Great pics thanks for sharing them.
Would have gone to Greenland for a CCBGC if the third trip to Nunavut had turned out unsuccessful.
We opted not to bother as I had two Europeans from Artic hunts previously. A European with a tanned hide was going to be $4,000. Shoulders and pedestals more. The taxidermist in Denmark is excellent and not expensive in and of himself, but everything else is in the process and the process is people intensive, and everyone is involved.
They will not allow multiple hunters to combine shipping (regulation by customs in our country) unless it is spouses living in same residence. My son and I could not combine to save money.
Thanks for sharing your story and photos here. Definitely considering this hunt when I retire soon.
Look like you had a terrific time. A muskox hunt is second to none as far as I’m concerned with the whole adventure involved.
You could also have the Denmark taxidermist, just prepare the body parts for whatever you wanted done by your taxidermist in the states, and have it shipped to your taxidermist after clearing US customs
That would either save you or cost you , depending on the difference between the cost your at home taxidermist charged compared to the Denmark guy
Other than that option all costs and step in the process are the same
I will say the Karsten does one thing that’s better than Frank Feldman Carson’s cost of shipping from Greenland to Denmark is in the hunt where is Frank charges $500 per animal to get your trophy to Denmark
Just remember when your trophy lands in Denmark it is going into storage and you’re paying for that until the taxidermist and veterinarian start to do their thing
I already had two euros skulls done from muskox hunt in the Arctic from 14 / 15 years ago so when I went to Greenland with Feldman, I just gave the animal away to someone in camp who wanted an extra shoulder mount and back hide
When my son and I went to Carsten‘s last fall, since it was free to get the trophies to Denmark, we went ahead and had them sent but then when we started learning about the exact numbers from storage facilities, the taxidermist, the veterinarian, crating , shipping ,customs clearance, currency exchange rates, and more shipping we just didn’t think it made sense to spend over seven grand for two skulls and a hide.
As I said above, the taxidermist that Carsten uses is phenomenally good, and the process on this whole thing is simple for the hunter since other involved people know what they’re doing. They get paid great for it, but you really don’t have to do anything on your end, other than fill out a fair amount of paperwork for the border Customs broker, and we never got to that step once we saw his prices
They are spectacular animals and they look great. It’s just the personal choice of how much Taxidermy is worth to a guy relative to other uses the money such as going on additional trips, creating additional memories, etc.
No writer wrong answer just right or wrong facts
Yours looks a little cheaper than what our two animals were going to be. You still had some taxidermy work to be done in the states it sounds like we wouldn’t have but we wouldn’t have been doing any mounting.
We thought we would save being father and son was that we could ship the two skulls and hide together have them go through customs clearance as one container, and then be shipped to one of us, and we would take it from there
For some reason, customs wouldn’t allow that to happen, and only would allow combined shipment. I think it was, to spouses.
So we ended up would’ve had to pay double for shipping in a couple places and in customs clearance services no economies of scale for us
I would say personally it would be a major mistake for someone to not do the trip because they either didn’t want to spend the money or couldn’t spend the money on the mounting and therefore they wouldn’t have the experience
It’s the experience that matters and it is an adventure don’t confuse adventure with hunt because there’s not a lot of drama or uncertainty in the hunt but boy is it an adventure
Upon getting all of our gear gathered up we headed out. We made a quick stop at the grocery store for last minute odds and ends and any snacks/beverages we wanted. Upon completing our purchases we headed out. Camp was roughly an hour-an hour and a half up a frozen river farther inland.
I wish I could tell you about the initial drive, but after a couple days of traveling, and very little sleep I passed out for most of the drive. I woke up as we were nearing camp. Camp was a simple building set on a large frozen lake with a large mud room, a “bathroom,” a kitchen, a large dining area, and 5 small bedrooms. We were all impressed by the cleanliness, and overall comfort of camp with how remote it was.
After doing a quick walk through of camp we began unloading our gear. The bow hunters all took a shot to ensure our bows had made the long travel unharmed. While checking our bows Lukas, Karsten’s son spotted 3 bulls bedded about a mile and a half away on a large hill above the frozen lake. We ate a quick lunch and headed out.
Our form of conveyance for the hunt would be Yamaha Grizzlies with a seat on the back for a passenger. They had rope stirrups for the passenger to put their feet in so they didn’t slide into the driver. They made the ride much more comfortable and we all couldn’t believe that we’d never thought of something so simple that made such a difference. The quads were all fairly new and in great working order. We all were very impressed by their condition as it seems like many international hunts we’ve been on, it feels like everything’s just kind of thrown together and you’re hoping nothing goes wrong.
We loaded up on the quads. I was with Karsten’s BIL, Carsten, (yes, that was a bit confusing at first haha), and my buddy Spencer was with Karsten’s son, Lukas. We took the quads on a wide loop around the bulls, passing caribou along the way, and parked them about a quarter mile from them.
We began hiking and quickly saw a bull bedded facing us. We were in the wide open and not in a good position for a stalk. That combined with the crunchy snow quickly caught his attention. We sat still for probably 20 minutes until the bull lost interest and began moving again. We were not in a good position and he immediately picked us up again. We did this song and dance for probably 45 minutes until he finally had enough and took off, taking the other 2 bulls with him.
