Bowsite.com

LBB

Richard Hume has nearly 30 camps and only books 5 or 6 at any given time.

Beware of outfitters that boast of a nearly 100% harvest rate. It's more like a kill and not a hunt and you will find their methods of not high integrity like Jack Hume Adventures has. Fall of 2007 I personally talked to some guys at the hotel in Montreal that hunted with a well known outfitter and their trip was essentially no caribou for 4 days until they were shuffled through to a lake with animals. The so-called guide herded the animals around a point with his boat while the so-called hunters stood in a line and gunned them down. They had 2 hours and were loaded back on the floatplane and taken back to the camp without animals. Another guy said he was stuck for 2 nights on his fly out and was weathered in without extra clothes, food, sleeping bag etc. Richard Hume (JHA) would never allow such methods.

FYI I posted this last year on another thread. You might do some searches and you will surely find a lot of information.

"Hunting Caribou with bow and arrow or with Black powder gun in far north areas is sometimes difficult when the Caribou herds are out of distance for those weapons. That's why we suggest to those amateurs of that old type of practice of hunting to bring along a rifle to insure their hunting success"

You can decide if you want to hunt with an outfitter that considers you an "amateur".

I have been on too too many hunts where the outfitters worried more about killing and getting you done than the whole experience.

CPA I wonder if they consider me an amatuer. I have never seen a bou but have archery hunted for 30 years, with about 10 years of guided hunts in the US.

We just had this conversation this afternoon. As long as it is a great experience and we see some Bou who cares about the death count.

STEPH.

Am I not to report my experiences with "your hunters"? The man asked for input, and I gave it to him.

I have seen your material, and would not go with you based upon that material, and the input I have had from your hunters.

LBB

It appears you measure success based on kill ratio. In any business, one can't be all things to all people. Hunters will make their choice on what is the best fit for them. Nothing more, nothing less.

I sincerely wish you the best of luck this season, no matter the measure of success.

P.S. Using all caps is construed as shouting on threads.

"IF YOU DON'T WANT USE A RIFFLE IF CHAMBEAUX MOVE YOU IT OK USE YOUR BOW"

Per the Club Chambeaux website under "guarantee":

"Bow Hunter and Muzzle loader hunter restriction

When you have to be moved to a more productive area, you have to bring along a rifle. For those who will not respect this rule, the guarantee is not applicable."

Stephane, please tell which one is the truth and which is the lie? Your statement or the representation on the website?

It is ok to apologize when you are wrong. Just ask Tred Barta :)

steph

steph

'caribou guide'....is Eb Morris from Montana still with you guy's? If so....tell him HELLO for me!

steph

Steph, This statement of yours along with the luke warm reviews are the exact reason we didn't go with Club Chambeaux. From my point of view, it just looks like you either put a higher value on the rifle hunter or your guides are not willing to work for the bowhunter. Now this is just my perception after spending a ton of time researching outfitters before we decided on one. We couldn't afford an outfitter that held the bowhunter to a lesser standard since 7+ of the 15 will be bowhunting. Remember, the bowhunters aren't asking for you to get us a kill just an opportunity. If there are no bou in the area, for what ever reason, it seemed strange that you would be willing to move the rifle hunter to where the bou are but not the bowhunter when, in fact, you never dropped them in on top of the caribou to begin with. Steph, believe me this is not a slam on you or your outfit, this is just the way I saw and how you were viewed by us during my search for an outfitter. Thanks for listening and good luck this upcoming season.

good grief...........

steph

I think JHA is still a very reputable outfitter in Quebec, and there are probably others as well. But why anyone would book with a company like this is beyond my comprehension...

Do your homework fellas, and pray you still don't get screwed.

see u in alaska

Quebec no way , USA all the way see you in alaska louis

maybe tuttulik will become the "Kleenex" of caribou hunting, or the "Clorox" of bou hunting. of the Jell-O" of bou hunting. you know the brand name becomes the product category name by association. it only happens in cases of the highest brand awareness.

that's what bou hunting has become on this site.

Come on now! lets be real here, there are huge issues with tuttulik and I 100% understand that! but what about the other 5000 hunters that had a wonderfull time? do they mean nothing? you are always going to find a handfull of guys that hated their trip for some reason or another! some time valid and some time not but for ever couple that had a bad experience you will find a 100 that had a great experience. do your homework and check references and ask 100 questions before you book!

The short story is we did not get moved. The plane were too busy moving people for other outfitters. Also, it is difficult to move you on the American plan as they have to move your guide as well.

We did not get moved. 12 hunters shot 9 caribou. I saw a total of 11 caribou in a week.

"Caribou were in the area so there was no reason to move."

Stay away.

On a happier note, I booked a hunt out of Yellowknife, NWT, and had one of the most rewarding hunts of my life. I've been on many guided hunts and fishing excursions across the US and Canada and have never been more miserable or mistreated than I had been with Chambeaux. Nor have I ever been asked to be unethical in order to fill a tag as I had with Chabeaux.

