CARIBOU HUNTING IN ALASKA | NORTH OF UNKNOWN

[@akway6270]

As a hunter, I know the anguish you felt when unable to recover that wounded Animal. I know you wanted to save that old boy from suffering another winter or a predator attack, you're honesty showing how a hunt can end (not in our favor) is respectful. Stay humble and ethical, that's what will heal situations like this in your heart. The "Haul road" and the journey there is spectacular and that part of Alaska in particular can make a 1 time hunter, addicted to the outdoors for life. Thanks for sharing.

[@solobushman]

As a hunter of over 40 years I have learned some lessons about hunting. I like to share one with you. Never celebrate until the tags are attached. Your video shows the way it is ,sometimes you feed yourself and sometimes you feed other critters. Thanks for the video. You'll get'em next time.

[@TheHeartofHunting]

Couldn't agree more. It's not over until it's tagged, we got excited too soon. This is tough to watch for us but it's a part of hunting.

[@tpliscon4662]

I've never lost an animal like you guys did. My initial thought was you guys shouldn't be hunting after giving up so soon. But it's easy for people to say when we aren't there with you in that situation. So that though went away after a minute or two. Hunting caribou with a bow is tough to begin with so I commend for that. The predators in the area ate pretty good so it didn't go to waste either. That's always good. It took me two days to find a little two point mule deer that I put a bolt through one year when I was much younger. So I understand the determination. Good luck guys.

[@SoberNomad]

This has to be the most well-done, least-satisfying videos I’ve ever seen! Beautiful scenery and choreography, awesome bull, sucky conclusion. Made a poor shot on an already-wounded animal, then couldn’t retrieve it. I’m sure this was a dream hunt, but can’t say I would have posted this one.

[@Gottschling03]

The struggles of bowhunting really come across well in this film, especially road bowhunting!

[@TheHeartofHunting]

Thank you! The struggle is real. Part of the challenge of bowhunting!

[@ronaldpetersen255]

Thank you for sharing a hard hunt to share. It never feels good for a hunter to wound and lose an animal for many reasons, both in the ethical and personal realm. But it does happen and you did your due diligence to find the bull, good effort. A final note, it took balls on your part to put it out in the public eye!!

[@TheHeartofHunting]

Thank you for the support. It's an unfortunate reality of hunting that we work hard to avoid!

[@RRRREALbadman]

I've never hunted but I respect hunting for food or a living so much with it being ethical and whatnot, eating or selling as much of the animal as you can, or feeding to other fellow carni/omnivores. Big thumbs up. Hunting for fun without even using the animal on the other hand..... Nice high quality video and great hunt! Edit: why do I want caribou stew all of a sudden I've never even tried it.

[@bickabraham2397]

You can only hunt the area with bow?

[@jeffcouture6048]

Some bulls seem to have all the tough luck. The antler and the limp tell the story of whatever happened to him sometime earlier. I was cheering for you, in hopes you would spare this guy a tough winter ahead. And you probably did. But talk about a will to live, eh? What distance were you able to track him?

[@TheHeartofHunting]

We tracked him a quarter mile from where he was hit I'd say. Once he started crossing the braids of the river it made it tough. Definitely a tough bull.

[@TheHeartofHunting]

Still heart broken to this day that we didn't find him.

[@tterexx426]

@@TheHeartofHunting I know i am two years late but... I think you had just incredibly bad luck. Some animals (I have never hunted caribou though) can go incredible distances with two destroyed lungs. And looking at the shot placement, you must have gotten the lungs. So even though you didn't find him, i still think you shot him well and saved him from going into winter with that other injury that had him limping.

[@MountainMan_NZ]

Loved the cinemaphotography!! Thanks for sharing and all the best for future hunts. Regards from Australia , Jamie

[@TheHeartofHunting]

MountainMan HuntingFilms Thanks!! Excited fo Fall.

[@davidmerriott7356]

Great hunt, thanks for sharing. Ive been thinking of a diy to Alaska and this gives me something to look into. Tough loosing an animal, but next time you got it!!!!!

[@TheHeartofHunting]

Thanks for the kind words! Yes was very tough to leave him laying out there not found. He would keep crossing the creeks making for some very tough tracking. Either way never thought he would have even made it 100 yards the way he was bleeding right away. Yes we will be back again tho!

[@jagerschmidti6250]

please let me ask a question. i saw many bowhunting videos and its a fact that game with good hits walking many yards in the bush so why not using tracker dogs? in germany we have special breeds for wounded tracks in a efficient organiced princip so every hunter can give a call to a hunter with well trained special dogs.they can find game 2 days after and about kilometers.at last it means more harvesting and less suffering animals. thank you guys for sharing this excellent video, greeetings from south germany!

[@trevorose8267]

It is slowly catching on in the USA. But we are behind many countries.

[@prestonlampe4313]

Can you hunt off the highway??

[@alaska1ism]

Thought I’d heard that the rules from ADF&G for hunting from the Dalton were minimum of 5 miles off the highway. Maybe that’s only for rifle, not archery....... Great video in any case.

