- Location
- Next to Santa Claus. ᑯᒡᓗᒃᑐᒃ ᓄᓇᕗᑦ
As some of you know from my dealings in the EE, I live in Nunavut, a stone's throw from Old Saint Nick himself.
A couple of weeks ago, I was sitting with my hunting/shooting buddy and we were talking about getting out on a hunt again. After a short while, we settled on a muskox hunt. The muskox are only around 40 miles or so away so it wasn't such a huge ordeal to get there.
Well after lots of planning, getting tags (free for us locals
) and supplies, we were all set to go. We decided on yesterday as the day for our trip. My buddy's snowmobile was out of commission so we used both of mine and my 2 sleds. Both sleds were handmade out of wood, one is a smallish box sled that's about 6' long with a solid metal hitch, and the other is a monster 20' sled with a storage box on it and a combo metal chain/rope for towing. The 20' one probably weighs in at around the 500 lb mark. We packed up the sleds with enough supplies to last us a few days, even though we were only planning on a day trip (better safe than sorry!).
We brought 4 of my guns, a Marlin Model 60 SS 22lr (for rabbits and ptarmigan), a Savage Hoghunter w/Boyds stock in 338 win mag, a Globe Krag 6.5x54 MS (back up gun) and a FN FNAR 308.
We left at 10am, me on my Skidoo Grand Touring 1200, towing the 20" sled, and my friend was on my Polaris Edge Touring 550 with the box sled. The drive out took us a few hours, stopping a couple times along the way for breaks and to get a ptarmigan that I spotted.
After a few hours of driving, we made it to the tree line and started our search for the muskox. We spotted some fresh muskox tracks made by a herd, probably only a couple of hours earlier. We followed them for about 5 miles and then we spotted them perched on a cliff. As we got closer, they took off. I thought that for sure my chances of getting one would be shot. We ditched the sleds and took off, guns on our backs, in search of the herd again. We spotted a herd way off in the distance, including a loner that was booted from the pack. All of a sudden, my buddy looks over and sees the original herd from earlier, standing on the edge of a small cliff, only about 50 yards away.
After stopping our snowmobiles, we discussed the strategy. We decided on only taking one muskox, even though we had tags for 2. We selected the muskox that we wanted and I lined up the shot. My buddy had his rifle ready, just in case one of the other animals decided to charge us (they were after all somewhat cornered on a ledge). I took my gun, the Savage 338, lined up the shot and boom. One shot and the animal dropped. It slid down the hill, maybe about 20 feet or so, and the others took off. Thankfully they didn't charge at us and instead just ran right by us within about 10 yards (now there was a nice sight to see).
We got back on the snowmobiles, drove down to the bottom of the cliff, tied the muskox on and towed it about a mile away to an open clearing. We did this for a couple of reasons. First off, it's a lot easier to clean an animal on flat ground than a sloping hill, but also the open clearing allowed us a better view of the surroundings and potential predators that might have caught the sent of a dead animal.
After skinning and cleaning the animal, and taking a well deserved super break, we headed home where we split up the days catch.
All in all, it was an awesome day. Now I've just gotta wait for summer and the seal hunting from the boat!
A couple of weeks ago, I was sitting with my hunting/shooting buddy and we were talking about getting out on a hunt again. After a short while, we settled on a muskox hunt. The muskox are only around 40 miles or so away so it wasn't such a huge ordeal to get there.
Well after lots of planning, getting tags (free for us locals
) and supplies, we were all set to go. We decided on yesterday as the day for our trip. My buddy's snowmobile was out of commission so we used both of mine and my 2 sleds. Both sleds were handmade out of wood, one is a smallish box sled that's about 6' long with a solid metal hitch, and the other is a monster 20' sled with a storage box on it and a combo metal chain/rope for towing. The 20' one probably weighs in at around the 500 lb mark. We packed up the sleds with enough supplies to last us a few days, even though we were only planning on a day trip (better safe than sorry!).We brought 4 of my guns, a Marlin Model 60 SS 22lr (for rabbits and ptarmigan), a Savage Hoghunter w/Boyds stock in 338 win mag, a Globe Krag 6.5x54 MS (back up gun) and a FN FNAR 308.
We left at 10am, me on my Skidoo Grand Touring 1200, towing the 20" sled, and my friend was on my Polaris Edge Touring 550 with the box sled. The drive out took us a few hours, stopping a couple times along the way for breaks and to get a ptarmigan that I spotted.
After a few hours of driving, we made it to the tree line and started our search for the muskox. We spotted some fresh muskox tracks made by a herd, probably only a couple of hours earlier. We followed them for about 5 miles and then we spotted them perched on a cliff. As we got closer, they took off. I thought that for sure my chances of getting one would be shot. We ditched the sleds and took off, guns on our backs, in search of the herd again. We spotted a herd way off in the distance, including a loner that was booted from the pack. All of a sudden, my buddy looks over and sees the original herd from earlier, standing on the edge of a small cliff, only about 50 yards away.
After stopping our snowmobiles, we discussed the strategy. We decided on only taking one muskox, even though we had tags for 2. We selected the muskox that we wanted and I lined up the shot. My buddy had his rifle ready, just in case one of the other animals decided to charge us (they were after all somewhat cornered on a ledge). I took my gun, the Savage 338, lined up the shot and boom. One shot and the animal dropped. It slid down the hill, maybe about 20 feet or so, and the others took off. Thankfully they didn't charge at us and instead just ran right by us within about 10 yards (now there was a nice sight to see).
We got back on the snowmobiles, drove down to the bottom of the cliff, tied the muskox on and towed it about a mile away to an open clearing. We did this for a couple of reasons. First off, it's a lot easier to clean an animal on flat ground than a sloping hill, but also the open clearing allowed us a better view of the surroundings and potential predators that might have caught the sent of a dead animal.
After skinning and cleaning the animal, and taking a well deserved super break, we headed home where we split up the days catch.
All in all, it was an awesome day. Now I've just gotta wait for summer and the seal hunting from the boat!
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