What ever happened to reasonably priced caribou hunts??

jimmyjazz

jimmyjazz

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I remember only 10 years ago being able to find Caribou hunts in Quebec for $2500 if you drove from Ottawa.
Now the cheapest I can find is over $5000.....am I missing something??

Called a few outfitters yesterday, still openings availble for this August and September at close to $7000.. :eek:
 
I have a feeling they will cut down on the caribou seasons pretty soon... I personnally hate how outfitters get to have so much land to hunt on and us quebecers who don't necessarly want to go with an outfitter (for $$$ reasons) have only one zone available. Caribou is now a rich man's game and SEPAQ here in quebec is laughing at us while they're making tons of money with our ressources.
 
Outfitters want to earn a decent living and have a pretty small window to do it. When the demand is high, their prices rise to what the market will bear, when things are slow, they cut prices just to stay in business and hopefully break even. Their overhead isn't getting any cheaper, nor are many of their clients interested in fewer amenities, so prices do increase over time. If you've got say half a million bucks tied up in out camps and cabins, boats and motors, maybe an airplane, along with staff who must be paid and begin work well before the first paying client arrives, to say nothing of the cost of running a full service restaurant well away from any services, how much of a return would you want on that money?
 
Boomer said:
Outfitters want to earn a decent living and have a pretty small window to do it. When the demand is high, their prices rise to what the market will bear, when things are slow, they cut prices just to stay in business and hopefully break even. Their overhead isn't getting any cheaper, nor are many of their clients interested in fewer amenities, so prices do increase over time. If you've got say half a million bucks tied up in out camps and cabins, boats and motors, maybe an airplane, along with staff who must be paid and begin work well before the first paying client arrives, to say nothing of the cost of running a full service restaurant well away from any services, how much of a return would you want on that money?
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This. A shrinking resource isn't helping either.
 
Labrador no longer has a non-resident season, making Quebec the only option for the George River herd. Outfitters in Quebec know that they are the only option. Supply and demand brother.
 
All good points..... I guess i'll be hunting elsewhere this fall, not going to pay those prices for a caribou.
 
I am an Ontario Resident and ther eis no Caribou season here at all, although I have heard not sure how true it is that we have close to 500,000 caribou in Ontario there is no season???

Quebec requires and outfitter
 
jimmyjazz said:
I am an Ontario Resident and ther eis no Caribou season here at all, although I have heard not sure how true it is that we have close to 500,000 caribou in Ontario there is no season???

Quebec requires and outfitter
Click to expand...

Woodland Caribou Are protected in Ontario, Im not sure exactly how many there are, the only figure I found was approx. 20000 .
 
jimmyjazz said:
I am an Ontario Resident and ther eis no Caribou season here at all, although I have heard not sure how true it is that we have close to 500,000 caribou in Ontario there is no season??? Quebec requires and outfitter
Click to expand...

If you have 500,000 caribou in Ontario, they're hiding really, really well. :D
 
caribou declines due to poor management and too much hunting pressure (resident until last year was able to bring 8 per year) but not only. as caribou is declining everywhere except one herd : the pocurpine but i dont know how much it will cost as a non resident ...

so today only 2 caribous for whole the season for everybody and a shrinked season and still a lot of people that want to hunt = more money plus the fuel increase because you still a flight after being at the base ...

last year i guided we had to flight 2h30 farthest camp but we had to do fly out more 1h ....and it wasn t include in the base price ... but if hunters wanted caribou that was the only way.

you can still try to be on a camp with only a camp helper but i guided there and i will never do that : trust me. those camps are mostly not the farthest and caribou are moving : one day here the other there ....

all the best.

Phil
 
CV32 said:
If you have 500,000 caribou in Ontario, they're hiding really, really well. :D
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BWAHAHAHA - Ontario does have a lot of inaccessible areas in the north except by plane.

I don't know numbers and have never checked, I do know I was moose hunting about 8 years ago north of Kap and saw more Caribou than Moose, it was kind cool to see them.
 
jimmyjazz said:
I am an Ontario Resident and ther eis no Caribou season here at all, although I have heard not sure how true it is that we have close to 500,000 caribou in Ontario there is no season???

Quebec requires and outfitter
Click to expand...

500000, no.

MNR says 5000 forest dwelling caribou, 15000 tundra dwelling...

No resident season, but first nations still hunt them.

Caribou hunts in nfld are running $10k-$15k for one animal.
 
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Boomer said:
Outfitters want to earn a decent living and have a pretty small window to do it. When the demand is high, their prices rise to what the market will bear, when things are slow, they cut prices just to stay in business and hopefully break even. Their overhead isn't getting any cheaper, nor are many of their clients interested in fewer amenities, so prices do increase over time. If you've got say half a million bucks tied up in out camps and cabins, boats and motors, maybe an airplane, along with staff who must be paid and begin work well before the first paying client arrives, to say nothing of the cost of running a full service restaurant well away from any services, how much of a return would you want on that money?
Click to expand...

My friend's son is a guide from an outfitter. This year, the business went slow. They still have some goat tags left. You know what they do? They let those guides use them. So the guides are guiding each other. I don't think they can break even this year.
 
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