- Location
- Hay River NWT
Been waiting on the pics but last night i finally got them. We planned this trip for a year and it ended up 100% worth it. I'll try to keep this short. We left Wed. August 27 from Hay River NWT at 4 am ,drove down through alberta over to BC up through the Yukon, crashed in Watson Lake for 4 hours arrived in camp Thrusday evening, a 36 hour cruise, Set up camp on an old heli pad just inside the yukon/nwt border (nwt side) had some drinks and crash. [not before we caught our canvas tent on fire and had "eyes" coming up the road towards us (after a brief heart racing moment those "eyes" turned out to be an old reflective road sign!!!!!)]
Anyways we spent the first two days putting many miles on the quads going after dall sheep which we didn't even get a glimpse of one so on day three we focused on Mountain Caribou as they where everywheres. We took wanted to ensure meat in the freezer so we took a large cow and as we weree hooting and hollering with excitement a young bull poked his head up on a ridge across the way so he went down also. We spent the next day butchering (we brought generators, electric grinder, battery sawzall, had a real good butcher shop set up). Following day we were a bit tired so went to knock down some ptarmagins and take some pics when about 10 k from camp (almost directly infront of the ranger station) we see a large dark spot on the mountain side. i get out the spotting scope and see a real nice caribou. the other guys wanted to keep on going and i told them that if they saw what i saw through the spotting scope they would change thier minds. the scope went around and me and Ray started the 1 k + stalk of this 500 lb + mountain caribou. We finally get the the small mound we initailly saw him and he had vanished, we Ray was ahead and we started walking up this small hill and as soon as we got the the peak, there he was!!! I was behind Ray when the Caribou came trotting over the hill and down kinda straight across infront of me and Ray at about 20 yrds. Ray started barking and mooing and making some kind of noise trying to make him stop running. Then BANG his 300 mag went off and the caribou went head first into the ground, his antlers dug in the ground and he flipped 180 degrees in the air and landed, never to move again. that 10 seconds is permantly etched in my brain. there is a pic that you can see the divot he left with his antlers. we get on the radios and yelled CARIBOU DOWN and Jason and his 800 outlander came pounding through the willows and hauled it out to the trail. On the way back to camp we stumble across another good bull walking towards a cow on a hill so it was my turn to pull the trigger. We were about 150 yrds from the bull and he either didn't know or didn't care we were there cause he made a b line to that cow. After some tense moments and a couple shots from my 300 wsm (180 grain partitions handloads) we had another good bull. So much for a day of chicken hunting. Spent another day cutting meat, put 150 kms another day looking for sheep only to get stopped by an raging river before getting into the real good sheep country, another chasing a moose cow and calf through the willows on foot, only to be out smarted. Last day of hunting found us watching a huge bull for about 2 hours but of course he didn't cooperate. We came across another bull and cow and were in good position until a huge grizzly scared them off. We decided to head back to camp and return for an evening hunt, Ray and Rich took off, i was about 2 mins behind them and Ray was about 2 min behind me crusing down the trail when a big cow pops outta the willows and stares at me. I put 180 grains in her chest and down she goes only to get up and try to get up over the hill , trotting slow, quartering away, and i knew if she made that crest of that hill we were screwed (a) because there was a grizzly over there and (b) it would of been a hell of a time getting her out so i aimed a bit high in the ribs and let another go and she collasped. as soon as she hit the ground her boyfriend stood up outta the willows and gave me a perfect broad side shot at about 150 yards, then trotted up the hill turned at about 175 giving me a nice broad side shot, then continued to do this until he went over the hill at about 225 yards. knowing my friend was two mins behind and he had a moose tag made that 2 mins very hard. but that didn't last as i had a great big cow down inthe bush. it took two quads to pull her out. after butchering her i found out she took that first shot to the chest like a pro and the second entered near the last rib and i found the bullet in the neck on the opposite side under the skin, busted everything in the way. anyways for four guys who had never been up in that country before i think that four caribou and a moose can be called sucess. thanks for reading enjoy the pics
http://i91.photobucket.com/albums/k312/thegreatnorthernhunter/canoltrailjason171.jpg
http://i91.photobucket.com/albums/k312/thegreatnorthernhunter/canoltrailjason181.jpg
http://i91.photobucket.com/albums/k312/thegreatnorthernhunter/canoltrailjason195.jpg
http://i91.photobucket.com/albums/k312/thegreatnorthernhunter/canoltrailjason203.jpg
http://i91.photobucket.com/albums/k312/thegreatnorthernhunter/canoltrail043.jpg
http://i91.photobucket.com/albums/k312/thegreatnorthernhunter/canoltrail074.jpg
http://i91.photobucket.com/albums/k312/thegreatnorthernhunter/canoltrail081.jpg
http://i91.photobucket.com/albums/k312/thegreatnorthernhunter/canoltrail089.jpg
http://i91.photobucket.com/albums/k312/thegreatnorthernhunter/canoltrailjason098.jpg
