Hunt For The Unknown, Alaska Caribou Hunting Adventure

[Music] [Applause] [Music] okay [Music] [Music] it was a peaceful fall morning the sun was just clearing the trees moving gently atop the water i looked back to see the bridge no longer in sight ahead beyond the sluggish current the unknown was waiting for us a fury of emotion swelled inside me i was just a young boy but it was a day that i'll never forget we finished milking the cows on a saturday morning and drove two miles to a small creek i helped dad unload the rowboat from the truck bed and cast it into the water [Music] with a rusty clump of victor long springs and a bundle of alder stakes we shoved off working the oars he scanned the marshy shore for signs of activity he could see things that were invisible to me i studied intently as he said each trap [Music] rounding the next bend forging deeper into the wilderness my spirit soared it was my first experience in a land that offered no evidence of man being submersed in nature and matching wits with a wild animal consumed me [Music] as i sat on the bow of that aluminum boat trapping muskrats on lightning creek with my father i knew that mine was to be a life of adventure in wild places there was a lot of factors that drove me to alaska all the experiences that i had as as a young kid growing up on a farm definitely influenced me and gave me the strength to go and pursue my dreams and maybe when it got right down to the nitty-gritty it was my mom that said billy this is your dream i was 19 years old and i didn't know if i should go out west to guide school she said billy this is your dream if you don't do it now you never will and the hardest thing of a farm kid becoming a hunting guide in alaska was making it from turtle lake wisconsin where i grew up my whole life and making it the first five miles to clayton wisconsin on my way to northwest montana literally i've lived the life that i don't even know that i dared to dream about everything that i've wanted to do as a kid for some reason i've been fortunate enough to do it i knew he'd be successful i mean you know even in school you know he didn't didn't really run with the crowd or anything i mean he he did but you know he wanted to do it i was confident that you know whatever you did it was going to be you know lifetime so he's doing what he should be doing the first hunter i ever got in alaska i wasn't old enough to drink beer yet but i was pretty fortunate to be exposed to the outdoors my whole life so and 90 of hunting i think is instinct i was overall i was fairly confident maybe sometimes a little too confident i guess but yeah there's certainly been bumps in the road this is what i've wanted to do since i was i was a young kid so um all i always learned and i think that's that's the greatest thing about the sport that's the one thing my grandpa undoubtedly did is he always learned and he was always teaching me now uh 17 years into it i guess a lot of the hunters they're still 23 30 years older than i am but all those mistakes that i made as a young kid they've given me the experience and given me the confidence that i have today yeah there's been lots of things when i look back at 17 years of guiding in alaska i had an airplane crash right before me when i saw the pilot's head slam forward i figured he was dead for sure uh he survived but um yeah that that moment's etched in my mind forever a lot a lot of bear incidents been close on several different occasions but yeah time spent alone in the mountain as they say sometimes the silence is deafening so you learned i've learned a lot about myself and i think that's part of why hunters like to go to a desolate wilderness when you're away from all the man-made distraction and it's just you and mother nature you learn a lot about yourself my my youngest daughter was born while i was in alaska that's another event when i look back at it now perhaps maybe the day that my youngest daughter was born while i was 3 000 miles away i think i learned more about myself and more about life that day than any other day of my life all those lonely nights if you will six years of my life that i've lived in a tent it definitely has taught me that if you want something to happen in your life you just gotta you just gotta grab hold of it and do it i've learned so much in my life from the guys that i've guided i'd like to think there's you know some of the guys i've had some expressed that that they've learned things from me but probably more so um some of the people that i've come across in over the years some of my best friends are guys that i've guided when you're you're in such an intimate setting for a week to two weeks it's me and my hunter every day most of the time we're sleeping side by side in the tent we're eating every meal together we're working as a team together to hunt whatever animal it is and that's that's there's a special bond to be found there and for anyone who's ever hunted with a buddy gone gone out west gone to alaska whatever it is and the more the more difficult the more challenging the adventure the hunt or the undertaking of any sort the more rewarding it is and the tighter that bond becomes deer hunting in wisconsin and growing up trapping with my grandpa and my dad that that's that's why i do what i do today that's what started me off on my career and has led me to this stage of my life my my first memory of trapping was i went with my dad i wasn't in school yet it was early 50s uh we were going to trap enough mushrooms that year to buy a tv set for the family older brothers and well anyway the second day my dad caught 108 mushrooms i don't know how many traps he had out he probably had a couple hundred traps out maybe even 300 traps my grandpa was a professional trapper for his entire life when i was a young young boy i would be down in his basement and help him skin i uh skin hides i would basically just watch him he uh he'd always take his time you know i was wanted to skin him quick and be done with it he'd sit there and whistle and you know just take his time i don't know he just enjoyed it you know i i can't say that on a a real real personal level that i knew your grandpa but everybody knew the story the or the stories how he was going up canada moose hunting and he built this track machine and on his own and took that up there and shot these moose and stuff yeah you know that's just something that a young kid hears these stories and it you know i want to do that too you know when i'd go over to my grandpa's house as soon as i'd walk in the door every time i went there i'd look at this picture that he had hanging on his wall of him with a moose and he had this he was holding the savage 303 savages in his arm it was taken in december 1965 if i remember right man what what an adventure that must have been what happened on that hunt and i think from that moment i always wanted to do something like that i when i first went to alaska i wanted to go to go to to go moose hunting because of that picture that i always looked at as a kid it always made me want to experience something like my grandpa had experienced without him without him sharing those stories and igniting my adventurous spirit there's no doubt that that i wouldn't be where i am today now i look back and