Well, Monday night we recived the news "Bulls are crossing, and they cant stop" , which is the good news we were waiting for. the cold weather certainly has the Caribou moving again.
Anyday , "Rut" will ruin the taste of the meats. We hunted three straight days, and every Bull we took was PRIME
We wont have an opportunity to hunt fat Caribou untill March, when females fatten up, and thats 6 months away.
With 15 in our house, and us eating what we do, were set untill Thanksgiving, and by then the ice will be thick enough to hunt safely, though we will only get a couple hours of light then, so hunting NOW is very important.
This is a hunt that has occured here for a few thousand years, acheologicly spaeking.
As a child in the early 20th century, my father in laws parents hunted here, actually living about a bend downriver from our hunting spot. They persued caribou in Kayaks, spearing them as they crossed, and setting snares in the Willows along the rivers edge, and caught the ones that had already crossed. This was their food and skins for the winter.
This is a Meat hunt, and theres nothing "Sporting" about it. We try and get up enough meat for our household, our neighbors and relatives before "Freeze up" when all we can do is stay home untill the ice thickens enough to be safe. Were also decending into Polar darkness, and hhunting will be breif during the twilight days, untill Febuary.
We wait by the rivers side for the fattest Bulls top cross, then we sally out and shoot them in the bain with a .22lr.
Its the quickest, most "Humane"(~~LOL!!~~) way to go about it, far quicker death than a heart/lung shot.
With a .22lr, we get a solid brain scrambler, no pass through shots, no wounded, no sick, only the one animal we have chosen out of the bunch, but often two or three.
There were littereally thousands of Caribou crossing, all three days we were there.
Each day we arrived in mid morning , as sun up it 9 am and we are an hour and 1/2 away with the boat, and still there were easily 10 boats in view along that 3 mile strech of river.
We watched about 500 Caribou cross, and nobody persue them that we were comfortable as well as ready to go get ours....and we didnt wait long at all.
Pow
Then the work begins...
they float, and we tie them alongside and go to a rocky cliff to butcher them down.
First we pull hem out of the water
We split them from around the bung to the lip
We tuck the antlers back and make the body so it wont roll.
We work on the legskin and disjoint the legs for easier handling.
Then we remove the tounge, and work our way to heart, lungs the intestines and butthole. They pull out easy enough and we open the brisket for easy access and to cool the carcass.
Besides the lungs and intestines, which the Raves make short work of, these heads are all that we left behind
Gotta save those tastey inner'ds
And I took a walk down that beach......and looked at others "Sucess'
Picked up a couple swans for this winter as well, on the way home
Passed the wife checking her net with her Cousin AJ
so I made Coffe at home for her....
Meat by the Yard...
When all was said and done, there were still thousands more comming.....
After the third day, ice was choking the river and the slews are all iced over, so for us, with our last fat bulls, the Summer is officially over.
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