Who we
are, and what area we’re hunting
All of our non-guided / drop-off hunts are conducted in Western
Alaska’s most productive caribou hunting area, known
as GMU (Game Management Unit)17.
GMU 17 is home to the now famous Mulchatna
caribou herd. As caribou herds do, our local herd has fluctuated
in size recently but seems to have stabilized at around 150,000
animals. As a steady producer of big bulls, plenty of caribou
to choose from, and relatively easy access, this is the place
to hunt caribou in North America. We
operate as a small family hunting service based from one of Western
Alaska’s major
hub-communities, Dillingham. Dillingham is a small town located
350 air-miles off of the road system (bush) at the top of the
Alaska Peninsula, right on Bristol Bay. As a hub-community providing
air transportation & logistical support to smaller villages
in this region, Dillingham is also the staging place where most
folks start from when accessing the Mulchatna caribou herd.
Living as year-around residents
within our hunting area for the past 15+ years, home to the Mulchatna caribou herd, we have intimate knowledge of this
area second to none. With years of experience as a professional
Alaskan outfitter, conducting all of our hunts exclusively
in our back yard, I’m confident we know right where
to take you hunting.
| DATES
& PRICE INFO:
5 day Caribou
Hunt -
Bring Your Own Gear
$1,750.00 per person
Drop-off caribou hunt, 5 days, bring ALL of your own
gear. (Up to 50 lbs per person)
2-6 people, 2 person minimum
Dates- any 5 days between; August 1st - 31st
5 day Caribou
Hunt - Fully
Outfitted Camp
$2,500.00 per person
Drop-off caribou hunt, 5 days,
with a fully outfitted camp including food.
2-6 people, 2 person minimum
Dates – any 5 days between: August
1st – 31st, or
Sept 16th – Oct. 10th .
|
 |
7
day Caribou & Blk. Bear hunt
-
Fully Outfitted Camp
$3,500.00 per person
Caribou & Black Bear combination hunt,
7 days, with fully outfitted camp, including food.
2-6 people, 2 person minimum
Dates – any 7 days between
August 1st-31st, or Sept. 16th-Oct. 10th.
|
7 day Caribou &
Fishing - Fully Outfitted Camp
$3,500.00 per person
Caribou & Fishing (Salmon, Trout,
Arctic Char, Grayling) 7 days,
with a fully outfitted camp, including food.
2-6 people, 2 person minimum
Dates – any 7 days between: August 1st-31st . |
Plan your trip
-- another
information source
Everyone wants to have a fun
and successful Alaska hunting/fishing trip. As a non-guided
/ drop-off hunter you will be the one making the plans. Please
use this website as there is a lot of good information
right
here. It may be easier to print
this page (PDF) A lot
of hunters tell us they enjoyed the planning part of the trip
as much as anything. It can be very rewarding to plan your
own trip, and then get to enjoy the benefits of all your “work”.
| I urge you to bring a
young hunter with you on the trip. If you have kids, or know
of a kid that would like to come on an Alaska hunting trip,
bring them along. Our young people are the future of our hunting
heritage, as sportsman we have an obligation to pass our heritage
to the next generation. caribou hunting is relatively an in-expensive
hunt with a high kill-success ratio; this is a great introductory
hunt to Alaska! |
With the logistical problems of bringing ALL of your own gear,
coupled with the restrictive weight limits set by the commercial
airlines, we recommend that you use our camping equipment
for your trip. You’ll get a fully outfitted camp, including
food. Your camp gear will include backpack,
sleeping bag, cloths, rain gear, and personal hunting equipment;
gun/bow, binoculars/spotting scope, knives, rope, etc.
You only need bring your own personal gear.
By using our camp equipment you’ll KNOW that you have
a good camp with the right gear for this area, plus you don’t
have to bring it all with you while flying across the country.
Keep in mind this is only a 5-7 day trip so bring only what you need (what you’ll use) and do your
best to keep the weight & bulk to a minimum. We are using
small aircraft to access the hunting area. To assure aircraft
safety and maximum aircraft performance, there is a fifty
pound (50 lbs) weight limit per person.
We helped contribute information & pictures
to well known outdoor author Larry Bartlett, for one of his
latest Alaska hunting books, Caribou Hunting – A
Guide to Alaska’s Herds. I have read this book
cover-to-cover, several times. Each time I read the book
I come away with new information. This book is a
valuable resource of information for anyone considering
a non-guided caribou hunt in Alaska. We sell the books
here, or you can
visit his
website
to purchase the book directly, which may be more convenient.
Is this hunt
for you? Success rates
I recommend that you do a self appraisal
of your personal ability, experience, and physical condition.
