Hey!

Been recovering many a thing I lost when we had the boat pushed under by ice during the breakup of Kobuk River.

Anyway, untill I get another camera, Im giving you these to watch. I recoverd the boat well enough after the flood went down, and Ive partnerd up with a fellow hunter who has no boat but a has a 30 hrs, so Im moving about 1/2 time ~~LOL!!~~

These were on the SD card, so here they are.......

Shooting Rabbits in the willows for dinner

Shooting a Fox, who flipped off the rocks to expire below.....


Getting outta town.........

Getting Ink Done

Getting Ink done.



The wifes been at a bit of an "Artist's Block" when weve been home, but now has it figured.....at least it looks like it.

Next I got some wood to build into a hanging frame so it can be viewed from both sides. A true drying rack will do fine.

After the hunt....

There's stuff to take care of''cause once it 's home, it has to be streached, tanned, cut, frozen, dryed, cleaned, pluck'd washed, sharpend, fuel'd up, repaired ,rested and cooked........

Lucky me , these women are pro's......

A couple weeks back we took a week long trip to scout for Geese, but caught a Bear among other things.... we went home and reupped our supplies, cleaned up and linger'd on thoughts of Birds.....

So , again, we set off for another Spring hunt, off to old haunts and gathering places, where the animlas are attracted and the vallys and hillsides, beaches, river bottoms where plants and berries grow succulent, The Mountain is great for Caribou year round, the river for Arctic Char in Winter, Salmon in summer,Smelts, Herring and Whitefish/Sheefish wander the lagoon and up the river, Moose, Muskox, Bears of 3 kinds wander from the trees, the open Tundra mountain tops and the Ocean. Caribou over Winter in the area by the thousands.
In the lagoon, Seals of all types as well as the occassional Walrus, Beluga, Sea Otter show up in summer.
Mammoth tusks and Whale bones are found in the surf and shallow waters to carve for the artists among us.
Trees float down at break up and replentish our firewood supply for summer, and in winter we sometimes camp among them, and get some for firewood or crafts.
We loaded our sled with the stuff we would need and further with stuff to leave at a friends to store untill Summer......some grub, tarps, ropes, gas, ect.
I traded labor and an Ivory tusk for Gasoline and some artwork thrown in as well, and we were off.
Heading South via river, lake, land, and ocean we arrived with smiles and vivid memeories of good times. Having camped the area and raised our kids in the area , the kids were all that were missing, and miss them we did........



Spring Subsistance Bird hunting is Federaly regulated, and we have a generous season, with large bag limits.
Its the kind of hunting where some are good at it and some arnt, like Wolf hunting and such. we share and trade foods with each other and Goose/ducks /Swans are a great "New" meat to have after a long winter, a taste of their own.
Anyway, we only hunt those that arrive first and then we work over the Sea ducks inna few weeks when we run low on these guys and put a few away for later.
Well hunt male ducks in the large flocks they gather in in July as well, if we need some, then we again agressivly hunt Geeese again in late August/early Sept when the fat youngsters start to fly straight and low........
I missed this place last Spring, with my right arm broken a couple months earlier and being right handed.
When I did try, I just got wet and wasted gas, due to weakness and high spring melt off. This is the time of year to travle with a shovle when the slush and mush get deep. I made up for it during July, August and September, hunting along getting back my strength with work. Enough to see my meats through fairly to March with some supplemental "fresh"Caribou.
This year we barely have any snow, 'cept here , where we campe'd, its white 6 ways to midnight, cold and staying that way, in stark contrast to the bare and snowless Springs sprung North, where I reside at the moment....gotta love 90mph snow, with no bumps......and Im back in good shape.

We built a teepee on the local design, of tarps and poles.


We usually build a fire outside to burn into cooking coals and we also heat rocks to bring in and warm us a few hours, but that first night we couldn't find the rocks~~LOL!!~~








Right now the Caribou of the Western Arctic Caribou Herd WACH 401,000 strong have a wide swath leaving the Northern Seward Penninsula heading North. Most urgent are the females that will calf enmass in the mountains and plains of the Arctic North Slope.
It's the Bulls that lag behind as well as remenant Reindeer from the former Reindeer Herding industry (they ran off and asemulated with the Caribou in 1995) that we hunt as they walk the hills and shores, waiting for the main herd to rejoin them in the Fall after freeze up. Theres enough around all the time to keep us in the meat.


