Canada Hunting Information:

Hunting Method:
We hunt these monster moose either on horseback or by boat. Generally the hunters stay at a base camp and hunt directly from there, but where horses are used, the hunter might spike out with their guide. In most cases, the main camps are situated on the shores of lakes or rivers. We run horseback hunts for moose from August 10 – October 4 and we run our boat hunts from September 1 – October 4.

Generally speaking, the August hunts from horseback and all hunts up to September 12 are spot and stalk hunts. Using horses, the big bulls are relatively easy to locate prior to September 12th; they are in the high basins where they spend the summer, growing their antlers. The biggest bulls begin shedding their velvet around August 25, but even though they are covered in velvet prior to that date, they are pretty much “hard-horned” from August 10 on; the velvet is easy to strip off after that date, and the stripped antlers can be stained by any good taxidermist. By September, virtually all the big bulls have stripped their velvet off and are starting to think about the rut.

The rut hunts start on September 12 until October 4 and during this date, no matter whether the hunter is on horseback or hunting from a boat, receptive bulls can be called in. The Bull Moose will also be moving and are again easy to locate because of this fact. Boat hunters will arise early and work the lakeshore, watching for bulls and listening for their calls. Horseback hunters will head out early as well and try to find a vantage where they can spot the rutting bulls. Your guide will call, using bull “grunts” or cow “moans.” Bull moose can move all day at that time of year and you will be hunting all day for the most part, sitting up high and glassing whether you are hunting from a boat or horse and of course, depending on the weather. Hot weather slows diurnal movement for these largest of the deer family, as it does for any deer species.

For Your Information:
Shots on these big animals will generally be inside 200 yards and can be as close as 20 yards. They can stand nearly 10 feet to the top of their antlers and can be 10 feet long. Good choices for firearms are any of the .300 calibre magnums or .338 calibre magnums. As with any hunt, bullet placement is most important! Larger guns are wonderful and smaller guns will work. Anyone considering hunting with muzzleloaders or archery equipment would do well to book a rut hunt.

Temperatures can range from a fresh, just above zero to a balmy 70 degrees. Hopefully your hunt will occur during the former weather. It can snow, rain, sleet, blow, boil and be calm, all on the same day, so you must be prepared for anything. Once you book the hunt and send in your deposit, an equipment list will be forwarded along with a contract.

Our accommodations are the finest in “Wilderness Classic”, cabins and wall tents. Food is standard home cooked fare in the remote camps and fancy home cooked in the main camps. Your guides are the best there are. They will do their best to provide you with the service and expertise you need to make this a successful hunt. The vast majority of our guides are also outfitted with the latest in Satellite telephone equipment, and will be in touch with our command and control office should problems arise. Safety always is and always will be our primary objective.

On the last hunt ( September 23rd to October 4th) in the Rogue area, you can experience cold weather patterns which can freeze up lakes and slow moving streams, making your hunt possibly a day or two shorter. This does not happen very often.

Facts and Statistics:
Last fall, one of our hunters in our Kluane Outfitting Area, killed the largest moose entered in the Yukon hunting awards, a monster 70-inch moose that scored near 240 Boone and Crockett (B&C) points. From our outfitting territories, we took several moose in the 65-inch range and many bulls that scored well enough to qualify for the B&C Record book; the average size was almost 62 inches! This fact is important for serious moose hunters as there are very few places left in the North America where the Alaskan moose populations have not been decimated by over hunting and wolf predation. The Yukon is becoming the Mecca for the moose cognoscenti because of the high success on trophy bulls.

Last season, all of our hunters wanting moose went 100% on opportunities on good bulls, and only one hunter went home without a bull, this after turning down many chances with the hope of locating a new world record. He was not out of line; there are many hunters in the know who feel the biggest Bull Moose in the world will come out of the Yukon. There have been reports of 80-inch plus moose roaming our areas. Remember too, width is not everything, there are some spectacular bulls that are narrower in width, but that have all the “riggin’”, meaning they score great and look great but might only be 55 inches wide. Pan size is important, both length and width. Many of our bulls are filled in between the top palms and bottom brow palms.