[@TheHeartofHunting]

Yup it's a 5 mile corridor from the pipeline for rifle. Inside that is archery only. Thanks for watching!

[@matthewgray8426]

Great video. I want to do this hunt one day. I have planned quite a bit for a haul road DIY caribou hunt but i still have a few things to figure out. If you don't mind me asking, how did you get a vehicle to use? i would fly up from Texas and was going to rent a vehicle but I have heard that rental places in Fairbanks are hesitant to rent vehicles to hunters and they are pricey.

[@TheHeartofHunting]

Matthew Gray, Luckily Steve is living up there at the moment so we just used his pickup. That is true most places won’t even rent to you if they know that is where you are going. There are a few places that do but like you say they get pricey. I think the cheapest way to go is a U-Haul pickup but not sure. We didn’t do a ton of research on it since we had our own vehicle.

[@matthewgray8426]

Thanks for the help. Looking forward to the next video.

[@TheHeartofHunting]

No problem and good luck!! We should have a Montana mule deer film ready to release in a few weeks!!

[@RatdogDRB]

The good ol' "Sag" river. How far south of Deadhorse were you on this hunt? Drove those roads for many years, worked up there for 10 years in all. Lots of grizzlies in that area, wolves, gaggles of red and arctic fox. The meat wasn't wasted. You just didn't get to enjoy the fine table fare which caribou meat is. In fact, if you weren't TOO far south, polar bears make it inland a bit as well.

[@TheHeartofHunting]

Since then we have had caribou and it is AWESOME! The North Slope is a amazing and wild place for sure.

[@FNColdAlaska]

Good effort! It was not wasted as the tundra is full of thankful predators who likely feasted on that bull.

[@cesaravila9173]

I hope they used the drone to look for it

[@ChuckinTV]

It's too bad that you couldn't find him. That had to be heart breaking; but you seemed to be a good sport about it. Nice video work. Sorry it didn't work out better.

[@TheHeartofHunting]

Thanks for watching! Definite bummer how it ended but that's how it goes sometimes.

[@vandalayindustriesadventur1049]

Enjoyed the video

[@asphaltcowboy84]

Why didn't you guys use the drone to search for him?

[@TheHeartofHunting]

If it wasn't raining when we got back to the pickup we would have. Had the same thought though.

[@Ascend_99]

I’m sorry bro I feel the pain

[@fredreddies1220]

Neat you can step out of the truck and start to hunt here, you would have everyone with a badge on your case

[@erichkaufmann5284]

Alaska, it’s the largest state in America, and once was part of Russia :) we shouldn’t have let the gorgeous land go.

[@TheHeartofHunting]

Ha yeah not a great deal but I think you still have quite a bit of land ha. What's the hunting like in Russia?

[@erichkaufmann5284]

The Heart of Hunting it’s excellent, I’ve been able to kill 3 grizzly bears so far here in Siberia. The first grizzly bear, I shot was in 1998. He had eaten 2 of my horses, so I shot him 3 times with my Ruger 30-06. I’ve gotten 2 tags for them since. Have a great day, sir. And enjoy your hunting. Cheers from Siberia, Russia 🇷🇺

[@davinharryman7491]

Poor job in my opinion I get theres not much you can do at a certain point but I feel like there was little effort put forth in finding the animal. With the weather being the way it was at the end just called for a bad outcome. Would've really liked to see him recovered though. Better luck this year!

[@skydiver6711]

I would give anything to make that hunt. The only thing is I would have brought a gun. I love to hunt with my bow, but on a once in a lifetime hunt like this, I would not chance one getting close enough for my bow. I want my 30.06.

[@TheHeartofHunting]

Hoping to get a caribou on film this year! We have a big project coming up. Stay tuned!

[@robmarinace1715]

gotta be 5 miles off any part of the rd to use a firearm

[@TheHeartofHunting]

Rob is correct. We would have loved to use our guns but there is a 5 mile corridor on each side of the Haul Road. Makes for a challenging hunt!

[@skydiver6711]

Ok. Didn't realize there was a corridor where you could not shoot a gun. . Sorry you did not find him. Been there, done that and hate it. Thanks for the video.

[@LeBronJames-zd1zf]

Not to pour salt in the wound or anything but why didnt you drill him with another shot? Its not like it would have been a difficult shot by anymeans, also not trying to sound like a hardass but any animal i have shot (bow/bolt/rifle) has dropped dead within 50 yards. And 50 yards ive only seen once in my life time.

[@BlairStOnge]

Pushing a wounded animal is usually a bad idea but in open terrain like that and with an animal that was wounded before it was shot, running it down on foot is not that hard. Making the animal exert itself can cause it to die sooner

[@aburgheim]

Hard hunt!!

[@TheHeartofHunting]

Definitely! Still bummed about it 2 years later.

[@TheHeartofHunting]

Someone already disliked the video 😂 I’m assuming they have never hunted.

[@cole580]

Just funny how you celebrated right after you shot the caribou and never could find him 😉

[@russellpradia]

I can't figure out why you posted this video? Production quality was excellent the stalking the bow skills, but you left a wounded animal out there you should never have posted this. I know nothing is a given and some days are better than others but you had the power to post this or not

[@firedupoutdoors]

That is the reality of hunting sometimes. They showed it as it happens. The video is genuine and for that I commend them.

[@andingaino4651]

dont get it thom why hunt with a bow if you can nhunt with a rifle?

[@TheHeartofHunting]

andin gaino the area we were hunting was archery only. No choice.

[@andingaino4651]

@@TheHeartofHunting ohh okei. Myy bad:P

[@juliemckee9022]

Caribou, ram, and moose hunting is where it’s at

[@marklumley619]

It always sucks when you think you made a great shot but in the end never find the animal. By the limp and deformed antler it looked like maybe he survived some other bad accident, maybe he will recover. Wild animals are some tough critters.

[@voltmcvolt1751]

THERE IS GONNA BE CARIBOU CHILLI TONIGHT GUYS!

[@Spawnfreak]

UG LUG LUG YEAH! UG LUG LUG YEAH! Ooooooooh CARIBOU!

[@tolant6124]

Holy $#!T that moose at the end, tho!

[@Nello353]

The frustration of bow hunting.

[@johnfetzer9637]

lesson learned , carry a backup weapon , as a rifle , see animal moving out and not dropin , u drop him.

[@itypefaster]

john Fetzer you can not use fire arms with in 5 miles of the haul road, unless you are predator hunting.

[@danielcondon3057]

you can if your dispatching a wounded animal

[@tsw2scotland341]

What was the point in killing him then

[@TheHeartofHunting]

trust me, we gave it our very best effort trying to find him. We searched for hours, unfortunately he went farther than we thought he would make it, the rain washed away any sign that was left, and he crossed a river, making it nearly impossible to find him. we are still sad with the outcome.

[@tsw2scotland341]

Sorry my comment was a little rude. Just seems a shame to kill a beautiful beast like him for nothing. However I'm not a hunter

[@campbellj20]

Obviously they didn't shoot it to lose it. Unfortunately this is a small part of bowhunting. I'm certain the wolves or bears did not let it go to waste.

[@TheHeartofHunting]

Agreed.

[@sagangonmei9970]

i feel sorry for that Moose, so wild humans..

[@ShaneCade]

And that's why I don't archery hunt.............

[@judgejudy7312]

It would be nice if your video was more about hunting and not driving around.

[@TheHeartofHunting]

Emily, I understand what you're saying but hunting is about strategies and with migrating caribou in terrain where you can see for miles, it's important to cover ground. Once we found some herds migrating at the end we drove way less and spent time stalking as you will see. Thanks for watching!

[@trymjohansen3340]

Im sorry it came to this end, both for you and the animal. In hunting this happens sometimes. In my country Norway, to start a hunt like this you need a licensed tracker dog with you. We train this dogs to follow a blodtrack over several days if nessesery. The result is that most animals like this are beeing found. Both to the animal and to the hunters best! It has been a suxess on ouer big game hunts in Norway! 😊

[@TheHeartofHunting]

Do you have a recommendation of dog breed for this? I think there is a new movement in the US for this.

[@olimb211]

thats why you hunt with a rifle ...

[@TheHeartofHunting]

The area we were in was archery only. Can't use firearms within 5 miles of the pipeline.

[@danielcondon3057]

Sure didn't look like you tried that hard to find that boo. I don't understand why you would even put this video out there for everyone to see with the end result being what it was. It really puts a bad light on all hunters.

[@TheHeartofHunting]

Daniel I understand what you are saying but what you don't see is where we put the camera down and just searched. It seems brief but with the rain and the sense of urgency to find it we didn't film much. That being said the ending happens in hunting. Not what a hunter wants at all but a reality.

[@Beaustein]

A bad light on hunters cause things go different? Dont think you have actually really hunted until you experience the miss. And it does happen. A lot lol. That video honestly was amazing. Nj guys.

[@Mikey83943]

@@TheHeartofHunting It comes across as your priority is leaving on time and not tracking the animal.

[@TheHeartofHunting]

I'm sorry you view it that way. We did a poor job of videoing our search as our priorities switched and we didn't video as much. I promise we spent over a day searching and several miles. Unfortunately it was raining and we lost all blood sign.

[@trevorvecchio1068]

You killed it then LOST TRACK OF IT ARE YOU KIDDING ME YOU JUST WASTED A LIFE FOR NO REASON I like hunting but when tracking I never give up I killed it so I should find it I’m disappointed don’t take the shot just to waste it

[@NeffUNGA]

Nothing gets wasted I'm the wild predators will eat that bull and on top of that with a limp like that the bull would have died in winter or been killed by wolf's. After is rains and the blood trail washes away there isnt much you can do.

[@firedupoutdoors]

Pushing a wounded animal isn't the best option.

[@Mikey83943]

​@@firedupoutdoors Pushing a wounded animal is not the same as tracking.

[@firedupoutdoors]

@@Mikey83943 I'm well aware of that. I was responding to Trevor's comment.

[@danielzencuch8294]

You need good hunting dog.

[@TheHeartofHunting]

Agreed, the more sophisticated hunting gets in the US, I hope tracking dogs become more common like Europe.