Here’s a follow up from my muskox thread, got a caribou. Spotted him from a knob feeding through on the North Nahanni River from about 1.5km, got down into the valley bottom with him and couldn’t find a good shooting lane with how high the shrubs were so I snuck in to about 60-70 yards and shot him free hand. First shot he had no reaction - didn’t even move, so I thought I missed completely. I immediately followed up with another shot, I hit the front shoulder and he crumpled and died right there. Once we opened him up we found that the first shot that showed no reaction was a double lung, second one went thru the scapula and heart.
Hike out with the meat was pretty brutal - two different trips back to camp about 7km away mostly up hill through scrubby willows that had some grizzly sign - once it got dark I was playing country music off my phone as we walked through the bush lol.
Shot him around 1pm and got back at camp with the meat around 12:45am. By the time we had meat hung and some backstrap steaks cooked it was 3am.
Got an inreach from a buddy the next day that said the wildlife officer told him there wasn’t really sheep in the spot we were at, the closest were about 15km away. With us not seeing sheep and the weather being warm we flew out the day after getting the caribou.
The meat off the caribou has been excellent, probably the best game meat I’ve had. I got quite a bit of fat from the bull as well.
In the future if I wanted to go for a big bull I think it would be a great spot. You can get up on a knob and watch that valley bottom and see for 10+ km in both directions. You could spot some really nice bulls if you just sat there and waited. The caribou trails were well worn in the area and resembled some hiking trails I’d see on lower mainland BC, we constantly had little caribou coming into or by our camp. Love it when I can leave a hunt knowing that I have gained a lot of experience and become a better outdoorsman / hunter.
As for now I’m still on vacation - after doing some investigating I’ve got a solid sheep spot nailed down for next year and am already looking forward to that hunt, but for now I think we’re going to hit a lake for the next 5 days and try to get into some big lake trout. There’s woodland caribou in the area as well and I could get a tag but I think I’m over processing game for a while. I have a moose hunt coming in just 6 weeks and need to mentally prepare for the mess that will cause in my house
Collared Pika
Caribou fat, I rendered it down. I cooked some hashbrowns with it the other day and it was delicious
Here’s the progress on my muskox skull, I’ve been macerating it in my backyard - luckily my wife has been away cause I think she would have killed me due to the smell. Still some more work to go
Hike out with the meat was pretty brutal - two different trips back to camp about 7km away mostly up hill through scrubby willows that had some grizzly sign - once it got dark I was playing country music off my phone as we walked through the bush lol.
Shot him around 1pm and got back at camp with the meat around 12:45am. By the time we had meat hung and some backstrap steaks cooked it was 3am.
Got an inreach from a buddy the next day that said the wildlife officer told him there wasn’t really sheep in the spot we were at, the closest were about 15km away. With us not seeing sheep and the weather being warm we flew out the day after getting the caribou.
The meat off the caribou has been excellent, probably the best game meat I’ve had. I got quite a bit of fat from the bull as well.
In the future if I wanted to go for a big bull I think it would be a great spot. You can get up on a knob and watch that valley bottom and see for 10+ km in both directions. You could spot some really nice bulls if you just sat there and waited. The caribou trails were well worn in the area and resembled some hiking trails I’d see on lower mainland BC, we constantly had little caribou coming into or by our camp. Love it when I can leave a hunt knowing that I have gained a lot of experience and become a better outdoorsman / hunter.
As for now I’m still on vacation - after doing some investigating I’ve got a solid sheep spot nailed down for next year and am already looking forward to that hunt, but for now I think we’re going to hit a lake for the next 5 days and try to get into some big lake trout. There’s woodland caribou in the area as well and I could get a tag but I think I’m over processing game for a while. I have a moose hunt coming in just 6 weeks and need to mentally prepare for the mess that will cause in my house
Collared Pika
Caribou fat, I rendered it down. I cooked some hashbrowns with it the other day and it was delicious
Here’s the progress on my muskox skull, I’ve been macerating it in my backyard - luckily my wife has been away cause I think she would have killed me due to the smell
. Still some more work to go