Caribou are everywhere..........sometimes in the way, as you will see......~~LOL!!~~

But since I was so far away, better foods could be brought home ,besides we can catch Bulls to dry up right now, close to home, as the herd moves North past where were living.



We took off to familiar country, places we rode for years and know what is and what is not........

We sit many a spell looking down, as Predators do, seeing what moves or where the Ravens are.

We were On High, cruzing the mountain top, in circles ,driving, stopping, looking .......you cant really "Look around" while driving a snowgo on a rock studded mountain top, with no trail, 60 miles and a few hours from help, 2-3 days walk from camp at 15 above and riding alone with a few days till "If im not back by such and such, look for me". So we stop at each "Step" in the stair case like mountain ridges hopeing to get the jump or prehaps shot while looking about. This is a great way to come across Fur traks as well.
So we stopped and scanned and the wife poited out "Something" down this creek about 3 miles away moving around as he was, digging, he was mining away for moose meat that was litterly frozen in layers of ice, in a creek we later saw.

Well the wife usually dosent have much to do with Bears. Being a Kobuk River Inupiaq, the women in the family still do not eat Bear meat.
Thinking of others and that big 'ol rug overwhelmed her trigger finger and she got the itch.

"I'm gonna try to catch that Bear" was all she said, rather matter of factly, as she got on with the rig with me and we then decended along the downwind back side of the ridge above the Bear. I marked a spot in my mind and stopped there.
We got off and I walked alotta yards before I spotted him and signaled Agnes to meet me when I was quite aways away. She drove up, stopped and I didnt think it would hurt to try and call it, rather "Man Charges Grizz" as I have seen Browns come over outta curiosity before, when we were making lotsa noise lke chopping wood and such, and then they stand there a bit having an eyefull, before trotting off to the bushes.
Sooooooooooooooooo I started yelling, Ahhhhhhhhyyyyyyyyyyyyy!!!!!!!!and such,and not 30 seconds later he came trotting up to have a look.
She steadied her Finn VTK made M-39 Mosin Mosin using the very usefull FMJ .7.62X54R Czech light ball.
She Asked me "Should I shoot it now?" And I asked her "Do you know how to use the sights?"~~LOL!!~~ I told her as I tryed to get a close up, but such wasnt gonna work on that camera, oh well.

Her first shot was a good one, but about an inch low of the spine bone, but sh e did rip his arteries, just as good as a Heart shot, gushing like a fountain, the second shot doing the same, also just below the spine, they were about 4 inches apart, I dont know which was first.








He gushed and gushed.
75-100 yards later and it was done.




She's 5'2" , the Bear is longer than my '95 Arctic Cat Bearcat.......either he make 'er look small or she make 'em look big ~~LOL!!!!!!~~

4inches of FAT as my blade shows. The intestinal fat renderd clear as water in the pan and near tasteless.

Fog, snow and "Whiteout"

We stopped to a shelter cabin and dryed our drizzel/wet snow wetted clothes and I ate Bear Steak while she had boiled Seal in fairly short order and we slumber'd off for an hour or so in the heat before carrying on in the low fog

Good to be "Home" again....

So we built our blind with willows and sheets, tied with Willow bark strips and string, with willows on the snow to keep the Caribou skin seats dry.....and more willows to blend us in as another snow cover'd willow patch....

We also use these when hunting Bears or Fur and calling to them(fur) or watching a kill site.

We parked the ride about 200 yards away, by a big snowdrift.

Nice and homey, a spiral, open topped sitdown/stand up blind with guns, grub and warm company, Geese hunting "Our way".

We did well enough to have Geese to take some with us to give away to elders and friends, but it got cold again, like 5above at night and the Geese quit comming almost all together. Pressing issues with our jackshaft, behind the secondary clutch on the snogo dictated we take the pause and get 'er fixxed, as well as deal with our meats which were freezing hard, so off to the nearestVill we rode, being 30 or so miles away.

not a bump or shocker on the trail, anywhere, the trail was as smooth as can be. The ride back to camp was made at triple the speed......

We spent a night and cleaned up, and sent for parts, back home.

Our good friend and elder Rick suggested we better spend our time hunting insted of waiting as it was gonna be foggy bottoms for awhile and insisted that we use his ride, a 4stroke (HEAVY!!!) Artic Cat Bearcat, the latest version of my '95 modle.....what a change, and off we went......

