Quebec Winter Caribou Hunting
12-03-2007, 06:18 AM
#1541
Fork Horn
Join Date: Feb 2006
Location: Central Pennsylvania
Posts: 116
RE: Quebec Winter Caribou Hunting
I wanted to post some information on a very controversal subject to maybe help those planning to go up...
Trailers!!
There have been tons of posts on this forum about taking a trailer and not taking a trailer. We had no choice but to take a trailer as I wasn't going to strap 6 bou on top of my dodge Durango. We did have some problems with the trailer, but nothing major. We lost the tail lights, license plate, & wooden back rails. The trailer we took was just a small utility trailer. My observation of taking a trailer is this...
Make sure the trailer is in excellent condition with no loose parts!! It must be a solid trailer. If there are any bolts on the trailer to hold thing together, take extra and keep checking them. Make sure your hubs have new bearings and they are well greased, but do not overgrease as this could cause overheating. Make sure your springs are in good condition and can handle going over a lot of bumps. Lastly, make sure your wiring is enclosed and also in excellent shape. The road from Matagami to the turn off on the Trans Tiaga seems to be the hardest on trailers. This road has a nasty bump every 100yds or so and it can tear your trailer apart. We saw two people with broken down trailers on this stretch. Both of them past us when we were doing about 60mph. Don't push it!! On the Trans Tiaga road, the bumps were just as bad in places, but we just adjusted our speed accordingly. We ended up pulling over and letting other pass us quite often, but we also made it home without any major damage.
I would also reccommend taking the following; Spare tire(s), extra hub, fuses(vehicle lighting), & exta bulbs. The vibrations are hard on the fillaments.
Good luck to those planning to go up soon!! It's an adventure!
Trailers!!
There have been tons of posts on this forum about taking a trailer and not taking a trailer. We had no choice but to take a trailer as I wasn't going to strap 6 bou on top of my dodge Durango. We did have some problems with the trailer, but nothing major. We lost the tail lights, license plate, & wooden back rails. The trailer we took was just a small utility trailer. My observation of taking a trailer is this...
Make sure the trailer is in excellent condition with no loose parts!! It must be a solid trailer. If there are any bolts on the trailer to hold thing together, take extra and keep checking them. Make sure your hubs have new bearings and they are well greased, but do not overgrease as this could cause overheating. Make sure your springs are in good condition and can handle going over a lot of bumps. Lastly, make sure your wiring is enclosed and also in excellent shape. The road from Matagami to the turn off on the Trans Tiaga seems to be the hardest on trailers. This road has a nasty bump every 100yds or so and it can tear your trailer apart. We saw two people with broken down trailers on this stretch. Both of them past us when we were doing about 60mph. Don't push it!! On the Trans Tiaga road, the bumps were just as bad in places, but we just adjusted our speed accordingly. We ended up pulling over and letting other pass us quite often, but we also made it home without any major damage.
I would also reccommend taking the following; Spare tire(s), extra hub, fuses(vehicle lighting), & exta bulbs. The vibrations are hard on the fillaments.
Good luck to those planning to go up soon!! It's an adventure!
12-03-2007, 10:36 AM
#1542
Join Date: Oct 2007
Location: central NY
Posts: 127
RE: Quebec Winter Caribou Hunting
We just got back last night. A successful trip all around. No trophies, but some good representative animals. There were a few nice bulls around; we had fleeting encouters with a few usually when were were driving, but never got a crack at any trophies during our set-ups.
The temps were some of the coldest we have had while hunting caribou. It was -19dF on our first day and was sub-zero for the remainder of the mornings. Only sneaking above the zero mark for a short time at mid day, if at all. It was -14dF on our ride out Saturday morning. Not much wind, so it was bearable as long as bare flesh was covered.
Our strategy was to be extreemely mobile and we covered a wide area looking for the largest herds. We ended up hunting from 102km of LA1 road to about 365km of the Trans-tiaga road. Our best hunting was south of the LA1 dam where larger groups were moving through. On our second day we had a good set-up back in off the road on a small isolated lake and a couple of adjoining ridges. A couple of thousand animals passed through that day and we filled 8 of 12 tags. We obviously could have filled all our tags, but with no trophy bulls passing our set-up the most patient of us were still waiting to fill our second tags. On our third day there was little activity at the previous days set-up position. So, we went mobile again. We had several encounters with nicer bulls, but since we were not set-up and there were many other hunters congagated in the same area, it was almost impossible to get into position on them. (Unless you were like the Quebecer's and just wanted to shoot them from the road.) One of our hunters was able to take a decent bull on an afternoon set-up. At the end of our third day we decided to hunt an area we have hunted before, back off the Trans-tiaga road. Our last day, with three tags left, we got set-up. Animals started passing through just after daybreak. Not in big numbers, but regularly. The bulls that were in these groups were like others we had already passed up, good representatives, but no trophies. We all waited until our last hour of hunting, then we had to fill our tags. We filled our last three tags will good representative bulls. Had some good ptarmigan hunting during our trip; that is always a blast.