i wish i'd asked him more and different questions you know but it was just ever since i grew up that's the way it was you know i've never asked too many questions and i wish i'd with billy came along well i don't know he was gung-ho on everything so he had to take him trapping so i hadn't trapped for a few years you know with the milk cows and stuff and dad always trapped every fall and like with the potato harvest you know he was always busy and but yet he found time to trap so so it's just kind of a heritage i guess i guess one wish that is no longer to be fulfilled would be to have hunted in alaska with my grandpa uh as i've guided gotten a little bit older had more experiences in the wild i've realized how much uh he's impacted my life and how much a like he and i are i don't know hard lives you know my buddies you know gus and i you know doing different things and the kids and stuff and you know dairy farming was the main drawback you know so take time we're lucky if we take time for a three-day weekend you know so never took a vacation never went to mount rushmore or anything like that you know one day or that was about it you know my dad's the hardest working man i've ever known for as long as i can remember growing up on a farm to just work i mean that's that's that's he worked so hard and he never took much time out to enjoy himself to do any hobbies the only thing he he would never miss every year was our nine-day rifle deer season me my brother my dad my grandpa uh some of my dad's buddies we'd always hunt nine days during deer season so yeah i'm augustus one shot one kill [Music] and uh uh got that from not the one shot one kill but the augustus came from uh lonesome dove i just like liked that character he did good he's he's my kind of guy greg he always he was always a team player and i think he maybe more than anybody else that i remember hunting with as a as a young young boy he really he seemed to enjoy all aspects of the hunt you come from a hunting family and my dad was not a hunter he never hunted at all at that time outdoor life you could order a rifle with a tassel scope for 29 a 30 odd six it was a club really you'd shoot it the next shot you know be way off i think the crosshairs moved in the scope but it didn't matter we had a gun and that's when we started deer hunting and uh and it just grew from then we've been hunting all our lives you know uh from then on you know your dad and i and my brother phil and roland richter made that first trip i think it was like 1969. i'm pretty sure we went to wyoming uh i had just gotten back out of the service from nom and your dad had just gotten out of the service that was fun hunt yeah it was an adventure too we we just took a small trailer and phil's car we pulled in with a car of course who got the twin cities the car was overheating right away their dad was we stopped at their house and he said well you better take some uh car chains along and well of course was early october wow we don't need chains well he said i'll i'll throw some chains in from the pickup you know we don't going up in the mountains we ran into a blizzard well needless to say you know about 18 hours after their dad threw the chains in the in the car we were using them of course they were long and we had to strap them and we hunted and it was just great you know it was another experience something to enjoy in life and uh we went out there another time or two and then of course everybody got married and got responsibilities so that kind of fizzled out for a few years but i never lost the the dream of going somewhere else or doing something like but i always wanted to go to alaska all my life i think this hunt is as exciting for me as it is for my dad and greg there's a lot of a lot of people a lot of events a lot of history that led up to to this adventure so when the idea came about to go hunting in alaska go caribou hunting in alaskan for my dad to use my grandpa's old savage as you would call it i when i thought of that i knew i knew for sure that dad and i needed to do this hunt together and when i posed it that way to my dad i know that's what that's what sealed it for him as well and and then once once gus agreed to come it was it was a done deal you called and said something about you had the plane tickets and everything lined up and then actually the outfitter called me and talked to me and then i knew i'm there there's no backing out anymore we're going i probably would have never went if i would have had to go by myself the there there's another uh big thing right there like i mentioned before if you know who you're going with so that that made it a lot easier to make that choice if you've got a buddy that wants to do it and go with you and stuff absolutely with the caribou hunt and augustus i mean well he's he's got a passion for life like billy and you know he's special character and friend and uh wouldn't wouldn't have wanted it any other way with billy and gus and you know it's just unique i mean it's it's it's special when we got to uh brutal bay or dead horse and got in that truck and start heading to base camp now we're really here yeah and then uh taking the gun out and zeroing it in and then getting on that plane and flying over the tundra and i'd never seen tundra before didn't really know what it was i mean you know you read about all this stuff but until you actually get there and do it it's hard to visualize the whole thing everybody can tell you what it's like but you got to be there to have the full experience of the whole thing the dawns last forever i mean the sun comes up and it's so quiet you know when you're out there and i mean nothing's moving now the very few birds and that in the morning you know here dawn's a half hour hour long but up there the sun comes up five six hours i mean there's no wind i mean it's kind of the silence is deafening but i mean it's just so unique too that you know just looked at the vastness and as far as the the brooks range what seemed like was it's a long way away from actually where we were maybe not but you can see forever i think more than anything i knew that they were at a point in their life that just the adventure no matter what happened i knew the adventure i knew they had some perceived notions of of what was going to happen but i think the thing that i was looking forward to most was what what it was going to be that that each each moment or each experience that we had in that week i knew that more so than shooting caribou it was going to be those smaller details that are going to stick with them after this hunt is all over with can i get it done am i too old can i uh really handle this am i man enough you know and i know a caribou hunt in alaska my dad and greg i don't think they were sure if they could to try something where you might fail and i know that's that was part of it that's part of what we were after we wanted to do something we wanted to test ourselves to to just see hey let's let's see what we got let's square let's square off let's experience alaska for a week and let's see how things shake out and that's that's what makes it exciting [Music] kurt's going to literally cut a new strip [Music] just use the old wheat backer here [Music] another day another dollar time to go out