Hunting on your own in a remote area of Alaska does have some
challenges. If you have general hunting/camping experience,
and can carry a backpack full of caribou meat back to your
camp, you shouldn’t have any problems.
Once the airplane flies away you’re
on your own. Non-guided hunter success rates vary with each
person’s ability. Generally, most drop-off hunters get
their animals. Over the years the kill-success rates
have varied
from 95-100%
Non-Resident Hunting
License and Big
Game Tags
Alaska has a system in which you’ll
need to purchase your non-resident hunting license, and then
purchase the Big Game tags applicable to the animals you’ll
be hunting i.e. caribou, black bear, and wolf. If you will
also be doing some fishing, you’ll need a non-resident
fishing license. A regulatory year for Alaska Hunting regulations
is July 1st-June 30th. Plan to purchase your hunting/fishing
license & tags after June 30th of the year in which your
hunt is scheduled. It is easy and convenient to purchase your
hunting license and tags online from the
State of
Alaska, Department of Fish and Game.
Getting to Dillingham Alaska
Getting here is easy. Most people will be
traveling here via commercial airline service from the lower
48 states. Book your flight through your local travel agent
or use one of the many online services. You’ll want to book
the flight from your home, all the way to Dillingham Alaska.
The Anchorage-Dillingham portion of your flight will be on
Alaska Airlines, or their commuter service Peninsula
Airways.
If you overnight in Anchorage we recommend
the Best Western- Barratt Inn, (800) 221-7550. They have a
courtesy phone at the Anchorage Airport, and a free shuttle
bus to take you back and forth. They are located within 10
minutes of the airport, and within easy walking distance to
several restaurants. Also, they have a walk-in freezer for
customer use if you’ll be returning home with your
caribou
meat.
What to expect when
you arrive in Dillingham, staying over night
When you arrive at the Dillingham airport
we’ll be there to meet you. If you arrive on a morning
flight, and the weather is good for flying, we’ll take
you to camp right away. First, we’ll go back to our
shop where you can change from your street clothes and leave
anything behind that you won’t need in camp. Hard gun cases
do not go to camp. If we can’t get you to camp on the day
you arrive because it's too late in the day
or the weather is not suitable for safe flying by small plane,
we’ll make a reservation for you at one of our local B&B’s
or motel.
Mulchatna Caribou Herd
Some magazine articles, promotional advertisements
and stories you may hear from different people might lead
you to believe that a caribou herd is always together in a
large mass, and/or the herd “migrates” every year
from point A to point B, taking the same route, during the
same time frame, every year. At minimum, I feel that someone
who makes such broad statements, either doesn’t know
much about caribou, or is over simplifying the dynamics of
a caribou herd- possibly to get you to book a hunt with them.
Specifically relative to the Mulchatna
caribou herd, my experience
has shown these caribou can be found over many thousands of
square miles of Western Alaska and sometimes you’ll
see a few, a few hundred, or a few thousand. No doubt
caribou
travel a lot (migrate), however I’ve seen them going
north, south, east & west at different times, and at the
same time, plus any “pattern” they might have
seems to change every year. I think it would be safe to say
there is one thing we can all agree on, these nomadic tundra
dwellers are un-predictable!
Access to
caribou
country, hunting methods/techniques, choose your gun
Our time proven method
for hunting caribou is to locate a herd from the airplane,
land in a reasonable proximity to the caribou, set-up a small
camp, and then begin hunting the following day. (By Alaska
regulation you can’t hunt the same day you fly) In other
words, we take you to where ever the caribou are, at the time
you’re here. You’re not waiting around some camp
hoping the caribou might migrate through the area.
We’ll be flying in a
Piper Super Cub mounted with large tundra tires. This aircraft
carries one (1) passenger at a time w/ 50 lbs of gear, so
we will make several shuttle flights to get everyone to camp.
I have over 15 years of experience and 6,000+ hours of flight
time in a Super Cub flying exclusively in bush Alaska, I consider
myself to be a well-seasoned pilot. Also I have a bunch of
fancy FAA (Federal Aviation Administration) ratings that may,
or may not, mean much to you, but most importantly I have
an impeccable safety record that I plan to keep.
A question that I’m
asked quite often, “Will
you move us if there are no caribou in our area?”
My answer; “Well, of course I’d
be glad to move you IF there are NO caribou in your area,
however, I’m not going to put you in an area with no
caribou to begin with”.
