Tracks
4–5 in., crescent
Wide, round, deeply concave crescents — the only big-game track that looks like two half-moons. The splayed hooves work as snowshoes and paddles, so tracks are as wide as they are long.
Hunting · Big Game · Caribou
Caribou Hunting
A tundra nomad hunted almost entirely by air charter and spotting scope — one of the last true wilderness hunts left on the continent.
Caribou are the only North American deer species where both sexes can carry antlers, and the only one that undertakes true long-distance migration — herds move hundreds of miles between summer and winter range, and the hunt lives or dies on whether that migration crosses your valley while you're in it.
Alaska sells caribou tags over the counter to nonresidents for several herds, which makes caribou one of the most accessible fly-in wilderness hunts in North America. Canada's herds are mostly accessed through licensed outfitters, especially since some barren-ground herds have seen serious declines and tighter quotas.
This is a hunt about logistics as much as animals: a bush plane drops you on the tundra with everything you need for a week or more, and the trip succeeds or fails based on weather, timing, and whether the caribou show up.
- Range
- Alaska & northern Canada
- Peak season
- Late Aug – Sept migration
- Tag access
- OTC in AK; draw/outfitter in Canada
- Live weight
- 175–400 lb
01
Where to hunt caribou
Alaska offers the most accessible DIY caribou hunting in North America; Quebec, the Northwest Territories, and Nunavut offer outfitted hunts for herds with different antler characteristics.
| Place | Why it's worth your time | How you get a tag |
|---|---|---|
| Alaska — Western Arctic & Mulchatna herds | Huge herds, over-the-counter nonresident tags, DIY fly-in access | Buy a tag online; charter a bush plane into a drop zone near migration routes |
| Alaska — Nelchina herd | Closer to the road system near Glennallen | Registration permit, drawn or over subsistence priority; check current allocation |
| Quebec — Ungava herds | Historically massive herds, now managed conservatively after declines | Access almost entirely through licensed outfitter camps |
| Northwest Territories | Barren-ground caribou in vast tundra with strict quotas | Nonresidents must book a licensed outfitter; some herds currently closed — verify status |
| Newfoundland | Woodland caribou in forested terrain, a different hunt style | Resident-priority draw; nonresidents typically book through an outfitter |
02
How to hunt caribou: the repeatable method
Caribou hunting is glassing tundra for moving animals and then either intercepting a migration or closing on scattered bulls across open ground — there is little cover, so the terrain and the timing do the work.
- 1Research herd migration timing and historical routes before booking your charter, and pick a drop zone near a known river crossing or corridor.
- 2Set up a base camp on high ground with a wide view of the surrounding tundra and glass methodically in long sweeps for moving groups.
- 3Be patient — migrations are unpredictable by day, and caribou may not appear for several days before showing up in large numbers all at once.
- 4When you spot a group, use the open terrain's low ridgelines, tundra hummocks, and river cuts to close distance, keeping the wind in your favor.
- 5Caribou are relatively unwary compared to other big game, but a spooked lead animal can turn an entire group — move slowly and stop when animals look up.
- 6Take a broadside shot inside your verified range; caribou are lightly built and go down readily on a well-placed hit behind the shoulder.
- 7Bone out the animal promptly on the open tundra, bag the meat to protect it from insects and ravens, and stage it for pickup at your charter's return.
03
Caribou tracks, droppings, and sign
Caribou sign is migratory sign — trails worn into the tundra by generations of animals, and fresh sign that means a herd came through yesterday and is now twenty miles north.
Droppings
Lichen pellets
Bell-shaped pellets with a dimple on one end, often in long scattered lines rather than piles because caribou drop them while walking. Lichen-heavy winter diets make them pale and fibrous.
Migration trails
Generational
Braided, deeply cut trails running for miles across tundra and through mountain passes, worn into the ground by decades of herd traffic. Hunting a pass with fresh tracks on an old trail is the whole game.
Shed velvet & rubs
Early fall
Bloody velvet strips hanging from willow in late August and September, and polished bark on low shrubs where bulls thrash.
Cratering
Winter feeding
Bowl-shaped pits dug through snow to reach lichen, often dozens together where a herd fed for a day.
04
Tags, licenses, and the application game
Alaska is the DIY path; Canadian provinces and territories are essentially all outfitted. Either way, book your air charter before you worry about the tag.
- 1In Alaska, buy a hunting license and the specific herd tag online — many herds (Western Arctic, Mulchatna) are sold over the counter with generous bag limits.
- 2Check herd health and quota status every year before you plan — some herds have crashed and seasons or bag limits have tightened significantly in the last decade.
- 3Book an air taxi into a drop zone near the herd's known migration corridor months in advance — good operators fill up early for peak migration weeks.
- 4For Canadian hunts, book a licensed outfitter directly; nonresident aliens cannot hunt big game unguided in most Canadian provinces and territories.