into the field once again for the last hunt of the year it'll be a two-on-one caribou hunt well paul moles and greg kwadi are coming out old family friend buddy of my dad's for many years so uh this is gonna be a special huh i'll see if we can still find caribou there that old cat one and if we think it's gonna be long enough well it's real low and braided out here oh can you land me there there's one there yeah yeah we could probably land once bill i see a little uh group in front of us here we'll just make some loops and then fly down the ridge and then fly back yeah they seem to be kind of hubbed around here don't they yes now we'll go downstream a little bit and upstream [Music] so the migration path seems to be right through this area i think you'll do well here yeah it looks like we'd be able to walk across that creek pretty pretty really easily yeah [Music] yeah i don't think i'm gonna like it right into the sun it's short and in the sun but it's rough it's got all the good characteristics of a strip trying to get a sense here for the wind so i'm gonna line up for this one bill and see if we can get slowed down and we'll see how much ground we use and about 300 feet so this is virgin country it's a brand new virgin this has never been landed on yeah we may have to go out of here with some light loads thinking you might like it right over in there sure quiet for a little bit all right we'll do it thanks kirk that's your paw coming oh yeah i'm looking forward to this one [Music] well this looks like a fair enough spot runway is relatively short but workable as long as there's on a contrary wind i'm looking forward to this hunt been looking forward to it for a couple of years now my dad and his buddy mad dog are coming out my dad and i have been kind of planning on doing this for a couple of years and then mad dog caught wind of it paul i think needed somebody to babysit him through the airport and getting up here so they've been up here fishing for the last few days the kenai peninsula i think salmon and halibut and stuff so they've been screwing around and now they're coming out they should get in today hopefully out into the field today so they were getting picked up at the airport this morning and yep this is uh this should be a good one [Music] there's definitely no shortage of blueberries here parker squirrel he's a biggen it's quarter after 11 just spent the last hour and a half setting up my camp but i'm gonna take it down and do it all over again can't hear the river i don't like it this will be greg mad dog quatty's first and probably last hunting adventure in alaska i think he's 67 years old he's dreaming of it all of his life and this is going to be me and my dad's last hurrah i'll never forgive myself if i don't do it so we're going to listen to the creek every night when we fall asleep we're gonna hear it every day as we eat breakfast every night as we eat supper i'm gonna move the camp almost got camp reset up looks like a cow a couple of bulls seen a fair number of caribou floating around pretty warm today got a mosquito bite in my arm right now setting up the tp and put all the grub over here we don't have to have the bare fence and all that garbage in this land so that's kind of handy i should pretty well have everything all dialed in before the boys get here which one of my non-tippin hunters you have on board curt dog this is weird guiding somebody that i know so well it's been 12 years since my dad's hunted in alaska he hunted moose and grizzly bear together so he made her it looks like mad dogs here [Music] you made her mad dog hey billy [Music] i was kind of questioning if your two old sod busters could figure out how to make it to alaska or not don't worry we dinner yeah damn right fly you guys catch any fish uh we got some halibut it was tough going okay [Music] we're surrounded by caribou mad dog i see that should we go shoot one well i guess yeah [Laughter] dustin yeah that was good to be here [Laughter] this is what i came for that fishing didn't really get me going blessing some bulls right from camp yep one two three four right there they're in the velvet too right yep they should be peeling here any day i'm sure some of them have started typically they've pretty well started by the 25th you don't look too terrible bad to me midwestern deer hunters are usually easy to please when it comes to caribou how old are you matt doug how old am i yeah old enough to know better [Laughter] i'm 66 years old okay that's the brook range over here the mountains yeah that's where yep exactly now how far is that one standing right over there yeah probably 250. be my guess i got a range finder but this kind of what you imagined as a young kid coming to alaska mountains in the background caribou cruising around grizzly bear not on here before long [Laughter] this is a dream come true billy especially to be with your dad and you more than actually a human deserves mad dog can't keep his eyes off of that one yeah hey i can see uh see my one initial already on him [Laughter] i don't know if i'll get the other one on him if he's around you want to crawl through the mud mad dog you'll be doing that alone [Laughter] i'll watch well if i have to get close enough for a shot i'll do it i had to run the caribou off the runway so he doesn't get chewed up in the prop [Music] yeah they too concerned are they we made her i see that yeah i had my doubts that you two would make it here all the way from minneapolis paw got to be honest i wouldn't give either one of you much for style points but yeah he did her grandfather's little pea shooter how's it going pups let's see ya but you know how it goes the day we land you there's lots of games you wake up in the morning you're ready to shoot kids you think wow i told really i said well we just can't watch that out of camp we gotta at least have a little bit of a stock i'll crawl through the mud if i have it is he in a victor all right we'll see you a little bit guys are like eight-year-olds on your first squirrel hunt that's good to see that's my grandpa's old 303 savage dad said he hit a 4x4 square almost every time at how far 75 he seems to think the rifling's all worn out but i thought that held six it's amazing how many shells that holds might as well throw another one in you know [Laughter] what what year do you buy it in the 1922 that's all i know 22 is what i had in my head a grain bullet are you shooting in there uh what'd you buy me i don't even remember 150. i think they're 150s well that'll get off soft points smoking pretty good then yeah and mad dog's got old susie they're laying in the brush just yeah bear medicine gus didn't earn [Music] i don't know this is a video camera oh how many arts you got about day or four or five i'd say he's in serious jeopardy losing his life i just hope when i shoot i don't hear billy saying reload i will shoot him again scarab hunting ain't too tough huh you just sit with the rifle on the lap stare at the mountains in the distance glass caribou decent bowl keeps hanging around so anchorage really wasn't your thing huh mad dog this is a little bit more of the alaska you dreamed of this is uh this is what it's what i came for yeah that uh it was good and fun and everything but this is this is where i belong