Home Forums Hunting & Shooting General Big Game Musk Ox

I've had 3-4 people ask me to make a thread about this, and I probably shouldn't veer any other thread too far off course, so here it is I guess. I don't do many guided hunts but this is a species that really doesn't have many options for an American DIY guy, and you can't rely on drawing an Alaskan tag, so I didn't mind going guided for this.

Greenland, last week. Hell of an adventure. These aren't exactly the most human weary critters out there and if you're looking for a challenge, this isn't the critter for you. If you're after adventure though, this hunt has it in spades and is in a very remote corner of the world that is more difficult to get to than it is to hunt. I did see one herd take off running from us, but for the most part they reminded me of the old west movie bison hunters.....shoot one and it would stumble around for a while, then go back to grazing with the herd. Shoot it again and it would fall after 4-5 minutes and the herd may run 20 yards after each shot, but then stop again and go back to grazing.

I am not much of a story teller, so I guess the pics and captions will have to do.....enjoy:
The first evening, just trying to get back to camp from a quick evening hunt. Intense wind and -30 C.


Here is my 10-12 year old bull, killed just in front of the polar ice cap which supposedly holds 9% of the world's drinking water and is 3 KM thick in some places. It was maybe a 25 yard shot. .300 Win and normal C&C factory loads.


Two young bulls I spotted after shooting my bull, when I was out looking for an arctic fox.


Another shot of the polar ice cap.


It looked like something out of Lord of the Rings. I kept expecting to see dwarfs and wizards come walking out of the rocks.


A very old, busted up bull that I thought about shooting, and probably should have as I could have legally taken 2 musk ox. He wasn't hurting anything and the guides said his meat was worthless, so I figured there was no harm in letting him go. They guessed him at 15-18 years old.



Lastly two pro tips:
Don't get on the Metro in Copenhagen without buying a ticket. The fine is 750 Krones. Ask me how I know.
Do go to a downtown restaurant inappropriately named "Puk". You won't regret it. Be prepared to feel under dressed there though. Think: the restaurant scene in The Cowboy Way.

Also, realize that turistfart is a thing in Denmark.

T Inman;
Good evening to you my friend, thanks so much for the thread with the wonderful photos and hunt story.

Congratulations on that fine old bull, it's a unique trophy to be sure.

Honestly I'd suspect it's about as close to stepping back 10,000 years as a human can these days. Very, very cool.

Thanks so much again, I love this sort of thing.

All the best and God bless.

Dwayne

T...
Good evening again.

My wife seems to think as I'm aging that I do too much of something that might be termed "localfart", but I'll look in to this Denmark thing to see if its similar before commenting further.

All the best again.

Dwayne

Incredible unique trip! Awesome!

I've forever been curious about the hide or more exactly wool from these beasts. Would assume it's probably the highest quality of any animal?

Very nice Ted. 👊🏻👍

Hell ya!!

Very cool and the boss of the horns make excellent knife handle scales.

Good stuff, congrats again.

No hot Copenhagen women pics?

Bad a$$, I have always wanted to go and do this.

Thanks for the pictures and story!

Congrats T!

It's a very interesting and remote hunt. That's cool that you were in the winter. Did they furnish you with seal skin clothing?

I opted for, and highly suggest, archery. I could have taken a caribou as a second animal but wanted two Muskox. I got the first with nice horns then went after the oldest I could find. Out travel was rubber boat and foot since no snow.

I always get my wife something on my hunts. This trip I got her a neck gaiter and head band ear muff made of Muskox Qiviut. It is the warmest natural fiber.

Congrads Ted been meaning to ask you if you had went. Just saw a good movie in Netflix about the early Greenland explorer,, they got left behind, and had to stay until the ice melted, dam can't think of the name. I have 2 knife handles made from Muskox crown cool stuff! Will this one get mounted?

Awesome bro....

What are you gonna do with the hide/head?

While hunting northern Quebec for Caribou we had a chance to go find a small herd after we had our Caribou. We left camp by boat with our guide and then had a hike to where he thought they might be. We did find them after a hide and seek hike. They were magnificent and after they saw us got into their attack circle with the young and weakest in the center for protection. We always kept big rocks between us and them on the advice of the guide. I don't think I could shoot one personally but have no problem with those that do. There are just certain animals I choose not to hunt. The breeze blowing through their hair was beautiful. This is a sight I got to enjoy and will never forget.
Have a great day.
Jim

What an awesome hunt buddy! That is damned cool!



I’ll second SLM.

Very cool adventures! Greenland would be awesome!

Dukxdog's first ox looks like a giant! What did he score? Those Mathews Solo Cams were excellent hunting bows in my experience. Still shoot my old Drenalin on occasion.

I got to arrow a nice muskox up on Victoria Island on a hunt with the Inuits back in late August, 2016. Awesome adventure as well! I call them pre-historic, ice-age dummies as far as 'hard to hunt" . However they survive and even prosper in about the harshest climate and the furtherest North of any of our Northern ungulates.

Thanks everyone.

I did do the seal skin thing. It looked dumb but it worked, and worked well. Better than anything I have ever used before for blocking the wind. None of the guides used it though. They just wore normal Carhartt/North Face, Patagonia gear. That tells me they rent the seal skin stuff to hunters just to have it in the pictures of their clients---to sell more hunts. It was very functional however.

As far as the hide, I left it behind. It was fairly valuable and the wool is called "qiviut" but not valuable enough for me to have it dipped and packed, then shipped to Denmark for processing through their customs, then shipped to America to have whatever made from it. I am not a mount guy so I am just having a euro mount made of the skull. I elected not to shoot a second bull simply because there was zero challenge to it, though I easily could have if I wanted to. The adventure was enough for me. If I ever go back I might take my bow as getting within bow range was not terribly difficult.

No Copenhagen Wimminz pics.....I mentioned something about knowing SLiMdong and they all screamed in fear and ran before I could get pics. It was kind of disheartening.

Congrats - that is a unique trophy. Excellent pictures as well thank you.