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What to Expect on your Hunt &
Helpful Information
What’s Included in the Hunt Cost:
Logistical support and consultation before and after the
hunt, including: Information on how, when and where to
purchase your hunting license and tags, commercial
airline travel, pick up and drop off at Dillingham
airport, and shipping your trophies to our expediter in
Anchorage.
The point of outfitting, begins in Dillingham Alaska,
included in the hunt cost is: all of the “Bush” flights
to and from the field, any moves while in the field, a
fully outfitted and well stocked camp, professional
licensed guide, packer/camp helper on Moose hunts, and
trophy care while in the field.
Additional
Costs You Can Expect:
Round trip airfare to and from Dillingham Alaska,
hunting license and big game tags, lodging before and
after the hunt, gratuity (tip) for your guide and
packer, meat processing, expediting and shipping fees
for your trophies, and taxidermy costs.
Setting Up
your Trip:
Plan ahead. Early planning and preparation is an
important aspect to a successful hunt. In fact,
planning, preparation and logistical organization is a
large part of our job as an outfitter. If you have
questions, please ask, we’re here to help. That said,
let me just say that things can & do change, things
change that none of us have control over: causes range
from bad weather to equipment malfunctions. Please keep
an open mind and be flexible. Trust our judgment, and
let us do our jobs. Our success hinges on your
satisfaction; we want you to have a great trip and will
work hard for you every step of the way.
Shoot your rifle/bow often, be familiar with every
aspect of its’ operation. Know your own personal
shooting range limit. Gather all of your equipment and
gear for this hunting trip months in advance, and be
familiar with all of your gear. Only bring “proven”
gear, bush Alaska is no place to experiment with some
new gadget, only bring gear you’ll use on this trip. Get
in shape, this hunt is not an endurance test of
discomfort, however the better shape you’re in the more
effective you’ll be as a hunter.
Getting here
and meeting us:
We recommend that you purchase your commercial airline
tickets six-nine months in advance. The Anchorage –
Dillingham ( ANC-DLG) portion of your flight will be on
Alaska Airlines
or their commuter service,
Peninsula Airways. You can
book the entire flight through your favorite internet
ticket sales website. As soon as you purchase your
airline tickets please fax us a copy of your itinerary
so we can make arrangements accordingly. If you will be
staying overnight in Anchorage we recommended the Best
Western Barratt Inn, they are located within 5 minutes
of the airport, have a courtesy phone in the terminal,
and a 24hr free shuttle bus service; 800-221-7550, or
907-243-313.
We have a good working relationship with a local B&B, if
you’ll be staying overnight in Dillingham we’ll make
arrangements for you, expect to spend about $125 per
night. When you arrive at the Dillingham airport we’ll
be there to meet you, if you need a vehicle while in
town we have one to loan you.
Hunting
License & Big Game Tags:
Hunting License & Tags are easy. There is no lottery or
drawing system for your hunting license and big game
tags, they are available “over the counter”, or more
accurately said, via the internet. Hunting License & Big
Game Tags are available here in Dillingham; however they
are not readily available. Visit the
State of
Alaska’s website for your license & tags, you
provide a credit card and they’ll send your license &
tags to you. Plan ahead and purchase you license & tags
several months in advance.
Alaska has a unique system in which tags
of equal or lower dollar value can be used for different
species. Species dollar value, in order from highest to
lowest are as follows: Brown Bear, Moose, Caribou, Black
Bear, Wolverine, and Wolf. In other words a Brown Bear
tag can be used for any species listed above; a Moose
tag can be used on a Moose, or a Caribou, or Black Bear,
Wolverine or a Wolf. This system offers hunters a
multitude of different choices, and creates more
opportunity while hunting. Also a Wolf is a rare &
exceptional trophy, a Wolf tag only cost $30, everyone
coming on a hunt with us should buy at least 1 Wolf tag.
