story
I'm a sucker for hunting stories, so here's mine:
My Mountain Caribou hunt was with Redstone Outfitters, flew from Edmonton to Norman Wells NWT, we hopped on a float plane and flew into their Hook Lake camp. Couldn?t hunt the first day, I managed to convince my guide (Tanner) to rig up a way to carry my bow and quiver on his horse the next morning. (after I proved to them that I could shoot effectively with my Robertson Mystic longbow) He told me that the hunting was probably be going to be tough as the warm temps had the caribou spread out and still way up high. Where we were going he?d sat for 2 days dawn until dusk and hadn?t seen a bull. But there was a front coming and he thought that maybe that would be enough to get em moving around. We left camp, on horseback, a storm came in it rained sideways for an hour, then sleet and a cold wind, but man did it get the caribou moving! By 1pm I had a chance to stalk a 310-320? bull and his cows with my bow but couldn?t get within longbow range (55yards was as close as I got) but what a rush!!
Saddled up again and road onto a new vantage point where we saw a bunch of cows in the timber?we were both trying to see a bull moving through the trees. Tanner spotted one way up top right at the edge of tree line, it turned out to be 3 bulls. The bull looked good enough to try and get closer to, this involved a bone jarring ? mile trot (I?m no horseman and these horses know that)on my steed Spike followed by a 500-600 yard sprint ( well that?s what I?ll call it, let?s just say I never stopped I kept moving forward as Tanner with his gazelle like stride was leap frogging me trying to locate the bulls, all I could think of is how hard I?d worked to try and get in some semblance of shape over the last six months and it may not be enough) We were trying to get to a ridgeline before the bulls went over and down the other side. By some amazing miracle the bulls decided to stop at a little grassy meadow )a meadow that Tanner had said was there just before the ridge dropped of into another drainage) I had enough time to catch my breath( I was sucking slough water at that point) I didn?t look at the bulls until I?d regained a bit of composure. I finally peeked around the tree Tanner had us hiding behind and I was surprised to see they were only 50-60 yards away, I held it together long enough for Tanner to tell me which of the 3 bulls were the best (there were 2 shooters), shoot the dark antlered on, he said not the white antlered one we?d originally seen. I dropped to a knee?.. took aim?. waited for the white antlered bull to clear?big smoke and he folded like a cheap suit. We hooted and hollered like we?d hunted together for decades, ran up to him and he just got bigger with every step I took. The time was 2:30 on the first day, my caribou hunt was over, it was surreal!
Tanner took some great pics, as you can see, he caped him out, I helped him quarter him, we loaded everything on Tanner?s horse Digger and he walked leading him and my bou the 4-5 miles back to camp. I followed on Spike watching to make sure the load didn?t shift and fall off, I offered to trade places with Tanner but he wouldn?t hear of it. He said "it's your vacastion not mine". We didn?t bring a packhorse cause Tanner thought it would slow us down (I originally thought he didn?t bring one cause he had no faith in yours truly, but after getting to know him the next 4 days I?m sure he was truthful when he said he hated bringing a packhorse). I was pretty jacked up to ride into camp, the crazy round guy with the limited distance shooting gun and longbow, scoring on the first day ?. I still get goose bumps thinking about it.
I?ve never hunted with a guide before but if I ever do again young Mr. Tanner has set the bar very high?. I was very lucky to have him as my guide. He went out of his way to make sure I was comfortable on my horse, humored me by allowing me to bring my longbow and ML, he knew the area intimately, he knew the caribou?s habits intimately as well. He had the patience and encouragement to get me to where I had to be in order to have an opportunity. I just can?t say enough about him?he?s the best. As far as my hunt was concerned, the rest of Redstone?s camp was topshelf (my buddy wasn't so lucky his guide was poor) Although I did have a slight problem with the fishing. The lakers wouldn?t co-operate and I had to work way to hard to get them to bite. I was trying to catch enough to feed the camp for supper, failed and we had to settle for eating caribou, moose and sheep instead?man did that stink! :wink: