As the title says, who here has done a DIY caribou hunt in Alaska? A buddy and I are trying to make this trip in the fall of 2028, and after looking around and seeing how fast flights and such get booked up, we want to get planning as far in advance as possible. While we are not looking to do a guided hunt, we have been looking into outfitters that offer DIY services such as flying you in and renting equipment if necessary. If anyone has done this in the past, do you have any recommendations as far as outfitters to go with?
We've also looked at just hiring a bush plane to fly us out somewhere, but it appears to be extremely difficult to get on a flying list if you don't already know someone or aren't a repeat customer.
We considered doing a hunt off the haul road as well, and haven't completely ruled it out, but would prefer more of a backcountry type of adventure.

I would appreciate any help or advice that is out there, and am excited to continue planning for this trip! With caribou populations on the decline, we want to try and get this hunt in at least once before things potentially change.

I had the same problem I raised my brace ht. a little and they straightened right out .

Awesome advice from everyone I have notice in my bare shaft tunning somwthings that cause me nock high is like stated before is point weight than theres hand placment on the bow how tight the arrow nock fit on the string and string torque. 

I mix the Unibond by volume at 5 or 4 to 1.  I also never weighed out Urac.  I am going to try EA-40 this year however.  It will have the same issues as Urac when it comes to shelf life. 

Im always in. I was wondering when interest would spark up

Nock height is a very sensitive adjustment. Doing it in 1/8 inch increments is difficult because the increments are too large. Moving the nock point by 1/16 inch at a time is much better. Look at the serving wraps on your string -- move your nock point one or two wraps at a time and you will find a height that will  eliminate nock high.

I will be there as well. I look forward to meeting you.

I hope so! I wasn't quite confident enough in my abilities the past two years to feel like I could adequately partake compared to everyone else's masterpieces but I'm finally at a point where I feel my bows are worthy of one of the other fine bowyers around here.

I have used edge grain sassafras as core light  weight not total in the core maybe one out of three lams. And it smells nice when you grind it.

The more I do this the more I think we waste a lot of time bare shafting. I think it can get you close, but the real test is an arrow tipped with a broadhead.

I've gotten perfect bareshaft flight and then awkward broadhead flight on certain setups and visa versa. There's just too many variables and too many archers with poor releases including myself to get a perfect bare shaft every time.  I would say as long as you're not getting an extreme kick right or left or up or down then you're probably a lot closer then you think. 

Another thing with bareshafting is any cant in the bow will give you some wild results down range.

Personally I like a little nock high and a little nock left.