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With 18 Wyoming moose points going into this year’s draw, my initial plan for a hunt this fall was to, hopefully, draw a moose tag. I’m right on the brink of drawing a moose tag, but was somewhat indecisive as to which unit to apply for, I decided to just buy another point and look at some other hunt to possibly do for this upcoming fall.

While walking through the aisles of vendors at the Iowa Deer Classic in early March, this board set up at a booking agent’s booth, caught my eye. I quizzed the booking agent a little bit about the hunt. After getting some info from him, I went home that night and immediately logged on to Bowsite and started researching Greenland muskox hunts and which outfitters got favorable or unfavorable marks. After rereading through a bunch of the threads, 2 names kept coming up with consistently high marks. Frank Feldman and Karsten Lings. Armed with this information, I went back to the Classic on Sunday and queried the booking agent as to who he booked his muskox hunts for. When he told me Karsten Lings, my eyes lit up and I said “tell me more!”

It’s a logistical PITA to get to Kangerlussuaq in Greenland from the states. I had to go through Copenhagen, Denmark to get there. I ended up flying from Des Moines to Chicago, where I met up with Bob and Kenny, then on to Copenhagen.

Camp was very comfortable, with wall tents, cots with good mattresses, and heaters.

After hoofing up and down the hills for a couple of miles, we all closed the distance to about 150 yards from the group, then Karsten and I snuck into about 75 yards before the cover ran out. The rut was going on, and we watched the bull dogging one of the cows around. They separated from the main group a little bit, and ended up in a spot a little more favorable for a stalk. While Karsten stayed back, I slowly crawled to within 40 yards of the pair.

I knocked an arrow and ranged the bull at 43 yards. He was now fairly broadside, with his chin resting on the cow’s rump. I drew, anchored, and the instant I released, he decided to try and mount the cow!

$h#*t! I hit him in front of his shoulder, up in the neck. He started dancing around, trying to figure out what just happened. I quickly nocked another arrow to try and finish him off. With the bull still hopping around, my second shot would have made TBM proud. I hit him squarely in the ham! Dammit! I finally made a good double lung hit on my third shot, and the bull expired quickly after that. It was definitely not a stellar shooting performance, to say the least, but the bull was down.

Troy, Maybe Karsten was so quiet because he couldn't get a word in edgewise? lol....congrats again buddy. Lovin the story and pics!

Did you ask your guide if he ever considered growing a plot of brassicas there? I hear they draw well when it gets colder. ;-)

I thought to hunt musk ox you needed enough clothes to look like the Pillsberry dough boy and need to be pulled around with dog sleds. It looks almost warm in those pictures.

I'm fine with you not finishing your story. Between this and the Unit 10 CO Elk hunt story I have gotten nothing done at work today.

That Karsten looks like one tough SOB!

After my bull was down, Kenny, Bob and Karsten’s son Lucas decided to head out to try to locate some new animals, leaving Karsten, Hollywood and myself to break down my bull and get him back to the boats. Hollywood is just learning the trade, and was a great kid. We nicknamed him that because of his sunglasses, plus his Inuit name was impossible for us to pronounce even after multiple attempts! There’s about 2 cups worth of phlegm involved trying to pronounce it.

After breaking down my animal, what I witnessed next was nothing short of amazing, to me at least! After gutting, caping and skinning the bull, they tied their version of a pack frame on both hind quarters, still attached to the pelvis, along with one front quarter, and put it on the back of Hollywood. The headband, that I believe was a piece of heavy canvas, was then put across his forehead. The remainder of the carcass, including the other front shoulder, was trussed up in the same manner, and loaded onto Karsten’s back. We then started back towards the boats that were probably close to 2 miles away. They wouldn’t let me carry anything other than my bow and Hollywood’s small daypack! These guys only stopped once to readjust the headbands, and that was only for a few seconds! These guys are some tuff dudes! The reason the pic of Karsten’s load is so far away, is he wouldn’t slow down long enough for me to catch up to him to get a better pic! They commented something about the only guy that they could remember being slower than me, was some guy they had in camp a couple years previous. I think they said he went by the name of SLUG, or perhaps SHUG, I believe;-)

Nothin’ “almost” about it!

We covered a bunch of miles the second day, and saw quite a lot of muskox, but the caribou were a bit spotty, only seeing a few small bulls and a bunch of cows and calves until later in the day. Finally, we spotted 4 really nice bulls feeding together partway up on a mountain slope. They problem was, they had a bunch of cows, calves, and a few smaller bulls feeding below them, right in the way of our potential stalking route. We watched them for approximately 45 minutes, and we finally decided that we could possibly get in front of them as they worked their way across the mountain. We would have to go around a big lake that was between us and them to get where we needed to be.