Hunting Camp:
Our camps are located in a very remote wilderness area
with access only by Super Cub on tundra tires, or
ski-equipped aircraft for the spring hunts. The (bush)
flight from Dillingham to camp, or one of our cabins,
takes about 40-50 minutes. Once in camp all hunting is
done by walking from camp daily, or during our spring
hunts we’ll travel by snowmobile. The camps are very
deluxe by bush Alaska standards, especially taking into
consideration we have to fly everything in & out every
year by small airplane. Our tent camps consist of steel
framed “weather port” tents, and Cabala’s Alaska Guide
tents. There are separate tents for cooking &
socializing, sleeping, and gear tents. We use
comfortable, adjustable- cots, Coleman stoves and
lanterns, propane heaters, we serve Alaskan size portion
of hearty family-style meals, plenty of snacks and the
coffee pot is always on. Each hunter, or group of two if
the trip is booked as a 2x1, hunts exclusively from
their own camp with no one else hunting the same area
during the same year during our fall hunts. On our
spring hunts we all share a cabin and can accommodate
2-3 hunters at one time, however we all travel each day
by snowmobile to hunt different areas.
Typical
Hunting day, Hunting Methods:
Different species live in different terrain and require
different hunting methods.
During our Spring Brown Bear hunts we will travel daily
by snowmobile looking for Bears, a Bear den, or Bear
tracks. Another method we use is to stay in a tent camp
for a few days in known Bear denning habitat, hunting
off snowshoes for Bears. Once we locate a Bear that we
have judged to be of the size & quality that we’re
looking for the final stalk will be on snowshoes. A lot
of people tell us that just riding around in the
pristine wilderness on a snowmobile was worth the trip.
If you have never hunted Bear early in the spring, in
the deep snow as they are just coming out of their den,
this is a trip you should consider! Bear hides are most
prime during the spring and their claws are as along as
they will ever be. Beautiful trophies!
During our Moose hunts we are mainly
using calling and raking techniques as the bulls are
either in a “pre-rut” condition or the rut is in full
swing. The terrain is made up of dense Spruce forest,
with some open tundra meadows, and the lower area’s
around the creeks and lakes are choked with Willow &
Alder brush. With the nature of calling rutting bulls
the action can be up-close and intense, bring your video
camera!
Caribou are a herd animal and can most generally be
found on the open tundra. The primary hunting method is
spot-n-stalk in open terrain. It is common to see many
animals in each herd; we pick out the biggest bulls for
our clients to harvest.
During the Fall Brown Bear hunts our
primary focus are the hillsides where the Bears can be
found eating berries. We’ll position ourselves in a good
vantage point and glass for Bears; once we spot a worthy
Bear we’ll begin the stalk, making sure to keep the wind
in our favor.
Black Bear hunting is similar to Brown Bear hunting;
we’ll look for Bears over a vast area. Once we locate a
Bear we’re interested in we’ll begin the stalk.
We generally rise early each morning and hunt hard all
day. While you don’t need to be a professional athlete
to hunt with us (we go at your pace), you should be
comfortable walking 2-6 miles per day while carrying
your personal gear & lunch. Your comfort and safety are
paramount to us. Your guide will always have emergency
survival gear with him, plus an assortment of optic’s,
knives & other field dressing supplies. Speaking of
guides, our guides are very experienced; all of our
guides have at least 10 years of practical field
experience hunting. Each
guide has been hand-picked and I have full and
complete faith & confidence in each of them. Going on a
hunting trip is a lot more than killing, a LOT of folks
that hunt with us end up as lifelong friends. Make
friends with your guide, he wants to be your hunting
buddy anyway. Believe me, taking folks hunting [guiding]
is the most rewarding level of hunting, I haven’t met a
true guide yet that didn’t thoroughly enjoy sharing
their knowledge, by taking folks hunting.
Guns, ammo, &
the moment of truth:
For the species in our area any .30 caliber magnum will
work fine. By far the most popular gun in Alaska is the
.338 Win. Mag. Most importantly bring a rifle you know
well and are comfortable & confident shooting. Bullets
that expand well into a nice “mushroom” seem to do well
on our species. Bullet weights can vary from 180-250
grains, depending on what caliber you’re shooting. We
get a considerable amount of wet weather, rain/snow.
