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AK drop off hunt. Lessons learned?

I' d like to go on an Alaskan transporter drop off caribou archery hunt in the next few years. Would like to hear some lessons learned from those that have done this type of hunt. What went wrong, if anything? What would you do differently if you were to go again? Would like to have a wide open discussion - gear, the transporter himself, area (whether conducive to archery hunting), meat care, costs, etc., etc. A big part of this trip is the adventure so I'm not interested in a Canadian outfitter type hunt..........prefer something more remote and wild than that.

Thanks much!

Nothing more remote and wild than a trip with JHA. LOTS of adventure too. Rory

A couple random thoughts; Wind can be a big factor, select your tent and pitch accordingly

Footwear will vary wildly on some of these hunts, if you can ask the transporter what the country is like. for example, I've had some trips where we live in Hippers and others where we never put them on

Consider meat storage- any shade trees [doubt it], should you bring dry bags to sink the meat in a cold lake or stream?

Bugs!! Some days you will pray for wind

Nice to have a heater or something to dry clothes

Nice to have something to occupy time if stuck in your tent for a couple days at a time

I like small dia arrows and minimal fletch for trips like this

I'll tell of my lesson learned of a drop camp hunt. It was not AK caribou but it was NZ tahr. We (4 of us) had drawn a tahr ballot for the Westcoast. It was for specific dates, 7 days only. During certain months chopper rides into certain areas are restricted and only ballot holders can fly in. So when our time came to fly in a storm was on its way. We were asked at the heli-port if we would rather wait until the storm passed and then fly in, but we would still have to be picked up at the assigned date, thus cutting our trip in half. We chose to go for it, not wanting to waste any days. We arrived, set up camp and hunted for about 2 hours and then it started to rain, then the wind picked up and increased in intensity. Woke up during the night with water deeper than my thermarest sleeping pad. Had to stab holes in the floor to drain the water. The storm turned out to be epic; 10 inches of rain driven by 100 kph sustained winds and gust' of 140 kph for over 40 hours. Then it snowed and everything was wet. Had to call for early extraction. Lesson learned: If the weather isn't right, don't force it. Terrible trip. The following year we waited for a storm to pass, then got dropped off and we called for extraction 1 day early because another storm was brewing. Great trip.

PM me with your e-mail address if you want my journal from a 2001 DIY 'bou hunt.

Main lesson: Check the rental tent before you load it on the plane. Ours came without stakes; fortunately I was able to cut some from nearby brush, but what if the previous hunters had burned a big hole in it and didn't tell the air service when it picked them up?

How far away is the nearest water source? Backpacking water is NOT fun.

Do a lot of skull work and plan your gear carefully. Break it down to essential and optional items.

Don't think bad luck can't happen. Bears, weather, breakage, etc. Plan for it.

Have communications/emergency plan. Satellite phone, PLB, SPOT, etc.

Don't plan to eat what you can kill. Bring enough food for the entire trip.

Your sleeping bag needs to be warm enough for the coldest possible night you might face. I've seen near-zero in mid-late September.

A wrecked tent is a wrecked trip, so select this item with utmost care.

You'll have to buy your stove fuel after you arrive. Coleman liquid fuel is the easiest to find, and gas canisters are hardest.

Know way ahead of time how to cleanly butcher a caribou using the gutless method...how you will pack and carry meat...and most importantly how you will protect and care for the meat after recovery.

Having a good, accurate idea of the terrain and ground conditions is essential to choosing boots and a few other items. If trees are near, you might want a saw.

Airplanes are costly to operate, so keep your pilot in town until you really need his services. A sat phone rental is likely cheaper than having him check on you twice.

Great stuff guys! Thanks very much! Keep em coming.....

Hey Pat, how can you vet someone for separation issues? What questions could I ask? Tests?

I will be doing a few Alaska trips and I really don't want to put up with a crybaby! Great thread BTW. Mike

Plan on a few days of extra food. Good chance of being weathered in at the end of the hunt. Yes you will live without food but it is nice to have something to eat if you are stuck.

Choose your partners wisely!! Bad partners can ruin a hunt.

I can't imagine someone acting that way when the plane leaves... I must be wired differently because that moment as the plane buzzes off and you are left with the realization you are on your own for the next 7-10 days is the moment I live for...

If going in August plan for mosquitos as horrible as you can imagine, multiply that by 10x, then pack 100% deet bottles accordingly.

Meat care is tough, especially if you drop one early. Discuss meat haul options with the transporter mid trip if available.

Take a rented sat phone. Crap happens. Don't call home every night for 30 mins to see how everyone is doing, but having it there if you fall onto an arrow or slice off a finger could be the difference in making it home or your transporter coming back in a week to find a corpse.

