Hi,
I am helping organise a trip for a group to hunt quebec-labrador caribou, can any of you give recommendations of outfitters you have hunted with?
Also, how hard would you rate this hunt physically? If you go on a guided hunt, do you have to help pack out the meat (there are older men there)?

I've gone to Quebec twice. The first time, we didn't even see a caribou, but the Laker fishing was great; as a matter of fact nobody had seen a caribou in any of the camps prior to the day before we departed. The second time, I shot 2 the first day because I didn't want a repeat of the first trip. I regretted that decision. A couple of days later, it was thick with Caribou. All of our group filled out. It is not a very physically demanding trip. I helped pack mine out, but the other guys didn't. We had a couple of older guys. I hunted with CanadaVenture. Caribou hunting is hit or miss up there. It will either be great or terrible. Black flies will eat you alive in earlier hunts; I strongly recommend the last couple of weeks to avoid them. You can set it up fully guided or with just a camp manager. Any other questions, send me a pm.

There are way better options.
John Andre runs Courageous Lake in the NWT and
for the money is superb.
Link
http://www.courageouslake.com/Display.asp

Check The Hunt Report.
Check the record books too...

I hunted barren ground caribou once in northern Quebec with Arctic Adventures. While they are still in business, the camp (Akuliak) I hunted out of is no longer used as the "non-migratory" Koroc herd is now migratory.

The migration can be dicey as far as seeing game, sort of feast or famine. On the flight back from Ft. Chimo (sorry I don't remember the Inuit name) to Montreal, there were hunters on the plane that had also hunted with Arctic Adventures but out of one of their migratory camps and they had only seen a few cows and shot them for the meat. They said only one or two bulls had been shot between 8 hunters.

Their method of hunting was to cruise the rivers and coves of Ungava Bay in 30 ft. canoes and use a spot and stalk technique. Well that didn't work except for the last day (and that last day was a glorious day to hunt). The water conditions on the bay where the camp was located were so bad that we had to hunt on foot for three days straight 12 to 15 miles every day across the tundra, over the hills and it was damned exhausting. Everyone got two caribou. There was an 80 something in camp but he didn't go very far afield except on the last day when we got out in the canoes and he bagged two including the biggest animal out of the five of us. His hunting partner was in his late 50's and had to do a long walk one day and told me he didn't know how me and my hunting partner could do it everyday. We were both not quite 40 at the time.

As far as meat/cape handling and skinning, that was done 100% by the guides (it was 2x2 because of the danger factor) but of course it hurried things up when we helped. Our Inuit guides were quite hardy and capable.

I've hunted woodland Caribou in Newfoundland. It was all done on foot also but the distances were considerably shorter and the hunting areas were accessible by four wheelers for game retrieval.

I've also read and watched TV shows about those caribou hunts in the NWT (around Courageous Lake I believe) and was considering them for the future.

If you have never hunted caribou it is something you will thoroughly enjoy, as long as you see caribou and enough bulls.

The wife and I went last year with Explo Sylva ( www.explosylva.com ). We chose them because they were the only ones that actually put in print that if you don't see caribou in the first location where they put you, they will move you to another camp free of charge. Well, that is exactly what happened to us. At our first camp, we saw exactly one caribou in 4 days (6 hunters). They moved us to a new camp and all 6 hunters limited - in a day and a half. My wife shot the largest bull of the group. She is still smiling. We went early (late August) so we could get in on some fishing too. The black flies were ferocious. We blame ourselves for missing the migration due to the early hunt.

People are people, and nobody is perfect, but they said what they did and did what they said. I ask for no more. Also, their prices were competitive. If I go again, Explo Sylva is on the list.

I have also heard good things about Jack Hume Adventures, especially for bow hunters.

Live well