How Jim got a toothless caribou - AFTERWORD
Thanks to all that took time to read this story . It helped ease the pain in my two typing fingers to hear from you .
I dont know why some saw only the red X in a box instead of the pix as they all come up on my screen fine . If anyone wants all the pix I can email them . My email addy is in my bio , drop me a line and they are yours .
I used the same 7STW that Scott did . We had taken a Ultimate muzzleloader and the Chris Matthews prepared 7 STW and the plan was to take a caribou with each . Coming down to the wire like we did I used the 7 mm .
In all fairness I want to point out that the arrangements for travel and hotel rooms and food at the camp and so on were all more than adequate . The trouble lay with this particular camp boss . The same outfitter had several other camps going at the same time on the Ungava peninsula and comparing notes with them it was apparent that they had not had the problems we did .
I think if the outfitter replaces that guide and adds a man or two to the staff the problem would be solved .
Every year and every hunt is different and we were laboring under the tough ccircumstances of having come in a year that had seen winter run long , spring very late summer almost nonexistent causing there to be insufficient food for the bou . Still scattered late in the year when they would have ordinarily been on the migration trail they wer e underweight and still in velvet . My bull was indeed near toothless and probably in his last year . His hinds and tenderloins were half the weight they would be on a normal year , well , if he had teeth that is .
Most caribou outfitters say they will move you if the bou are not in your area . This is usually accomplished by tundra tired or float equipped vstol type aircraft . In those cases the camps are more primitive than the camps where they move you to the bou by boat each day . Moving by boat is only possible in a certain window of weather conditions and even then the guides need to be experienced . That window of weather conditions also applies to light planes as well , so it becomes a coin toss in some ways as to choice .
Please feel free to contact me with any questions you might have . I might even be able to answer some of them . Good hunting !
Jim Brown
I would have most likely "borrowed" a boat and enough fuel to turn that hunt into a do-it-yourself. You're a better man than I, maybe you should teach anger management somewhere. I'm glad everything turned out for the best in the end.
