I hunted Nunivak recently and took this bull musk ox with my .375H&H, 270gr Barnes TSX. It was an enjoyable hunt!







dave

Good photos, good bullet performance, and sure looks like a great hunt! Congratulations and thanks for posting..
How many days did you hunt?
How`s the area populated?

I hunted one day. We snowmachined about 50 miles from the village I stayed at, and found the herd. It took about an hour to stalk them and pick the right animal. The village has around 200 people.

Your photo album has some great pictures also.

dave

Dave, nice bull. I've got a Victoria Island musk ox\caribou hunt planned for October myself I was thinking of using either a 300wsm with 200gr XTS or a 338win with 225gr XTS. This will be my first trip to the Arctic, any advise?

Either choice of caliber will work great. For musk ox, the trick is to wait patiently for a clear shot, while they mill around. If they know you're near, they may circle up, in which case the wait can be long. Need to be careful not to shoot through your animal and into another.

I'm guessing your weather will be a lot different in Oct. I assume you're going with a guide? Shoot me a PM if you wanna talk more details...

dave

nice photos and weather. congrats on a successful hunt. looks like you had fun.

thanks for posting it.

thanks....

Very nice..............A Musk Ox is next on the list for me.

Very well done and great pics , its on my list of ak hunts. Congrats Jim

Hello David,

Nice pictures!!! I was wondering if you shot handloads? They look like handloads to me with Barnes Tiple Shock... Am I correct on this one? If so, what did you load them with? Velocity? etc... How did you manage to recover a bullet, just curious!

Best regards,

Enigma

Yes, you are correct. I handloaded the 270gr Triple Shock with around 73gr of Reloader 15. I didn't have a chance to chrono the load before I left for the trip, so don't know the velocity.

I shot twice and recovered one bullet just inside the hide on the offside, after passing through one shoulder and the chest, coming out behind the off shoulder.

dave

How much does a critter like that weigh?

Good warning about the Barnes X pass through. I shot 14 animals in Namibia with Barnes old style X bullets and recovered not a single one. Every one dropped in its tracks, however. I'm hooked on Barnes bullets.

Thanks for the reply David. I hope you made a typo regarding the amount of RL-15 you inserted in that case... lol Would 73gr sound correct?

Best Regards,

Enigma

Ooops..you are correct..not a good typo to make!

I got 200lbs of meat off it...they range from 6-800lbs mature...

dave

David,

If you ever get a chance to chronograph that load, let us know about which velocities you get. I would of thought that a 270gr X bullet would of went through a Musk-Ox... You proved me wrong.

Enigma

I should be able to test it next week...I'll let you know..

dave

Thanks David.

I can't wait to read your results!!! Would be nice if we could give us some info on your rifle, as well as load info. Is that a max load of RL-15 in your rifle? Can't wait for you to get back with that information.

Have fun testing...

Enigma

It's a Sako Finnbear, and it was the starting load. I only had a chance to test it at the range once before the trip, so I was kinda winging it. I work away from home, and won't be back until this week..so I'll be playing more with it then.

I hunted Nunivak in 2003 and 2005. Both hunts we had cow permits.

My 2003 animal was shot with a .375 H&H Magnum
My 2005 cow was shot with a .480 Ruger in Taurus Raging Bull

I not sure how to post a picture or I would

Who do you get in contact with to be able to hunt there if you get a permit.What did it cost to hunt them?I guess you fly out of anchorage?Where did you stay ?Where did you rent snowmobles .I been wandering about hunting them from the day I moved to Alaska.

You fly out to Bethel, and then to Mekoryuk. You'll stay with whoever you can find to take you out. There are no "guides", but you can very easily find someone to drive you out to a herd. You will find no-one who rents snogo's, but they'll take you out. All they are allowed to do is get you there. You will be on your own from that point. Once you have it all ready to go, you load it up in the sled and they'll drive you back to the village.
Sam Spud used to be doing it quite a bit but he is getting on in years, maybe still doing it. For more info call the Mekoryuk city office.

Roger Seavoy, the ADF&G biologist in bethel, will be able to fill you in on just who has been doing the outfitting around Mekoryuk lately. While you're there on Nunivak, you can talk with the folks over at the city office about taking a reindeer while you are out. Nice antlers on some of them.

David: Congratulations. Excellent specimen and good photographs. You may have mentioned it above, but how is muskox for eating?

There are indeed guides available there. Prices were running around $4500 for a fully guided hunt when I went. I opted for a transporter, which was roughly half the price. I used Charlie Spud, who I have hunted with before, and recommend.

There is also a fall season permit draw, for which I think a guide would be more useful, as the hunts are boat-based rather than snowmachine..and this involves a higher level of expertise from your native host.

RWJ, they are good eating, though a bit tough. When prepared right, they taste just fine.

david

The first year I did it, we went with Abe David. He is a transporter who also does an excellent job. This year, we did the hunt ourselves and flew our own snowmachines out. You can check out pictures of our hunt on

www.funtigo.com/kusko

Kusko: Great photographs. Thank you for posting.

Enigma,
I chrono'd the load today at 2620fps. I haven't tweaked it yet, just picked that to start out with, sighted it, and hunted. It grouped fine, so I left it as is.

Hopefully I'll see how it does on a black bear this week..

dave

Thank you David. I'm eager to see how fast you can push these bullets out of your rifle. I believe you should be able to get 2800 fps without to much problems. Keep us posted and thanks again.

Enigma

Dave: What type of taxidermy work are doing on your muskox?

Life size....

When I get tired of African game I would like hunt a musk ox.

Last I checked, the two weren't mutually exclusive..?

Any chance of seeing the finished product?

It'll be a year or so before it's done..but I'll post pictures...

Nice looking animal but it also looks cold as hell.

SwiftShot: All that snow and the clothes, the frozen blood and hairy beast...that is all special effects..its not cold at all..Nunivak Island is just a nice little island in the balmy Bering Sea.. .. It doesn't get cold in Alaska.

Some of the best tasting meat I have ever jammed in my pie-hole!