Well, I really don't know where to begin, so the logical place it the beginning. The trip up was OK at best. Weather plagued us most of the way heading north. First rain, then snow, then both mixed with heavy winds. As we approached the Gaspe, the sun broke out and things were looking up. We checked in at the motel LeGaspesiena and had a wonderful room looking over the Gulf of St Lawrence. What we saw was "almost" unbelievable to me. Early in the morning on Sunday November 19th I thought I was looking at a group of whales, then I thought seals. I didn't have my glasses on. What it turned out to be was a group of SURFERS................. What the hell, are they nuts???





On Monday the 20th we were to fly at 10:40 AM. We woke for breakfast and looked out. It was snowing very hard and the winds were a steady 40 MPH. The snow was sideways. We booked it to the airport and checked in. The organizer said she had some bad news. The plane was delayed 1 hour. I said, "bad news?" To me that was GREAT news. Another long story short. ONE hour turned into almost 10 hours. The snow intensified as did the winds. I figured NO WAY would they fly in this. The reason for the plane delay was not weather related, but mechanical. The plane taxied out to the runway in Montreal and powered up for takeoff when they lost all power. They towed it back to the hanger and swapped to another plane. THIS next plane also had mechanical issues. FINALLY they got one into the air and reached us in Mont Joli at about 8 PM. We boarded and headed to the island. I was absolutely amazed they would fly in such conditions.

The picture of the wind sock was about noon time.





All of the reports we had heard was the the deer herd was down. Down was an understatement. Nan and I BOTH decided as long as it didn't have spots it would end up with a tag. We never got to bed the night before until around mid night and I was up at 4 AM for coffee. When the guide showed up with our placements, I was to go to one of my favorite tree stands. It is on a very well used run that is used year after year. I was only in the tree for about 45 minutes when this nice doe showed herself. Honestly, I didn't give in much thought considering what we had been told. I fired at her and it was about 70 yards. I could tell my shot was good. There was about a foot of snow on the ground and I could see blood from about 30 yards.





I learned from a member here of this German custom. I have always respected the deer I kill. I decided to do the same this year and will continue to do so.

It is a custom from Europe (Germany) Where the Jagermiester ( master hunter ) after killing an animal would honor the animal by placing an evergreen sprig in the mouth to honor the life cycle of the animal. He would also place a sprig in his hat. Putting the sprig in its mouth is giving the animal his final meal before you consume the animal. It is just a way of honoring the cycle of life.


There will be more of the story to follow, but I am at work right now and have to get back to business. Thanks for your patience.

Yes!! Can’t wait to hear the rest of the hunt!

It always interesting to hear stories about Anticosti.
Love the 99! is it a 99F? what caliber is it?

Yes it is an F in .308 Win.

Now to carry on a bit more. I apologize for the bits and pieces, but it's about the only time I have right now.

About an hour after I shot my doe, I heard a shot from across the river valley. I had no idea who shot, but a period of time went by and I heard a woman's voice calling for Francis the guide. My problem was that this was the first time we ever had a second woman in camp and hearing the voice over the radio, I did not recognize the voice as my WIFE. At any rate, several times she made the call before I picked up and asked who was calling Francis. My wife said "Steve, it's Nancy and I just shot a deer". There was blood, but no deer. I took the track and we followed but soon, I lost the blood trail. The guide showed up to relocate his hunters and I told him what had happened. He said for me to go back to my stand and he would help find the deer, He was sure it was dead. I left and he and Nan continued. Sure enough, after about another half hour or so, they found the deer. Another doe about 75 or 80 pounds. My wife was happy and that's what matters to me.

So far so good LBK!

Will check back for the rest of the story...

Day 1 ended on a GREAT note. We BOTH had our deer.

Day 2 was a hunt further into the territory more towards the north end of the island. I managed to see a deer and I missed the shot. No hair no blood. A clean miss. The guide was not happy. I was hunting alone, and they just aren't happy with a miss. They feel it's a reflection on them. He brought me further in and dropped me off. This was a tough spot because the blind is backed right up to the National Park. Hunters are not permitted in for any reason. A guide can go in for a recovery of a legally shot deer outside of the park, but he must go in without a gun.

Well, I was sitting and about 125 yards, downhill, out pops this good looking deer. I could NOT see horns, but took the shot. The deer mule kicked very high. It took one jump, hit the ground, and again, kicked out. I figured heart shot for sure. The downside was the the deer went into the park. I walked over to where the deer went in and as far as I could see, a blood trail was visible. When the guide came back I showed him what had happened. He said we would pick up the other hunters and he would return after dark with another guide and they would try to find the deer. At about 6 or 6:30 PM the waitress came into the living area and said the guides had found my buck. I was amazed to here is was a buck................................Well, a "spike" buck. I know it's not a very good picture, but under the circumstances it was the best I could do.

Always look forward to your Anticosti report LBK.