In the middle of September during the season, so far we have been 100% on great moose. The largest was a 69-inch giant moose taken by Texan Tom Speck on September 25, on a horseback hunt. He turned down four other 60-inch bulls to get that big one. The other bulls so far have all been 55-64 inches except one. On the September 12 hunt; nine out of our 11 hunters were tagged up on super bulls within the first 2 1\2 days of their ten day hunts! Success has been equal regardless of whether the hunters are in Rogue or Kluane or whether they are hunting from boats on the rivers or lakes or hunting from horseback.

Moose meat is excellent and in the Yukon, every morsel of moose, caribou and Dall sheep must be brought in, nothing is wasted or left to the scavengers except the offal. We can make arrangements to have your meat cut and wrapped and shipped to you after the season. We can also make arrangements to have your trophies either mounted and shipped from the Yukon or shipped directly to your favourite taxidermist for them to mount your moose or whatever trophies you are fortunate enough to tag up on.

Combination Moose, Grizzly Bear, Mountain Caribou & Dall Sheep
It is possible to combine all of the above hunts, including wolf, black bear and wolverine as well! When you hunt with us, you will have tags for all of the above animals in your pocket and if you happen upon a male grizzly bear during your moose hunt, you can go after it, provided we still have grizzlies left on our quota. Same goes for the other species, although we do not have a quota on Dall sheep, or the other predators. Our Grizzlies are mountain grizzlies, some of the most beautifully coloured bears to be found. Our caribou are the desirable mountain caribou species, only found in that part of North America. These are the largest of the caribou species and they have the heaviest antlers, often palmated. As for Dall sheep, our hunters this year have been 100% successful (except for one spunky octogenarian who saw rams but couldn’t get to them).

If you desire to come and hunt with us in hopes that you will take more than a moose, there are certain things you need to know. First off, there are trophy fees for each additional species you kill. If you book a moose hunt and kill a grizzly bear, there is a $7,500 trophy fee. If you kill a caribou, there is a $4,000 trophy fee. The black bear trophy fee is $1,000 and wolves and wolverines are free. The Dall sheep trophy fee is $6,000 but moose hunters should understand that they will likely not be hunting in the area where Dall sheep are found. That said it never hurts to glass up the mountain once in a while just in case! All these trophy fees are applicable even if for some reason you do not kill your moose. Also, wounded animals count as killed animals. Every effort will be made to recover every animal you shoot at, but should one be lost, it is considered to be dead, no matter where it was hit.

Generally, moose and grizzlies are found living around the lakes and rivers, but caribou will wander through from time to time and Dall sheep are scarce close to the lakes. On the horseback hunts in the high country, it is more likely that the hunter will find moose, grizzlies and caribou in relative abundance, and also the odd Dall sheep, but not always. Black bears, wolves and wolverines can be anywhere. If you are hunting a lake and kill your moose and if we have another camp available, we might be able to fly you to another area better suited for caribou, grizzlies or Dall sheep, but there will be a minimum flying charge of $1,000-$2,000 to do so and there are no guarantees. Also, if we do not have horses available, you might be required to “backpack” hunt for caribou or grizzlies, basically hunting on foot for day trips from a main camp.

To give you an idea of what I’m speaking about, one of our hunters, who came in for the September 1st hunt, killed a great moose, good caribou and big grizzly. Another hunter, I just learned today, has taken a 62-inch B&C moose and missed a giant grizzly yesterday! Another lake hunter turned down a super grizzly and three black bears because he only wants a moose. We are trying to move another archery hunter who has taken a 57-inch bull moose on the first day of his hunt, to another spot where he can backpack for caribou. In this latter case, our floatplane is busy hauling moose meat from all the outlying camps, and the hunter will simply have to wait until we can free up the plane. That gives you some kind of idea of how the program works.