We had one bad encouter during our second days set-up. A pair of Quebecers budged in on our position; setting up only a few yards from one of our hunters. There was a few words exchanged when our hunter shot a bull and a member of the other party proceeded to discharge his rifleat nothing while only a few yards from our hunter. An obvious attempt at intimidating our hunter. Following that uncomfortable situation; one of the Quebecers shot a small bull out of the next group crossing the lake and then his partner started shooting at other animals in the group. I was watching this from top top of a small rise on the oppostite shore of the lake. It got pretty hairy for me when his third shot, when I found myself in his line of fire as the animals moved across the ice. His thrird shot riccocheted to fairly close to my left. I stood and shouted at them. He never stopped firing; his next shot roccocheted even more closely to my right. I yelled again and ducked and he fired again. Five shots in all, one after another. Thankfully for us, those animals filled thier tags and they were done hunting. We met on the lake once the shooting was over and of course it was like talking to a brick wall. They had no clue about what they had done wrong. That was by far, the worst encouter I've ever had hunting.
On the brighter side, I personally had a good hunt. I took my first bull half way through our second day. This was when I had set a cut-off for myself to fill my first tag. I had returned to my perch above the lake and was watching a couple of hundred animals slowly working a far ridge. I found a decent bull and watched them work for at least fifteen minutes. I finally talked myself into taking a shot at him. I had a great set-up; they we milling about feeding and I got prone. It was a 425 yard shot. After the shot I watched him walk a few yards, then went into a panic sprint and fall. My second bull came from a different location on our fourth day. It is a set-up I have used before, so I knew how the animals would be approaching. I watched animals pass until the last our of our set deadline. I took the next decent bull that passed with one shot at 50 yards, he dropped in his tracks. I'm still batting a thousand for one shot kills on caribou.
I have never scene the caribou spread out as much as they were this year. We saw groups coming across the LA1 reservoir at 102km and all along the LA1 road, down the trans-tiaga road to about km marker 100, and on our way out there were animals in the road all the way south of 381 on the James Bay Road. There were guys in camp who were taking animals further up the Trans-tiaga around 400-450km. That is some huge dispersion of the herd. Should still be some good hunting for groups still to go. The animals seem to be moving through from west to east, with some moving slighgtly south.
The temps were some of the coldest we have had while hunting caribou. It was -19dF on our first day and was sub-zero for the remainder of the mornings. Only sneaking above the zero mark for a short time at mid day, if at all. It was -14dF on our ride out Saturday morning. Not much wind, so it was bearable as long as bare flesh was covered.
Our strategy was to be extreemely mobile and we covered a wide area looking for the largest herds. We ended up hunting from 102km of LA1 road to about 365km of the Trans-tiaga road. Our best hunting was south of the LA1 dam where larger groups were moving through. On our second day we had a good set-up back in off the road on a small isolated lake and a couple of adjoining ridges. A couple of thousand animals passed through that day and we filled 8 of 12 tags. We obviously could have filled all our tags, but with no trophy bulls passing our set-up the most patient of us were still waiting to fill our second tags. On our third day there was little activity at the previous days set-up position. So, we went mobile again. We had several encounters with nicer bulls, but since we were not set-up and there were many other hunters congagated in the same area, it was almost impossible to get into position on them. (Unless you were like the Quebecer's and just wanted to shoot them from the road.) One of our hunters was able to take a decent bull on an afternoon set-up. At the end of our third day we decided to hunt an area we have hunted before, back off the Trans-tiaga road. Our last day, with three tags left, we got set-up. Animals started passing through just after daybreak. Not in big numbers, but regularly. The bulls that were in these groups were like others we had already passed up, good representatives, but no trophies. We all waited until our last hour of hunting, then we had to fill our tags. We filled our last three tags will good representative bulls. Had some good ptarmigan hunting during our trip; that is always a blast.
