Home Forums Hunting & Shooting General Big Game Options for a good guided caribou hunt?

I’ve read that Hunting them in Quebec is closed so what r options for a good quality hunt? Any recommendations as to where u have hunted and how was it?


Thanks Roy

The good old days for caribou hunting are over. Here are the options from East to West.
Newfoundland, Woodland variety, limited tags so prices have risen. $8 to $12K
As you noted Quebec is closed. Used to be the place especially for hunters from the East. We will not see the 1.4 million herd size again in our lifetime.
Manitoba/ Nunavik, central barren ground, limited and high risk. Herd has not been moving far enough South consistently to get into areas the outfitters hunt.
BC/Yukon/NorthWest Territories, mountain caribou, population in better shape than than most. My bank account isn't in that good a shape. Figure $16 to $20K plus flights.
Alaska, some herds in good shape some no so good. Drop hunt or haul road DIY options available. I am not up to date on guided options or price.
I hunted the AK peninsula in 1997 for only $1500 plus flights, included housing, meals and river transport.
Hunted Quebec in 2002 and 2003, could take two on a license and we saw thousands.
One of my favorite animals to hunt. Wish I could afford a trip for a Mountain caribou.

I want to follow this thread as I have been thinking about another Caribou hunt as I haven't been since two trips to Quebec w/ Jack Hume in 1998 and again 2000. Great outfitter, excellent camps, outstanding guides and even with all the walking/stalking no one lost weight, we had great meals.
It was nice to have two caribou tags to fill, I guess those were the good old days of caribou hunting.
I need another adventure carrying a rifle in new country with old friends (before we all get too old to get up the mountain).


StarchedCover

I got introduced to Caribou hunting back in 1980. Several of my friends had planned a DIY Caribou hunt on the Alaska Peninsula out of King Salmon. A week before their hunt, one of them had to cancel, and I got invited. It was a fly-in drop camp, and we each got a good bull.

I've also been a Sheep nut for many years, and in 1999 a friend of mine told me of a Dall sheep cancellation in the Mackenzie Mountains in Canada's Northwest Territories. I booked that hunt with Gana River Outfitters. Along with the sheep tag, we had the option to also buy tags for a Mountain Caribou, a Wolf, and a Wolverine. The extra tags were relatively cheap, so I bought one of each. My hunt was a backpack hunt where they flew my guide and I out of base camp in a Super Cub to a landing spot, and we backpacked from there. I got a great ram the first day of hunting, and the next day as we hiked back to the drop point, we came across a Wolverine, and I filled that tag. The next day we flew out to another area where the week before my guide had seen quite a few caribou and several wolves. When we got there most of the caribou and the wolves had moved on. We saw one good bull that I passed on then one great bull that outsmarted us, then a couple of days of nothing. About the fourth morning we were having breakfast, and the bull that I had passed on earlier walked by camp and I didn't pass again and got my Mountain Caribou. He hadn't started rubbing the velvet off his antlers, and my taxidermist was able to preserve it on the mount.

In 2004 I booked a combination Caribou and Muskox hunt in the northern part of the Northwest Territories, east of Inuvik, where the Mackenzie river flows into the Arctic Ocean. That hunt was with Bekere Lake Outfitters, and we were allowed two Caribou each. There were four hunters in camp, and we each got two bulls. These are the Central Canadian Barren Ground Caribou, and one of my Caribou bulls and my Muskox bull both qualified for the Boone & Crockett record book.

Several of my friends had hunted the Quebec-Labrador Caribou in Quebec back when they could each shoot two bulls, and I had wanted to hunt there for many years. Then in January of 2017 I was at the Sportsman's Expo show in Denver and Louis Tardif of Leaf River Outfitters had a booth there. I had heard that Quebec was going to close Caribou hunting to non-residents, and Louis verified that but said they had a couple of openings for that fall, so I booked one. Leaf River Outfitters had two camps, one on Leaf River and the other at Lac Desbergeres. They sent me to their Lac Desbergeres camp which was great with electricity and heated cabins for the hunters, staff, laundry and bathroom, and cooking and eating. The camp was located between two lakes where they had aluminum boats and freighter canoes with outboard motors. The camp was short one guide, so they paired 3 hunters with each guide.
As we crossed the lake the first morning, we were deciding who would get first shot, and one on the other hunters suggested that we go oldest hunter first. That was fine with me as I was the oldest person in camp. We started seeing Caribou soon after we left the canoe, and I passed on several bulls. We were almost constantly seeing Caribou, and early in the afternoon we spotted several bulls including one that I liked. I shot my bull out of that bunch as did one of the other hunters in our threesome. My bull turned out to be the largest of all of the Caribou that I have shot. He has double shovels and 38 score able points. He not only qualified for the B&C record book, but he was one of the largest Quebec-Labrador submitted in the last three years and he was invited to the 30th B&C Awards ceremony that will be held in Springfield, MO in August. He, along with all of the other top B&C Trophies for this period will be on display at the Bass Pro World Wildlife Museum from May to August. Yes, I'm very proud of him. Oh, and the day after I shot my Caribou, the third hunter of our threesome shot his Caribou, which also qualified for the B&C record book.