no doubt about it been dreaming about this for you many years and here i am in the door kurt's popping in just to drop off a few extra things we'll call him justin we'll leave him there just in case we don't get anything else we'll shoot him but it was just recently take a peek look through there oh okay i got that one got him partnered you guys got this thing so high i don't know oh yeah i got him oh he's just standing there here's the bull they're all jazzed up about i don't think he's any bigger than the one that just strolled through camp but yeah you don't look like he's got no velvet on oh yeah they're rubbed off this is almost laughable it was all of my 35 is 25 years ago god 25 years ago i first started hunting with these guys i wasn't hunting then but i was just coming along and these guys were like gods of hunting you know they knew everything that i wanted to know and here they are oh there's one where did he come from it's like well he went behind that willow bush there for a couple of minutes hey there's one like kids in a candy store as they say i love it i love it it reminds it reminds me how spoiled i am to have done this for as long as i haven't seen this this is exactly this exact now the sun's sun on those mountains too what do we got there's a caribou right there making sure it wasn't a bear all right oh just yeah i was right in the river bottom i just saw something moving making sure it wasn't a bear um but it's a good reminder for me how fortunate i am to do this i love it finally made it been doing this wanting to do this for a hundred years i'm not 100 years old but i'm wanting to do it for a hundred years i'm finally doing it bad dog says we're in heaven they're just a couple old boys that i grew up with from turtle lake wisconsin who dreamed of hunting alaska just like i did joe was my dad greg was my dad's buddy i went to high school together this is what they've wanted to do and i'm the guy that's that's with them when they do it to escape the modern world and behold a vast and unspoiled wilderness humbles the sturdiest of men it reunites the hunter with who he is at his core life takes on new meaning and direction free of all inhibitions unbridled excitement and anticipation like that of a child cleanses the soul adventures of old rekindle a fire within the endless tundra and the timeless mountains surrounding us fuel our spirits our time in the last frontier is upon us the possibilities are endless a story untold begins [Music] it can't be more 75 yards you think that's able to look as big though yeah he's not very wide and we got a couple of wolverines i'm assuming it's a female with a young one a couple of wolverines you don't see them very often no i was gonna say they're pretty nocturnal devils aren't they well they're they're just very they're pretty rare and when you do see them that's what they're doing they're moving yeah they cover up big territory i guess they're a little over a mile away oh yeah we're bounding down the hill day number one pretty slow saw a few caribou just they're just all scattered out there's no good herds it's a couple of decent bulls nothing like after we landed it seemed there was caribou all around us when we landed and all of a sudden boom there's just nice bull after a nice bull parading past camp um [Music] right here is the camp about 500 yards up the hill in this rim rock there was a real real dandy i mean would have been one of the biggest in camp for the season but nothing good was anywhere to be found this morning so we're gonna go down i'll cook up a good meal and rest up get up early just kind of glass from camp see what's about don't see anything we'll climb up on the hill scope her out do her all over again well mad dog you can say that you've officially hunted in alaska we're far from done but day number one's pretty well in the books i think we had a good start tomorrow's another day that's roger paul he's a man of few words for a reason crawling out of the tent morning at day two we saw last night great hunters are snoring seeing more game now that we're fogged in than did yesterday there's a bull moose i'm just having coffee spotted something moving through bull moons yeah probably about a 40 40 inch type well i woke up the great white hunters actually i think they were awake they knew it was foggy i thought the one was a little bigger yeah that one's probably about 40-ish i realize now there's two there's one walking right at me is right around 50. 45.50 kind of cool yeah he sees our tent this is the real reason why you come to alaska just to see things you've never seen before and this is the stuff you remember being in the wilderness and having two bulmes walk right through your camp on day number two when i was all fogged in that's pretty cool yeah enough gave us a stare down well the sun's trying to poke through what western was that i don't know what it was but i remember it i do my killing after breakfast some guys were having a showdown and they wanted to know what time he said 10 o'clock and do my killing after this breakfast just breaking a few decent bulls up there things are looking good day two is we've actually seen more caribou today close than we did yesterday there's quite a fair number i would say there's probably 50 caribou within two mile of us haven't seen anything big though there was a couple pretty good ones but they were three four miles away so we're kind of keeping an eye on them and then this fog rolled back in there's a couple pretty good ones in this herd we're looking at fog just cleared probably 30 40 million around there kind of hidden northeasterly but for right now he's a big old grizzly probably a boar he's really really dark when i first spotted him and didn't know if he was kind of figured he was a moose because it was so dark and it wasn't a caribou you want to check them out there grizzly moles yeah captain call will put the yeah woodrow you go down there yeah he's a pretty big bear as dark as he is it's probably ninety percent that he's a boar we got a few caribou around there's a bunch of bulls just popped up on the ridge put an eyeball on them these are about three miles away and two and a half probably everything seems to be about two miles away i haven't seen anything big enough worth running after with the film and then go to heading them off what do you think bestest well that's backed let's see if they come a little closer for me attaboy some foolish aaron across the prairie here or tundra as they call it here those are about as good as anything we've seen the ones that you can see you've got pretty good shovels a little bit everything but probably about like the ones we had pretty close to camp maybe not quite as big as that one yeah so yeah generally the flow has been and they've been kind of all the caribou have been kind of milling around a little bit but generally the flow has been this way westward so we had a bunch of bulls on this point we got up this morning a bunch of them right here a few of them have worked right through here so so they're scattered all around us just kind of a matter of getting some in a workable position where we kind of have an idea where they might go or you go chasing after every good caribou you see you end up just ramming back and