Plan to use a stainless rifle w/ a synthetic stock. If
you bring a blued gun w/ a wood stock it will get
damaged and rust will begin to form. Typical shots can
range from 30-200+ yards, we will ask you what distance
you feel comfortable shooting and then give you an
opportunity to check your gun at our range before the
hunt. It is very important to me that we all hunt well,
in this case that means only taking high percentage
shots that you’re comfortable with. I prefer the
standard, broadside, heart-lung shot, and don’t buy into
the theory of “break em’ down”. Do your best to make a
single, humane kill shot. This is your hunt; you shoot
your own trophy. The only time your guide will fire his
weapon is in the case of an emergency or dangerous
situation, or the animal is wounded and escaping with
little or no chance of recovery.
After you have successfully harvested your trophy we’ll
take plenty of pictures and start the field dressing
process. Your help is not required, but it will be
greatly appreciated. Help the guide/packer with the
field dressing chores, the more work you put into your
hunt, all aspects, the more this hunt will mean to you.
Each person values another person service differently; a
generous tip for a hard working guide & packer is
standard in the hunting industry. While each person must
determine what amount to give, I think 5-15% of the hunt
cost as a tip would be appropriate.
Trophy Size &
Kill Ratio:
Honest Brown Bear sizes range 8-9 ½ + feet; we have
taken true 10 foot Bears however they are rare. Skulls
range in size from 22”-28”+. No doubt there is some
Bear-stretching that goes on in Alaska every year; you
can relate this to a “fish story”. Our historical kill
success rate has been 85-100% depending on the year.
We have taken Moose in the 57”-74”
range, with about 63” being our average, our clients
have enjoyed 99-100% kill success for the past 7 years.
Our Caribou kill success ratio always runs right at or
very near 100%, we harvest mature bulls. Traditionally
there haven’t been many Black Bears in our area, however
over the past 4-5 years we have been seeing and taking
more Black Bears and anticipate this trend to continue,
hide sizes will square around 5 ½ to 7 feet, and their
skulls will run 18”-21”+.
After the
hunt, Meat Processing, & Shipping the Trophy:
There are several options for you to choose from in
regards of what to do with your meat. You can have it
all shipped to Anchorage for processing, and then
air-freighted to you. You could have some shipped to
Anchorage for processing, and then donate the rest
locally at no cost to you, or you could donate all of it
locally at no cost to you. Donated meat does not go to
waste, it goes to our family and we share it with other
friends, we gladly accept your donated meat. Generally
wild game processing in Anchorage runs about $2-5 per
pound, and air-freight will be an additional $3-7+ per
pound depending on your location.
The trophy part of your animal, antlers, hide, and/or
cape, will be air-shipped to our expeditor in Anchorage.
They will truck-freight the trophy through Canada to the
Port of Montana in Butte. Once in Butte your trophy can
be mounted there, or shipped via truck, rail, or air to
you or directly to your taxidermist. Since the terrorist
attack of 9-11 the airlines have become very restrictive
on cargo, having your trophy trucked freighted through
Canada, to Montana, and then shipped to you is the best
and most economical means of shipping from Alaska. As of
the fall of 2004 you could expect to spend about
$400-$600 per Moose, $300-$500 per Caribou, and
$200-$600 per Bear for all of the shipping, handling,
skinning, crating, and expediting fee’s, all the way to
your home/taxidermist, depending on your location.
Please feel free to contact D&C Expediting for exact
quotes; 907-344-9719, or 406-723-6041.
Our obligation & hospitality does not stop when you
leave here. After you leave we will have all of the
antlers, capes, and hides for the season shipped to
Anchorage. We’ll notify you when your trophy leaves our
hands and is on the way to the expeditor. You will deal
directly with the expeditor, no middle-men. Normally,
they set up an account for you and present you with one
itemized bill for all of the charges when you get your
trophy(s), very professional & convenient. If you’re not
having your trophy mounted in Butte M.T. you can expect
to receive your trophy 2-3 months after your hunt.
Another challenge of living in bush Alaska is we do not
have ready access to film developing, as soon as we have
all of the film developed from the season we will gladly
forward you pictures, typically about 2 months.
As a small family hunting service we have built our
reputation on providing each customer with personal
service while hunting for trophy Alaska animals. If you
choose to a book a hunt with us I’m certain we can
provide you with a quality Alaska hunting experience.
Good Hunting………….
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