I must not here that for a maximum of success, you need to put in your time. There is no "Guarentee" for anything, and knowing what alternatives you can turn to, due to conditions, weather, animal migratory patters and habits, to be sucessfull, you must not waste your time either. If ever your after "That ONE animal" good luck! I just happen to hunt what I can and am never dissapointed that I didnt get a target species, but always happy I do get something, even if its just firewood.

On the way back to camp, we pulled up and passed some Caribou who had the road to themselfs, and evidently didnt wanna leave it till we passed 'em ~~LOL!!~~ Not trying to bother 'em, but I figure if I should be doing anything, staying on the trail when I didint actually want to shoot one would been the right thing to do,,,,,~~LOL!!~~~ They were having none of that.........

We spent a couple hours catching Ptarmigan for the breasts for home and she boiled the rest as soup for us at camp, some Ravens got the remains. Can get em by the pound or by the ton........Feathers are good to use with artwork , as they are a non migratory bird and traditional in use.

We were sniping Ptarmigan that showed up to scratch at the mud spots as well ~~LOL!!~~

We rode past out Blind, and as we thought, it was a "Bird magnet" as usual...... I love this place......

But when we were at camp, the birds just diddnt stop flying by, and so I began to get my swing on........and ended the first day with a dozen Canadians ............ and a box of shells down.....~~LOL!!~~

The second day we had 21 more. We took shots with some visitors and we visted others that evenin' and ended up staying at friends cabin, and dryed out our sleeing gear with a wood stove and hanging the bedding in the rafters for a couple hours, and real comfort on those cold nights.

The third days catch ended best, with many Canadians, a Swan and the only Speckle Belly of the hunt....... Not a duck was seen the whole hunt.........

This pict is at the "lunch break" LOL!!

After further shooting, we decided to break camp, as we had enough to make the trip worthy, an the shells well spent.

We pack'd our stuff and meats for home, with the heavy stuff down and the light stuffs atop

We came loaded down with stuff to leave at camp and returened witha sled load for the house and alotta food for us.

We took our sled up the coast North aways outta the hills and onto the ocean side, and heavy it was, where we left it beside a snowbank. We then took the 60 mile RT East/West to return Rick his snowgo, take him a small load for his freezer and bring our snogo back into action.

The jack shaft had arrived about 3 hours ahead of us.........

The next day we took the 6 hour, 20mph slog back to our wintering home in Noorvik.

Being near 30 degrees, and with that heavy load we dumped alotta lube oil in the gas and stopped to cool it frequently.

We stacked drift wood to dry, up out of the sand so we could come along someday and and collect it as dry fire wood, on our breaks driving up the coast and took our time.

With a satisfyed grin, and feeling good, we bid our farewell and put our backs to the Kiwalik basin, our summer Salmon fishing river, and former year round stomping grounds..........

We met a nephew who was in need of gasoline, on his way to Buckland, as the trail conditions he had left and we now faced were gonna be soft and mushy. The river near Noorvik was 1 foot of watery slush under 2 feet of snow, ready to trap and wet any one who got slowed to a stop or just hit a pocket and stopped. That can make for a loooooong day........

We topped off and gave him the 4 other gallons, as we were gonna be fine along those lines.

The last pict, onna hilside looking to drop off the sled, return Ricks machine and proceed to restocking the pantry to the North.........

geese Hunting gone bad

Saddled up and rode Thursday night, expecting to find Geese galore at my favorite shooting lake, but all we found was snow......No mud, no Geese........

But we pitched our tent anyway and set up the blind (one and the same~~LOL!!~~)

We couldnt just sit there, so we tok any and all of our spare gas and rode for Fur.

Tracked a Pack of Wolves untill we hit the 1/2 tank mark and decided that the 40 mile walk home wasnt worth the rewards of Certain sucess, and it was a hard turn to make.....

So I caught this Goose, ahhhhh... Brown Bear, and witha load of fat Bear, barly made it to camp as the extra gas burned away with the heavy load

Took the shot at 150 yards, and gave 'em a second just to be sure.

The Czech 147 FMJ's did their thing proper like, passing all the way through wile tumbling all the while. The only scrap I found was one jacket left under the skin on the exit side. I love that M-39 and that Czeck ammo.......

