OUTFITTER; JIM KEDROWSKI

BOOKING AGENT; JACK ATCHESON & SONS

LOCATION; BROOKS RANGE ,ARCTIC CIRCLE ,ALSAKA

MAIN SPECIES; DALL SHEEP, GRIZZLY BEAR, MOOSE

DATES; 26TH AUG - 15TH SEPT 2014

RIFLE; BLASER R93, 300 WIN MAG
180 GRAIN SWIFT SCIROCCO II

Early in July 2014 received an e-mail about a 19 day Combo hunt for Dall Sheep, Grizzly Bear, Moose and possible Caribou in the Brooks range Alaska, turned out to be two hunts with back to back dates had been cancelled and so they had decided to combine them together in the one offer. Being intrigued with not only the species on offer but the length of the Hunt itself,as it is such a long haul to North America from Australia to do a single species Hunt, made further enquries about the area, outfitter and timing of the Hunts, spoke to and emailed many Clients that have hunted the area previously and got nothing but positive feedback about Jim and his entire outfit. Only down side that I could get thru many different searches was lots of talk of the Dall Sheep numbers getting a severe hammering with a Spring Freeze, but no real figures to back it all up. As Hunting is always far from a certainty, paid the Cash, booked the Flights , filled out countless paperwork for firearms and 50 days later landed in Alaska......


Planes kept getting smaller, Plane number 6 was with Coyote Air out of Coldfoot Alaska into camp.


camp was heated tents/shelters

Spent the first three days looking ,glassing and climbing the mountains trying to find a Sheep. We did manage to find some ewe's with last season lambs still trailing them around, but no lambs from this Spring and not a sign of a Legal ram. Do not ever remember taking layers of clothing on and off as frequently as we were, forget four seasons in one day, this was four seasons every hour!! Welcome to Alaska.

Several times a day the fog kept us from glassing the high mountains for sheep, so the time was spent looking for Grizzly Bears. At a distance watched a Grizzly chase a Moose Cow out of a patch of willows, personally think he was fighting out of his weight range as Bret my guide called him as only a teenager.. Later on day three stalked a nice size Grizzly that had a distinctive blonde stripe along the back, but with a swirling wind the Grizzly got our scent at about 300 yards and lost no time in disappearing out of the gully.







The Autumn colours are outstanding


Then came the snow. At first only a light dusting on the mountains, no huge drama as will probably disappear in a day or two so concentrate on Bear for a day then back to the Sheep hunting.




Back up in the mountains next day, no joy at all with the Sheep and the wind would not stop. It actually got that bad that it froze the water in the camelback tube in side my back pack.


Then it really decided to snow, even base camp got covered with a layer of over four inches of snow. Then to really top it all off the temperature dropped to 8 degrees F (-14 Degrees C )And stayed there... Not only was it the most snow they had seen in 15 years, it was also the coldest.



It actually got that cold that the running waters in the River stared to ice up at least six weeks early.



All the snow made sheep hunting nearly impossible so decided to concentrate on trying for a good Grizzly Bear. Still no easy task as just putting in the hours glassing was a trial in itself. The next ten days was very quite animal wise. Did see a Moose Bull that would be worth checking on when the season started plus one small bear and a glimpse of a Wolf trotting away in the distance. Plus many horse miles, anywhere from two to eight hours a day spent riding, crossing rivers, climbing to vantage points, changing spike camps





After a three and half ride to set up a new spike camp, sitting glassing and QT my Guide for second half of the hunt, spots seven Caribou feeding on the Tundra in the distance. Have found literally hundreds of sheds as the Caribou spend time later in the season in these Valleys, so maybe this is a handful getting a head start on the rest of the herd. As usual everything is so far away here that it takes 3/4 hour on horses up the river bed till QT thinks we are close enough to stalk on foot, TIE the horses on the bushes available and head off. Eventually climb out of the river to get a better view and find that we have lost the herd of seven but managed to find a slightly larger herd of 150+ animals, there are literally Caribou everywhere you look!! Totally amazing to see.