On another note, there are good outfitters and there are bad ones. I was completely rooked on two different Ontario bear hunts which kept me out of Canada for several years. I decided to try again and had two excellent trips with outstanding service from a bear outfitter in Quebec. Quebec ain't all bad guys. Don't give up on our neighbors to the north because of a few rotten apples.

No, It's just more business as usual in Quebec.

Grant, your indignance is laughable. You had no problem jumping into every thread singing the praises of Tuttulik regardless of of whether your opinion was solicited or not. That to me was getting old, now you are incensed that many threads about caribou are taking a negative turn with Tuttulik at the forefront...Too bad, If you're going to be constantly chirrping the positives, you need to live with the negatives.

We were booked to hunt with Harvey at Labrador Outdoors this year Sept 3-9, but he is not running camps because of too many cancellations. So now we are hunting with JHA on the same dates for the same price. Harvey will still be flying his planes and JHA will be using his camps. Harvey is a nice guy and has kept his word about everything that has happened so far with our hunt. The rest of Team-Cariou is no longer operating as far as I understand it. JHA and Labrador Outdoors seem to be the best in the area as far as working with their clients, at least from what we have experienced so far.

I don't think any outfitter can accurately forcast the migration. I have not yet bought in to the global warming agenda, but I firmly believe in fluctuations in climate as well as populations of animal species.

Sounds like SN tried to do right by them. They have worked very well with our group thus far. Good luck on your hunt this year year kurtinozaukee.

76aggie you need not be rattled, Safari Nordik will put you and your group onto caribou, and in the event that they cannot due to weather and flying, a RARE occurrence, they WILL honor their guarantee and you will have the opportunity to experience the Artic again at their expense!!. What dates will you be hunting?

I reread last years' posts and there wasn't any bashing of SN by Kurt. Well Kurt, at least his threat is in writing and witnessed by all here. What an idiotic thing to say in a public forum. Now I KNOW I'd never book a hunt with you and will be sure to pass your attitude along to others that ask me about who to book with.

I can"t imagine that potential clients are climbing all over themselves to book with SN after reading these two posts filled with veiled threats. If you are an employee of SN It would be hard for me to imagine that management wouldn't fire your ass on the spot if they read this, unless management condones this behavior. If you had any brains you would realize that potential clients are reading this...LOL! The Quebec Caribou Outfitter saga continues.

I shared that so you'd all have a frame of referance to assess judgement on my comments below...for what ever they might be worth.

There always were a few good outfitters in Quebec, and JHA was one of them when I was up there...and appears to still be good based on everything we've heard. The problem is that running a quality operation costs more money than running a poor one, so there are outfits that can/will beat their prices, and most guys book hunts on price rather than proper research.....

About 98% success: When I was up there no one was 98% successfull on two bulls per clients, but they all claimed they were. The reason was simple. At the shows there are several caribou outfits selling hunts..several of the outfitters will claim 98% success rates, and if the others don't tell the same lies they won't book any hunters, because not only do most clients want to book the cheapest hunt they can find, they want to be assured they will kill two huge bulls....if one outfitter doesn't promise them this the next one down the isle will, and that is where they will spend their money. If you want to sell caribou hunts in Quebec you have to lie and tell people the camp you represent was 98% successful last season....I refused to do it, and walked away.

About moving clients: When everyone started "selling" 98% success rates, and stories were going around about guys not seeling caribou, the sales pitch started changing to assure clients they would be moved if they happened to be in one of the very few camps that didn't get run over by caribou. While these promises may not have been outright lies, they were close. Several of the companies that were making these promises early on didn't even own their own planes..which meant they would have to hire planes to make the moves. Others had their own plans...but does anyone really think there are planes just sitting around up there with nothing to do? The planes up there are expensive and to justify the expense you need to keep them busy. There are some hours not scheduled every week, sure, but that is to cover things that making up flights that are delayed due to made weather. An "honest" answer about moving people would say, "We'll move you to another location IF we have flight time available, the weather co-operates, we have another camp that has caribou available, and there is enough time left in your hunt to make it worthwhile." But then again if they told the WHOLE truth most perspective clients would book their hunt with the outfitter down the isle that wasn't as honest.

Moving only gun hunters: Its not that these guys (CC) are picking on us bowhunters, it has to do with the reality of the situation. Bowhunters can't be dropped of in a bunch at one spot and expect to fill all their tags in a few hours so they can be reloaded on a plane and brought back to where their gear, food, camp, cook, etc are it just doesn't work that way. Therefore it isn't practical to move bowhunters out to a good crossing point like they can with gun hunters. Do you think any outfit is going to spend the money to fly a group of hunters out for caribou if they don't think they'll be happy when the dust settles?

Moving camps: Your best bet (my opinion) is to book with an outfit that has the ability to put you in a camp that has caribou when you arrive. That means having alternate camp locations (more camps than bookings) and the willingness to do the additional flying to move food and staff prior to your arrival as well as dealing with the expenses of settling up more camps that you have clients for. This is what several operations are now promising, but I haven't been there to see if it happens. When I was going there a lot every camp an operation had was booked for six hunter rotations per season...some set up additional tents so a few extra clients could be brought in to camps that were seeing animals if they had a camp that was "dry", but then they had to contend with the complaints of the guys that were booked for those camps do to having to share camp with additional people.

