I have not been there for 2 or 3 years and was wondering if anything has changed.Are there any ptarmigan still around?Antlers get smaller?

I am leaving this Friday for my 1st ever caribou hunt. I'll let you know what It was like when I get back

That must be opening week.I will return next year.Have a safe trip up Iron Buck.

Like to see some pics.

So how did it go? I also left on the 15th and just got back on the 26th with 2 nice bulls. However I had to hang around an extra week until the Caribou got close enough to hunt. The extra time gave me a chance to check out all of the outfitters in the Le Grand Hydro project area, and I came away with some pretty strong opinions.
BD

BD,where did you get the bulls?Did you use a guide?

Shootaway, I shot both bulls on a frozen lake six miles west of mile 36 on the Laforge #1 road, above the dam. This is about 400 miles east of Radisson in zone 22B. You do need a "guide" which in reality means you buy your license and lodging from an outfitter. No actual guiding is provided, but the "outfitter" needs to fill out a registration form which you turn in the the gov't on the way out. BDS

BD,sounds like you were using snowmobiles for this hunt.Where you six miles off the laforge road?Where there no caribou closer to the road?Did you come across any caribou in 22a?Did you see many ptarmigan?

Shootaway, We were there a week longer than planned. During that time there were only three caribou taken from the road, a small local group. Mirage was sending hunters in by helicopter to shoot thier 'bou, (for an extra $1,500 per hunter). We rented sleds to hunt when we felt the herd was close enough to reach through the woods. The outflow from LaForge one was not frozen, and LG4 had open water as well and the caribou were not crossing the river. I have a friend who was up this past week and when I talk to him I'll know better how the situation evolved. It was definately not a "normal" year where you could just drive up the road and find them everywhere. On the way out we did see a few bands on the road in 22a, and I did shoot 6 ptarmigan without really trying during the week.
BD

BD,what do you mean by sleds?That is not the type of country you venture in the woods.Short daylight hours and really cold weather spell danger.It is a place were it is not recomended to be more than a couple of hundred yards from the road.If you had a guide and were on snowmachines following trails or his route that would make sense.Where did you shoot the birds?

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That is not the type of country you venture in the woods. Short daylight hours and really cold weather spell danger.It is a place were it is not recomended to be more than a couple of hundred yards from the road.If you had a guide and were on snowmachines following trails or his route that would make sense.Where did you shoot the birds?

To the unprepared, I fully agree.

That said, being fully prepared, I've ventured off into the woods and across lakes and rivers large and small both on foot and with a snowmobile. My longest hike was 2 kilometers from the only road via GPS, in two feet of snow- shot my biggest bodied bull on that trip in. I did that for fun, as that trip they were running all over the roads and it wasn't that challenging.

Easy to pull out on a sled or in a backpack-though we're takling about a heavy load- probably around 100 pounds once skinned and cut up in major pieces...I do not take the ribcage-backbone out with me, though I cut off all usable meat. Contrary to popular belief, large bulls generally do not weigh more than 300-400 pounds on the hoof, generally averaging smaller, especially in winter.

You are saying that caribou are not fat during the winter and are fatter in the hot summer?? I heard awfull stories about hunters that literally froze to death after being lost just for a few hours.One thing you would need to do to survive a night out there is get a big fire going.That can be a difficult thing if you have no experience starting fires,feeling very cold,and don't have an axe.

No. That is not what I am saying. What I am saying is that they are fatest going into the rut in late September. There is a period between winter and the hot summer called Autumn.

They do lose weight by winter- During the rut they are 'very busy', burning calories and not eating as much. After the rut, they are travelling more and burning more calories due to travelling, drop in temperatures and harder access to food sources.

Again, I agree with you that if the person is unprepared, bad things can and do happen.

Anyone who freezes to death after being lost for a few hours in -15 to -50 degree temperatures, was not well prepared to begin with- as per my point above.

Caution: I've lived and hunted up there extensively. It is not for the casual hunter to go off into the wilderness after Caribou in the dead of winter, nor is it usually necessary. You do have an advantage if you are prepared and it can add significantly to the challenge and fun. Given that I've met 'hunters' up there that would probably freeze to death in their trucks , I just have to caution people.

I live and work in northern Maine and have spent quite a bit of time outdoors on my own, night or day at all times of the year. The weather in that part of Quebec in November is pretty much the same weather we see at home in January and February here in northern Maine. I felt that taking a group of 4 snowmobiles, (6 guys), into the woods 6 or 8 miles was a perfectly reasonable thing to do, and it brought a successful end to a long hunt. I carried enough with me to survive a night out. That said, a serious injury or a fall through the ice could easily become fatal in those circumstances. It's not something anyone should attempt without the experience necessary to deal with unexpected problems, and I am certainly not promoting the idea in general. We went in at about 5:00 AM and we were back out to the road by 2:00 PM. Our animals were skun out, quartered, caped and packed on the side of the road by 5:30 PM.

There was one guy in the group from Allentown, PA who turned out to be a dangerous jerk of the worst sort. Even he survived intact, due to forbearance on our part.