Pack not only enough food, bring 2-3 days extra because weather seems to change hunting plans in alaska 50% of the time or better...

Soaking this knowledge up! 2015 is my year to go to Alaska for bou!

Keep a set of dry base layers in your tent and never take them outside. If you do they will inevitably get wet. A set of dry clothes can save your life and it sure makes you more comfortable, especially in a sleeping bag. Ed F

If you don't know good first aid (as in really KNOW what you're doing) and carry a good kit...you're trusting to luck to keep you hunting in the event of injury or illness. Knowing exactly what to do has kept me in the wilderness a couple times when I would otherwise have likely been on my way to medical help. Don't think it's just about injury, as illnesses are often picked up during travel...and then hit hard just as you make camp.

Permethrin... better than deet. Overdose on deet and you'll be sick as a dog.

The stuff goes on your clothes not your skin and get this.... lasts for 6 times through the washing machine of that's an indicator of how well it works. I was able to do an entire bear hunt without even turning on the Thermacell. Available at Wal Mart.

I use permethrin religiously for avoiding ticks down here in the south... but I've never had near as good results with mosquitos. Seems they would still come and feast on me, permethrin or not. Not a bad idea to treat your clothes before you leave just in case, but I would still pack an adequate amount of Deet incase you are a magnet for the blood suckers as I am.

Jasper,

Alaska has a no hunt on fly day rule, and I would point you to http://www.adfg.alaska.gov/index.cfm?adfg=hunting.main for the latest information and regulations. 2015, regulations come out in June 2014 and are available from the website in pdf, http://www.adfg.alaska.gov/index.cfm?adfg=wildliferegulations.hunting there are also tools on the website for looking up species specific information, types of hunts available and notices about hunt closures. Although there are many great outfitters here in Alaska, I would do a DIY hunt. Fly into Fairbanks, rent a truck and drive the Dalton highway (we call it the haul road) to Deadhorse. That is management areas 24 and 26 and runs along the pipeline. There is a five-mile buffer that is bow hunt only and one of the best areas to hunt for meat and the occasional trophy. The Alaska hunting regulation has a section about meat care and requirements for sex and if you can bone it in the field, some areas require the meat to stay on the bone. If you hunt the haul road area it is all tundra and looks but is not even close to being flat and is a pain to walk on. It can get very windy with little cover but you could wake up and find your tent surrounded by a herd. An external frame pack is a must because you will come out with more than 100 pounds of meat then your gear and there are not motor vehicles allowed off the road, but that is just for that area.

Pack your clothes in multiple dry bags, then put them all in a duffel. It makes loading small planes easier And you will always have dry clothes. Never assume that the stuff you leave in the tent will remain dry just because you left it in the tent.

Stekewood......well said. I like to sleep on top of the clothes that I plan on wearing so they will be toasty warm when I put them on. In NZ my tent got flooded and my "toasty warm clothes" were now soaking wet. Eventually I was forced to put them on because wet wool was warmer that a wet down sleeping bag.

Call Richard Hume at JHA... Bring your gear show up and have a hunt of a lifetime. He can get you as remote as you want to go. But the bottom line he will get you ahead of the migration to put the odds in your favor. If you are going to spend the time and money and want to go home with caribou meat and the possibility of a nice trophy give Richard Hume and his wife Amanda a call.

Dieter Kaboth Hunting Adventures Pierce Idaho

Just my friendly suggestion.

Don't overthink things. Don't panic if there are problems. Make sure you can roll with anything. Have fun.

The haul road is a good hunt. It is not a great hunt.

I suggest a synthetic sleeping bag. (As much as I like down, it can get damp as the hunt goes on unless the sun comes out long enough for you to air it out.)

A fleece sleeping bag liner gives you some flexibility in controlling your comfort level.

Muck boots and rubber gloves. (I've never had much luck with Gore-Tex boots and gloves.)

Bug dope and netting! Even if the guide says you don't need it, bring it. (A Canadian's or Alaskan's definition of "no bugs this time of year" may be very different from yours!)

Even if you have rain gear (pants and jacket), a big poncho is still a good idea. If it's really pouring, you can hunker down and use it as a "tent" for you and your pack.

1. Check the regulations on all permitted wildlife. We didn't realize wolf was year-round in out unit until we checked in on the satellite phone a couple days after seeing a huge white male.

2. Don't skimp (be cheap) on best clothing available. The best piece I took with me was a heavy wool shirt but I also wish I had bought Sitka/Kuiu heavy mountain pants.

3. Take a 'pee' bottle with a wide mouth...it really sucks to leave a warm sleeping bag and step out into rain/wind in the middle of the night.

4. Determine early in the hunt who in your group is the HEAVY snorer...they'll sleep in a separate tent by themselves. Don't think this is funny because after five sleepless nights there'll be some short tempers in camp.

5. Be sure to sort out what types of food you can eat and those you cannot. My gut is allergic to some foods (ie. cauliflower) and my first day in camp was not delightful after one particular meal.

6. Rent a satellite phone and call the family every other day to let them know you are okay.

7. A good quality variable (20-60x) spotting scope saved us a lot of hiking - take one and use it religiously.

8. Be sure all your equipment is in working shape before you leave. On a rifle hunt in grizzly country I found out that the magazine follower in my Marlin was not properly cycling ammo.

9. Be prepared by having a meat processor lined up before you leave home. Give yourself at least 48-hours after you get back to town (Fairbanks, Anchorage, etc.) for them to process your meat. By arranging our processing before we left Colorado AND meeting him before we flew out he moved us to the top of his list and had everything finished when promised. It was really easy to pick up the boxed meat on the way to the airport.

10. Be prepared to split, wrap and box your antlers before you head to the bush. It took us a full day to do this before we left to the airport. Frontier Airlines treated us extremely well at the front and rear of the hunt.

11. If taking a firearm with you, TSA was extremely courteous to us coming and going. They did search our gear (randomly selected) so don't be freaked if your bags look like they've been searched when you get home.

12. Originally we gave ourselves 2 days after the hunt to prepare for the flight home. Because we came out a day earlier than expected we had 3 days - we were grateful to have time to do some shopping, packing and taking our friends out to dinner. My point is that you need extra time at the front and end of your hunt to pick up anything you find you need (or left at home).

13. Tip your transporter (generously!) - don't forget that he/she's the one responsible for bringing you out safely.

14. Take extra (fully charged) fully charged batteries for your camera and at least 2-16 gig cards...and take LOTS of pictures.

TEMbry, (and Pat) as strange as it sounds, a LOT of people are hardwired to a deep, psychological NEED for the presence of societal support systems.

Until they are without them, they may not even realize that they are.

Others (like me) enjoy creature comforts (beer, toilet paper, and bacon) but seem to "switch on" when away and cut off from civilization.

I wish I could afford more of that. Some day....

lol BTM. Ive been places down south and I hear a guy say "Man I can't stand these bugs!" I'm like "what bugs?" They're not bugs up here - they're birds.

Rick M, I hope that last comment wasn't directed at me! Lol I just assumed you were talking about your wife.

DJ

Straight Shooter:

Do you suppose maybe Rick was referring to the waitress at Big Daddy's BBQ in Fairbanks?

Pete

take waders, you can get frost bite in August in Alaska!

take waders, you can get frost bite in August in Alaska!

Lots of good advice...one to second is amke sure you have a water supply. I had a friedn who was dropped in Alaska and they had to pack water a long ways after they finally found it.

Bring a fat wallet everything in AK is expensive.

bring a tube of after bite, you will get bit and this will help a bunch

I like a glassing pad.......3 sections cut off a Thermarest z-fold closed cell foam pad weights 3 ounces and keeps your butt dry and warm. Also serves as a bit of extra insulation and padding under the inflatable pad in the tent at night. 4 sections makes for even more luxury. Speaking of inflatable pads, those that weigh about a pound and have insulation in them are great. I currently use an Exped Synmat 7 that is super comfortable and so far very tough. Makes for a great nights sleep.

Good rain gear isn't a luxury. I like the KUIU Chugach stuff.

Go have fun!

Kurt

If you are going Non guided archery, how will you deal with bears? Carry a rifle and a bow? Just curious.

DJ & Pete,

I should have said great partners can make a great hunt even better!!

I even heard of one group who had to make a sat call to get the videographer out of the bush:)

Good thing that we did not stop at Big Daddy's before the hunt or we may have had one more in camp, not that it would have been a bad thing:)

Hehehe! Having a chick magnet like DJ around can definitely be a liability!

The guy is a walking chick magnet! At least I think it was a chick:)

I am on seeing you in NJ. Next year. Becky and the kids said hello.

Sorry for the thread hijack.

My elk hunting partner went to Alaska two years ago on a Sitka deer hunt. Make sure everything is in writing on what the outfitters responsibilities are and know what yours are. In there communications with the outfitter through emails and phone calls they were under the assumption that he provided everything for the drop camp. This is two different hunters that had the same conclusion. When they arrived there they found out different. All he was going to do was fly them in and leave them. They had to buy all there camping equipment in Alaska and you know it wasn't cheap.

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