DIY caribou success

dcott100 · Sep 16, 2024

2024 self-guided drop hunt. Never hunted Caribou before, what an experience. I did a write up over in the 2024 adventures forum if you're interested. Couldn't save the velvet. Does the fake velvet turn out very well on these guys? Better off to just color them up? What's a bull like this roughly score?

johnnycake · Sep 17, 2024

Congrats on an excellent bull! He scores "handsome as hell" with those tall beams nice fronts and great tops. If you dig into the instructions on how to score caribou you'll quickly see why very few people care at all about the B&C system for caribou (and moose for that matter). It really does very little justice to capturing the real size of a caribou--for example, you just count the number of tines and they each get counted as a "1" whether they are actually ¾" or 18" long.

Personally, I'm not a fan of the fake velvet, but there are several different options and your opinion could easily be different than mine on that.

CC11 · Sep 17, 2024

Sounds like a great trip! Who did you fly with if you don't mind me asking? My brother and I are doing a drop hunt next year.

goforbroke · Sep 17, 2024

I have one done with fake velvet and another with real velvet. I liked the fake velvet, until it is next to the real velvet.

goforbroke · Sep 17, 2024

Read your hunt adventure thread, thanks for sharing. Makes that trophy and moment so much better. Congrats on a great trip and memory.

Founder · Sep 17, 2024

That's cool!! Congrats

dcott100 · Sep 17, 2024

goforbroke said:
I have one done with fake velvet and another with real velvet. I liked the fake velvet, until it is next to the real velvet.

That makes sense. Do you have pictures of them you would be willing to share?

dcott100 · Sep 17, 2024

goforbroke said:
Read your hunt adventure thread, thanks for sharing. Makes that trophy and moment so much better. Congrats on a great trip and memory.

Thanks for taking a minute to read it. It's a trip I won't soon forget.

dcott100 · Sep 17, 2024

johnnycake said:
Congrats on an excellent bull! He scores "handsome as hell" with those tall beams nice fronts and great tops. If you dig into the instructions on how to score caribou you'll quickly see why very few people care at all about the B&C system for caribou (and moose for that matter). It really does very little justice to capturing the real size of a caribou--for example, you just count the number of tines and they each get counted as a "1" whether they are actually ¾" or 18" long.

Personally, I'm not a fan of the fake velvet, but there are several different options and your opinion could easily be different than mine on that.

I just read the instructions and man you're right. Very odd. I couldn't be more proud of him. Trip meant so much to me personally, getting a good bull was just icing on the cake!
I was just curious where he holds up with people who have way more experience judging them than I did. Most field judging references I could find ultimately said to take one that made you excited and gives you a good opportunity, so that's exactly what I did. Thought he had enough of everything. They definitely earned my respect for how they can cover country. I got super lucky and the group he was in slowed down to a graze long enough for me to catch up.

johnnycake · Sep 17, 2024

dcott100 said:
I just read the instructions and man you're right. Very odd. I couldn't be more proud of him. Trip meant so much to me personally, getting a good bull was just icing on the cake!
I was just curious where he holds up with people who have way more experience judging them than I did. Most field judging references I could find ultimately said to take one that made you excited and gives you a good opportunity, so that's exactly what I did. Thought he had enough of everything. They definitely earned my respect for how they can cover country. I got super lucky and the group he was in slowed down to a graze long enough for me to catch up.

One thing that is a benchmark for an "extra nice" bull is having a double shovel, which yours doesn't, but honestly, the overall look of a nice bull is hard to define you just know it when you see it. And your bull has that.

I've shot a few caribou, none even close to as nice as your bull. There's not a hunt in AK that I would pass that bull up on the first morning either.