Seven Weeks & Two Days To Go!!!!

[Sleeps In Trees]

Sure has been quiet around here... http://www.jesseshunting.com/forums/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/stimpy--sm-ani.gif

Bou season is getting close, isn&#39;t anybody gettin&#39; pumped up?? http://www.jesseshunting.com/forums/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smiley-faces-toast-beers.gif

Soon I&#39;ll be on the tundra hunting the majestic caribou w/Jack Hume Adventures, & I&#39;m plumb "tore up"!!!!! http://www.jesseshunting.com/forums/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smiley-ren.gif


VicW.

[brut]

good luck on your hunt. Be sure to let us all know how it went

[bou-hunter]

Yeah it&#39;s a little quiet here in the bou section. Won&#39;t be long now Vic!!

[Sleeps In Trees]

Bou-hunter - six weeks & 4 days...not that I&#39;m counting days or anything. Hehehe.


I know you&#39;re heading to NWT this time, best luck on em! I almost went w/Aurora Camp up there, it was sort of a toss-up between Aurora & JHA. Logistical reasons I finally decided on Quebec...I&#39;m only getting one shot at this, hope I didn&#39;t mess up!

VicW.

[bou-hunter]

Vic,

From everything we&#39;ve read at the other forum JHA should be as good a choice as you can make in Quebec. You should have a great hunt!

Going to Inuvik, we have no choice but to fly. First leg to Edmonton is on Northwest Airlines, and their mechanics are threatening a strike 9 days before we leave. Even if that doesn&#39;t happen NW might declare bankrupcy any time now......................

Oh well, not going to lose any sleep over things I can&#39;t control. We can always get there on Air Canada or another US airline if necessary.

[Sleeps In Trees]

Geez bou-hunter, I&#39;m keeping my fingers crossed for ya w/the airline strike...but it sounds like you have a back-up plan anyway. Sure never hurts to be prepared for the worst case scenario, WTG!

[Sleeps In Trees]

Six weeks & two days to go now!! http://www.jesseshunting.com/forums/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smiley-faces-toast-beers.gif

[goatman]

Eight weeks and 4 days but who is counting.

[jlostrander]

Our trip to Alaska for caribou is less than a month away. We are flying out of Aniak. I am very ready to go.

It seems like we have been planning this trip for two years and we have.

I will let you guys know in this section when we return, but may not get it posted until after the dove opener.

Logan

[IL Boy In Alaska]

MY BUDDIES WENT TO THE NORTH SLOPE ALASKA THIS WEEKEND. SAW SOME ANIMALS BUT COULDN&#39;T GET CLOSE ENOUGH. SAW 3 GRIZZLES AND SOME MUSKOX. GOOD LUCK WITH YOUR HUNT THIS YEAR. ILL BE IN IRAQ. HAPPY HUNTING ALL http://www.jesseshunting.com/forums/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smiley-faces-toast-beers.gif http://www.jesseshunting.com/forums/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smiley-patriotic-flagwaver-ani.gif

[Widux]

Good luck to all you Boo chasers- I&#39;ve never known why folks are so in love with them- lots of bugs and worble flies- stupid and if there, easy to kill- I hunted them for 25 yrs and usually cause we could- One hunt out of village we secured quite a few for village meat in bad winter--other hunts were in Arctic-along pipeline corridor with horses- in central AK with muzzle guns etc meat ok but not as good as moose/sheep/or deer.

[QuackWhacker]

Four weeks to go! On my way to Quebec with Safari Nordik!

Anybody ever have any trouble bringing back the antlers, cape, meat, etc. with the airlines? This is my first hunt across the border and I want to minimize any surprises and problems. In general what have the airlines charged for bringing back these items??

Good luck to all and have a great hunt!

QuackWhacker

http://www.jesseshunting.com/forums/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smiley-wave-hello-yellow.gif

[bou-hunter]

I think caibou meat is much better than venison, and just as good as moose. Half the fun is seeing the country and spending time with the other hunters and the outfitters.

Quackwacker - the airlines all have their own policies. Check the baggage section at the website of the airline you&#39;re flying for rules on meat, antlers etc. Generally most of them charge their "excess baggage" fee for each item (antlers, box of meat, etc), which is probably around 50.00 each. Take a roll of duct tape, wrap the points, bez and shovels with cardboard and duct tape. Also take some contractor grade garbage bags to wrap the skull, and to put the capes in. We pack an army duffle bag, put all the capes in it and check it as baggage. Make sure your outfitter will have salt for the capes. We&#39;ve never had any problems getting things back on the airlines.

We hunted with Safari Nordik twice in the 90&#39;s. Their camps were well run and the guides and cooks were good people. Good luck on your hunt - post a report here when you get back!

[Birdhunter_007]

Leaving on Saturday for Quebec--Club Chambeaux. Never been there and don&#39;t plan on going again. This is my once in a lifetime hunt. Not sure what to expect, but I am going to see the country, experience the hunt, and visit the people. Really getting excited. http://www.jesseshunting.com/forums/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smiley-gunfighter-yellow.gif

[Sleeps In Trees]

How&#39;d it go Birdhunter? Hope you had a great time. I&#39;ll be leaving out in a few days (Monday) & by this time next week will have 2 days hunting under my belt. Man I can hardly wait!

