Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Canada What Do Hunting Guides Carry......

Ok,,,,,, I Posted this Question in my Alaska Forum,,,,, now I'm wondering about Canada,,,,, do Guides there carry Long-Guns like here in Alaska,,,,, what say you..... ? Lj

For the most part, when guiding for black bears and moose, I do not carry a rifle... before the Grizzly hunt ended in BC, I carried a Ruger M77 Mark II Stainless .350 Rem Mag loaded with 250 grain Partitions. When I do carry a rifle in Ontario and Saskatchewan, it is either a Ruger M77 Mark II .358 Carbine or a Ruger M77 Mark II Express .30/06.

Ok,,,,,, thanks for the reply...... Lj

I'm pretty sure most jurisdictions in Canada discourage guides from carrying a rifle unless they are also licensed to hunt the species being pursued by the client. The obvious exception that I know about is Yukon grizzly bear guides, who are required to carry a rifle when accompanying a client. But that rule is often ignored because grizzly are often hunted as a species of opportunity in the Yukon. The BC grizzly hunt was shut down, and I'm not sure what the rules are in the NWT. Very few if any guides are allowed to carry hand guns in Canada. It would scare our government too much. Wilderness handgun carry permits are theoretically possible, but are difficult to get approved.

Ok,,,,, appreciate your comments, and yea,,,,,, wouldn't want to scare those CITY folks..... Lj

There is nothing stopping us in British Columbia from carrying a firearm....as a guide.

When I did some we guiding I carried a marlin .45-70 using hand loads using. 400 grain Speer

Hopefully BarryT will chime in on this thread.

You were a Grizzly Guide in BC? Laughing!

Every guide I have known in BC carried a rifle. I always did. GD

Back in 1986, I hunted moose and caribou in Saskatchewan with a Cree guide. He carried an antique Remington auto-loader chambered for 35 Remington.

Sherwood

Yes

You are a hoot. I drove a boat once. Can I be called Captain?

Is this in the area that your buddy sold to the anti hunting group?

Do you think guiding for Grizzly is not a thing? If it is a thing, and you do not know me, you would be suggesting what? That I am lying? I have nothing to prove to some faceless drone trolling on the internet, believe what you wish. I have spent most of my life in the bush, guiding, and outfitting all while working a regular job and raising a family... now that I am retired, I am back to guiding full time again. Some folks "do" and some folks "heckle."

I'm recognizing the attitude and the verbiage, so if you are who I think you are, I will have to figure out how to put you on the CF ignore list... life is sweeter when your mute button is engaged.

You can get the hat and everything......... It will be fun.

Heavy on the "Lil..."

You got that right. Grizzly guide indeed. I’ll see more Grizzlies picking flowers for Mother’s Day this spring than you will in four lifetimes.

I highly doubt that... in five days on one river on one hunt we had 60 grizzlies "in range." That was just one outing. But I'm curious why you feel the need to enter a pissing contest? I did not suggest at any point that I am Phil Shoemaker's mentor, only that I have guided for grizzlies in BC and when I did I carried a Ruger .350 Rem Mag... what's your beef little fella?

AK375DGR;
Good morning, I hope the last Sunday in March finds you and yours well.

The local sheep guides sometimes will pack a rifle and sometimes not, depending mostly on the guide I'd say and where they're going. What I mean by that is if they are likely to pack meat in the Okanagan sun, the pack going in is pretty empty.

When they're guiding for black bears however, most of them seem to be armed, though not always as there was an incident 20 odd years back where a grizzly was stalking a black bear hunter and guide and the guide had the hunter shoot the grizzly finally. It was close apparently as it was subject to the CO's investigating it. I'm not sure if that guide now packs or not, but like as not I would.

A buddy of mine used to guide for black bears and the occasional grizzly up where hoytcanon did and in his case he used a Sako .375 H&H with a low powered Leupold variable. This was in the days when the early non-grooved Barnes X was on scene and he shot enough of them that it coppered the barrel up to the point where he said he couldn't get it to group anymore and resisted all his efforts to remedy the situation.

His boss packed a .338 Win Mag, not sure what rifle though sorry, but he said he never saw much difference in terminal performance on bears that needed a helping hand shuffling off this mortal coil.

I will say I do recall his Sako being nicer to shoot off the bench than a Ruger .338 Win Mag I had at the time, but that could be stock shape too. I'll note we both felt that way and he's a larger specimen than I am - but that doesn't take much as I'm no giant.

Having had all the black bears be good bears and run away from me until one didn't, I personally do not go into the hills on purpose without armament unless not legally allowed to such as in a National Park - but that's me.

Thanks for the interesting thread and all the best to you as we head into warmer and longer days.

Dwayne

I packed a 338 win mag a few season in bc and the Yukon. Never really packed it but had it in camp. I would take it when going to pick up moose meat with the string. That 338 got loaned out a few time to clients and they used it.

My first in in the nwt I packed a savage 99 in 300 it was pretty handy but again I didn’t use it and could have used a bigger gun when a moose my client wounded took off never to be found. My second season I took a 300wby as I had sold the 338.

Most guides I know pack either a bolt in 300 or pack 45-70 guide guns around. I prefer a bolt gun to a guide gun in case there is some clean up work that needs done.

In Newfoundland, our guide carried an axe and a bunch of tins of Vienna sausages.

Hoping to get back there.