# Marmot.....tough little buggers!



## AK Rick (Jan 11, 2013)

Took Ellen(Rabbit) and my son Gunther Marmot hunting for my birthday yesterday. New target for the slingshot for me, Ellen nailed this one in the head a few seconds after the pic but it just ran off!


----------



## AK Rick (Jan 11, 2013)

Rabbit had taken a longshot and her draw length is not nearly as long as mine so when this one invided me to take a second shot from about 10 feet I zapped him.......with the same result! He jumped and dove for his burrow!!! I have sent 3/8 shot threw a steel can and taken many rabbits with my rig! I guess Marmot is just a bit too tough!


----------



## flippinout (Jul 16, 2010)

Those whistle pigs are like the grey squirrel of the mountain tops, they take a lot of lead for killin'!

They are fine table fare when you do bag one though


----------



## AK Rick (Jan 11, 2013)

Good to eat and very warm fur.......harvested hundreds of the little buggers with bow and rifle over the years.


----------



## ash (Apr 23, 2013)

Are they some kind of rodent?

They look massive and indeed warm. Great landscape you have there.


----------



## Charles (Aug 26, 2010)

I would opt for heavier lead ammo ... those beasties do sound tough!

Cheers ...... Charles


----------



## SonoftheRepublic (Jul 3, 2011)

Thanks for the pictures. Some beautifully rugged country you live in.


----------



## Vetryan15 (Feb 7, 2013)

So freaking jealous that u live up there. I can't get enough of your pics


----------



## ceedub (Apr 22, 2013)

We call em rock chucks in my neck of the country. Not too tough around here but im guessing a head shot would be the only way with a ss. Most guys I know use a small caliber rifle at very long range with them. They explode nicely when a 22-250 rips through them even at 500 yards.


----------



## AK Rick (Jan 11, 2013)

Thanks all! Ash they are indeed a rodent and a BIG one! These are actually young and on the small side, that explains why they let us get so close. In a few weeks they will have more of an education and be MUCFH harder to sneak up on.

Ceedub .17hmr with a head shot......that pelt is too warm to waste and "whistle pig" is probably my favorite small game critter to invite by the house for lunch.

Charles I am gonna stop and get some .44cal round lead next run through town and shorten my bands a bit. They are great fun with a bow as well though, so I can always go that route.


----------



## AK Rick (Jan 11, 2013)

You guys seem to enjoy the pics so......the best hunting pards a guy could ask for. My son Gunther and my wife's cousin Ellen from Germany, I call her "Rabbit", only vegan huntress I have ever met!


----------



## AK Rick (Jan 11, 2013)

Marmot paradise!!!!!








Note this is the way to the hanging valley the waterfall pic was taken in,


----------



## AK Rick (Jan 11, 2013)

Saw a LOT of this.....Gunther sitting there "encouraging" me up a STEEP slope while he took in the view!


----------



## AK Rick (Jan 11, 2013)

How about Glaciers? Ya'll like glaciers?

Amazing how much this one receded since our last visit two years ago!!!!(No worries I could care less about drifting off topic a bit.)


----------



## AK Rick (Jan 11, 2013)

Not much too hunt on Glaciers though....


----------



## AK Rick (Jan 11, 2013)

OK one more from the Marmot hunt. Pics don't show scale at all! My boy is napping about 2-3 feet from a several hundred foot drop!!! Whats left of my hair stood on end when I saw where he decided to take his break!

Generally the kids climb ahead and wait for the old man. Its works, but occasionally they get closer to a edge than I would like!


----------



## AK Rick (Jan 11, 2013)

Side note.....how come kids can sleep ANYWHERE but I can't even knock my tiered old ass out with a double dose sleeping pills in my feather bed?????

I used to sleep like that.


----------



## ash (Apr 23, 2013)

A vegan huntress... I'm going to keep that one on file. :lol:


----------



## AK Rick (Jan 11, 2013)

I am still tryin to figure it out too Ash! She had about two bites of the fish she harvested and then just watched us eat.....with a proud smile on her face! FIRST thing she did was grab a bow, then a slingshot. I honestly don't think she has gone a day without practicing one, the other or both.