So this past January at the Sportsman's Expo in Denver, I found a Newfoundland Outfitter that offers Woodland Caribou hunts, so I booked a hunt with him, and in September I will be in Newfoundland hunting Woodland Caribou and Eastern Canadian Moose.

Look at Ceaser Lake Outfitters in the Yukon. They have great caribou hunts, and are first class people. I've been guiding for them since the early 90s. Pay attention to their late skidoo/argo hunts. Good luck

Newfoundland, West Woods Outfitters. Combine a Moose/Caribou hunt. I've hunted from there and highly recommend them. Google them, fun!

R J

This is NOT a recommendation just a personal wish. I don't know if it's open to Non Res but I'd

LOVE to hunt Caribou with our own "Caribou", aka Chip, Ed Hailstone above the A C.
I think it'd be a blast.

Jerry

You want to roll up behind swimming 'Bou in a boat and pop them in the back of the head with a .22? Because that's how they do it.

You know better than that OR

you should.


Jerry

ps:

ONLY Alaskan native, 'eskimo' or 'inuit' are allowed to do that.

CHIP isn't allowed to do that.

Mike, a follow up.

Chip was driving the boat while his WIFE and/or DAUGHTERS shot the swimming 'bou'.


ALSO there have been many episodes where they were on snowmobiles and hunted and killed caribou ON LAND.

Jerry

You don’t have to be a native to shoot caribou like that. I know white guys who’ve done it, perfectly legal. Chip even had pics years back of him killing swimming caribou with a bayonet on a stick.

Nonresidents can hunt that area as well as many others up there. Anybody who wants to go probably should because last I heard the herds were in decline up in the brooks and western AK, probably not anytime really soon but there may come a time when it gets shut down for nonresident hunting.

Thnx Kid

I do remember Chip using a "spear" so to speak. IIRC that was BEFORE he got his legal trouble straightened out.
He was also limited to using 'black powder' for a while there.

ATST (at the same time) I ?thot? he said only 'native' Alaskans were allowed to do that **** or on some other subject ***?

I'm JUST going from watching TV (?), you know what that's worth.>>>> grin

Thanks for your input, having BTDT.


I STILL intend to pm you and have a friendly discussion. Just haven't gotten around TUIT.


Jerry

You should go up and do a caribou or black bear hunt Jerry. Beautiful country in the fall. I took my dad and uncle’s to the north slope one year when I was up there, we still talk about that trip at least once a week.

Sounds Great.

What would Chip have said that only Native Alaskans could legally shoot/Kill ?

Jerry

Marine mammals since 1973. Seals, sea lions, sea otters, walrus, whales, and polar bears are off limits to anyone but natives. A buddy with a native wife was told that if she wanted to shoot seal off their boat it would be best for him to video the whole event to have proof that he didn’t shoot, skin, or butcher it for her. I don’t know if it’s absolutely necessary to go that far but that’s what a trooper told him would be a foolproof method of staying out of trouble.

Okay, that makes sense. I've recorded and watched shows like that and Mtn. Men, Wild West Guns, etc. many times and I've seen
them shooting seals at least.

That's where I 'thot' Chip said only the Natives could shoot swimming Caribou.


Thank You

Jerry

Kid :

I have a personal friendship with a ‘former’ resident of the Yukon. We began exchanging
PMs then moved it to Email.

He knows several residents of the Yukon personally and we’ve had pleasant discussions per
those type of TV shows and personalities.

In my “younger” days I would have (would’ve. * not would of*) loved to live in
Alaska, the Yukon, etc. Alas, “maturity” has caught up to me !!!!!

Now I can only Dream, “Dream On” >>>> smile.

Jerry