Back at camp for a night and then onto home.........to write this up.

I got some vid, but the temp wouldnt let the batteries work more than a few seconds, and popping these pix was all that turned out proper.

Gotta get back inna day or two and see what flys in.......as two specklebellys flew over as we were warming up to drive home...~~LOL!!~~~

Spring into Spring........

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.........................How'd I do that?

Well, the pictures are dead opposite to what I was a putting up, so maby some backward forethought will drive me to perfection on my next post..........??~~LOL!!~~
Anyhoo, the wifes working on a "Ink on Skin" of a Polar Bear thats watching an Oogruk (whos skin it is) getting away......as happens sometimes........getting us ready for hunting in the ice, hopefull this will sell as soon as shes done drawing it.

Having a new breakdown with each ride, this last week took my Arctic Cat 440 onto the brink of Death and down for some big $$ undercarriage repairs. I let a friend drive and I guess he didnt know the warning signs ....... Thing is my 600 Polaris is 6 winters old now and very tired, and it blew a base gasket on the engine, so I made a couple out of hardtack boxes, to go onto my lower cylenders, and their holding up fine, so Im up and about with one ride, for as long as that lasts, and with boating and breakup comming I was a trying quite hard to refurb a 40 Honda, but have found it to have a warped crank, probly still running when he sank it....oh well.....~~LOL!!~~ I gave the remains to a guy who can use the lower unit and he'll get by this summer.

Found my cameras again, thats a pluse!

So I ran about with the camera and am up to taking pictures for posterity again.

Been putting my M-39 to the test,, again, shooting Rabbits in the head for the freezer and dogs, as well as the occasional Ptarmigan, Fox, Caribou and even a nice Black Wolf.

Wet days demand we change clothes, wear rain gear because all the flying loose snow melts on us, and theres nothing worse than being wet from 30 above to ride home at 15 above. Its best to dress in layers, so a guy can always have spare.

Gotta work that Wolf tomarrow, and get it stretched/dryed to store for summer. the wife has 'em skinned really clean, so it should be fairly easy to get it done. After a 22 mile chase, getting stuck several times and giving my partner the first 12-18 Cracks at it,( he reloaded and shot again) well, after it was that far, I stepped up and gave it a go with my Mosin Nagant, as the Wolf was now up the side of the mountain, going alongside because it could climb no more, and I was done wrestling the snowmachine from trying to roll to the bottom of the steep incline, Ad firing the whole time.

I shot at about 550 yards, at the sitting Wolf who was probly laughing at his recent escape, and I holding 3 feet above his mid and dropping it right between his front and back feet sent him moving away again......... I figured 600 yards maby "+" and I cut loose a second round 4 feet above and a full Wolfs length ahaed of the now trotting Black.......and dropped it into his lower chest.

My neighbor called it a "Hail Mary" and I'm inclined to agree. That was the longest shot I have ever tryed , and strangely enough, succeeeded..........~~LOL!!!~~~ And witha WITNESS to boot!!

Sorry for the funny set of pix, it just didnt go right..........???Weird.......

I intended to post a most excellent hunt Vid with me and Jeramy back day beferr yesterday, and the Fat little lady Caribou we caught.

I had seen tracks in the fresh snow on my way to the town of Kotzebue, and this was good, because me and Jeramy had blown away a couple days making repairs and getting MY act together..~~LOL!!~~
Caribou will follow trails made by other Caribou and even their own as I tell here, and can be fairly well ambushed along them.
Willow lines in the Spring is where Bears do such, and I have found quite a few "Bear kills" in favored spots.....must be like fishing to them.
Anyway, if you know where theres a trail, theres a great chance that you can wait along it and get a crack at a Caribou.

My friend Jeramy was going for his first Caribou hunt, as hes put in his year to become a resadent, and we can catch 5 Caribou a day, I knew some good State Lands to hunt and we were on our way.

We left Kotzebue proper and not very long at all came along trails that lead to a bunch of 10 that lead into a bunch of 20 that were bent to join 50 others on the hillcrest horizon.
Caribou are gathering up and moving now, and the herds are following the land(food) and there are thousands more comming this way North.
The Western Arctic Caribou Herd is 370,000 animals strong and healthy.