forth so we'll just kind of watch you see what they're doing they just popped over the ridge to where we could see see them so we'll just kind of try to get a figure an idea of which direction they're going if they head north they we won't even try but if they're angling this way at all we might move on them figure he'll do gus yeah get a better look at him what's your opinion we gonna be able to do better yeah i'd say there's a good chance we could do better there's a chance we won't but well now he's coming out of the trees now towards the other ones he's bloody everywhere now he's beating the hell out of another tree we're actually here were on this bench when the fog cleared so we just kind of watched them and then they worked away so we just kept our eye on them they eventually bedded back up on that bench no they're seem to be committing to come this way so and there's one pretty these couple decent bulls in there one that's got a white white cape on him and a mad dog is looking for and he's got a you got a fair rack so we might be making a play on them and putting a big sneak on them that ain't exactly saying we're gonna get them though either no no that's for sure well when we you know and yesterday we didn't have anything really to speak of anywhere near close enough to go after the adrenaline's starting to pump already okay that dog's waited his whole life to stalk some big game animal in alaska the juices are flowing absolutely awesome we're after it so they're kind of side hilling well some of they seem to be kind of wanting the side hill wanting to go down so they haven't committed really so we're just going to stay keep a little bit elevation get over to this rim rock on that ridge see what they're gonna do if they're still up there then we'll ease up over to this next point take her as she comes packing her up we're armed and dangerous dangerous anyways [Laughter] yeah there's they've busted off that hill there's some of the cows and calves the bulls are a little bit farther we got the wind right pretty well going this way or towards us there we were about 600 yards beyond the tenth we've got about 10 other caribou outside of that little group and even that group i don't know what there is about 20 they're all kind of spread out and there's about 10 others scattered out in between us and them so as long as we can keep them from boogering off the ones we're after we should be all right we're set up and they're moving now they were moving that way so we redirected now they're got down in the river now they're kind of coming right at us so that's the lead one about 200 yards but that's not the one we're looking for you can see antler tips moving through the tundra there you're on a gravel bar with alaska in alaska with a caribou in your scope mad dog keep coming closer huh yeah i don't know if they're going to get out of sight you know if they kind of keep working but yeah we don't want to shoot them just yet yeah not just yet hold on hold on yeah yeah you're definitely under 200 now i don't know if you i don't think i'd use your 200 yard pen that dog's red one's looking right at you but don't shoot there's three behind them don't shoot one right behind them is that him coming there with the lady are you on him there matt doug i don't think they're gonna get a shot at him all right look for him to come out to the right so get ready to get set up out to the right you know just a little bit further to the right where he is kind of right in between that group that's probably going to be your only shot he's going to be 200 another one he's going to be 200 to stay on him you want him you can take him right there right in the shoulder he went down you get him you know what we call that one shot yet i don't i don't know if i can no no you tatered them i did you tatered them ollie i don't know if i had the camera on or not i think i did i might hit the button suzy baby bitter a gun thank you billy nice job man thank you good shot no no we don't want to shoot anything here well no i guess i better yeah we can empty here out i think he's he's pretty well yeah you could just take it out put it back in the clip and then you're gonna ain't nothing moving good shot mad dog i like it yeah that's that's the problem with these darn caribou this open country and then we didn't dare try to get closer when you got multiple animals and then they kind of snuck up here about 150 maybe was the nearest probably about 160 170. susie done spoke we've got spectators on the hills too oh yeah well one shot one kill augustus mcrae i can't god dangle home and don't have to worry about taking no crap oh you made a good shot though when you can only see that top half and you know when they're kind of going away and it was probably just that shot and that was gonna be all you had i put that 200 pin on it i don't know if they got nervous yeah i bet you shot a little high i kind of figured that because usually on an odd six like that if you're on at 100 you're only gonna be about too low at two so i gotta think that that shoots high at 200 but in any rain well we won't pack it well this i'll just take one load tonight and we'll come back tomorrow and be fresh well should we go uh get our mitts on him i can hardly wait to get a close-up well let's go check them out two old dudes have hunted together for 45 years i don't think he's got anything he's a goner yeah yeah it's been a long time coming boys and i her with great people now he's pretty he's pretty wide that's what you look for i always figure if you can get two body width wide you got a whopper but uh those those aren't easy to come by and i was hoping that he would walked mad dog actually spotted these paw and i were glassing from the other side they were on this bench and then they went up over and eventually they came back and then we made the stock once they got down here they didn't go far from where when they went down they didn't travel far well they did a matter of fact is we were stock and they hadn't moved at all and then then we kind of changed our plans and worked around they kind of fed right to us greg mad dog augustus quadi did i miss any that's close enough all righty well day number two your uh dream hunt has been realized absolutely it has but the only advice i can give anybody is if you're gonna do something like this don't wait quite as long as i have because remember today is as old as you've ever been but more importantly it's as young as you'll ever be so if you can figure that one out [Laughter] then you're on my level [Laughter] turn his rack a little bit like that yeah there you go that way we can see your face yeah he's nice caribou we've seen a few bigger well right the day that we landed in camp we saw a couple real nice ones but then yesterday it was real thin and uh actually we saw a fair number today we saw a couple pretty good ones on the ridge behind us but they were just traveling the other way and hunting this open country there's nothing to narrow them down and i think that was a that was definite this is definitely the best one we've seen within two miles of camp here uh the first two days of hunting and uh mad dog made a good shot on them and uh yeah what do we got six o'clock day number two gus scores just hope that grizzly