The weather broke and we were on the water fast. We went back to the spot where Matt shot his booner, and Bill shot his PY bull. Not 10 minutes out of the boat - we spotted a bull. Bill and I climbed up to higher ground and determined that he was a mature bull, but with hockey stick tops. We passed him up.
We moved up the valley - glassing every 1/4 mile or so - until we spotted caribou in the distance. It took a minute to figure out that they were cows and calves. At that, I pointed to a ridge line far off in the distance and told Bill that hilltop is where I thought we should head. His feet were hurting bad, but he made the hike anyway. On the way there, we ran into another small bull beneath us - we passed on him too.
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This bull was feeding just below the hill from us - he was a dink and we passed him up. |
When we reached the top of that ridge we could see for miles. We spotted several caribou but they turned out to be mostly cows and small bulls. Even though we had not found any trophy animals, this was still encouraging -given our bad luck the last few days.
As Bill glassed to the east, I continued glassing to the west. It was on the next ridge, directly across from us, that I saw four good bulls bedded down. Two of them looked to be trophy quality - this was my chance!
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We watched 4 caribou, including these two sparring - from a 1/4 mile away. |
Bill stayed on the ridge to video from a distance while I headed down into the valley, crossed a small brook, then started my climb up the opposite ridge until I was in the general vicinity of the bulls. I peeked over some boulders and one of the bulls was right there - I mean, 75 yards from me! I immediately dropped down and decided to move further downwind. I had no idea where the other three caribou were and the wind could screw me up if I wasn't careful. This turned out to be a good move, because another caribou was pretty close and I could have bumped him, sending the others running away.
With the two biggest bulls in sight, and no sign of the other two - I decided to position myself crosswind, and inch my way toward an ambush with the feeding bulls. It worked like a charm. The first of the two big bulls fed past me at 40 yards. I have a 40 yard pin, but I haven't figured out how to use it yet.
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This bull is probably pushing 40 yards, I wanted a closer shot and passed him up . |
The second bull was more impressive and he was feeding in circles. I inched closer, until I was 50 yards away. He fed directly at me. Having already nocked an arrow from the last bull, all I needed to do was wait. The bull was now 40 yards and coming closer. I inched even further. He was going to feed past me at 20 yards. That was, until something busted the two bulls I could not see.
With just a few moments left to putting an arrow in the biggest bull in the bunch, the other caribou spooked and ran up to my bull. All three of them were looking South, not in my direction. I'll never know what tripped those bulls, but all 3 ran by me just a few yards away. I was so, so close!
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When I finally had the distance close enough, the caribou spooked from something to the left of me - we never found out what caused them to flee. I was so close!. |
After that stalk fell apart, I walked to the west side of that ridge and glassed the opposite hillside. There were lots of caribou there - but it was miles away from the boat and Bill would have no idea where I was, or what I was doing. I decided to be responsible and headed back to our ridge. When I got there, I saw that Bill was on his own stalk - of my four bulls! They had ran a north ridge and headed behind Bill to the east. He made his way down an open flat to intercept him - but they moved too far off and he got busted. As I watched the four bulls run the hillside, I saw that they had picked up a fifth bull - who was headed in the same direction.
I could not quite see his tops, but he had good bottoms and long horns. I ran down to position myself in the same trail that the four other bulls had taken. Caribou will often scent-trail previous animals and use the same path. This bull did the same thing. I nocked an arrow and kneeled behind a rock for cover. I could now see his horns - coming up the hill - but unfortunately - he had hockey-stick tops. I drew my bow and let him walk past me. I put my 30 pin on his chest and thought to myself - "Bull? This is your lucky day." He stopped to check me out. I let my bow down. I stood up and snickered, then walked down the hill. To my surprise, the goofy bull followed me for nearly 200 yards before veering off on a different trail.
It was pretty late in the day, and we had not made contact with Jean-Maries for several hours. We decided that we had given it our best shot and it was time to pack it in. We started the long trek back to the boat.
Our trip was over. It was a tough hunt. But we hunted hard and Bill was coming home with a really nice, P&Y caribou - his first. I got close to some really nice animals but took the responsible route of keeping to within my self-imposed range limits. I have no regrets.
Despite my bad luck, and the lack of caribou movement, the trip was great. I could not get over the quality animals seen on this trip. I would say that 95% of the caribou seen were bulls. Of that number, roughly half were trophy caliber (Pope and Young minimum). This can be explained for two reasons - one is that the Leaf River Caribou herd is very healthy (the bulls shot were fat and noticeably larger than I'd seen on on other trips). The other reason is because Lac Minto is a traditional rutting ground for the Leaf River herd so this is a natural staging area. The big bulls congregate here.
The weeks leading up to the 3rd week in September were red hot. Just about everyone was tagging out early including bowhunters. We just happened to hit a period of inactivity - for whatever reason. Still, despite the inactivity, our group did pretty well. Three Boone and Crocket bulls were shot, Bill's bull easily makes P&Y, and the other rifle kills would have all made P&Y minimums had they been shot with a bow. For that reason, I'm already booked for the same week next season for a long overdue Bowsite.com Group Hunt.
How did the other hunters do? |
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Hunter |
Bull 1 |
Bull 2 |
Weapon |
Jeff Caulder |
361 net |
387 net* |
Rifle |
Rex Caulder |
No Score |
387 net* |
Rifle |
Matt Aide |
399 net* |
- |
Rifle |
Richard Aide |
318 net |
- |
Bow |
Bill Gaunt |
344 net** |
- |
Bow |
Rocky Jones |
No Score |
No Score |
Rifle |
Joe Fusco |
355 net |
No Score |
Rifle |
| Pat Lefemine |
- |
- |
Bow |
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*Boone & Crocket, ** Pope and Young |
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Want to join us on a Bowsite.com Group Hunt with Tuttulik?
There are 11 slots available for a Bowsite.com group hunt. A $1000 deposit confirms your reservation.
Cost is $3995 which includes:
Dates: September 22-28, 2006 (need to be in Montreal 9/21)
- Transportation from Montreal to Camp Min
- Hotel room in Montreal
- All meals in camp
- 2-Caribou (Tags and licenses are $250 US).
- Inclusion in our Live Hunt with Pat Lefemine
- More - contact Boney for details.
To book, or for questions,
Contact Greg "Boney" Bonecutter @ Tuttulik Outfitters
Tel: 931-232-9989
Fax: 931-232-9635
Email: [email protected]
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