- 5Budget for the charter as a separate, often larger cost than the tag itself — round-trip bush flights commonly run $600–$1,500 per hunter depending on distance.
- 6Have a flexible return-flight plan; tundra weather grounds planes routinely, and being prepared to extend your trip by days is part of caribou hunting.
05
What the hunt is actually like
The hunt starts with a bush plane ride over country with no roads, no trees in the Arctic tundra, and no other hunters for miles — you land on a gravel bar or tundra strip and set up a wall tent or dome tent that will be home for a week or more.
Days are spent glassing from a high point, watching for the dust and movement of a moving herd, sometimes numbering in the hundreds, cresting a distant ridge. When they come, they can cross your valley in an hour and be gone.
The stalk itself is often short because caribou are less spooky than deer or sheep — the harder skill is patience, staying put through slow days of weather and empty horizons until the migration finally arrives.
Weather is a constant factor. Tundra storms bring horizontal rain and wind with little warning, and a solid camp setup and rain gear matter as much as the rifle.
The physical demand is moderate — mostly glassing and moderate hikes across spongy tundra — but the logistical and mental demand of remote self-sufficiency is real; help is a radio call and a weather delay away.
06
Gear that decides the outcome
Not a shopping list — the six or so items that change whether you fill the tag and whether the meat gets home in good condition.
Flat-shooting rifle
.270 to .300 Win Mag
Caribou are lightly built; any accurate deer-to-elk class rifle with a controlled-expansion bullet is plenty out to 300+ yards, which is common on open tundra.
Binoculars & spotting scope
Open-country glassing
Tundra has no cover to hide movement — good glass at range lets you find and evaluate bulls long before you commit to a stalk.
Four-season tent & sleeping system
Weather resilience
A freestanding, wind-rated tent and a bag rated well below freezing; Arctic weather changes fast and camp comfort determines whether you can hunt hard for a week.
Waterproof boots & rain gear
Wet tundra
Tundra is often boggy and there is nowhere to dry out. True waterproof boots and a full rain shell are non-negotiable.
Game bags & bug protection
Meat care
Breathable game bags to protect meat from insects and ravens, plus a head net and repellent — Arctic mosquitoes in August are ferocious.
Satellite communicator
Remote safety
No cell service and weather-dependent charter pickups make an inReach or satellite phone essential for coordinating your flight out.
07
How to harvest and field dress caribou
Caribou are typically taken far from anything, in weather that changes hourly. Meat care is the whole hunt.
- 1Watch the caribou after the shot instead of running to the spot. Mark the exact stance with a landmark, note the direction of travel, and listen — a crash you hear is worth more than a blood trail you guess at.
- 2Give a body-hit animal 30–45 minutes before you take up the trail, and a gut-hit animal 6–8 hours. Pushing a wounded animal is the single most common way hunters lose one.
- 3Trail with flagging tape at each blood spot so you can see the line of travel and back up to the last sign if you lose it. Bright blood with bubbles is lungs; dark blood with green flecks is paunch.
- 4Confirm the animal is dead by touching an open eye with a stick or the muzzle before you set the gun down and start handling it.
- 5Tag the animal immediately if your state requires it, and photograph it where it fell before you move anything — that photo is also your proof of legal harvest in most jurisdictions.
- 6Roll the animal onto its back or downhill on its side. Ring the anus with a knife and tie it off with a zip tie or twine so nothing spills into the body cavity.
- 7Open the belly from sternum to pelvis with the blade pointed up and two fingers riding ahead of the edge so you never nick the paunch. Cut through the skin and the abdominal wall only — not the guts.
- 8Reach up into the chest, cut the diaphragm free from the ribs on both sides, then reach forward and sever the windpipe and esophagus as high as you can.
- 9Roll the entire gut pile out downhill. Free the bladder and the tied-off bung last, then reach in and pull the heart and liver into a game bag if you want them.
- 10Get the animal skinned and quartered fast even in cool weather — caribou hide is superbly insulating and holds body heat for hours.
- 11Prop the cavity open with a stick, drain the blood, and get air moving through it. Do not wash it out with creek water unless you can dry it immediately — moisture is what sours meat, not blood.
08
How to skin and process caribou
Quarter on the tundra, hang bags on willow or spread them on cool ground away from standing water, and expect to make multiple trips.
- 1In the backcountry, skin the caribou gutless: open the hide down the spine, peel one side down at a time, and take the quarters and straps off that side before rolling the animal over.
- 2Ring the hide above each hock and around the neck, then run a shallow cut up the inside of each leg to meet the belly cut you already made. Keep the knife edge up so you cut the hide from the inside and never dull it on hair.
- 3Start the hide with the knife, then switch to fist-and-pull. Punching the hide loose from the membrane leaves far less hair on the meat and moves five times faster than cutting.
- 4Work the hide down over the shoulders, then the neck, and cut the head free at the atlas joint — the soft gap right behind the skull.