I shot the ptarmigan near the road in several different flushes after stopping to hunt on thier tracks. We gutted the caribou on the ice and then pulled them out whole behind the Ski-Do Tundra two at a time. BD

BD,did you travel on the frozen lakes or was there an established trail through the woods? I remember a year like that when there were very few caribou and only those that took a chance on the lakes got caribou.Were you told where the caribou were aproximately, by the outfitter?That year we aproached the hunting camp owner and we were offered a guide to take us to the caribou by snowmachine.I would of accepted despite the high cost but it was our last day and we had no place to spend the night.That year we settled for one calf we found 200 yds off the road.

Shootaway, The short answer is that there were no guides or trails involved. We were tracking the herd by getting gps coordinates from the helo pilots who were flying guys in for Mirage. We'd wait at the point where they were flying out the caribou and watch their flight path in and out, talk to them if they were friendly, and take a peek in the cockpit at the GPS on the panel when they weren't looking if they we not forthcoming. When the herd was within 10 miles we sent one guy in on the only sled we had available using the lakes and the woods to see if he could find the caribou reasonably accessable. I never saw anything like what we would call a "snowmobile trail" here in Maine. After a few days of this we located some 'bou about six miles in and arranged to rent three more sleds at $135 each per day, then went hunting. Some ice was safe, some was not. The same as it is anywhere early in the season, particularly where there is moving water. However it was -20F at night so the ice was getting better every day, and we were conservative, (by our standards). It worked for us, but I would not recommend it to someone not familiar with life and work in the winter woodlands of the north.
We did experience some unintended consequences. After going in over the previous day's track with four sleds we created enough of a track for folks to walk in on. Apparently we also created enough of a disturbance in the flow of the herd to divert a large number of animals around us, (due largely to the actions of the jerk referenced above). When I pulled out the first two animals I found myself in the middle of several thousand Caribou crossing our track with maybe 100 hunters spread over the two or three miles closest to the road. It was exciting to be in the midst of the herd, and I was nervous to be in the midst of the other hunters. BD

Usually the position of the caribou herd or the location of caribou is made available to the outfitter throuh both sattelite and helicopter and private plane reports.Throughout years of hunting caribou the position of caribou was no secret.The experience of guides are then used to open a trail.Usually this info is then passed among hunters who are staying at the main camp.I feel although I have never used their services,hunting there is best done with a guide.The size of racks taken with their services do not compare.

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I feel although I have never used their services,hunting there is best done with a guide.

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The size of racks taken with their services do not compare

During winter hunts??? Bull (pun intended). Early or late fall hunts, I can understand their benefit to the first time hunter or the first time trophy hunter.

During the fall migration, with large numbers of caribou, the guide's most important role is to position the first time or inexperienced hunter in the major travel ways (which are usually quite obvious anyways), prevent them from getting lost (since most don't know how to use a GPS or Compass ), preventing them from shooting too soon without having looked over a good number of caribou first etc... I can see their role there. Once you know the basics of rough scoring a caribou yourself and have a few reference points to look out for, it becomes a numbers game- how many caribou you'll see until the one that pleases you most appears.

In winter (mid december or later), throw all of that out the window as few will be carrying a rack, and none of the large bulls will be. At that point, once you start to see caribou, you shouldn't need a guide to tell you what to shoot.

CanadianLefty,you are speaking with a veteran caribou killer.Have some respect.When I hunt in the middle of November the bulls still have not shed their beautifull racks.I have not hunted with a guide simply because my partner does not wish to do so.Succesfull winter caribou hunting in zone 22B is all about putting yourself closer to the herd than the rest of the hundreds of hunters.All of which are hunting in a relatively small area.If your guide has done his homework he will put you there on the first day of your hunt.The further away you are from the herd the smaller will be the racks you will see,because the big ones will get shot before they reach you.More bulls with racks will be taken the week I hunt than any other week of the year in any province.I also have in my possesion a video of a caribou that must belong to a royal family,for if one sees his splendor among the thousands of caribou that surround him they will see him as a king.Know about that compass,a compass is for nerds.

While I may have come off as being too pointed, I stick with my comments as they are accurate.

Call yourself a 'veteran caribou killer' if you wish, but it is the experience intensity that you have had, what you have learnt and how you have developed as a hunter that matters most; not some label.

I do agree with your strategy in 22B and getting away from or ahead of the mob of hunters is the best approach- at least from a safety standpoint. Though, there are still so many caribou that funnel through that I have shot some nice ones in both 22A (after they survived the barrage from 22B) and in 22B itself.

I did mention that guides have a purpose in late fall (your mid-november time frame). I specified that in winter (mid december or later), they really do not.

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When I hunt in the middle of November the bulls still have not shed their beautifull racks

Yes, many of the largest bulls have shed their racks by the middle of november.

When I have hunted in mid-november in 22A and 22B and outside of the province in Labrador, I have seen plenty of large bodied, "bald bulls". I have also seen a few single-sided antler bulls. It becomes a numbers game to find the "late shedders with large racks" and I have photographic evidence

Cheers,
CL

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from Allentown, PA who turned out to be a dangerous jerk of the worst sort.

Details? Is he an AR member?

What are you guys shooting them with?

I've been shooting them with a 270,then a 7mmremmag,then a 300wm,know Iam going to shoot them with a 375 RUM.

I used a .270 WBY, my hunting partner used a 7mm-08. Both worked just fine, Three shots fired, three caribou dead on the ice. All under 150 yards. BD