I just got home this afternoon from a two week adventure to the NWT for a Mountain Caribou hunt with Redstone Trophy Hunts. It started out real bad as the deal was I was to go into camp and hunt the first week and then stay for the second week to cape animals and help guide for the next group of hunters. We drove to Wrigley where the float plane was supposed to pick us up. We got there when we were supposed to and went to sleep at the dock in the truck. About three hours later I awoke to some banging going on and somebody hitting my truck and when I sat up out of the back seat, there were head lights shining on the truck and another one beside and the locals were there in the middle of the night with their kids setting off fireworks and doing what ever else. For those of you that don't know Wrigley, it is an indian reserve. So after they left ,we packed up and drove way out of town and hid the truck out of sight and went back to sleep. We awoke in the morning to rain and snow. There is no cell service in Wrigley so the only phone to use is at the band office. So we drove into town and phoned the plane company in Norman Wells to find out we weren't going in that day. Long story short, this happened three days in a row so we missed the first three days of a five day hunt. Finally we got into camp right at dark and got up early the next morning to a foot of snow down low and two feet up high. We got on the horses and put in a long day of riding and not seeing one caribou. Day two or what was our last day we woke up to snow coming down and it was at this point I could have just thrown in the towel but I made my way through the corrals and slop and got on the horse and rode out. Before I rode out I asked the outfitter if we could still hunt the second week and they said we could but there were 8 more hunters coming in and it may get tight for horses and they didn't want to wear them out as the horses got a day of rest in between each outing. So there was a chance we could hunt but maybe not. So we got on the horses in the snow and left camp. We rode probably an hour and a half and still hadn't seen anything. We just made a river crossing and were going through some small timber when I looked over and seen something out of the ordinary. I stopped the horse, backed him up a little and watched at about 600yards a very faint figure of something. I continued to watch to see if it moved and then it did!. So I told the guide that something is down stream and we need to get up there quick. So we made our way over in that direction but lost sight of where they were . Then the guide picked up a small herd of caribou where I was looking and then it all unfolded from there. We looked them over the best we could through the snow and could tell there was one bull there with very large tops but we needed to close the distance. We were hoping for two good bulls as my hunting partner was game to take one too if he could. So we moved up and got a better look and found three good bulls out of six. My hunting partner said to me,"you seen them first, you get first pick". I thought this was very honorable of him to do so I picked out the one with the big tops. The snow was coming down too hard to judge the bottoms but at this point we were just going to have to hope. So I asked the guide how far they were and he said 200 yds. I looked at him and said no they aren't. He ranged it again and he said 200 yds. I said no they aren't. This went on two more times and then I said there is something wrong with your range finder because they are way further than that. So we moved up 40-50 yds to a better vantage point and got a range on them and he said 340 yds now. That sounds better. So I had nothing for a rest so he knelt down plugged his ears and I used his shoulder for a rest. The bull was broadside maybe a little quarter towards and I squeezed it off only to hear a little tick, not a whop like I expected but he lunged forward and turned. He barely got stopped and I shot again and over he went. The other bulls just milled around as we walked closer and then my hunting partner decided to take one of the other bulls. Two shots later from his 300wsm at 200yds, he had his first caribou. As we walked up to mine, I couldn't have been happier to close my slam out on such a nice bull. It turned out he had o.k. bottoms but still a good bull given the circumstances of how the trip had gone thus far.
I used my Rem 25-06 on this caribou as I wanted to take all my caribou with the same gun which I managed to do. Also when I was making up loads for this hunt, my oldest boy picked out one bullet and said I had to use that one to complete my slam with so I kept that one in my left pocket and three in my right. He was pretty tickled when I told him the bullet he picked was a good and straight one,lol
I decided before I left that my last bull in the slam if it was a good one would be a lifesize, so that is what I did ,skinned him for a lifesze. About an hour after I had shot him I had a grizzly come up to 230yds and we scared him off by yelling at him but a couple days later he had claimed the kills as other hunter got pics of him sleeping on the kills
So that ended the first week of hunting and when we got back to camp, we were he only two to have taken bulls for the week. Some of the first week hunters had also asked if they could stay over to hunt the second week and it was arranged they could so that made eleven hunter for week two. I kinda cringed a little when I heard this as I was going to be the one caping. I would also be going out guiding too so this meant I would have to do the caping when I got back in after riding all day. As it turned out the caribou started to move in and all but one hunter didn't get his and man was it busy.
I would suggest this hunt to anyone looking to go on this type of hunt. The outfitter was very well organized and all buildings,facilities were super clean as well all the horse were pretty bullet proof even if you have never been on a horse as there were a few guys in camp that hadn't. I couldn't believe the amount of grizzlies and wolves they had up there too. I think the instant amount of snow had something to do with the slow start to our hunt but all in all it was an awesome experince.
I also brought a little work home with me,lol
Completed my caribou slam
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