you've seen today don't find this yeah well the wind's going the right way so hopefully we'll be all right all right billy joel for being with me and sharing this moment with me pleasure hunting with you we got got a couple of quarters that doug's got the backstraps tenderloins pop just had an anchor in his pack so he just dumped his pack back by cam so we're just gonna leave that there it's uh quarter to eight [Music] got her all tarp and dried in all butchered up ready to go you ready for the pack out mad dog yeah get my wet boots off this is me maybe have a brewski tonight i don't know about that wait until moggy gets his baby okay do it all at one time we're still a big day tomorrow we're still a little gun shy from the first evening we were big shots that first night it was fun though got a few caribou up on hill the one looks pretty big boy just giving them a hard time we're getting their dog yep a little bit sure and this tundra fun yep well could be worse could have walked all that way and not got nothing too oh yeah i've done that a time or two but we did her man thank you we're here we got her done you think you'll be able to eat some supper tonight you better believe it i'll bet back down where to meet you august 30th day number three yippee skippy awoke this morning to the site of something molested our meat during the night so grizzly or wolves would be the first suspects we did see wolverines i've never had wolverines come in and steal that stuff but man we don't see anything out and about but the meat's definitely out of the bushes you hunt them down like a sheep killing dog this is all that's left of the meat these the game bags with the quarters are nowhere to be found they ate whatever it is ate something on the back strap they left the tenderloins there's about a quarter of the other backstrap left in the bag tarps ripped up and there's we had the meat at the mate setting on the bushes just whatever 80 yards out of camp we came in during the night so there's no tracks left you've seen a lot in your three days in huntington alaska pilgrim absolutely billy it was windier in heck last night so just telling these guys i kind of put that down right next to the runway figuring they'd probably come pick it up today but it was so windy we probably even if we had the thing right in camp we wouldn't thought really much about it once we were sleeping anyway the noise if there was whatever there was a couple young bulls i guess are the ones the bull anyway i've been checking out our blue tarps well they smell caribou can't figure it out this is living ain't it gold hands wet feet grizzly bears and wolves circling us don't expect they're gonna stay dry now well here's what took the meat it was a grizzly bear there's his tracks in this mud pile right there's cam could get interesting yet today hopefully it just hauled this meat off into the bushes and left the rest of it if we whatever we get we'll hang a little closer to camp albeit it wasn't very far away i just put it next to the runway but good chance to be back i want to have it real close to camp but uh close enough where you run them off we got her packed up do a spin for me mad dog if you don't mind do a spin load it up heading for home doesn't look like august does it dunner sign sealed delivered the war is over until the bear comes back and then the war begins yeah now we're gonna hang it here a little closer to camp wasn't a real big bear yeah maybe a little over six foot maybe by the track probably young enough to be stupid enough am i tied up thank you so we'll be keeping an eye out for him and probably take care of mad dog's cape today the ambitions of man are as delicate as an arctic flower hold one shot augustus the bounties of mother nature are here one minute and gone the next [Music] time in the natural world is a constant balance of hope and challenge like a deeply rooted willow bush resilience drives the hunter forward hardship amplifies accomplishment the wilds of alaska are the ultimate provider of both half hour ago we were drying stuff in the sun i hope the old teepee survives it popping pretty good there's a pretty sight after the storm blew through about 9 30 at night [Music] and another herd of caribou busted over the mountain right where we saw another herd maybe a little bit bigger earlier today no big bowls though with each new dawn the adventurer rises and confronts the uncertainty that lies ahead [Music] [Music] she's a little chilly this morning huh fellers yeah we paid for this she's cool this morning we slept we slept in a little bit it was blowing and snowing kind of clearing up now 9 30 we're heading out it was probably but it was below 20 this morning boots aren't thawed out just yet caribou movements we're going to climb up on the hill the rock's pretty slick [Applause] there's a dandy bull there's actually a few dandies in there with this one i don't know if we'll be able to catch up to them or not they're about 600 yards i have to try all right there's one ones we're hoping for we'll probably try getting up here as close as we can and hopefully feed past us winds kind of coming from left to right but kind of coming towards us quartering towards us up here get as close as we can and wait i hope they come toward us i don't about as quickly as it began it's over with pretty well had to sneak right past this crew they spooked and they got nervous group we had to walk past to try to get at these bowls there was a couple dandies in there but then once they boogered and he saw him right away if they had been a little bit farther back we might have been all right but we had to get in front of them to head them off park and probably only shoot 100 yards about all i'd want them to shoot with those open sights and grab a little gun so it'd be a fine day if that wind wasn't blowing caribou are finally hurting up biggest one i've seen about four miles that way is probably 80 head so yeah it's gonna be a little tougher we could have shot some of those bulls at less than 300 yards easy enough but yeah i kind of think paul and i are both pretty well committed trying to get one with grandpa's old savage or nothing yeah those were some dandies those would have been the biggest probably that one that had the polished stores would probably been as big as any caribou in camp this year he's a nice one day number four one o'clock in the afternoon a whole bunch of caribou i figured there's gotta be two hundred all folds up in there lots of caribou some good bulls lots of wind lots of cold just didn't have anything coming close morning a day five mad dog are you having fun yet it wasn't till i went out to pee this morning damn here came in and got the rest of all my meat killed me in our bar well wind was blowing and snowing again last night and moved the meat close to camp about 60 70 yards away and yeah he came in and snagged the rest of her he left it alone the night before but he was back we got cape and antlers left and that's it now it's enough caribou tenderloins and half a backstrap [Music] bad dog he didn't get all your caribou well that's all marinated that's ready for us dude yeah we're gonna better throw that in your sleeping bag tonight drone camp phone two game bags on what's left of this rib found that and a