Nice lynx and rifle!

March 14 2021

7am- woke up and got coffee going while I had a quick shower. Pretty nice weather out there. All done. Had a smoke and a second cup. Yup pretty nice morning.

730am- Texted my Dad. Hes all ready and waiting on me. Been ready for a while apparently.

731am- standing beside the road all dressed for the day holding my gun and hunting bag. There’s the big white trailer coming down the road.

735am- grabbed a coffee for the road from the newsstand and hit the ice road. Quick adjustment to the load and we’re on our way west to Aklavik and the Richardson mountains. My favourite place besides the goose blind. Riding in a Chevy diesel cause my f350 has a broken shock. I miss my truck but a Chevy is better than walking I suppose.

930 or so- two titans are warming up while we get the sleds ready. No extra gas needed. Caribou are close.

10am- after a good breakfast we’re on our way. Beautiful scenery and sunshine. We travel up the familiar old mountain road and before long the foothills are in sight. We pass a bunch of about 30 caribou in the delta because I can already see a lot more on the first foothill.


1130am and there caribou everywhere you look. At least a couple or three thousand scattered across the landscape and in the farther hills more. There’s about 300 walking single file about 80-100 yards away. Time to try my new rifle. “BANG”. My guns first shot and its already putting meat on the plate cause who actually put meat right on the table? Come on at least use a paper plate. We weren’t in any rush and had already planned ahead to shoot a couple or three at a time to avoid having the legs freeze up. Better to work on freshly killed hot caribou. Frozen hide and a sharp knife isn’t the best combination. Anyhow. I scan the herd and spot another suitable animal. Split the 2 and 300 yard mildots and caribou two drops in its track with a shattered neck bone. Here comes my dad with one in his sled. The old 25-06 is still doing alright. Can’t let the sun fool you. It’s still winter and the wind is sharp as we skin and butcher with barehands.

Approximately 1pm- meat is loaded. Cody and 2 Edwins show up and we talk about caribou, snowmobiles, weather and wolves for a while before heading out to get more caribou. Using the terrain we get in close for a couple each at 50-60 yards. Really liking this tikka trigger. Browning? What Browning? Just kidding. Loved that BLR. I skinned mine on the lake and my dad skinned his on the hill top. Good to have that peaceful solitude. Time alone doing what you love to do.

330pm- Caribou is all skinned butchered and loaded. My Dad has what he needs now but I still give him one more. Was good to hunt with my Dad. It’s been a couple decades at least since he’s hunted caribou other than August and September bulls. I watched as he crossed the lake and disappeared over the hills towards the delta. I’m hunting for 6 households today so I need to get 3 more. I’ve had my eye on small herd of 15-20 for most of the day as they have been feeding on a pointy hill with the perfect layout for a close encounter. I putt along at 5-6 km/h
And I see the small herd starting down the ridge. They’re out of sight now so I change my angle to meet them at the bottom. Works out perfectly and the bunch of 15-20 turns out to be about 300. I just sit and watch for 5 minutes or so. I spot 3 dry cows together all with short bushy antlers and a lot of white fur on their sides. Just the right kind. Old cows past breeding age. T3x quickly does the job and I’m done shooting for the day. I think this new gun is going to be alright. Probably much better than alright. Not sure the group size on paper or any of that other fancy Mumbo jumbo but darn it if it don’t do what I need it to.


558pm- last three caribou are skinned butchered and loaded. This time I lash the sled a little more permanent rather than temporary for the ride home because I’m not shooting anymorewaitaminute...holy that’s a giant dry cow but I have what I need so I reluctantly pass that up. Plus my hands are a bit stiff now. Not much but a little

8pm- back in AK and putting my grandparents caribou away for them. Had a steak, mashed potatoes and some salad then a coffee for the road. Hard to leave the Grands house after a good hunt so we sit a bit longer than expected.

10pm- hitting the road. Good ride home but the old eye balls getting a bit heavy.

Midnight March 15 2021- pulled in to my yard and dropped my sled load of meat in the driveway. Can’t let it all freeze solid together so put it all away nice and safe from ravens and foxes. Tomorrow is drop off and share some fresh meat day. Looking forward to that. Never gets old making peoples day with the gift of fresh country food. Like the kids say “sharing is caring” or something like that. 😆

1am another good hot shower. Now it’s ten after two and I’ve just burned an hour and 10 minutes writing this when i should be sleeping and resting up for a long day of field work and just generally being a dad and spouse starting in 4 hours and 50 minutes. In all seriousness though it was a great day. I’m thankful everyday for the opportunities we have to hunt fish and trap up here. ✌🏽 Taker easy chappies

Nice write up, that rising horizon sun levels is adding energy to your steps.

Good stuff Ryan. Sounds like a busy productive day. Thanks for taking us along.

Glad you were able to feed your people and spend time with your dad!

Good, long, productive day!

Great narrative on the hunt Ryan.

Awesome story! Glad you got to spend time with your father and provide meat for others!

Long productive and rewarding day. I sure miss hunting and fishing trips with my dad. Hope someday soon the two us are able to connect and go outdoors again.

Thanks for the story Ryan. Great write up

I passed you dad on my way up did not recognize him. Margo said he was Eddy McLeod so I called Eddy while Margo was skinning one of those delta caribou you past up. Not on that lake a little further right to the right below the foothills.

He said was not him had to find out from Brandon it was your dad.

Pulled most of my traps out of 1st Creek. Nailed 2 more caribou on the way home. 1st Creek Trail.

Video will be up once I get more content to fill it in. Should have ran into you would have had tons of content would have had to edit some down. Caught nothing in my traps by the way there was wolf tracks but they chased a herd of caribou out of the creek and up towards Divide Lake.

Thanks for sharing

Last nights job

That is a pretty one!

Well that was a wise choice on the Tikka 223 ,a great brand and cartridge ;usually available, economical,fur friendly,low recoil ,accurate, and a great starter for kids .Thanks for the ride and I didnt even need to buy a plane ticket .Bless you and yours smith

wow,,what a cutie your daughter is in the pic with you holding the rifle.

I finally had time to go tracking this weekend. Tracked this pair and got them both. So much could’ve prevented us from getting them but it was one of those times where everything worked out perfectly. Later in the day we tracked 7-8 off an old kill. I chose a set of tracks and stayed with it and caught up about 45 minutes later. One shot right before he hit the rocks and I added another to the sled. Tried looking for the others but they were long gone into the high Rocky Mountains


The old kill. We seen 12 moose 9 sheep and about 2500 caribou. Got all three wolves we had a chance at so I couldn’t ask for a better day

Awesome on getting the wolves! Looks like you got some really good snow conditions there right now!

Awesome! Was lousy weather this weekend for me, went out Saturday, was ice foggy, if it wasn't would have seen a wolf running up the hill side and may have caught it. Sunday storm hit and it is stormy still. I will try one last time this weekend if the weather is good for wolves. After that go ice fishing.

Biggest of the 3. Still winter prime