Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Canada Quebec Caribou Hunting

I've wanted to hunt Caribou in Quebec for many years. So last winter I was at the Grand Slam Club/Ovis convention in Las Vegas and stopped by the booth of Louis Tardif of Leaf River Lodge in Quebec. I had read that Quebec was going to close non-resident caribou hunting at the end of this year so I asked Louis if that was true. When he said it was, my next question was "What openings do you have?" He said that they had openings starting the end of August for their "regular" hunts and starting September 23 for their trophy hunts. Since I had previously hunted Alaskan, Mountain and Central Canadian Barren Ground Caribou and had all of their mounts at home, I decided to go for the trophy hunt. Just before I booked this caribou hunt I also booked a Dagestan Tur hunt in Azerbaijan for the end of August. This gave me about two weeks to get home from the Tur hunt and get ready for the Caribou hunt.

I live in Montana but my Girlfriend and Sister live in the Denver area. My Sister graciously agreed to take care of my Golden retriever while I was away on both hunts. So I booked flights out of Denver for both hunts. I learned that I could bring a Caribou back home on the plane with me so I found direct flights between Denver and Montreal. Leaf River Lodge has an agreement with the Crowne Plaza motel in Montreal and that is their take off and return point. There is also have a special room rate for Leaf River hunters at the Crowne Plaza. Unfortunately Orbitz listed rooms $10 cheaper and I booked my rooms and flights with them. More on that later.

My flight from Denver arrived in Montreal at midnight the day before the hunt and there were two other hunters also on that flight. By the time we got our baggage and guns and got our Canadian firearms permits it was almost 2:00 am when we got checked into the motel. We had to meet the Leaf River people in the hotel lobby at 3:45 am, so we had a very short night.

Leaf River had two camps, one at Leaf River that accommodated 18 hunters and the other at Lac Desbergeres for 12 hunters. I guess we were randomly assigned to the camps. I was assigned to the Lac Desbergeres camp. At 3:45 all 30 of us met in the motel lobby then they sent us to a trailer that they had behind the hotel where they weighed our baggage and put us on a Greyhound type bus that took us across Montreal to another airport where they had a chartered DC-3 waiting to fly us to the take off point at Lac Pau a couple hours north of Montreal. Lac Pau is also the end of the most northern road in Quebec.

At the float plane dock in Lac Pau, Leaf River Lodge had 5 big wood boxes (like 4'x4'x8') with list of 6 hunters names on each box. We put all of our guns, gear, and food in each box with our name on it. A fork lift then put each box on a scale then took them to a waiting Otter float plane. They then had each 6 of us also get on the scale and weighed.

Loading our gear on our Otter.


The Lac Desbergeres camp is about 150 miles north of Lac Pau and is located in a narrow area between Lac D and another unnamed lake. The camp is a row of 11 16'x16 or 20' plywood cabins. The camp staff has 3 cabins. there is a kitchen cabin, a bathroom/shower cabin, and 6 cabins for two hunters each. Camp power is supplied by a diesel generator, and the kitchen has satellite wifi and phone service. Each cabin has an oil heater, two cots, two shelf units, and a desk table, and electric lights. There is another cabin by the lake for storage and a place to process the capes and hang the meat.



The Leaf River trophy hunts are normally 2 hunters per guide, but they were short one guide so this became a 3x1 hunt. Hunters that came up there with their friends were paired together with a guide, and the rest of us just drew the name of our guide from a hat. Each guide had their favorite hunting area. The camp had 14' aluminum boats on the small lake and 20' freighter canoes on the larger lake. Each was equipped with a 30hp motor.

I drew Jason as my guide as did Gary and Nimo. The first morning they turned on the generator at 6 and breakfast was ready at 6:30, then we headed to the boats at 7. Jason liked to hunt the south end of the big lake, so Gary, Nimo, and I got into one of the freighter canoes with him and headed for the other side of the lake. As we crossed the lake we discussed who would take the first shot. Gary suggested that the oldest hunter would shoot first, then the next oldest, then the youngest. We then stated our ages, and at 71, I was the oldest (and the oldest in camp!) and it turned out that Gary was the youngest.