hindquarter that was pretty well intact in a bat with a back strap the other back straps or the other back strap and the tenderloins we had in camp we're gonna eat so we still have those but yeah i headed out about at first i set it next to the runway probably 120 yards out of camp figuring hopefully kurt would come in the next day but the bear hit it that first night and it's it's been a long time since i've had a bear steal any meat from camp especially with a kill that close usually they'll find the kill and they'll work on that and then you got to kind of worry about them coming into camp but it was a young bear small bear by by the track and yeah he just doesn't know any better yet yeah so i guess that's just uh just part of the deal but the weather weather's good today so kurt's gonna come in pick up what we do have so we do have a little bit of meat he'll get the cape and the horns out of here um try to find another one well so far the bears left our beer mad dog says if he takes our beer we're really going to have problems uh yeah heading up to the glass and numb another herd that's the biggest bull in this group of camp close he's at least a mile and a half from camp kind of watch him see what he's going to do but they seem to be staying pretty well put in here there's curtis coming in to retrieve what's left of the dog's caribou your horns and cape might make it out of here yet oh mad dog well like i said before as long as they make it kind of a quartering wind i guess down in that bottom it's probably darn near a straight on headwind it ain't gonna take him much to stop there maybe rouse the bear out of those bushes given that gnarled up rib meat once over ain't hell out of my left he's seen that a time or two he's got her all there there we go it's just gonna give her the destination's further down well there's caribou all over the place today first of september got a bunch down here with a couple of decent bowls may be respectable with opportunities lost and days slipping away the psyche is transformed when the notion of failure emerges our true motivation for being there is brought to the forefront more than numbers on a tape measure trophies on a wall or even stories to tell hunting is a deeply personal journey for each one of us our most cherished experiences are the ones we can't describe nor do we care to sitting on that hill gazing at the brooks range and watching herds of caribou my grandpa's savage lay beside my father nine years since his passing it was the first time my dad ever hunted with his father's rifle gus and i were there beside him but on that day on the alaskan tundra it was my grandpa who dad was hunting with well we're watching big heard the caribou over here yesterday this is kind of where they're all kind of ending up and congregating this wins pretty well from our right to our left a little bit at our box we are making an attempt at an interception caribou all around us um these caribou been kind of coming towards us and then they veered way off they were while they were heading to the to the north and they were kind of walling around there so we just decided well let's go here in case they change directions because they've been doing that all day long pretty much so we're going to be within about 500 yards of them once we peek over here but uh they'll have to get a little closer we're just getting down into the qrik bottom where we got some cover to move side to side and kind of try to gauge which way they might go so we're down off the mountain near the river problem is there's been so darn many caribou everywhere that everywhere you go you're gonna boost caribou so we got a little break so the one bull he's pretty decent nothing great we're hoping for something maybe a little bigger but he's respectable so we'll give them a roll if it works it works but don't it don't if you want to load yours up mad dog you can for backup they're right you here on safety yep take your pack off it's going 150 do you want to lay prone here layer safety on yeah just watch your rifle barrel don't point it at me he's 150. so wait you know which one he is you know which one he is [Music] just relax don't shoot wait for him to separate just wait there if you're real steady on them there it's right behind the front shoulder reload reload just reload reload did you smoke that thing or not i i think you you might have hit him right in the brain or something because he hasn't quivered it all look at that oh monkey congratulations buddy hey trying to wait a little bit he ain't making much effort though oh my god well the old open sights at 150 yards he did all well right holy man he's i mean it's not easy sneaking up on these suckers if we think we had a snowball chance that's where we were glassing from we went down and around and out of these caribou were kind of moving all over the place they were pretty much heading right to wherever glass and we actually climbed up to get them he ain't going anywhere we got the right one i mean that's the biggest one we saw today in striking white one distance yeah he is i didn't know which one you were after for sure well you don't need no backup muggy for type 6 hell am i crawling around before backing [Laughter] one kill club well the old uh the old savage came through on paw yep another day i didn't bring my camera see every time i don't break it good comes well that's the way that works today yeah you did you did well you screw up enough and it's bound to work at some point every stock where i thought we were doing it right it went haywire this one it just was wrong the whole time but it worked somehow but mad dog's got some meat again at least until tonight and then the savage shot an alaskan animal by god you've never shot anything in your life that's made boone and crockett have you paw why why start now huh oh heck he ain't bad though he's got tall i'm gonna go check him out he's got tall uh he's got a tall rack though oh yeah he flopped around a little bit there oh yeah yeah yeah check his eyeball there yeah i thought you did no that's just for your reflexes biggest caribou you've ever shot bigger than anyone i've ever shot first and last did you think he was gonna get her down there mad dog i said that this morning today is your day monkey you're gonna get her yeah we did everybody had doubts in my shoot i told them i could hit a four by eight on the plywood at 75 yards so that was good enough yeah i think when i was trying to get dad to come up on this hunt and then he talked to greg mad dog about it and then the old man was pretty jacked up about it and then when i said hey you know what you need to do you need to come up here and shoot a caribou with grandpa's old savage i think that pretty much cemented the deal and that's what hunting is all about the heritage the memories of the people that that taught you how to do it those memories of when you were a kid i was telling greg you could see that my dad he's all gimped up bad knees from milking cow's bad back from picking rocks and throwing hay bales but when he'd see that caribou he'd do whatever he could to run to get to the spotting scope to see it so it was still pretty neat for me to see uh the kid kind of come out and these guys that that i hunted with when i was a young kid