I’ve been hunting and harvesting blacktail deer, Roosevelt elk, and black bears on the Central Oregon coast since 1995 by the self-guided public land method. A couple years ago, I started branching out and doing a few hunts out of state for new species to me. I killed a couple Montana mule deer and drew a Wyoming antelope tag through Huntin’ Fool’s Application Service. That was a blast as it was my first guided hunt and I was lucky enough to get a big one for the unit drawn. I ended up going with the outfitter recommended by Huntin’ Fool.
Fast forward to this winter, and as usual, I was in Dutch Harbor getting in from a Bering Sea Pollock fishing trip. A voicemail popped up in town on my phone from Huntin’ Fool, and I thought I must have drawn an Alaska mountain goat guide tag through an outfitter they had me apply with that had 20%-30% draw odds. When I listened to the voicemail and heard that I drew a coveted 2% draw odds Alaska caribou tag, I was shocked. I called Huntin’ Fool from the boat for details, and they recommended two outfitters. Coke Wallace at Midnight Sun Safaris squeezed me into his schedule in the middle of the season.
August 28th rolled around, and I was on my way to Alaska. I got a motel for the night, and the next day, Coke Wallace’s niece, Paige, from Midnight Sun Safaris Outfitters picked me up and we were on our way to Coke’s house and property for the night.
The next morning, we went to the gun range and checked Coke’s gun. It’s a good thing we did because it was shooting to the right quite a bit at 100 yards. We got it dialed in, and then around the middle of the day, Coke, Paige, the wrangler, guide Steve Opat, and I loaded up the two pack horses and everything and drove to the beginning of the trail where we would hike in. It was uphill quite a ways before flattening out in the drainage. We ended up hiking in approximately four miles because Steve and his girlfriend had hiked it the week before on their time off and spotted one large caribou. We set up spike camp that evening between two peaks above the valley floor, and then we only had enough time to hike up on the mountain to glass before dark. First, we glassed the far away mountainside and I spotted two small caribou bulls. We could not find the one my guide had pictures and video of. Once we got up to the next big, flat spot of tundra on top of the ridge above camp, we glassed the top half of the mountain for a bit. It was really windy, and there was a lot of rain coming down in scrolls. Eventually, I spotted a lone bull. I knew it was much larger than the two on the other mountainside. I directed Paige and Steve to it, but Steve didn’t think it was him because the week before there was a smaller bull with him. Finally, he turned his head and we could see he had distinctive tops. We all agreed it was the bull we were after, but we decided there wasn’t enough daylight left to make a move on him.
The next morning, we got up to our glassing rock by late morning. From there, I spotted the target bull again. He was bedded and appeared to be alone at over 1,000 yards away. We decided to walk down and way around, staying behind ridgetops. Three hours later, we got to the last ridgetop and glassed for a few minutes.
I said, “There’s the target bull right there!” There were bulls bedded at 550 yards. We decided to wait them out, thinking they would eventually get up and feed off the mountainside towards us. I asked a few times if this bull was big enough and if he was Boone & Crockett size or bigger. They both said he was close and that it was one of the nicer bulls they had ever seen. They also said I better not pass on him if given the chance.
An hour later, the bulls were up and feeding slowly down to us. The smaller bull was feeding outside to the left, and the target bull was feeding basically straight towards us. Steve and I started belly crawling forward, trying to get to a bush about 40 yards ahead. Paige lost sight of the bull at 250 yards. He had gone into a low spot where none of us could see him. It had all happened pretty fast once he was inside of 400 yards. For whatever reason, he wasn’t feeding after he was inside of 300 yards or so. He was just coming our way. Suddenly, I was on him! He popped out at around 105 yards right in front of me. I thought he may run me over, but eventually at 95 yards, he turned and was walking, quartering to me. I shot the .300 RUM, forgetting it was 3" high at 100 yards, and I was trying to figure out how far forward to aim as he was walking fast. He dropped as soon as the bullet found its mark. He got back up, took a step, and then fell over dead. Somehow, the bullet went through the top of his lungs and didn’t hit any guts, tenderloins, or backstrap and exited out the other side near the back of the guts.
We made our way over to him, and there was no ground shrinkage. We took photos, and Paige went back to camp to get the pack horses. Steve and I broke the animal down, and Steve caped it for a shoulder mount with the idea of fake velvet being put on after it was scored hard-horned.
Back at the tent that night, Paige cooked up the tenderloins for us, and they were tied for the best, most un-gamey tenderloins I’ve ever eaten. The next morning, Paige took the pack horses with all of the caribou four miles out to the road for pickup as Steve and I hiked back up and sat on the gut pile all day until dark, hoping to get a grizzly or a wolf with my second tag. We were unsuccessful that day, but we did see a cow moose. We were also hoping to see a legal bull moose or Dall sheep for my second tag.
The next day, we saw a few more cows and calf moose below camp and above camp near the gut pile. We watched a huge sow grizzly with three cubs on the opposite mountain. On the last day, we hiked further up the drainage, and way off in the distance, we saw a group of caribou that was cows and a group of six Dall sheep with a nice full curl ram. However, they were too far away and high up for our situation. Eventually, we made it back to the gut pile and sat on it for a while.
That night, we met Paige back at camp, and the next morning, we had to pack out and get back to Coke’s house. I spent the next day boning out all my meat and cleaning it up in Coke’s meat shack, getting it ready for coolers for the flights home. Eventually, Coke sent my caribou cape and rack to Anchorage to Knights Taxidermy for the shoulder mount.
I had a great experience with Midnight Sun Safaris Outfitters. I’d like to thank Coke Wallace for the time spent at his house before the hunt and for the great conversations; his wife, Joanne Wallace, for the great meals at their house before and after my hunt; Paige Wallace for her great wrangling skills, packing skills, and transportation from the airport; and Steve Opat for guiding me and taking me in the general area where he and his girlfriend had spotted the bull the week before. Also, thanks to Steve for a ride back to the airport. Finally, I’d like to thank Huntin’ Fool for putting me in for this draw. Like they say, you can’t draw if you don’t apply, apply, apply!
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