We retreated back to the quads, and looped around to where we could see the bulls again. They had gone to the top of a close hill that had some small boulders that we thought would give us some cover, and we’re just feeding along. We quickly ditched the quads and began our approach.
We worked our way up the opposite side of the hill from the bulls until we could just see the back of one at 150 yards. We realized where we were wasn’t going to work so we backtracked and chose another path of approach. If everything went according to plan we would get into position and the bulls would work their way right to us.
As we were working up the hill I was following behind Lukas, with Carsten and Spencer behind me. Lukas quickly froze and sunk to the ground. I immediately dropped and peered from behind the boulder I was trying to disappear behind. The bulls were all within 75 yards and slowly feeding along. I knocked an arrow and asked Lukas to call out ranges for me. As the bulls worked closer I tried to pick out the largest, but they all looked roughly the same, but big enough for me.
I was so entranced watching these prehistoric beasts in their natural habitat, that it caught me off guard when Lukas called out 55 yards. I quickly scanned the bulls again and noticed one of them was going broadside. I drew back, and settled my pin on the bull as he was walking along. As soon as he stopped I was going to release the arrow, but he never did. He ended up working directly away from us not offering a shot. I let down and watched as all three bulls began feeding away.
We knew they had no idea we were there so we waited until they created the hill and quickly worked closes. As the bulls came back into sight they were all within 60 yards. Lukas and I picked out a bull and he ranged him at 55 yards. The bull was walking slightly quartering away, and again I drew my bow and settled my pin. This time the bull stopped, and I released my arrow. The shot looked good and buried from the last rib towards the front shoulder with roughly 8 inches sticking out.
The bull kicked and ran a short ways. He was slowly walking with his head low, and we could visibly see the blood coming out of the bull. The other 2 bulls didn’t know what was going on, and were looking on at my bull. We quickly rotated and had Spencer come to the front to see if he could get a shot at one of the other bulls. Just as he knocked and arrow and became ready one of the bulls went broadside at 50 yards and he made an absolutely perfect shot. His bull ran maybe 30 yards, stopped, and went down within about 30 seconds.
After his bull was down our attention returned to my bull. Although the shot was good, he was still on his feet a couple minutes after my initial shot. I worked my way in for another shot, and put another one in almost the exact same spot as the first. This one quickly put him down for good, and we had 2 bulls down within a few hours of our hunt starting!
We positioned the bulls for pictures, which during the process a wayward hoof flipped up catching Spencer between the legs, and about dropped him. Good things he’s done having kids! Haha After positioning the bulls we took some pictures. My bull had died in a ravine and while it wasn’t the best for pictures, there’s was nothing we could do, but make the best of it.
After pictures we loaded both bulls onto a large sled. The sled looked to be at about max capacity, but they said they’ve had 3 bulls on there at once before. The sled was towed behind one of the quads and did amazingly well navigating over the rough terrain.
After loading everything up we were headed back to camp which was only a couple miles away, and within sight. The ride back to camp was relatively uneventful with the sighting of a herd of caribou along the way. After getting back to camp we started working on the bulls right away due to the dropping temps and the difficulty of skinning frozen muskox.
Within a couple hours we had both bulls skinned, and had put away a handful of beers in the process. Spencer will be doing a full body mount, and I will be doing a shoulder pedestal and will be keeping the back hide as well.
The three other hunters got on bulls that first afternoon as well, but couldn’t quite seal the deal. The next day they were able to get all three of their bulls. One with a bow, and 2 with a rifle. Due to their hunt being filmed for a project and their own privacy I won’t share their pictures on here. We filled in the rest of the time hunting artic hares, and ptarmigan. I was considering shooting another bull, even getting within 30 yards of another bull I passed, but in the end I was more than happy with my one.
Again, I’d highly recommend this hunt to anyone. I’m happy to answer any questions anyone may have.
40% of the hunters filling their tags within the first three hours is about par for the course
Makes for a pressure free hunt for sure. One of the neat things about those hunts is that. You can then go out with the other guys so you may only kill one but you may be in on 3 or 4 kills
Less than two weeks for me...best of luck Jason!
You are going to have the best Trophy Room in our state pretty soon.
Congrats,
Robb
We opted not to bother as I had two Europeans from Artic hunts previously. A European with a tanned hide was going to be $4,000. Shoulders and pedestals more. The taxidermist in Denmark is excellent and not expensive in and of himself, but everything else is in the process and the process is people intensive, and everyone is involved.
They will not allow multiple hunters to combine shipping (regulation by customs in our country) unless it is spouses living in same residence. My son and I could not combine to save money.
I brought mine home on the plane with me… I registered it as a service animal worked great
LOL! With all the crazy things people claim as “service” animals” these days, I wouldn’t doubt it!
$380 to get the cape frozen and shipped to NY taxidermist. $250 to get through US customs. $1500 shoulder mount.
I didn’t think that was too bad considering
The NY taxidermist can dip and ship too
Dip and ship from NY -$400 for caribou
Skull -$280
