From 2007 to 2012 western Alaska had a yearly Musk Ox hunt. Open to all residents. Since we lived in Nome, accessing Ox wasn't too difficult. The season was long but a winter hunt was usually easiest as you could just about drive right up to the herd, shoot one, and load the whole thing into your sled. Or gut it and load it in the sled.
Following are some pics from a hunt I did with my wife where she killed an Ox. This was 2010 I think.
Here she is in front of a shelter cabin on the way to the herd we were huntng, This is about 40 miles east of Nome. This cabin is often written about during the Iditarod dog race. Mushers often get holed up in this cabin during storms.
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Here she is on the way to the herd.
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This is after she shot the Ox. since they gather up when danger approaches you have to wait for them to calm down and move apart so you can get a safe shot at one. Here she is after getting a bull with one shot. The herd moved off a bit after her shot.
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Here she is with her bull
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And me with the bull.
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Sorry about the links. I just recovered my photobucket account and don't seem to be able to post pics.
Here is a pic of her Ox. We were about 60 miles from Nome. Couldn't actually see the town but I labelled where it is.
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Here she is about ready to head back to Nome. The herd had ran off a ways when we drove up to get her bull but them wandered back towards us by the time we were ready to leave.
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There's a few more pics that go with the hunt but you have the general idea I think. I killed my first ox in 2006 with a special tier 2 tag. 2007 it became a general hunt, residents only. We killed an Ox every year from 07- 2012. My daughter got a cow in 2012. The hunt went back to tier 2 in 13 I think and realtively few ox are harvested these days. The population is spreading out, even moving into the western hills of interior Alaska. We moved to Fbks summer of 2012 and that was the end of Ox hunting for us!

Looks like a good time/hunt. Cool pics. Thanks for the ride along!

thanks for sharing , really cool pic,

Pretty cool. I know they are smaller than one would think. Being around cattle the ox are definitely smaller when a person is by them.

Pretty neat creatures. When I was in northern Quebec caribou hunting in 2015 we saw one just north of our camp and the camp north of us saw several. I had always wanted to shot a Musk Ox

That was great!!! Thanks, a lot..

Thanks

Thank you for sharing with us , like many others a chance to shoot a musk ox is a bucket list item of mine .

I've also wondered how they are for eating .

Great write up Mike, thanks.

Got me thinking about when we met and time sure fly’s. It was either 83 or 84 I think when you were going to A&P school here.

That would be 85, when I started the A and P school. Remember I was on the ATA board when you were pres?

Ox eat a variety of plants. Every one we shot was fat. Really good meat.

Only surpassed by Dall sheep, August caribou and perhaps elk. Much better than moose.