The arrival of the coho and anticipation of a caribou hunt

The “big” meeting with the commissioner and his two fisheries division directors is history. I’ll discuss this in more depth in a future column after I have more time to “digest” how the meeting went. Twenty-one members of the public used their three minutes to comment, criticize, and question ADF&G Cook Inlet management actions during this 2017 Coho season. None offered any compliments to the department. I’ll comment more in the future.

Coho runs have arrived in the Northern District in force. The runs really were late this year. Bag and possession limits have been liberalized and allowable fishing times extended for some drainages. The problem is that these changes have come too late for many businesses to salvage their seasons. School is already back in session, the state fair has started, the moose hunting season has begun, and the tourists have, for the most part, departed the state.

On another note, the group I’ll be hunting caribou with this fall is starting to get organized for the initial trip. Four of us hold Unit 13 drawing permits, but I would be surprised if all four limited in one trip. I’m thinking a second trip will probably happen sometime later in the season.

I’ve been a small game hunter my whole life. Sure, I’ve harvested white-tailed deer, moose, caribou, Sitka Blacktailed deer, and elk, but I’m a small game hunter at heart. A couple of years ago, I mentioned buying a PCP (precharged pneumatic) air rifle with the idea of using it for hunting hares and the occasional sitting grouse.

These air rifles can easily cost as much as a “real” gun for a quality one capable of cleanly harvesting animals and the cost of accessories can add up significantly. The good scope I bought for use on my rifle was over $100; the sling was another $35, and the high-compression manual pump was close to $300. Being an “old guy” and finding that it would take around 1500 pump strokes to create sufficient pressure in the rifle’s storage tube for normal operation (about 15 to 20 shots) led me to investigate buying an air tank to more easily recharge the rifle when the pressures dropped below normal operating levels.

After looking for used SCUBA tanks with no luck, I found a website in California that caters to air gunners, selling rifles, carbon fiber tanks and compressors. These guys use only the best quality American made tanks, gauges, and hoses designed specifically to handle the 3000 psi (pounds per square inch) pressures the various PCP air rifles use for operation.

I saved my nickels and dimes over time and ordered a tank fitted with all the bells and whistles to protect and transport the tank, and all the gauges to monitor filling the air rifle and tank air pressure levels. With shipping, that came to around $900. I also had some custom tuning and adjustments made to my rifle to quiet it down and to allow more shots per refill of air. That was another $200. This air gun business isn’t cheap!

Now that I had everything I needed to be fully operational, the next step involved finding a source that had the equipment to refill the carbon tank. I ended up in Anchorage at Dive Alaska for that service. The folks there were friendly and knew their business about filling air tanks. Of course, their primary interest is serving the underwater diving community, but they also do a lot of business filling tanks for the paint ball and air gun folks as well. They filled my tank quickly and, compared to all the other expenses I’ve mentioned, very inexpensively. For a 72 cubic-foot tank filled to about 4300 psi, they charged me $10. What a deal!

For the record, my rifle is a 25-caliber, shooting an approximately 25-grain lead pellet at around 830 to 875 feet-per-second. This is just a little short of replicating a 22 short rimfire cartridge firearm, but is quite adequate for snowshoe hares, grouse, ptarmigan, and the like. Shooting the rifle off a bench at 18-yards yielded a 24-shot group that could be covered with a dime. The usable maximum range for the hunting I’m planning to do would probably extend to about 50 yards.

And to top everything off, according to ADF&G, the snowshoe hare populations are peaking up north and should extend down into this area over the next couple of years. After the first frosts arrive, I’ll be out chasing those “wrascally wrabbits!”