- 5Take the front shoulders off first: lift the leg, cut behind the scapula, and it comes away with no joint to break. Then the backstraps, running the knife down the spine and out along the ribs.
- 6Take the hindquarters at the ball-and-socket hip joint — cut the meat down to the joint, roll the leg outward to pop the socket, and cut the ligament. Then get the tenderloins from inside the cavity along the lower spine before they dry out.
- 7Trim the neck, rib, and flank meat for grind. Get every scrap of silverskin, hair, and bloodshot tissue off before anything goes in a bag — that is where gamey flavor lives.
- 8Bag the meat in breathable game bags, keep it out of plastic, and hang it in the shade with airflow. Aim to get it below 40°F within a few hours and let it hang 3–7 days before you cut steaks.
09
Meat care and what you take home
A bull caribou yields roughly 100–150 pounds of boneless meat — manageable for one or two hunters to fly out along with the cape and antlers.
Cool the meat immediately by boning it out and hanging bagged quarters in the wind and shade; tundra temperatures in August and September are cool but 24-hour daylight can still warm meat if it's left in the sun.
Caribou is lean, mild, and closer to venison than elk — excellent as steaks, roasts, and jerky, with little of the strong flavor associated with some other wild game.
Caribou photo gallery(8 photos · tap to zoom)
Hunting guides that apply to whitetail deer
- Rifle setup, zero, and shot placementCartridge choice, field positions, wind calls, and where the vitals actually sit.
- Shotgun and slug-gun countryGauges, chokes, slugs and straight-wall rules where rifles are not legal.
- How whitetail deer fits among North American gameBig game, small game, upland birds, and waterfowl compared by habitat and season.
- Field craft that fills a whitetail deer tagWind, scent, stand placement, tracking, and meat care after the shot.
Gear tools for a whitetail deer hunt
- Layer for long, cold sitsBuild a layering system for sitting still in weather you would normally walk through.
- Current gear dealsLive price drops on optics, packs, and layering worth buying before the season.
- Build a whitetail deer loadout piece by pieceAssemble and save a kit for this hunt in your Basecamp gear locker.
- Compound bow setup and shot processDraw length, sights and rest, broadhead tuning, and a repeatable shot sequence.
Plan the trip around the tag
- Plan your whitetail deer huntBook the rut week, map access, and plan the drive and cooler logistics before opening day.
- Calculators and checklistsBase weight, pack volume, sleep-system temperature, and packing checklists.
- Camp food for long hunt daysCalorie-dense meals you can cook at a spike camp or trailhead.
Official sources and further reading
Seasons, fees, and draw rules change every year. These are the agencies and organizations that publish the current numbers — always confirm with them before you apply or hunt.
- Alaska Department of Fish & Game — caribou
Herd-by-herd tag rules, quotas, and current population status.
- Boone and Crockett Club
Scoring categories for barren-ground, mountain, woodland, and Quebec-Labrador caribou.
- Government of Northwest Territories — hunting
Barren-ground caribou quotas and outfitter requirements for nonresidents.
- Wildlife Management Advisory Council (NWT/Yukon)
Co-management and population data for northern caribou herds.
Questions
Frequently asked
- Do I need a guide to hunt caribou in Alaska?
- No — Alaska allows nonresidents to hunt caribou unguided for most herds, which is why it's the most popular DIY fly-in hunt in the state. Canadian provinces and territories generally require a licensed outfitter for nonresident aliens.
- How do I know when the migration will happen?
- You don't, exactly. Outfitters and air taxi operators track historical timing and recent herd movement, and booking with an operator who flies that country regularly is the best way to improve your odds. Build flexibility into your trip.
- What does a DIY Alaska caribou hunt cost?
- Commonly $2,500–$5,000 all-in for a nonresident: license and tag, air charter, and gear, not counting travel to Alaska itself. It's one of the most affordable genuine wilderness hunts in North America.
- Are caribou herds declining?
- Some are. The Western Arctic herd and several Canadian barren-ground herds have seen significant population declines in the last 10–20 years, leading to tighter quotas or closures in places. Always check the current-year herd status before planning a hunt.
- How far do I need to shoot?
- Tundra offers long sightlines, and shots of 200–350 yards are common, though caribou will also walk in close during a migration. Be prepared for both a long shot and a close one.
- What's the biggest logistical risk?
- Weather-related flight delays. Build extra days into your trip on both ends, and confirm your air taxi's contingency plan before you fly out.
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Related reading
Species Finder
Search every game profile by tracks, sign, harvest, and skinning guides.
Read →Rifle setup, zero, and shot placement
Cartridge choice, field positions, wind calls, and where the vitals actually sit.
Read →Shotgun and slug-gun country
Gauges, chokes, slugs and straight-wall rules where rifles are not legal.
Read →Field craft that fills a whitetail deer tag
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Read →Plan your whitetail deer hunt
Book the rut week, map access, and plan the drive and cooler logistics before opening day.
Read →Top 10 lists
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