Longtime subscribers will remember our past reports on a little-known opportunity in Alaska to hunt wild, free-range reindeer. (See Article IDs 902, 1377 and 1919.) These hunts take place way out in the Aleutian Island Chain on Umnak Island, which is part of the Pribilof Islands. The animals there were introduced from Siberia in the early 1900s as a local food source and were not commercially hunted until 2004 through Ugludax Lodge, a luxury hunting and fishing lodge built to generate income for the small native community living there. Since our initial report in 2002, Ugludax Lodge underwent a change in management. The latest development is that Jim Shockey (888-826-1011; www.jimshockey.com) has secured the exclusive sales and marketing rights to these hunts, not just on Umnak Island but on neighboring Atka Island as well.
According to Dan Goodenow, who oversees sales and development for Shockey’s organization, they first secured the sales and marketing of the hunts on Umnak Island for the 2009 season, when eight of their hunters took reindeer scoring from 369 to 507 SCI. (The record book minimum is 264.) After the success of that first season, Shockey secured the marketing rights to these hunts on Atka Island as well, which is where he had hunted in 2008 and had taken two huge bulls. The largest scored 511 5/8 and is the current SCI World Record in the muzzle- loader category; the second bull comes in at 464 1/8 SCI.....