Fifteen minutes after we pulled the canoe on shore we spotted our first group of Caribou. There were about 10 Caribou in the group with several bulls. We watched them for about 10 minutes and they walked by us at less than 100 yards. As I had already killed some good bulls, I declined a shot at these. We spent the rest of the morning crossing several miles of hills and tundra and saw groups of up to 50 or more Caribou. They all were moving East to West. There were bulls in all of the groups, with some that looked pretty good, but Jason said that most of them were moving too fast for us to catch them. We probably saw over 200 Caribou that morning.

I think that we were the first humans that these Caribou had ever seen, and they walked to within about 30 yards from us.


Nimo's knee was bothering him so he and Gary took a break by a huge boulder and Jason and I walked over the ridge another mile or so to the south. We saw a few more Caribou, but nothing that I wanted. As we headed back, Jason saw a bull with very wide antlers back where we had been earlier that morning. We hustled back to Gary and Nimo, then put a stalk on the wide bull. We got to within 100 yards of that and several other bulls, but other than his width, his antlers weren't what I was looking for so I passed on him also.

So we sat down on that hill and ate our lunches and glassed for more Caribou. A little while after lunch I walked to the back side of the hill and saw a distant brown object, but my hands had gotten cold and I couldn't steady my binoculars. The object didn't move and was too big to be a caribou, so I went back to my sitting place. A few minutes later Gary walked across the hill and hurried back saying that there were several big bulls on the next ridge. We put on our packs and headed for those caribou. As we crossed the hill I noticed that the large brown object that I had seen earlier wasn't there.

When we got closer to those bulls I saw one that I liked and I said I would take him. I laid down prone next to a boulder. Nimo set up over the boulder. My shot hit the bull that I wanted in his shoulder, but he didn't fall. The other bulls started trotting off. Two of those bulls had very white necks with the second bull having better antlers that the other. Nimo took a shot at the larger bull, but he missed. As he reloaded the larger bull ran ahead of the smaller one. Nimo then shot the second or smaller bull. After his bull dropped I put a second bullet into my bulls chest and he dropped dead. Both bulls lay dead not 50 yards apart, and on a hill only 15 minutes above our boat.



For this hunt I thought that we might have wet weather, so I brought my Stainless steel/Tupperware stocked Remington 700 in 7mm Rem mag shooting 160 grain Accubond bullets.

This was the first Caribou that I have shot that has double shovels. He has the largest antlers of any of my caribou, and the guides said that he was one of the largest of all of the bulls that they shot this year.



Since it was getting late in the afternoon, I told Jason to go ahead and cape Nimo's bull and that I would cape mine. Gary volunteered to help me. We then packed both heads and some of the meat back to the boat,

Out of the 12 hunters in our camp, 10 of us, including two bow hunters, shot our Caribou that first day.

The next day Nimo decided to stay in camp, and I went out to "help" Gary. We went to the same area as the previous day. Within the first hour after we left the boat, we saw several groups of Caribou, including one with a bull that Gary liked. Gary made a short stalk on him and his shot was good. Gary's bull also had double shovels and the right bez was split almost back to the main beam so it looks like he has a triple bez. If they score that double bez as one, Gary's bull should also make B&C.

We then packed Gary's bull back to the boat and went back and got the rest of Nimo's and my bulls.

The next day all of us that had tagged out hung out at camp reading and playing on the internet. That afternoon, Gary and I hiked a mile or so up the hill above camp. The vegetation in that area is a mix of open tundra with some coverings of spruce and tamarack. Many of the low bushes had dropped their leaves and others had turned red, and the tamarack had turned yellow. The camp cabins is the whites pot in the center of this pic.




To be continued...

Nice! I hunted Quebec 20 years ago, thoroughly enjoyed the experience!

Fantastic post. That's a monster bull!

Leaf River Caribou hunt, continued

One of the beautiful sunrises at camp.


And the rack of antlers from our week at the Lac Desgergeres camp.


We had three clear nights with some good shows of Northern Lights.