Glassing the multitude of masses trying to decide on a plan of attack and I pick up a Grizzly Bear in the distance with the bino's. Some discussion of which direction etc and QT says that is no Grizzly but a Muskox, sure what I am seeing is bear feeding keep looking and finally decide we both are right. The guys had told me the story of a lone Muskox that apparently got lost on migration several years ago and now travels these Valleys looking for a way out, and here he is. Jokingly suggest that maybe I could use my Dall Sheep tag on the Muskox and help the poor sole immigrate to Australia, but QT explains as there is not meant to any Muskox in Unit 25A there is no open season and NO I can not tag him... Oh well have to ask. So we leave him feeding down along the River edge.

Back to dilemma of Grizzly Bear or Caribou hunting??? Grizzly wins and start a long stalk, pass small herd of Caribou at 50 yards using the hiking sticks as Antlers, they are interested but not concerned about us as the wind is right. Once we gain some height realise that we had only seen about half the herd of Caribou, reckon there are over 300 animals spread over the Valley. Work into about 900 yards of the Grizzly then progress is very slow as only one scant bush for cover but luckily he is busy digging out squirrels with his back to us. Finally make the bush at about 200 yards and trying to get closer when the squirrels loses his interest and he waddles up the mountain feeding on berry bushes in and out of cover but steadily climbing. Trying to follow and keep the pace lose him in the folds of the mountain, come around the opposite side of a knob where we last saw him just as he walks out. Perfect side profile at 35 yards so take the heart shot and he turns to bite at the strike of the bullet then starts to roll down the mountain towards us so every turn put another 180 grain pill into him. Finally comes to a stop and I have my Artic Grizzly Bear tagged....






Back to horses with a full Bear hide and skull in our packs, only to find that they have GONE, bushes and all. The other trait that the Muskox has is that he likes to visit with horses, but they are scared to death of him. This is about the third time over the years that he has been blamed for running them off, reckon he would look mighty good on my wall now!!! Three hours later stumble back into spike camp at about 1 AM and luckily the horses had all pulled up to have a feed on the grain and nuts, they managed to eat a 50 pound bag in that time.
Totally exhausted but what a day.

Next morning after a later start find that the Caribou are still in the Valley though not in such great numbers as yesterday. Find a smaller herd that looks like it has several good Bulls in it about half way up the mountain and start after them, only to be interrupted by a pack of four Wolves ( 1 older and 3 smaller ) who look to be stalking the same herd. Work our to about 400 yards but lose the big wolf, though the three half grown ones gives a tremendous show of howling at each other for several minutes. rather neat to not only hear wolves howl but to actually see them do it as well is something special.

We leave the wolves and continue for the Caribou as they are still climbing, watch a tremendous Bull sky line himself as he crosses over the top of range. Eventually work our way into the herd and find three nice Bulls, put the cross hairs on the one with the most mass ( I think )and have my Caribou on the ground, and a double shovel to boot.




The amount of animals that I saw in those two days was nothing short of spectacular, even magical. Something I will long remember.

The last days saw us trying to find a legal Moose, but the best we could find was 45 inches. Did manage to get a wolf, not an old one but still interesting as he had a nose full of porcupine quills.




Scott
AUSTRALIA

Heck of a story Scott! Very nice trophies.

Congrats.

The sheep numbers in that general area are down due to the so called "late spring." I hunted there last year.

Great bear!!

Congrats!!!

Awesome bear!

Congrat's on a Great Grizz. I had the opposite hunt of yours, I killed a Great Ram but had all the other tags of animals you harvested and never saw anything other then there tracks. How big did your bear measure out?

Congrats great story ,pictures. beautiful looking bear and colours in the caribou cape.

Great story. I can only imagine your thoughts of seeing Alaska for he first time. Your friends at home wont believe your stories. Once in a lifetime for sure.
Congratulations,
Ski+3

Thanks for the positive comments. Alaska truly is a beautiful place, lots of open space. The colour change over a reasonable short time span is quite remarkable.
Really don't know how people live in area that gets so cold though!! Love a Sunburnt country.....
HuntNBgame Grizzly Bear had a 21 inch skull which I think is still quite a ways from making Book.

Thanks for sharing your story and photos!
I enjoyed it

Awesome hunt. Congratulations.

Congratulations on a great hunt.I love the pictures.