Five of the other hunters in the area right now already have their moose and are heading home before the scheduled end of their hunts. Changes in scheduled flights cost extra and can only happen provided the airplanes are available and provided the weather cooperates. This applies to any early or late departures and\or arrivals.

Be aware that you must have reasonable expectations on combination hunts, if you take a moose, you will be busy for at least two days, getting the meat, cleaning it, loading it on the airplane, caping the moose, fleshing and salting the cape. It all takes time, so accept that you might only get your primary animal and hope for the best for the rest of the animals you want.

Where and How:
Our exclusive outfitting areas include nearly 25,000 square miles of some of the very best moose and big game habitat in the world. We are located north and east and north and west of Whitehorse, the capital city of the Yukon Territory. You will likely fly in to Vancouver International Airport in British Columbia and then will hop on one of the daily scheduled jet flights to Whitehorse. It is about a two-hour flight from Vancouver to Whitehorse. Once there, our expeditor will meet you and transfer you to a hotel. You will stay overnight in Whitehorse and we will fly you in to our main base camp the next day, weather permitting.

We cannot control the weather and if it is inclement, you may have to hold up in Whitehorse for one or more days of your hunt. You will be responsible for your own expenses if the flights into camp are delayed. So far this year, we have only had two hunters lo nhbv se hunting days, one each, but the weather has been good so far.

To fly you in to camp, we may take you four hours up the road to another jumping off point or we may have you fly in directly from Whitehorse, this can never be predicted prior to the day you are scheduled to fly in. The flight can be one or two hours, depending on where we are taking you to hunt and you may even have another short hop in the plane if we take you to the main camp. You cannot hunt for six hours after landing, but with luck, you may be in your camp early enough to get an hour or two of hunting in that first evening. There is no charge for this, but make no mistake, even if the largest moose in the planet is standing there when you land, your guide will not break any game laws and you will have to wait the six hours before you can hunt!

You will hunt for ten days and then we will fly you out, weather permitting. You will either be flown directly to Whitehorse or will be taken to a drop location and be driven the rest of the way to Whitehorse. There you will stay the night at your expense and will be driven to the airport to catch your flight home the next day.

Meat and Antlers:
The meat from your moose (arguably the best eating of all big game animals) and\or caribou and\or Dall sheep, will be taken to Whitehorse where it will be cut and wrapped. We will then give it away to the local First Nations elders or will ship it to you after the season. If you want your meat shipped, it will be cut, wrapped, frozen and shipped in a Reefer truck to Seattle. There it will be Fed-exed over night to you. The cost will be $1,250 for all of this plus the overnight Fed-ex charges. That is extra and can only be determined when the meat is shipped.

Subject to change, we can not guarantee that the meat will be able to be shipped back to you.

Your antlers will be taken to Whitehorse to a taxidermist. You can leave it with him and he will mount your trophy(s) and ship them to you at a reasonable cost, comparable to having them done down where you live. Or the taxidermist will dry your cape, clean and boil the skull (there can be no tissue on the skull if it is to cross the international border) and will crate the cape and antlers and ship them to your taxidermist. The cost for this is approximately $650, depending on the size and weight of your crate and where you want the crate shipped. If for some reason, your cape could not be salted and fleshed by the guide; there will be an additional taxidermy charge of $320.

You can save money on shipping if you let the guide or the taxidermist cut the skull plate in two so your antlers can be “nested” for shipping. Unless your animal qualifies for the record book, this will not matter. Your taxidermist can mount the animal easily with the skull plate cut and your shipping bill will be substantially less.

If you have the time, it will also save you nearly $2,500 if you decide to drive up to Whitehorse. It is a wonderful drive, mostly along the Alaska Highway, through some of God’s most beautiful wild lands (watch for moose, deer, bears, sheep and caribou on the road), and you will save the airfare to Whitehorse and also the meat and antler and taxidermy charges.