----------



## Vetryan15 (Feb 7, 2013)

Those pics r abousultey amazing. Thanks for sharing


----------



## Charles (Aug 26, 2010)

Looks like seriously brutal country!

Cheers ..... Charles


----------



## scottsaywhat (Mar 31, 2013)

THAT SURE IS SOME PRETTY SCENERY!. THANKS FOR THE POST. I REALLY ONLY SHOOT CANS BUT I AM ALWAYS WONDERING WHAT IT WOULD TAKE FOR KILLS. THIS IS GOOD TO KNOW!


----------



## AK Rick (Jan 11, 2013)

It can be tough on the knees Charles....but alpine hunting keeps me young.

Thanks again all!


----------



## AK Rick (Jan 11, 2013)

Took it a bit easier today.....momma is not an alpine soul! Not one marmot spotted but I shortened the bands and switched to 44 cal lead. My hunting rig hits HARD now!

Beautiful if not very productive day!


----------



## Vetryan15 (Feb 7, 2013)

I have to get up there one day, those breath taking views, r the reason I want to move there


----------



## AK Rick (Jan 11, 2013)

Yep thats one of many attractions for many......

Before taking the leap better ask yourself....can I handle 232 days between first and last snow fall. At least 2 months of the sun barely peaking above the horizon for an hour, in most areas much darker. Above the arctic circle you wont see the sun at all for 3 months. Folks get a little weird towards the end of February! More than a few drive there sled off a cliff or wonder out into a blizzard naked, very stable folks can get a bit off. Light all the time is as bad or worse.

Temps down to -65 and gale force winds are rather common. Some areas are under 10-20 feet of snow others get almost none at all. I have left for an August sheep hunt in blue bird clear skies only to find a full on blizzard at tree line that ripped my tent to shreds! Hiked out shirtless in full sun and 40 only to damn near freeze to death in my tent when the sun went down and temps dropped to -25 with a 75 mile an hour wind rippin in off the Beaufort in APRIL! Summer time parts of interior Alaska fry in 90 degree temps, coastal Alaskans can go weeks without a break in cloud cover.

Add brutal terrain. Isolation from everyone you have ever known, I have always been a lone wolf and thought I would be pleased as punch to never see all those folks again.....holy shit was I wrong!!! Bugs like no where else I have ever been, the sear scale of the place and over 90% of "new Alaskans" are gone within 5 years.

This is the only place I can imagine living, but we have very few long term friends, work like dogs every summer to get ready for winter and face challenges that would break most folks regularly. I thrive here but as grandma Ruth once said of my attitude towards life "Some like to march to there own drum, god bless him Rick picked the Bassoon!"


----------



## Vetryan15 (Feb 7, 2013)

AK Rick said:


> Yep thats one of many attractions for many......
> 
> Before taking the leap better ask yourself....can I handle 232 days between first and last snow fall. At least 2 months of the sun barely peaking above the horizon for an hour, in most areas much darker. Above the arctic circle you wont see the sun at all for 3 months. Folks get a little weird towards the end of February! More than a few drive there sled off a cliff or wonder out into a blizzard naked, very stable folks can get a bit off. Light all the time is as bad or worse.
> 
> ...


I do know all of the variables. And that is y I wanted to move there. I have been in -40degree weather with 4-5ft of snow. One day I will b up there for sure


----------



## AK Rick (Jan 11, 2013)

Then you will most likely do well.......I'll buy ya a beer when ya get here.


----------



## reset (Apr 13, 2013)

Rick

A very realistic honest appraisal of what to expect up there.

I am still amazed my brother and his wife who are not outdoorsy types nor rugged individuals have lived there since 1973. Most thought it would be more suited to me and my style. And they will retire there with no desire to come back either they tell me.

He tells me its way too uncivilized any where but there for them lol.


----------



## Vetryan15 (Feb 7, 2013)

AK Rick said:


> Then you will most likely do well.......I'll buy ya a beer when ya get here.