We had one bad encouter during our second days set-up. A pair of Quebecers budged in on our position; setting up only a few yards from one of our hunters. There was a few words exchanged when our hunter shot a bull and a member of the other party proceeded to discharge his rifleat nothing while only a few yards from our hunter. An obvious attempt at intimidating our hunter. Following that uncomfortable situation; one of the Quebecers shot a small bull out of the next group crossing the lake and then his partner started shooting at other animals in the group. I was watching this from top top of a small rise on the oppostite shore of the lake. It got pretty hairy for me when his third shot, when I found myself in his line of fire as the animals moved across the ice. His thrird shot riccocheted to fairly close to my left. I stood and shouted at them. He never stopped firing; his next shot roccocheted even more closely to my right. I yelled again and ducked and he fired again. Five shots in all, one after another. Thankfully for us, those animals filled thier tags and they were done hunting. We met on the lake once the shooting was over and of course it was like talking to a brick wall. They had no clue about what they had done wrong. That was by far, the worst encouter I've ever had hunting.
On the brighter side, I personally had a good hunt. I took my first bull half way through our second day. This was when I had set a cut-off for myself to fill my first tag. I had returned to my perch above the lake and was watching a couple of hundred animals slowly working a far ridge. I found a decent bull and watched them work for at least fifteen minutes. I finally talked myself into taking a shot at him. I had a great set-up; they we milling about feeding and I got prone. It was a 425 yard shot. After the shot I watched him walk a few yards, then went into a panic sprint and fall. My second bull came from a different location on our fourth day. It is a set-up I have used before, so I knew how the animals would be approaching. I watched animals pass until the last our of our set deadline. I took the next decent bull that passed with one shot at 50 yards, he dropped in his tracks. I'm still batting a thousand for one shot kills on caribou.
I have never scene the caribou spread out as much as they were this year. We saw groups coming across the LA1 reservoir at 102km and all along the LA1 road, down the trans-tiaga road to about km marker 100, and on our way out there were animals in the road all the way south of 381 on the James Bay Road. There were guys in camp who were taking animals further up the Trans-tiaga around 400-450km. That is some huge dispersion of the herd. Should still be some good hunting for groups still to go. The animals seem to be moving through from west to east, with some moving slighgtly south.
12-03-2007, 10:46 AM
#1543
Join Date: Oct 2007
Location: central NY
Posts: 127
RE: Quebec Winter Caribou Hunting
BKMSTR, I always choose a sturdy bullet for caribou. I want something that won't blow-up on impact and I try not to hit bone. I do not want to damage too much meat. I look for a bullet with a heavier jacket or shoot a solid copper. My personal favorites are Nosler Partitions or Barnes TSX's; though I would like to try Barnes MRX's. I have switched from shooting my 7mm Rem Mag to .270 Winchester. The .270 shoots almost as flat, with less recoil; and I like how the little single shot Encore handles.
12-03-2007, 11:28 AM
#1544
Join Date: Dec 2007
Posts: 1
RE: Quebec Winter Caribou Hunting
We just back from Donat. We hunting on the LG1 road at KM 20. It was awesome. I was able to take both of mine with the bow. One at 45 yards and one at 55 yards. I had been practicing at that distance for a couple months as I knew I would have to reach out a little bit. Both of them went down within 40 yards. Other then a few hunting walking on me a little bit everything was perfect. I easily saw 10 000 animals in the 2 days that I hunted.
Cheers
Cheers
12-04-2007, 08:40 PM
#1547
Join Date: Oct 2007
Posts: 12
RE: Quebec Winter Caribou Hunting
ORIGINAL: BKMSTR
I wanted to post some information on a very controversal subject to maybe help those planning to go up...
My observation of taking a trailer is this...
The road from Matagami to the turn off on the Trans Tiaga seems to be the hardest on trailers. This road has a nasty bump every 100yds or so and it can tear your trailer apart.
I wanted to post some information on a very controversal subject to maybe help those planning to go up...
My observation of taking a trailer is this...
The road from Matagami to the turn off on the Trans Tiaga seems to be the hardest on trailers. This road has a nasty bump every 100yds or so and it can tear your trailer apart.
Yeh, that is where we broke the majority of our ATV straps.
What fun though!
