2008 Caribou Hunt a Success!

[high desert elk]

Just got back from our caribou hunt in Quebec. My dad, brother, and myself all filled our tags. Hunting was tough, the caribou weren't moving much, we'd see maybe 15 to 20 a day. Dad ended up shooting a couple of small ones, and my brother got a decent one and a small one. I also was fortunate enough to get a decent one and a smaller one as well. Shot min with a 7mm WSM with a 140 gr Nosler AccuBond (best bullet ever in my opinion). Both 'bous fell at under 200 yards. The fishing was really good to, caught some really nice lake trout. The Ptarmingan were all over the place, but we didn't bring a shotgun with us...next time maybe.

This bull was shot around 7:30 in the morning. The caribou were bedded about 1/2 a mile away. They got up and headed right to us. This one was only about 80 yards away when I shot him. While taking care of him, another group came through, but only had cows and small bulls. With this one on the ground, I decided I could wait to see if bigger one could be found. This one was shot on monday of a hunt ending on friday.

This one was in a group further up the hill from the first bunch about a mile from where the first one was shot. They started to work down the ridge and we had to all but run to stay ahead of them. When we got ahead of them, they turned and we had to sprint to try to stay ahead of them. The next one was shot at just under 200 yards.

 

[Guy Miner]

Congratulations!!! :grin: Looks like a lot of fun. I'd like to try that someday.

 

[remingtonman_25_06]

Nice!!! Congrats!!

How was the performance of the 140g AB?? Passthroughs?? Where were the shots placed??

Nosler bullets = dead animals everytime...

 

[JD338]

high desert elk

Congratulations on your caribou.They are a lot of fun to hunt.
Did you eat fish for lunch everyday? :grin:

JD338

 

[tjen]

Thats gonna be my 270win bullet. I have a 22" barrel so which would prove better H4891sc or H4350?

Congrats on the bou's

 

[high desert elk]

tjen - I use IMR 4350 in mine (WSM) and it works great.

JD338 - we did catch some nice lake trout, but it was catch and release only by the time we went. You could keep them the first couple of days we were there, but we were hunting then :grin:

Yeah, we had a really good time. I would do it again, but next time I would drive to Montreal for Quebec/Labrador or Calgary for Barren Ground. Flying is too much of a pain, and one of my boxes of meat and our gun cases were held in Atlanta overnight because somebody forgot to load them onto the plane with everything else...the box of meat was fine (just barely), I cut it up last night - if it had been another 10 hours, I would have lost it. The meat when we got home at 11:00 pm on saturday was 50 deg. The 'lost' box was 65 deg 24 hours later...just sped up the aging process a little.

 

[Nosler4]

Nice animal! Congrats! :grin:

 

[onlybrowning]

Who did you go with? I have a cousin who owns an outfitting service in Quebec. Jack Hume Adventures.

Rob

 

[bullet]

Outstanding for sure, nice and as Guy said, it looks like a lot of fun.

 

[jdmason480]

Wow!

Way cool.

My hunting partners and I were thinking of doing a caribou hunt next year in lieu of our annual antelope/elk hunts. Do you know anything about the caribou hunting in western Canada? Any clue on how much someone should be willing to spend?

Congratulations!

 

[high desert elk]

onlybrowing - we went with Ungava Adventures. They did a great job. I have also heard nothing but good about Jack Hume as well.

jdmason480 - I don't know much about the western Canadian hunting, other than they are the barren ground subspecies and you can only shoot one animal (second tag costs more). Just do your research and keep in mind that the cheaper trip prices often have the other stuff left out such as charter prices, airline tickets to the final destination city, shipping meat back to your departure city, etc. For example, Ungava takes care of the round trip flight from Montreal to Kuujjuaq and the charter to camp and back. Granted, you pay for it in the trip price, but you don't have to worry about it. You only have to worry about getting to Montreal. They also pay to get capes, horns and meat back to Montreal (once again in the trip price, you just don't have to worry about it). They also pick you cape, horns and meat up at the airport in Montreal in a refriderated truck...you won't see it until you leave. Eveything was boxed and bagged up with your name and license number on it before you leave camp. For most any decent caribou hunt, I would expect someone to pay anywhere from $5,500 to $6,500.


Now that the caribou hunt is over, it's time to start to thump some elk. I have a muzzle loader bull tag in about two weeks, followed by a couple of late season cow hunts...to much work, not enough time left to play!

 

[JD338]

I believe that they also own their own float planes, a small but important detail. If the caribou are not at the camp you are hunting, many outfitters say they will move you. If they do not own planes, they have to rely on other outfitters to fly you elsewhere. If that outfitter is busy moving their hunters to other camps, make sure you have a fishing license.......

JD338

 

[FOTIS]

Chalk another one for the AB's

Great job man and very nice pictures.

Thank you for sharing your experience.

 

[jdmason480]

Thanks for the detailed info, hde.

It seems to me a reasonable price considering that guided bull elk in NM in a decent area would start at the same rate and go up from there. The outfitter we use in NM is interested in Caribou hunting. I'll see if I can talk him into it next year. And, a recommendation like yours for Ungava is priceless. Who wants to be in completely unfamiliar territory with an unknown outfitter that may be good or bad?

Where are your late season elk hunts? I'm going to Utah in November for doe antelope and to Vermejo Park, NM for cow elk in December. Will probably take a young bull bison at Vermejo as well though that is not "hunting" per se.

 

[high desert elk]

I have a private land only cow tag in Colorado that ends December 31. I also have a Utah cow tag for December as well.

 

[SakoSteve270wsm]

I bet that hunt was a blast ! Congrats !