Horror Stories: All true and personally witnessed. 1. I flew into a "bowhunting only camp" camp with four clients one morning and the float plane waited an hour to depart because the rifle hunting outdoor writer had just shoot two stags that morning and they didn't have everything ready yet to be loaded out. We didn't see caribou at the main crossing for two days due to the disturbance caused by all the shooting the first morning. When we flew out another outdoor writer flew in with his black powder rifle and another rifle...he was hunting/writting stories for a number of magazines on the "bowhunting only" camp...but was gun hunting. Later that winter his feature story appeared in a major bowhunting publication.....oh yea it was about his great bowhunt!

2. I had a group in a bowhunting only camp another time and we got a call from the operations base telling us not to go down river to a traditional crossing point the next day. They were flying in a group of hunters from another camp. A few days later we went down and found 26 dead caribou laying on the ground with antlers removed. None of the meat was taken and only 2-3 caribou were caped. Most weren't even field dressed. I found out later that the operation had a group of hunters at another camp and they weren't seeing any animals. This group was twelve clients and a well known hunt consultant. They didn't want to loose his business so they chartered a larghe plane and flew the whole group out in the morning to this active crossing point. They shot their two caribou each and were loaded back in the plane and brought back to their camp with their racks. I talked to the consultant afterwards and asked him how he could be part of such a thing...I was told that he was told that the operation was going to send people back to get the meat and capes...but they just never did...RIGHT!

3. I was at a camp with a client, and had two other clients at another camp one time. We were split up "supposedly" because there were no caribou at the "bowhunting only" camp we had booked so we were being brought to other camps where there were caribou. Of course we were now with gun hunters, and these guys were not glad to see us because they weren't seeing that many animals and there weren't enough boats and equipment to cover the additional people. Thankfully the client I had with me was a hard hunter and a good sport. We hiked out every day and worked our butts off, he finally connected on a good bull and was reasonably happy with me (who became his camp cook and guide for the week)but would never go back with that outfitter.

4. I was with a group of bowhunters in a camp that hadn't seen a caribou in three days. We had been promised a move if this happened. We heard from another camp (on the radio) that a camp close by was covered up with caribou and everyone was "tagged out". We asked to be moved, and knew the other camp had room for our small group. We were refused because the group that was in that camp were good clients (North American Hunting Club) and they refused to share the camp. They wanted the boats available to do some fishing and knew their fishing bonus would be impacted if more hunters camp to camp....we sat for three more days in a camp with no caribou.

5. I was flown into a camp (with a small group) one season, but it wasn't the camp I had booked. I was told that the reason was there were no caribou at the "bowhunting only" camp locatiuon I had been sold one. I had the location on a map I brought with me and talked to two pilots during my stay about that area. These were the two pilots that did all the flying for this operation. They both told me there was never a camp set up at that location. Nothing had been flown in there in at least two years and this was a newly licensed location so there was nothing existing before that time. I was sold a camp that didn't even exist!

6. Another time I was up filming for an operation that we were going to book clients with the following year. The first camp they brought us to had no caribou. We filmed the camp and some fly fishing the first couple days, but the caribou hunting was a BUST. They came and flew us to another camp. The caribou there were NUTS! They had to buzz the lake twice to spread the caribou out enough to land the plane. All 13 guys flown in the day before had their two bulls except one that was "holding out" for a bigger one for his second animal. The next day we set up in a blind and with-in an hour I shot (on camera) two great stags. While we were caping them a herd of old stags (grey velvet and monster racks) headed our way. My wife/camera person had two tags so the head guide told her she could use his gun and drop a couple of the biggest ones. She wasn't familar with the rifle and told him she'd give it a go if he'd stay right with her and finish the animal if it didn't drop right away while I filmed it from 20 yards back. Fifteen minutes later she was surrounded by caribou and I heard a shot....then six more shots as the herd ran in every direction. When the dust settled she got up from behind the big rock very shaken. After shooting the bull she handed the rifle to the guide who proceeded to drop five more stags from the herd. He wanted her to tag two of them, she refused. She tagged the one she shot, I tagged my two. We field dressed and capped our three caribou while the guide and his helper did the others. The next day six clients were flown in to hunt, and the guide sold the caribou he had shot to some of them. Before we left that camp two days later 44 clients had tagged 88 caribou at that camp. The camp was set up for 12 clients with an overflow tent that housed four more...you do the math.

Summary: If you want a Q/L caribou be carefull who you book with, ask the right questions, and don't buy on price/promisses. I'd suggest using a hunt consultant, because they should know better what questions to ask and because they will have more leverage to work out problems that you will as an individual. Good luck.

I will not recount the first 2 (both outfitters have been mentioned in this thread); one was an unpleasant experience and the 2nd was barely OK.

My bow hunt was with JHA and was one of my best hunting experiences EVER. As soon as I can save up enough to go again...guess who I'm booking with.