Sounds good to me, thanks Rick


----------



## AK Rick (Jan 11, 2013)

Reset

There is something too that! I haven't locked my front door in over a decade, wouldn't pull that in Anchorage but here it's fairly common. And what most folks call "civilized"......well I have a different word for it!

There are a surprising number of folks who are not that into the outdoors up here! I don't get living in Alaska and eating beef when caribou are available but a subsistence lifestyle like ours is rare even here. What is not rare is helping out your neighbor no matter how much of a nut bag you think he is! This is the last place I know of that you can walk into a bar and watch a lesbian, a Priest, a city slicker and a bushrat get stinking drunk and fight like dogs all night! Then hug and say "same time tomorrow night" when the doors close. In fact every once in a while the priest and the lesbian end up sharing more than a drink!(it's a joke son! get yer panties outa a bunch! lesbians rarely bed clergymen.)


----------



## jonathanfv (Aug 29, 2012)

Wow, on that first picture, that marmot looks almost as big as a beaver! No wonder 3/8 steel wouldn't kill it! And like the others said, very nice country you live in!


----------



## AK Rick (Jan 11, 2013)

Beavers get a bit bigger but they are very close to the same size Jonathan. I moved up to .44 lead, if that dosen't give me a clean humane kill I will go back to bombing them from a distance with a rifle.


----------



## jonathanfv (Aug 29, 2012)

Back in Quebec, marmots were definitely smaller than they are in Alaska!


----------



## AK Rick (Jan 11, 2013)

We lack the bio diversity of many areas but the critters we do have tend to be BIG. Brown bears are grizzly's for example.....In the Rockies a 800 pound bear is big.....here more like 1,500 pounds. Moose tend to be a bit bigger. Stellar sea lions are about 40% bigger then there southern counter parts, even our fox and Hares are a bit bigger. I was stunned how big the first arctic hare I harvested was and I have shot more than one fox that made Michigan coyotes look little. A reindeer and a caribou are genetically the same critter but the domesticated Reindeer is a dwarf compared to his wild cousins. Big animals retain heat better so large body size can be an advantage......plus I think there are several kinds of Marmots.

The one glaring exception is the arctic fox! Its a good thing very few hares live near the Beaufort! The foxes would get there butt kicked by "dinner", arctic fox are smaller than an arctic hare! They mostly live on scraps from other predators and ptarmigan. The introduction of red fox to there territory via the oil fields has decimated arctic fox populations and it will be with pride that I fill my truck with red and cross fox pelts from the far north next year. Add the fact that the red fox of the Beaufort are our only population with rabies and I will be doing my part to improve public health as well.


----------



## jonathanfv (Aug 29, 2012)

Very nice.  I feel like making a trip to Yukon or Alaska! I've previously red about the Northern individuals of a specie being larger than their Southern counterpart, but I didn't know the scale of it. Thank you for giving me more information.


----------



## Vetryan15 (Feb 7, 2013)

AK Rick said:


> We lack the bio diversity of many areas but the critters we do have tend to be BIG. Brown bears are grizzly's for example.....In the Rockies a 800 pound bear is big.....here more like 1,500 pounds. Moose tend to be a bit bigger. Stellar sea lions are about 40% bigger then there southern counter parts, even our fox and Hares are a bit bigger. I was stunned how big the first arctic hare I harvested was and I have shot more than one fox that made Michigan coyotes look little. A reindeer and a caribou are genetically the same critter but the domesticated Reindeer is a dwarf compared to his wild cousins. Big animals retain heat better so large body size can be an advantage......plus I think there are several kinds of Marmots.
> 
> The one glaring exception is the arctic fox! Its a good thing very few hares live near the Beaufort! The foxes would get there butt kicked by "dinner", arctic fox are smaller than an arctic hare! They mostly live on scraps from other predators and ptarmigan. The introduction of red fox to there territory via the oil fields has decimated arctic fox populations and it will be with pride that I fill my truck with red and cross fox pelts from the far north next year. Add the fact that the red fox of the Beaufort are our only population with rabies and I will be doing my part to improve public health as well.


All the more reason to go up there ????????


----------



## AK Rick (Jan 11, 2013)

Anytime Jonathan.


----------

