunter Planning
Posted by VA Steve on Oct 01 2005
About a year ago I started planning my first caribou hunt in Alaska. I currently live in northern Virginia and have a friend living in Anchorage. The plan was to visit him and do a drop camp hunt for caribou with he and two of his friends from the local area. I spent many hours doing a lot of research and finally, on 28 Aug our party actually flew into the bush to start our hunt. I'm convinced that all the hours of planning really paid off and the hunt couldn't have gone any better. I thought I would share some of my findings here on the forum in case others might find it of use.
The first thing we focused on was to figure out where we wanted to hunt - Mulchatna herd, Western Arctic herd, 40 Mile herd, etc. I did virtually all the research on this, and I tried to be very thorough. I read various hunting books by Larry Bartlett, Chris Batin, Denis Confer, etc. Some of the books I read are out of print and hard to locate (or expensive on the used book market) but I found folks on this forum willing to lend them to me. I contacted numerous outfitters from different areas and talked to them, as well as previous clients they had who didn't mind being used as references. I contacted several ADF&G personnel and talked to them about herd status (numbers of animals, bull/cow ratios, numbers of mature bulls, etc) and also read through the most recent Game Management Reports for various herds on the ADF&G web sites (believe they do them for a given unit every 2 years). All of this gave me a good idea of where I felt we could maximize our opportunity to take a nice bull and I convinced the rest of the party as well. With some of the recent postings here on folks experience hunting this year I think you'll agree this area is worth spending some time on before you start laying out all your hard earned $. While I would have thoroughly enjoyed the hunt with or without a kill, I'd be lying if I said I'm not even more satisfied with meat in the freezer and a mount being done.
As for gear, there are quite a few folks on the forum who were willing to share their lists, most of the books I read had gear lists in them, some outfitter web sites had them, etc. Plenty of advice in this area and, probably like many "rookies", I took way too much, especially in the way of clothing. I will say that one of the best things we had was a vestibule for the tent my buddy brought for us (believe it was a Cabela's 4-man Alaskan Guide model but not sure). The tent was comfortable for 2 guys and the vestibule easily held our gear where we could keep it dry (also stored clothing in waterproof duffels) and out of the way. In addition, on rainy days the vestibule was big enough that all 4 of us could fit into it, open up the flap on the end, heat up water for MREs, and eat inside out of the rain. One day when fog limited visibility to 75 yards or less, there was room to use a camp chair in the vestibule and read, play cards or whatever. Was very happy to have the vestibule. Also very glad I took a camcorder - got some great video of some nice bulls, not to mention the scenery (foliage, snow capped mountains, etc). It was also great fun showing the video to my buddy in Anchorage after the hunt (he passed up a few nice bulls early on and ended up not taking an animal) and hearing him say "Why in the world did I let that one walk by!!"
We flew into the bush on 28 Aug and flew out on 3 Sep. There was a little bit of everything with weather; sun and 50s, fog, rain, snow, hail, etc. Saw bulls in velvet, bulls just out of velvet and bulls that had been out of velvet for at least a little while. If I did it over again I would probably go in a bit later. I was constrained due to the cruise date we had to make in Whittier.
I know there are many out of state hunters that use the forum to plan caribou, and other, hunts in Alaska. There are frequently questions about costs of a hunt so thought I would share some info from my hunt and maybe it will be of use to others now in the planning stage. I am well aware that the costs for outfitters, taxidermists, meat processors, etc can vary greatly and everyone's individual needs, desires, and constraints may cause their costs to be substantially more of less than what I had, but this may at least give some folks a starting point.
Just keep in mind my circumstances, and your circumstances which will likely differ, will impact the costs you incur. My wife and I flew from northern Virginia to Anchorage, Alaska and stayed with my friend and his family so that effected plane ticket costs, meat shipping costs, lodging costs, etc. Also, we were able to drive from Anchorage to the outfitters location directly for our flight into camp so there was only one plane flight for me once I was in Alaska (didn't have to fly from Anchorage or Fairbanks to Kotzebue, etc).