I should mention that the entire time we were looking for caribou on the second day, I was under the assumption that Bob was up to bat, as it was his turn. We determined that one bull was definitely a shooter, and I got ready to watch Bob kill his caribou. Bob looked at me and said “go get him!” I told him that it was his turn, but he said that he had plenty of time with the rifle, and these bulls were in a potentially very good location to make a stalk to get within bow range. Bob was very selfless on this hunt, and I was very appreciative to him for that!

So, while the rest of the group stayed back, Karsten and I worked our way around the side of the hill to figure out a plan of attack. We soon spotted both bulls feeding away from us, heading for a swale with a ridge running parallel with it, however, we had been spotted by a cow that was eyeballing us. She wasn’t quite sure what we were, so she would trot off a few steps, then stop and turn around to check us out again. After a few rounds of this, she finally decided that we were no threat and went back to feeding. By this time, both bulls had disappeared behind the ridge. Finally, the cow worked her way over the ridge as well, so I made my move. I quickly made my way to where I hoped the bulls had fed to, and slowly peeked over the ridge with an arrow nocked, to try and relocate them. Immediately, I spotted antler tops directly in front of me. The larger of the 2 bulls was feeding directly towards me at 30 yards! With his head still down, I drew back and waited, hoping he would turn broadside and give me a shot. At less than 20 yards, he finally lifted his head and spotted me. He quickly bolted and ran straight away from me, but only ran about 15-20 yards before stopping and looking back, quartering to me slightly. BIG mistake!

I guessed him at 35 yards and took the shot, hitting him tight behind his left shoulder and exiting about mid body on his right side. At the hit, he wheeled and raced to my left, before turning and running back to my right, heading straight towards a pond. I thought he was going to end up just like the moose I killed in Alaska, dying out in the middle of the water! Thankfully, he didn’t quite make it, plowing to a stop in the mud right at the water’s edge. A much better shooting display than on the muskox!

Notice the full quiver of arrows in the bow ;-)

bowhunter24..... most of it was pretty solid and easy to walk on, but some areas were spongy, but still not difficult to navigate at all.

Couple of Dandy Trophies right there.

Congrats young fella

Good luck, Robb

There is something real about the story telling format Bowsite affords us. Kinda makes us feel like we were there! Thx again for taking us along. C

What is the chance that your two guide/packers would come to Colorado for my next successful elk hunt, and help in the pack out? :) my best, Paul

Definitely a bucket list hunt for me.

Damn good work there Troy! Spectacular and very special trophies for sure!

Congratulations!

Paul.....I think you would have fit right in with those guys!l

I’ll add a few more details and pics of my hunt. We walked close to 22 miles total, on the day I killed my caribou, so we all slept in a bit on the third morning. We had spotted a big group of muskox basically, right above camp, when we were across the river on the second day. We hiked up into the hills and, after only a half mile or so, we found the herd, not too far from where we had first spotted them, and there was a nice bull in the group. Kenny and Karsten slipped up to within 100 yards and waited for the bull to turn broadside. The bull finally turned and Kenny shot him in the shoulder, breaking it. He ended up having shoot his bull 3 more times before he finally went down. Every shot was very well placed IMO. They can be some tuff critters!

We saw several white hares while hunting. They really stood out in the brush. These hares do not change colors from summer to winter, which was very surprising to me. This guy showed up while we were breaking Kenny’s bull down. He ended up running right through the middle of us, less than a couple of feet away!

Heck of an adventure for a unique creature in a very different landscape. Not many hunters can make that claim. Congrats again!

Several decent bulls were spotted this day, just not anything that Bob wanted to put his tag on. Late in the afternoon, we started back towards the river to eventually head back to camp. With less than a mile to go before we reached the boats, Bob spotted a good bull feeding up on the hillside across the small valley from our location. He quickly dropped his pack to use as a rest, and readied himself for the 250 yard shot at the walking bull. The bull stopped for just a moment and Bob shot, dropping the bull instantly.

I took a pic of my muskox skull with the flash on my phone, and totally did not expect this result. Turned out pretty cool, IMO.

Congrats again!

Thanks again guys. It was an amazing trip, and if you’re contemplating on going, I would highly recommend doing it. If you do decide to go, I can’t recommend Karsten’s outfit highly enough. There were some other hunters that I spoke with at the airport, and there were quite a few different guys that hunted with a few other outfits, that didn’t have nearly as good experiences as we did.

Here’s some more pics.

Nick………..it’s pretty high on my list. It wasn’t an extreme, physically exhausting, type of hunt (but it wasn’t a cakewalk, either) The unique terrain, along with how both stalks went down, added tremendously, to the enjoyment and satisfaction of the entire experience. I’m not the most stealthy individual on the planet, so anytime I can execute a successful stalk and close the deal, moves the needle for me a good bit.

On the muskox, the first shot was a tad over 40, the other 2 shots were 50ish.