and showed me pretty much what i know about hunting so yeah it was i guess one of those moments in life where things come full circle and to do it with my grandpa's rifle that made it all the more special we had made our determination that we weren't gonna borrow greg's odd six or dad wouldn't to uh to shoot a caribou it was gonna be done with this or nothing and uh this is it this will be a memory that uh that we'll all have for the rest of our lives so well uh today was just an awesome day there was this caribou they were strung out there was a herd of about 300 45 miles to the south they they were heading the wrong way and then oh there must have been a couple hundred or so strung out back behind us they were heading this way we sat up on the knob and it was just a beautiful sight to see all the god and nature's animals out there and i feel a little sorry for this old feller but i guess better than a wolf getting him now these uh these are part these guys definitely are part of the reason why i'm here doing what i'm doing like i said when i was deer hunting with them as a kid those memories like today of seeing those caribou out there i mean i'll never i'll never forget it as long as i live seeing that bull moose seeing the wolverine having the grizzly bear coming to camp that's what that's what hunt in alaska is all about it's not about it's not about the inches it's about that stuff and two old friends coming together and grandpa's rifle taking a caribou down in alaska so now you guys taught me how to butcher how to gut my first deer you guys i'll teach you how to how to gut and butcher a caribou how's that sound butcher in this bowl and that bulldoze that we were seeing earlier stepped out very low to mid 50s well the grizzly bear got the other one but this one's nice and fat tons of fat about as fat as any caribou i've ever seen there's darn near an inch of fat along the back strap we're gonna get him butchered up probably get most of them all back to camp tonight mad dog's gonna be on guard duty he wants all this meat flowing home so we're gonna we're gonna give him a 12 pack of beer and a bunch of firewood and he can guard it all night [Music] i think i wanted to do this hunt more than my dad did i know i did one of them to hunt my grandpa's rifle this is our last draw together no doubt about it this is he's busting his hump doing this pack farmed his whole life bad back bad knees but everything wore out his body it's a pretty pretty cool deal [Music] you two old farts got her done somehow huh we're bringing the meat nice and close to the tents tonight grizz is going to steal this one he's going to earn it september 2nd 6 30. have any words of wisdom for us this morning mad dog give me a little while i think it's something intelligent or at least we think it's intelligent depending on what level of intelligence you're thinking absolute hog i kind of figured that might happen all those caribou working our way the one on the left is an absolute toad there the only problem is they're all around us about the time you'd go moving in on one hard telling if you'd get close enough we use a cord full of beer cans put some pots and pans by the meat last night so you could hear the bear and the wind when died down that was our signaling device for the bear group dogs coming to pick up paws caribou they're just making a little cross strip landing on the dog leg [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] i think we're gonna call her a day and call her a hunt mad dog's down there reading western novels and resting up his swollen foot we'll have one more night in the tundra if the weather holds and fly back to base camp tomorrow this hunt and the brooks range season 2013 will be concluded waiting to get flown out it's been waiting on the weather it's starting to clear up now a nice herd of caribou september 4th [Music] weather's finally breaking up we're packing her up time to go mad dog your chariot is incoming you want to leave is what i'm asking you the other night wouldn't have been bad and then i'm packed up now i reckon i gotta go it's time [Music] c'est la vie dawg hold on cap you see your new dudes in a little bit foot here yep getting that bar there okay adios yeah about 40 minutes 40 minutes wow that's quick mad dog is out of here and paul and i are packing her up leave one tent and always leave the tent sleeping bag stove food till the last run certainly a weapon you never know in alaska time has come paw yeah any words of wisdom well i'm sober good huh well legacy time to plant the wheat look for a good bean and corn harvest get ready for deer hunting fellas are gone hunt is over with was a good trip could have gone a little better but it could have much more easily have gone worse i think they got the adventure they were hoping for and they did pretty good it's pretty decent shooting got a couple of decent caribou we could have got the only way it could have been better we could have shot two whoppers the day after the morning after my dad shot his right from camp but that's hunting that's the way that goes but overall i think they had they had a good adventure they'll be telling many many yarns about uh and hunting camps as they hunt together and see each other more in the future so i'm arguing with you woodrow oh it made me thirsty [Laughter] you waved that thing around enough you might find it darling i gotta tell you something i had a girl named laurie one time and uh she wanted to cut the carts nice okay yeah i see it now i'm gonna shoot him that's the same one we had in camp and this this is lonesome dove north yeah that's what it is we don't rent pigs taking the herd north tomorrow [Laughter] yeah one shot one kill augustus right [Laughter] that's here buddy you ain't got this thing on do you i had it on about three seconds too late oh it's greg [Laughter] we're going to have to go that way so that's east [Applause] [Laughter] you got mad dog ready to rock but you guys need to be ready okay [Applause] the boys have been sleeping in there for about 20 minutes now so i think it's time to wake them up have a little fun with them bear bear i think he got us that one they had the short bus in school when we were going to school we we'd have probably been riding the short bus okay i'm done all right for more information on other dvds books and modern day mountain man apparel log on to billymolesadventures.com here you'll also find information on alaskan hunting opportunities with billy for doll sheep caribou moose brown bear grizzly bear as well as white tail deer hunting in wisconsin [Music] much of billy's off season is devoted to public speaking he travels across the country sharing his knowledge and passion for the wilderness at corporate events schools conservation organizations wild game dinners christian outreach events and much more billy is a master storyteller attendees are sure to be entertained educated and inspired log on or call for more information

Channel: Modern Day Mountain Man

Views: 666,417

Keywords: The Modern Day Mountain Man, Alaska hunting, Alaska big game hunting, hunting movie, caribou hunting, Alaska caribou hunting, family movie, Christian hunting video, Billy Molls

Id: x3_3J39ObLM

Length: 92min 26sec (5546 seconds)

Published: Fri May 24 2019