Plane Fare
We flew on Alaska Airlines into Anchorage, and then back from Vancouver (since the cruise went from Whittier to Vancouver). Tickets were about $500 each, RT.
Shipping Gear to Alaska
My wife and I took a cruise from Whittier to Vancouver after the hunt so I had different clothing needs for each part of our trip. Also, we left VA on 26 Aug and didn't return until 19 Sep so were gone over 3 weeks. That mean I needed to mail some hunting gear to Anchorage from VA. I shipped about #55 FedEx and it cost me about $104 (one way - also had to ship some back since I was going on the cruise).
Outfitter Costs
Talked to numerous outfitters and made myself a small spreadsheet to keep track of who I talked to, phone numbers, references, costs, hunting areas, etc. That sheet was real handy since after talking to the first 3-4 I could easily lose track of who was offering what. In the end we settled on an outfitter that charged $1400 for a flight in/out of camp, $200 more if you shot a caribou which he then had to fly out, and $400 additional if you needed a "gear only" flight ($100 each since we split it 4 ways). I found those costs to be pretty standard with the outfits I talked to. The toughest weight restrictions I found (with a Super Cub) were #50 of gear for each person. Others were willing to take 60-70 pounds, depending on your weight. Seemed like the pilot plus about 260# (counting you and your gear) was about the limit.
Out of State Caribou Tag: $325
Out of State License: $85
Meat Processing
I ended up at Indian Valley Meats with #99 of meat, which I had made into steaks, hamburger, teriyaki sticks, smoked roasts, jerky, etc. That cost me about $200.
Meat Shipping
Indian Valley delivered the boxed, packaged and frozen meat to Delta Airlines in Anchorage and it flew on Delta air cargo to northern Virginia - about $100. If it wasn't for the fact I was taking the cruise after the hunt, I would have been flying back to VA from Anchorage and I could have boxed up frozen meat and taken it as baggage as some on the forum recommend.
Taxidermist Fees
Since I was lucky enough to get a nice bull that I was very happy with, I decided to get a shoulder mount done. I've seen many comments on the forum about how lots of out-of-staters aren't used to seeing antlers like you see on caribou, and they shoot the first bull they see, thinking it is huge, when it really isn't. Although I've hunted deer and elk in MT and CO, I was very conscious of that and let a few pretty nice bulls go by, being very critical. All I know is that I was very happy with the bull I got and, when I took it into the taxidermist, he told me he had shot over 30 caribou so far, and only one of them was nicer than the one I took. That made me feel pretty confident it was at least a decent caribou. Anyway, shoulder mount at this place was $800, cape fleshing was $15, and crating was $225. Won't know what freight costs to VA will be until it is done, but expect it to be in the $400 range - we'll see in about Feb 06.
Lodging
As I said, we stayed with friends in Anchorage and we drove to the outfitters. Since we arrived at the outfitters late in the afternoon we had to spend one night in a hotel and flew into the bush the next day. Hotel for that night was $79.
All in all a pretty expensive trip for me, but worth every penny. And I'll think of it every time I cook up some caribou for dinner or look at that mount hanging on the wall!
Sorry to be so long winded and hope some of the info is useful to other "rookies" planning their first hunt. I can say the whole Alaska hunt experience was spectacular and more than I could have hoped for. The foliage was beautiful, we didn't see another hunter, saw quite a few animals (bear, 'bou, and wolf) and thoroughly enjoyed the whole hunt. I would encourage everyone to use this forum, I certainly learned alot here and found alot of folks very eager to share their expertise, stories, pictures of past hunts, etc.
If anyone has more specific questions (or would like to see a photo or two) please feel free to contact me off line using my post name at the top. Thanks to everyone on the forum for your help over the past year. After this one, I sincerely hope this wasn't a "once in a lifetime experience."
Steve
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