http://i91.photobucket.com/albums/k312/thegreatnorthernhunter/canoltrailjason109.jpg
http://i91.photobucket.com/albums/k312/thegreatnorthernhunter/canoltrailjason127.jpg
http://i91.photobucket.com/albums/k312/thegreatnorthernhunter/canoltrailjason189.jpg
http://i91.photobucket.com/albums/k312/thegreatnorthernhunter/canoltrailjason164.jpg
Anyways we spent the first two days putting many miles on the quads going after dall sheep which we didn't even get a glimpse of one so on day three we focused on Mountain Caribou as they where everywheres. We took wanted to ensure meat in the freezer so we took a large cow and as we weree hooting and hollering with excitement a young bull poked his head up on a ridge across the way so he went down also. We spent the next day butchering (we brought generators, electric grinder, battery sawzall, had a real good butcher shop set up). Following day we were a bit tired so went to knock down some ptarmagins and take some pics when about 10 k from camp (almost directly infront of the ranger station) we see a large dark spot on the mountain side. i get out the spotting scope and see a real nice caribou. the other guys wanted to keep on going and i told them that if they saw what i saw through the spotting scope they would change thier minds. the scope went around and me and Ray started the 1 k + stalk of this 500 lb + mountain caribou. We finally get the the small mound we initailly saw him and he had vanished, we Ray was ahead and we started walking up this small hill and as soon as we got the the peak, there he was!!! I was behind Ray when the Caribou came trotting over the hill and down kinda straight across infront of me and Ray at about 20 yrds. Ray started barking and mooing and making some kind of noise trying to make him stop running. Then BANG his 300 mag went off and the caribou went head first into the ground, his antlers dug in the ground and he flipped 180 degrees in the air and landed, never to move again. that 10 seconds is permantly etched in my brain. there is a pic that you can see the divot he left with his antlers. we get on the radios and yelled CARIBOU DOWN and Jason and his 800 outlander came pounding through the willows and hauled it out to the trail. On the way back to camp we stumble across another good bull walking towards a cow on a hill so it was my turn to pull the trigger. We were about 150 yrds from the bull and he either didn't know or didn't care we were there cause he made a b line to that cow. After some tense moments and a couple shots from my 300 wsm (180 grain partitions handloads) we had another good bull. So much for a day of chicken hunting. Spent another day cutting meat, put 150 kms another day looking for sheep only to get stopped by an raging river before getting into the real good sheep country, another chasing a moose cow and calf through the willows on foot, only to be out smarted. Last day of hunting found us watching a huge bull for about 2 hours but of course he didn't cooperate. We came across another bull and cow and were in good position until a huge grizzly scared them off. We decided to head back to camp and return for an evening hunt, Ray and Rich took off, i was about 2 mins behind them and Ray was about 2 min behind me crusing down the trail when a big cow pops outta the willows and stares at me. I put 180 grains in her chest and down she goes only to get up and try to get up over the hill , trotting slow, quartering away, and i knew if she made that crest of that hill we were screwed (a) because there was a grizzly over there and (b) it would of been a hell of a time getting her out so i aimed a bit high in the ribs and let another go and she collasped. as soon as she hit the ground her boyfriend stood up outta the willows and gave me a perfect broad side shot at about 150 yards, then trotted up the hill turned at about 175 giving me a nice broad side shot, then continued to do this until he went over the hill at about 225 yards. knowing my friend was two mins behind and he had a moose tag made that 2 mins very hard. but that didn't last as i had a great big cow down inthe bush. it took two quads to pull her out. after butchering her i found out she took that first shot to the chest like a pro and the second entered near the last rib and i found the bullet in the neck on the opposite side under the skin, busted everything in the way. anyways for four guys who had never been up in that country before i think that four caribou and a moose can be called sucess. thanks for reading enjoy the pics
http://i91.photobucket.com/albums/k312/thegreatnorthernhunter/canoltrailjason171.jpg
http://i91.photobucket.com/albums/k312/thegreatnorthernhunter/canoltrailjason181.jpg
http://i91.photobucket.com/albums/k312/thegreatnorthernhunter/canoltrailjason195.jpg
http://i91.photobucket.com/albums/k312/thegreatnorthernhunter/canoltrailjason203.jpg
http://i91.photobucket.com/albums/k312/thegreatnorthernhunter/canoltrail043.jpg
http://i91.photobucket.com/albums/k312/thegreatnorthernhunter/canoltrail074.jpg
http://i91.photobucket.com/albums/k312/thegreatnorthernhunter/canoltrail081.jpg
http://i91.photobucket.com/albums/k312/thegreatnorthernhunter/canoltrail089.jpg
http://i91.photobucket.com/albums/k312/thegreatnorthernhunter/canoltrailjason098.jpg
http://i91.photobucket.com/albums/k312/thegreatnorthernhunter/canoltrailjason109.jpg
http://i91.photobucket.com/albums/k312/thegreatnorthernhunter/canoltrailjason127.jpg
http://i91.photobucket.com/albums/k312/thegreatnorthernhunter/canoltrailjason189.jpg
http://i91.photobucket.com/albums/k312/thegreatnorthernhunter/canoltrailjason164.jpg
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