Glad you had a fun trip.

The evening of the 2nd day brought on heavy rain. As I said there was about 2 feet of snow on the ground up until that point. When we woke Thursday morning , all the snow had vanished. This was another ATV day. I was tagged out, but my wife wanted me to hunt with her so out I went. The trails were wet ans the packed snow on them quickly turned to ice. It was treacherous to say the least. If it weren't for the ATV bridge across the river it would have been a short hunt. We got to the trail head and parked the machines. It's possible some of you remember the year (2 years ago) we hunted and everything was flooded.. The place we were hunting this morning was the same meadow that was flooded so badly then. We got to where the stand was and it needed some cutting for better visibility. I got my wife set up and I sat away looking in the opposite direction. About a half hour passed and I saw my wife raise her rifle. I could not see an animal. Then she mouth bleated and the rest was history. She had shot a button buck, so now we were both tagged out and we would have a day and a half to relax. Here's a couple pictures of the meadow and her deer,

In the 1st picture almost in the center is where my wife shot from. The number 2 picture is a zoom to show the milk crate were she was sitting.

The afternoon pictures of this day will follow tomorrow while I'm at work. Thanks for your patience.

Cool beans LBK! You know I look forward to this thread every year!

Great story and pictures, thanks for putting the effort to share them.

Always a great read LBK, congrats on a successful hunt

This year we had a new girl in camp. The guides fell all over her. One asked her to stay on the island and one actually cut a ring from a copper pipe, deburred it and polished it up and THEN PROPOSED to her. She was a GREAT sport and hunter.





AND as you can see, the bucks were few and far between but they WERE there.

Nan and I spent the last day and a half just chilling out and having a great vacation. The food was second to none this year and the guides really worked hard to make sure everyone was in the best place to see a deer. The killing part, well, that was up to you.

This is a new house blind to be used in REALLY bad weather.



This is a picture of Nan holding a seal skin mat. This would be a fun place to be, just to see the effort that went into it.

Nice write up buddie! Congrads on the Venison!

Congrats. Awesome scenery. I should go there one of these years.

During our down time, I couldn't resist taking a stand in the head. It wasn't long before this little fella showed up.





Meal time is always a great time when everyone shares their experience of the day. Here;s the group from Canada that shares our time.



This is one of them. A lawyer, only you'd never guess it if he didn't tell you. He bought himself a new scope and was showing it off. I had never seen one like it. It is a Burris. Just LOOK at the size of it.

Every year, the trip comes to an end and every year I wonder what the future holds. I think I re-book time after time just to give me something to look forward to. Even with the deer numbers down we STILL have a better hunt than we ever would here at home. The scenery is spectacular and I still can't believe we hunt so close to the ocean and see deer on the beach. It will be a long year waiting for next November.

Here are a few shots of the Jupiter River on Anticosti, famous for it's Salmon fishing.

Thank you for posting the story and the great photos! I enjoy your Anticosti adventure more every year.

Thank you. I appreciate it.

Awesome LBK, thanks for keeping your tradition going !

LBK,

What rifle was Nan using ?

Doesn't feature in any of her pictures !

Up until now she used a Thompson Center Encore 7mm-08 . BUT last spring I bought her, without discussing it with her, a Ruger American compact in 7mm-08. It had a trigger similar to the Savage accu-trigger. She absolutely hated it. Somewhere somebody told me that Timney made an adjustable drop in trigger for her rifle. I bought one and installed it and now you'd be hard pressed to get her to use anything else. She didn't even bring the Encore to the island as a back-up.

Once again sir, the stories are wonderful! Thank you for sharing them.

Thank you for reading and sharing your thoughts.

Lovely,simply lovely scenery that is.

Congrats to you and your wife.

Thanks for both the time to tell and the great photos.

Thanks to everyone.

Look forward to this every fall!

Thanks.

I'll echo many others who look forward to reading this report just like I do. It is always a pleasure looking at the photographs of your adventure, and reading the write up you provide along with them. I also enjoy getting to hunt with my wife, and I am beginning to think that I get more satisfaction from seeing her do the shooting than I get from my own shots these days. Regardless, thanks for taking the time to tell your story again this year, and I am glad to hear that next year is already booked!

I can HONESTLY say that I DO enjoy her sightings and shooting WAY more than I do my own.. Every trip she learns something new. She didn't start hunting deer with me in earnest until she was 56 years old. It doesn't matter if it's cold, raining, or snowing, she's right out there gettin' after 'em.

Nice report.

How did the others do?

So far this year the hunting success rate has been down. We were a group of 8 hunters and it was the FIRST group this year that got all 16 deer. Some went zip until the last day and tagged out then. Out of 16, 7 were does.

I just got this email from my guide and the rut kicked in shortly after we left. I don't know how the group after us did as far as numbers go but here's 3 bucks that were shot during their hunt. It also looks like the snow returned.