As the end of our week neared, the weather turned worse. The day that the float plane was scheduled to fly us out, we awoke to snow and rain squalls and a ceiling that was too low to fly. The next day was worse with 60 mph winds. With the satellite internet and phone service we were able to call Montreal to change our motel and flight home reservations. Because I had booked both my motel and flights with Orbitz, I could not change my reservations as they have a 48 hour cancellation policy. Once the weather cleared I was able to book directly with a motel and Canada Air for new reservations, but the delay with Orbitz cost me about $1000.

Our flights back to Montreal were then uneventful. The Leaf River chartered bus and truck brought all of our gear, antlers, meat, and capes back to the Crowne Plaza motel. They also had a taxidermist and a meat processer there for us. Our meat and capes were packed is separate waterproof plastic boxes, that we could check as excess baggage onto the airplanes for our flights home. The meat processer would cut, wrap, and freeze our meat and have it available to us by 4 am the next morning.

Because I thought that my Caribou antlers would qualify for Boone and Crockett, I didn't want to split them. One of the Leaf River guys that was helping with our meat, caps, and antlers told me that the airlines would charge me $1000 for me to check my antlers without splitting them. I asked the taxidermist that was there what he would charge to ship my antlers to my home. He said $700. So I decided to take my chances with the airlines. I donated the meat from my caribou to one of the guides.

I had fleshed and salted my Caribou cape, but it was not dry and it would be at least another week before I got back home to Montana and my taxidermist, so I gave it to the taxidermist in Montreal. He will have it tanned and will ship it to me by next July for $275.

I didn't have to check in for my flight to Denver until early afternoon the next day so I had time to cover the points on my antlers. I had brought a roll of duck tape with me and I found several cardboard boxes behind the motel. I double covered all of the points, then covered shovels, bezs, and top points with cardboard. I used up all of the duck tape that I had brought, then the hotel check-in clerk gave me a roll of clear wrapping tape. I used all of that up. I then asked the clerk if there was a Wal Mart type store near the motel. He said there was a WalMart 5 kilometers down the road, so I walked there and bought two more rolls of clear wrapping tape and two rolls of bubble wrap. My finished wrapped antlers looked HUGE!

Checking in with Canada Air was no problem once I found the right check-in counter. Canada Air charged me $25 for my first checked bag (with my bullets), $35 for my second checked bag (my rifle), and $100 for my third checked item (the antlers) plus they had a $175 handling fee on the antlers.

I went through US customs there in Montreal, and other than a long wait in a back room, everything went OK. They had brought my bag, gun, and antlers up to that room and had me fill out a USFWS wildlife importation form and they checked the serial number of my rifle with my Customs 4457 form.

When I got back to Denver, two baggage handlers hand carried my antlers and gun case up to me at baggage claim.

We saw several hundred caribou from our camp at Lac Desbergeres. When I got back to Montreal, I talked with some of the hunters from the Leaf River camp. They saw several thousand Caribou there. Its a sad shame if the Quebec government closes the caribou season there.

Outstanding report--thank you

Really Really nice Bull

Looks like a great trip.


Why are they closing the non-res hunt in Quebec?

I have heard that the caribou are on a down cycle throughout much of Canada, and that several Provinces are closing hunting to non-residents. They say the Quebec herds have dropped from a million plus animals to about 200,000. The First Nations people are saying that all of the caribou should be saved for them. Like a story I heard of one Frist Nations guy that shot 15 caribou one day just to feed his dogs.

Looks like a great hunt. The Northern Lights was a great bonus. A caribou hunt is the one hunt I wished I would have done. I never thought they would close it. I guess the only place left is AK. That's just fine in my book --I hate giving them French Canadians my money.

Great story... Hunted Quebec in the early 90’s .. Great trip.. Glad you had fine hunt...

Congrats on a fine bull !!!....hunted Quebec back in '88 when you were allowed 2 Tags times have changed

Thanks for taking us along on your trip. Congrats on an outstanding bull.

Fantastic story and even better pictures.....thanks for posting.

Since you tagged out early.....how was the fishing?

I had understood that the fishing season was closed when I was there. However when we got back to Lac Pau and joined the group that had been hunting at the Leaf River camp, one of the staff at that camp had been fly fishing for 20+ pound Atlantic Salmon. He showed me a pic on his phone of a huge hook jawed 25 pound male salmon that he had caught that week. Maybe the fishing was just closed for non-residents,