Howdy, can any of you local hunters tell me how the Caribou Hunting has been, or is shaping up for 2006. I hear mixed reports, some saying the Mulchatna herd is declining and good trophy bulls getting scarce, and others saying it's as good as it always was.
Also where is the antler at in Early-Mid Sept, have they stripped the velvet by then?

Thirdly. What's the chances of getting a Grizzly while hunting the Caribou out there.

Thanks kindly for any info.

At one time the mulchatna heard was one of the greatest hunting resourses in the world. I've hunted it for the past 29 years or at least up till a couple of years ago whene I decided it's just no longer worth it. I will be out there on other hunts in mid sept and will give the caribou a try but I don't expect anything better than a cow

Hello Tracker,
Don't waste your time with Mulchatna Caribou. The herd is dramatically reduced, and I find it hard to think you might find a cow in a week of hunting, much less a trophy bull.
On the other hand, Bears are plentiful throughout unit 17, and a 28" skull is possible if not probable. Two friends of mine took less than 26" skulls this spring in a week of hunting.

I went on a fly-in drop-off hunt in September of 2005. The area was around The Moose river drainage (Close to lake Clark). In 8 days of hunting we saw a total of 5 caribou. I had heard rumors about the decline of the Mulchatna herd but guess I didn't really belive them. At least I got a Grizzly on the last day of the hunt.
If I were to hunt Caribou again, I would check out the hunts out of Kotzebue (W. Arctic herd?), have heard good things about that area.

Kristin and I hunted the Malchatna in 2004, about 50 miles west of Iliamna. We saw alot of caribou (several 100 per day), but only two groups with semi-mature bulls. I shot the biggest one we saw for camp meat, but it wasn't anything special.

We were there Sept 10-17, and the velvet was off. They are fully hard by Sept 1 or so, and any velvet left can be peeled off.

A couple of folks told me that the bigger bulls don't start coming down until a week or two later, towards the end of Sept. If flying out of Dillingham, I think you could probably get to the bigger bulls, as they summer closer to there than Iliamna.

We saw 1 grizzly, and lots of sign along the creeks. I guess you'll have a guide? You have to in order to hunt the brown bears in AK.

Mark Young who posts on the forum lived in Dillingham up to a year or two ago...he could give more info.

As already mentioned, it seems the Western Artic herd is the place to go now in AK.

I did a Mulchatna caribou hunt back in 2003. we went for the last 10 days of the season in Sept.
While setting up the tent we saw 5 magnificant bulls trot by us at 250 yards, we couldn't hunt since we where air restricted that day. We never saw those bulls again. We did get two really nice bulls but not as big as the first group. For the period we where ther we only saw about 150 caribou, probably some where the same. I was a little disappointed since I expected to see them in the 1000's. I was told the climatic warming has thrown off the normal migration and the herds where staying in the high country awaitting cooler temparatures. We did see one wolve which ran by us at 200 yds or so. Of the groups of hunters where picked up most had shot females and imature bulls with small antlers.
I am told that the mulchatna herd has dramatically reduced in size for reasons I am unsure of. If I recall the 2003 season restricted non residents to only one bull because of low populations. I am told by my friend who lives in AK that the herd has reduced significantly over the last couple of years....climatic warming?????

Everything said above is absolutely true.
Guess I just had to go see for myself.
Spent 9 days out there looking for Caribou, Moose and Grizzly.

Saw good numbers of Caribou, couple of hundred on most days, but not one mature bull with a trophy worth shooting. Plenty cows and juveniles, but only saw two Bulls with shovels, and neither was trophy material.
In the end I opted to shoot a young, so as not to waste my tag and to give the guide some meat, to take home.
Second week in September and everything was still in velvet. Everyone tells me the season was two weeks late in Alaska this year.
Every hill had a camp on it, and planes buzzed about every flyable day dropping hunters in and out, and spotting on the herds. (From our two camps we could always glass at least three other camps with hunters in them.)Both camps we hunted from, had recent use i.e. the day before we got there.
My opinion is that the herd is on the way back up from a very big decline, but is getting absolutely hammered by hunting pressure. The few mature Bulls are having to run the gauntlet of the 3,000 or so hunters that hunt the Mulchatna herd every year.
Give it another 5 years or so, and it might be worth going back there i.e. once enough hunters like myself go see, and the message gets out to give it a miss.

Moose were scarce and the bears were very cagey.
Saw 3 Bears in 9 days over two locations. Only saw one legal moose, over 5 miles away and just on dark.
My one opportunity on a Griz got blown by a plane (Small wheeled type.) buzzing the bear, as I closed the last 600 yards on a 4 mile stalk, frustrating.
We were an hours cub flight, west of Lake Clark, I would have thought this would be a very remote area, but actually a bit of a "Zoo" planes, hunters and even guys getting about on a frikkin' argo. Camps everywhere. Rubbish left behind etc etc etc
Not my idea of an Alaskan Wilderness Hunt.

The highlights:
Close encounter with a Wolf, which I chose not to shoot.
Lots of Caribou and easy to get close for film and photos.
Shooting a Wolverine on the last day, so my Griz tag wasn't entirely wasted.

I just had a friend return from a caribou hunt up that way but it sounds like they were in a better area. They shot one very good bull and saw quite a few more but due to very warm temps chose not to shoot any more. He also shot a brown bear that was a little over 8 foot and saw plenty others. Kotz is turning into the the new "Mulchatana" and I suspect it won't last but a few more years before it goes south too.

I was in GMU 17 and 19.
In the Hoholitna River area.
Historically top Moose terrain, supposedly a lot of Bears, and in the past has yielded some nice Bou.

I do not rate great chances on any of these three species in the area at present.

Struck hunters who were desperate for Moose after 10-12 days trying.

Did strike one guy who got a nice one.
Picture is of me holding the rack up. Looked to me about 60 inchs or so.

I havent hunted the mulchatna herd in about 7 years and I heard it was bad but man, it sounds real bad. One year we had a herd of about 60 or so run right through camp (luckily the tent was tucked in the alders for wind protection). that trip we never went further than 1/4 mile from camp. 20bulls out of 20 tags. our freezers were full with some very nice antlers. that was about 9 years ago flying out with Talon air (when they used to offer $600 r/t drop off hunts). good thing I'm not gonna waste my money on another mulchatna hunt.