I really enjoyed reading this, thanks for sharing.

Dale

^ this right here I seriously look forward to this thread each falll I’m envious of you guys who have hunting wives that’s awesome! What gorgeous territory there...

Thanks so much!

I know THAT feeling as well. Almost 50 years ago, I had a wife that despised my hunting with my father. She repaid me with infidelity. That was 1970. In 1972 my wife found me and the rest is history. BEST thing that ever happened.



I know THAT feeling as well. Almost 50 years ago, I had a wife that despised my hunting with my father. She repaid me with infidelity. That was 1970. In 1972 my wife found me and the rest is history. BEST thing that ever happened.

Good to hear that you had a good trip. Appears three times is the charm with the plane. At least this time the window didn't fall out into Nancy's lap. Glad she did well and likes her new rifle. I had the strong impression in Sept. that the deer herd was down but would have never guessed that it w ould be thee week of Nov. 20th before a group tagged out at Chicotte Did you sit in my favorite blind? Looking forward to 2018.

I was interested so I checked into a hunt here. At nearly $6,000 I'll pass. They sure went up since I last talked to them.

No Joe, I did not. I shot the spiker out of the blind at trail 73. I got the doe out of the tree stand that is on the right off of AP20 just before you go downhill to the ATV bridge over the Platte River. Airplanes are getting a little dicey.

For the 3rd week in Nov, 4 day hunt, American plan, it should be around $3400 Camp Jupiter could be that high but that's everything included.

That's a lot better. Thanks.

I could never understand paying $4-6K to a Frenchman (plus travel expenses) to shoot deer that have substantially smaller bodies and racks than what's in someones backyard in the states.
Now paying that amount to hunt Sask Whitetails or Alberta Mulies is another story

Great thread longbeardking!

Thank you. I'll keep it this way.

Great thread, great tradition.

That river looks beautiful, I'd love to swing a fly in there.

Anticosti would not be far for me either. A September hunt would be challenging but would be a blast to combine it with some fine salmon fishing as well.

You could do that as well. 6 day hunt instead of 4 and less money to boot.

You have class sir,
Thank you.

Some may disagree, but thank you.

LBK, thanks for the write up, always look forward to it.
I myself couldn’t take that trip because I’d rather have a Big racked buck but I can and do appreciate your reasons for doing it and my hats off to you.
I will be anxiously looking forward to your story of success next year.
👍🏼

Don't get me wrong. There is a big buck in the back of my mind all the time I'm in the woods, If I end up with a lesser deer I at least eat venison and most of my hunts turn into some situation or another that I remember forever. And I do so much enjoy that I have a wife that wants to share hunting with me. Thanks for your understanding why I do it.

I have a few bucket list hunts, that is one of them. I really appreciate the time and effort you put into this thread.

Anticosti is a unique situation, it probably costs a bit of coin for the outfitting companies to setup there not to mention supplies,weather and a limited length hunting season to contend with.

Many of the Savage rifles I own cost more that the trip. Some vehicles I have bought cost 3 or 4 times that of a trip. NONE makes me as happy as the rips my wife and I share.The license costs $380+ Canadian and is only good (in our case) for 4 days. I would be curious to know if the 6 day hunting license is the same price. The cost of living is every penny you make.. I spend my money on what makes ME happy. PERIOD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Like many, I always look forward to this thread also. There is no price on experiences and one only needs to make themselves (and the wife) happy.

I always thought hunting whitetails there would be akin to Sitka blacktail hunting on the opposite, ocean coast.

VERY similar. Except, from my experience, I see more deer on Anticosti, even with the numbers down, than I did In Oregon hunting Blacktails with my nephew.

Cool hunt I would enjoy going there someday. Glad you and your wife enjoy it. Memories are better than money in the bank as far as I am concerned.

SMART MAN. Money is absolutely worthless UNLESS you spend it.

That’s true, because you ain’t gonna be taking it into the next life that’s for sure.

I was thinking the exact same thing.

Same price for license for 6day hunt. Remember guys the prices are in Canadian dollars not US. Exchange rate is still in our favor.

That blind by 73 is my favorite followed by the one near the park sign. The blinds on swamp 7 and 10 could be good . One Sat on each once so far so no results to compare with 73. Saw only. 7 does from 73.

Nice writeup that I always look forward to reading. Sounds like a great way to spend time with your better half, and kudos for letting that Model 99 do what it is meant to do!!

Jeff

Thanks everyone for the interest in this thread. Hopefully next year will have more interesting sights to talk about.

I don't know. This is interesting to me. Nice to read about hunts that maybe don't go as planned due to weather or the like as well as those spending time with family and friends.. Heck where else on a hunting site can you see pictures of surfers in the St. Lawrence in November.

I may have missed it but what caliber are you using?

That is a .308 sir.

Way cool! Thanks for the write up. I really need to go there..