[ChrisS]

Sleeps In Trees,

I&#39;ve been checking the board frequently to see how your trip went, did I miss your report somehow? Come on man give us the goods!

[Sleeps In Trees]

Hi Chris, thanks for asking! I&#39;m sorry to report that my hunt didn&#39;t go very well. I was very dissatisfied w/the guide (& some of the other camp staff) that the outfitter furnished but was lucky enuff to kill two fair bulls (w/a borrowed 30.06) on the last day. Here&#39;s a thread from another site that gets into some of the details if you&#39;re interested:

http://www.bowsite.com/bowsite/tf/bgforums...SSAGES=87&FF=10 (http://www.bowsite.com/bowsite/tf/bgforums/thread.cfm?forum=10&threadid=314935&MESSAGES=87&FF=10)

[Birdhunter_007]

Sleeps in Trees,

Just got through reading all your posts on the Bowsite. We hunted with another outfitter, but had some similar experiences. We didn&#39;t see many animals and it was tough to tag out. My buddy and I were gun hunting, but there were bow hunters in our group. Since the caribou were scarce, the guides began glassing the lake for bulls crossing the lake. When they saw some nice bulls, they would place the hunters on the lakeshore and go out in the boats and herd the animals towards the waiting hunters on the shore. There was no thing as fair chase in our camp. One young bowhunter that was in our group passed an arrow through a large bull as it ran past him but hit the bull a little far back. It was bleeding well, but our guide would not let us trail the wounded animal more than about 40 yds in the brush. I am sure it died shortly. Between herding the animals to the hunters and refusing to follow a good blood trail, I felt that the hunt was too much of a business adventure and lost too many of the hunting ethics we have been taught to adhere to as sportsmen. I will not go on another caribou hunt.

[dirtpoor]

WOW, can&#39;t tell you how lucky I feel. I hunted Quebec 2 season&#39;s ago with with a guy out of penslyvania. We drove up and were able to hunt on our own,all in all it was a once in a lifetime experience. Without going into a long story we were into thousand&#39;s of caribou, at one point I was at an area in a swamp where 5 trails came together and if I wanted to shoot a caribou I would have had to take a couple of steps back because I was surrounded by hundreds of caribou. But to be fair the day we arrived the departing groups had not taken a caribou but as they were driving out the caribou came in and they were slaughtered from the road and everybody tagged out 2 bou. Actually I probably would have been satisfied just watching the northern lights what a spectacle.

[Widux]

Dirtpoor--
Now that sounds like a really Great experience- we used to take our horses up the Haul road in AK and go in about 6 miles to hunt- several years we had similar experience to you- riding along with herd- one time after shooting a few bulls we had small groups of 40 -60 coming around us all the time we were gutting and laoding the boo on our horses. it was also nothing to have them come through camp at all hours of the day/night.

[Sleeps In Trees]

Birdhunter, sorry you also had a bad experience. You know, if Ray & I had been rifle hunting we prolly would&#39;ve had a great time, & never saw the outfit for what it really was. But from the very start the JHA staff in camp treated us bowhunters like second rate...& it became very evident before the hunt was finished. I&#39;d never be able to recommend JHA to anyone in good conscience & really wish I had went w/Tuttulik instead, as they sound way more bowhunter friendly/oriented. But oh well, you know what they say about hindsite being 20/20...I did my best on the research & (at the time) thought I had picked the best Quebec had to offer. I sure hope I was wrong about that part...

[Birdhunter_007]

Sleeps,
If I had it all to do over again, I would choose a drop camp and hunt on my own and on my own terms without the guide service. I have always done it that way in the past. This is the first hunt I have ever been on that involved the service of a guide. I watched an episode on the OLN a couple days ago and the guys used Club Chambeaux and did just that. They had a successful hunt and they did it their way.

Club Chambeaux delivered exactly what they promised--99% success on 2 caribou. I also realize that I was the customer and did not have to hunt on their terms, but probably would have gone home empty handed. I now have 2 beautiful sets of antlers and a cape, but I feel now that from now on my caribou head mounted on the wall will always have an asterix (*) above it&#39;s head and an plaque visible only to me that says "this animal was not harvested under fair chase rules." This was the most expensive hunt I have ever been on and supposed to be my "hunt to remember," but I am afraid my memories will always haunt me.

[Sleeps In Trees]

I understand Birdhunter, as my two &#39;bou mounts will have an asterik over them as well. After winning the Ky State IBO championship several times over the yrs & taking black bear, pronghorn, wild boar, close to 50 wt deer, & countless small game/fish w/a reurve or longbow, the caribou were the 1st animals I&#39;ve killed w/a gun since 1989. I don&#39;t feel like I "got&#39;r done" up there & it leaves a bad taste in my mouth.

[Widux]

I&#39;ve talked with many of these so called outfitters at Sports shows etc and seen many posts about them- thet want numbers in camp or on shore- they have no peoblem as long as boo are killed. So knowing this go and doit-no one will know when it&#39;s on the wall will they?

[Sleeps In Trees]

Different outfitters obviously pose differing problems. In my case w/Jack Hume - it sucks that one of my most vivid memories of the hunt is my bowhunting partner & I sitting on a barren river crossing all day (w/no tags filled) while listening on 2-way radios to the tagged out rifle hunters videoing group after group of bulls on the nearby ridges. That&#39;s when I knew for sure that we were being played for suckers by our lazy guide.