12-05-2007, 08:30 AM
#1549
Fork Horn
Join Date: Apr 2004
Location: Linwood, Michigan
Posts: 168
RE: Quebec Winter Caribou Hunting
Just got back from Mirage last night. Another successful hunt. All 16 in our group tagged out. A few reasonably nice bulls but there was not a large selection of trophy racks. I already have two very nice racks at home and several more that are average. I decided that if I couldn't shoot anything as good or bretter than I already had that I would take big animals.
that's what I ended up doing, one very large hump-back baldy and a medium rack big body bull. There were many animals spread out over a wide area which is good, withthe highest concentration seeming to becrossing the LA1 road. Not many crossing the Taiga road between Mirage and LA1 road when we got there but by Monday they were starting to move through there also. Most of the animals seemed to be traveling east to west paralleling the Taiga road about five miles north and out to the powerline. We may have room in our group next year. Someof our groupalso likes to rotate every other year. Anyone interested can contact me by email.The sowmobile from Mirage that went through the ice was recovered the next dayalong with the caribou still attached. The guide lost his gps and some otherequipment but has the spot marked andsays he is going back with a hook and magnet to try to recover them. Good luck Johnny.All in allthe migration looks a little more traditional this year and I expect that even after the main migration is past that there will be animals in the area for a while, just a little harder to find. Good luck to those there now and to those yet to go.
that's what I ended up doing, one very large hump-back baldy and a medium rack big body bull. There were many animals spread out over a wide area which is good, withthe highest concentration seeming to becrossing the LA1 road. Not many crossing the Taiga road between Mirage and LA1 road when we got there but by Monday they were starting to move through there also. Most of the animals seemed to be traveling east to west paralleling the Taiga road about five miles north and out to the powerline. We may have room in our group next year. Someof our groupalso likes to rotate every other year. Anyone interested can contact me by email.The sowmobile from Mirage that went through the ice was recovered the next dayalong with the caribou still attached. The guide lost his gps and some otherequipment but has the spot marked andsays he is going back with a hook and magnet to try to recover them. Good luck Johnny.All in allthe migration looks a little more traditional this year and I expect that even after the main migration is past that there will be animals in the area for a while, just a little harder to find. Good luck to those there now and to those yet to go.
12-05-2007, 11:33 AM
#1550
Fork Horn
Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: Watertown, NY
Posts: 133
RE: Quebec Winter Caribou Hunting
We got back from Nouchimi yesterday morning at 10:00 after driving 26 hours straight...The experience as a wholewas incredible and I will gladly go back once my backside recovers from the trip...Man thats a long ride when you've got nothing but pine trees to look at!!!
After seeing that the majority of themhad lost their headgear we decided to take the best we saw andtagged out with 8 caribou in one day...Weall ended up taking a cow and a bull.
We did find that a parked vehicle is an open invitation for others to hunt near you...VERY NEAR...We walked back in off the road about 100 yards to be ethical but soon realized that others were sitting on the road shooting back in at us...I was helping a young fella that was in our group dress out his first caribou when some idiotON the road started shooting over us at caribou that were coming thru...I heard the bullets hit the animal and watched a bull limpingover a knollnot 50 yards to our left...A FrenchCanadian guy parked in the middle of the road75 yards down the road from us and took a pop shots at every caribou he saw while leaning overthe hood of his truck...I bet he fired 3 boxes of shells and only killed 1 caribou (a small calf)...Another guy in our party had 4 bullets hit near him while he was dressing out his bull, he actually thought someone was shooting at his animal on the ground since the bullets were hitting that close...That's when we finished up our tags and got the hell out of dodge.
I did take a ton of pictures here are a couple:
Saw this guy in Section 22 A:
Here I am with my 2:
Check out the bull in the lead in this group:
After seeing that the majority of themhad lost their headgear we decided to take the best we saw andtagged out with 8 caribou in one day...Weall ended up taking a cow and a bull.
We did find that a parked vehicle is an open invitation for others to hunt near you...VERY NEAR...We walked back in off the road about 100 yards to be ethical but soon realized that others were sitting on the road shooting back in at us...I was helping a young fella that was in our group dress out his first caribou when some idiotON the road started shooting over us at caribou that were coming thru...I heard the bullets hit the animal and watched a bull limpingover a knollnot 50 yards to our left...A FrenchCanadian guy parked in the middle of the road75 yards down the road from us and took a pop shots at every caribou he saw while leaning overthe hood of his truck...I bet he fired 3 boxes of shells and only killed 1 caribou (a small calf)...Another guy in our party had 4 bullets hit near him while he was dressing out his bull, he actually thought someone was shooting at his animal on the ground since the bullets were hitting that close...That's when we finished up our tags and got the hell out of dodge.
I did take a ton of pictures here are a couple:
Saw this guy in Section 22 A:
Here I am with my 2:
Check out the bull in the lead in this group: