tag in hand

My buddy Bill and I headed north on a three day weekend in hopes of filling our tags before the season ends on April 30th. We packed up the truck on Thursday afternoon and hit the road that evening. We arrived at the Chandalar Shelf around 9:30 that night with the temperature hovering around six below and brisk 15 mph winds.

The next morning we were putting stalks on caribou by 7:00 and needless to say we were giving them a free education on what to avoid. When hunting caribou on the north slope its solely spot and stalk and extremely difficult since there is minimal terrain to hide behind. Bill shot a bull at 45 yards and by 9:30 we had him packed up and in the truck. I spotted a lone bull bedded on a hill side and was able to put a stalk on him and close the gap to 42 yards and by 12:30 we were packed up and heading south.

This was an amazing hunt. I'm still shocked that we were back in town by Friday evening when we were prepared to stay until Sunday. The description sounds like this is an easy hunt with a high success rate but I couldn't disagree more. It's not uncommon for hunters to travel south with an empty truck bed. This was my fifth time traveling north with a bow in hand and I was finally able to fill my tag...enjoy the pictures.

View of the truck from where I shot mine

I believe this picture sums up Alaska.

Spring is around the corner

Dad was able to catch a couple flights to Alaska and have some fun in a short weekend. He was able to ride the snow mobile, do some bird hunting and cut/split some firewood. Friday we did some skeet shooting on the Tanana River and grilled some steaks in the nice warm 20 degree weather. Saturday we headed for the mountains in search for some flying snowballs (ptarmigan) which is the Alaska State bird. When saying the name the "P" is silent.

There are three species of ptarmigan...Willow, Rock and Whitetail all of which change colors (plumage) depending on the season. All species are excellent flyers however their defense is being able to stay extremely still. The birds are mainly active in the morning and evenings as they feed on willow buds...frozen blueberries from the previous spring and spruce needles only to name a few.

The hunting started off rather quick as we spotted two birds right away on a hill side. Despite three shots from Dad's Winchester they were able to live and fly another day. If you ask, he'll say he was too close using a full choke but I'll leave that up to yall to decide...haha. A little bit later into the day Dad was able to get the goose egg off his back as he bagged his first rock ptarmigan! We continued to walk up, down, through snow drifts, around the mountains looking for these birds but came up empty handed. We decided to walk one more part of the mountain and it paid off as we flushed six birds holding tight under a cluster of spruce trees. With extremely sore legs we packed up the truck and headed back to town for some dry clothes and a hot meal. As we were leaving the ptarmigan God's must have been smiling upon us because we spotted a covey of 30 birds feeding along the hill side. We were lucky enough to bag several birds out of this covey and ended the hunt on a high note!

Sunday was a day of shopping around town and cutting up some fire wood. Even though the temps are starting to warm up it's still nice to relax at night next to a fire in the wood stove. All in all it was an action packed weekend and we were able to accomplish a lot! I'm almost certain its safe to say that out of all the big game hunting dad and I have done, hunting for ptarmigan ranks up there in one of the toughest hunts.

enjoy the pictures

This Place is awesome!

Rock Ptarmigan