Getting in the habit of “moving”
camps to a better area is a bad habit and severely restricts
your hunting time. By State law you can’t hunt the same
day you fly, so every time you move camp [fly] you just lost
another hunting day. I strongly feel it is best to put people
where the caribou are to begin with. However, conditions can
& do change, and no one can predict Mother Nature -- so, if
you need to be moved, we’ll move you. Over the last 10 years
I can count on one hand how many camps I’ve moved because
there we’re no caribou in the area.
Most caribou habitat is open tundra country,
and the spot-n-stalk hunting technique is used almost exclusively
for rifle hunting. Expect the shots to range from 100-200+
yards. Their body size is equal to a mature mule deer buck,
and the kill-zone on a caribou is about the size of 1 ½
paper plates. Choose a rifle that you’re confident with;
any .30 caliber gun should work fine.
For archery hunting we have found that an
ambush hunting technique works well. Conceal yourself in some
brush, or hide behind clumps of tundra and wait for the right
bull to pass by at a close distance.
Fully
outfitted and well stocked camps, bring-along list, weather
If you book the trip as a “fully outfitted
& well stocked” camp, you’ll get exactly that.
The same camp set-up we use for our hunts, including; tent(s), cots, chairs, lanterns, cook stove & cooking/eating
utensils, fuel, water jug(s) & purifier, tarps, game bags,
shovel/axe, and other miscellaneous small items.
For camps of 2 people there is a $500 refundable
rental deposit required. For camps of 3-4 people there is
a $1,000 refundable rental deposit required.
Having us provide the camp tremendously reduces
your burden of figuring out what to bring, and
how to get it all to Dillingham, Alaska.
Equipment &
gear that you will want to bring with you includes;
frame-style backpack, sleeping
bag, clothes, personal items, rain gear, good hiking boots,
and your personal hunting/fishing equipment; gun/bow/fishing
pole, ammo/fishing lures, binoculars/spotting scope, knives,
fire starter/matches, flash light, rope, camera w/ extra batteries
& film.
This region of Alaska is well known for inclement
weather. You should arrive here physically and mentally
prepared for changes in your itinerary due to bad weather.
We can’t control the weather any better than you can; what we can, and do control, is what weather we’re willing
to fly in. Safety is the single most important aspect of having
a good time. We live by the philosophy that you operate safely
first, then everything else seems to fall into place. Another
way to say this would be; when proper preparation meets opportunity,
luck is born.
At any rate, you can expect the following
weather:
temperatures to range from 20°-70°, with a 75-100% chance
of rain and/or snow, with winds blowing constantly 10-20 mph
with gusts to 60+ mph. A large part of the time the sky will
be overcast & cloudy reducing visibility.
After the Hunt
There are several options for you
to choose from in regards to what you want to do with your
meat.
A) You can take all of the meat home with
you on your return commercial airline flight. We’ll
pack it into waxed “airline approved” cardboard
boxes, and then you can pay the airlines a fee for the “additional
luggage”.
B) You can donate all of your meat locally,
at no cost to you.
C) You can donate some of your meat locally,
then take the rest home with you on the return commercial flight.
D) Your meat can be sent to Anchorage for
processing, and then sent to you.
Trophy, Antlers &
Cape
Your two main choices include:
A) Ship the antlers & cape to Anchorage
where a local taxidermist we recommend will mount
your trophy and then make arrangements for it to be sent to
you as a finished mount.
B) Ship your antlers & cape to our expeditor
in Anchorage where they will prepare & package
your trophies for shipping, directly to your taxidermist or
to your home.
Having your trophy mounted in Anchorage, Alaska
then sent to you already mounted will be about the same cost,
maybe slightly more, as shipping the raw antlers & cape
to your taxidermist.
If your trophy will be mounted in Anchorage we recommend Nancy
Preston from the Taxidermy Shop, (907) 345-6233. Nancy has done
work for over 70% of our clients, with high customer satisfaction
level. Most folks donate some meat
locally, then take the rest with them. You can roughly figure
about $200-$400 per caribou, depending on where its’
going, for shipping costs, regardless of what taxidermist
does the work.
Book Your Hunting/Fishing Trip with Us
It’s been said that a good hunt starts
with a great plan. You’ve made a great start already
by looking at our website. In fact, planning is what we do
best! Operating in a remote area of Alaska, 350 air miles
in the bush, has plenty of logistical challenges. Year after
year, our hunters tell us that they “had a great
hunt!”, and they consistently harvest nice trophies.
Call us, and then call our references. We are confident that
we can provide you with a great quality Alaskan hunting/fishing
experience.
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game hunting home
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& hunting area |
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Gear lists | Resources
Now operated by
Westwind Guide Service
Anthony (Tony) Lee Master Guide #105
PO Box 298490
Wasilla, Alaska 99629
Phone Number 907-373-2047
Email us
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