We were in old hilly tundra with steep creeks, short sharp hills, folds, pingos , lakes and craters/vallys and thick frozen stands of willows 8 feet tall, all with hard frozen waves of snow making it quite rough to ride , but a great place for Caribou to eat and guys like us to get into a defelade and close in, but also a guy can launch off an unexpected cliff or down ito a snow choked creek, with not much for help around, so slow and cautious riding is nessarry as getting stuck or falling aways is very possible.
I spotted a bunch of 30 or so on a lakeside, and we got within 500 yards before the figured us out when I drove over a small hill and they were moving off into a creek with a cliff on one side.
The Weatherman and I tryed to circle round the hill the herd was trotting up, but a brushy creek delayed our positioning and we had to make the crest insted of waiting on the other side, with the Caribou moving over it and headed down to the shallow vally.
From where I stood on the snowbank infront of my machine (every inch helps) I gave it a go with a Mosin I had parted together and Kotz pulled up with his AR-15.
I spotted 'em first and took first crack at 'em.
The Carbou trotted by, circling down the hill without knowing we were above them, and about 50 yards away.
4 consecutive "Click!!!" s later and I figured with a quick look at an ejected shell that my firing pin was backed out plenty enough to not pop the primer...ARRRRRRRGGGGGGGHHHHHHHH!!!! I could see two threads of the firing pin out the rear of the cocking knob. This was the first time I had tryed shooting this rifle with this bolt , as I had bought the rifle chaep and boltless and had sighted in with one barrowed from another Mosin, and had recently purchased a bolt for this guy............ This isnt a hard thing to do, adjusting the firing pin, but it certainly wasnt the place or time.
I encouraged Jeramy to shoot from where we were parked while I tryed to figure out my rifle.I told him wich Caribou would look good on a plate, and handed the show over to him.
A couple shots later and Jeramy got a lesson in "Lead" when his shots kicked up snow 5 feet behind the Caribou he had picked out, from those that were trotting in line 200 yards away, and decided to stop as I told him we could just get infront of 'em again and wait.......we reloaded and started our rigs....this might take some doing....

Again we went up hill and around, thinking we were cutting them off,(~~LOL!!~~) but after alotta minutes and a few miles, we spotted the line of walking Caribou about mile away, turned back around on their trail and headed back up the same hill they had come down, but now well aware of us.

The lean and fast had sorted out the fat and slow to the back of the line,and the Caribou went down the ridge that connected the hills that they had just gone up, we were getting fouled for an exit from a long lake we were trying to use as a shortcut, so in a "what the heck" judgment call I drove up a willow choked bank, dodging, vaulting off a couple snow banks and crashing through a couple more, landed good and I drove ahead along the side of the gully outta their sight. Heading them off about a 1/4th mile later, I drove up eough to see the laed cow comming, but I was out for two fat cows with no fawns I had picked out but at the raer of the line.
They had calm'd down and strung out so as to have some space back from the others for a clean shot, I stopped in alongside a snobank formed over willows that fairly conceled my machine, and I readied my pistol.
I let the leader and the majority pass on ,and as an ever faithfull follower, the Female I wanted passed into perfect range along the others trail, wanting only to be with the herd. Pretty close range...
I aimed mid chest just as she saw me she turned and quarter'd away, I fired and hit her right behind the shoulder, cross shooting int the opposite side neck, she stumbled, gatherd up and went another twenty yards before keeling over, both lungs blown.The other Caribou stopped in confusion.
Jeramy with his nice quiet 4 stroke had parked up on the hill with a great view and a windsheild for a rifle rest.
The crowd that was following The Caribou I shot slowed up, and a Couple seconds later, Pow! A solid hit! He had put one in the Heart of the other Cow that was in good shape, among the milling hesitaters.
He had stopped atop the hill above and 150 yards behind me and 75 yards to my left, he shot two more times to put a finish shot into the Caribou I had shot (I'm glad I was staying right there, making sure the shooting was over before going to the animals~~LOL!!~~) and a finisher into his Caribou too, which had gone about 50 more yards away before toppling over, but was still moving.
I like his style.
I went to mine and was "Almost" as happy as Jeramy, who had just caught his first Caribou

2 Nice Cows , good meat to last awhile, Mine was dinner tonight

The Daughters new Emachine wont formatt jive with the 3 inch (80cm) disks I filmed with, and to reformatt would erase the vid....got ideas???

Im looking for a cable to connect the camera to the computer,.......