Caribou Hunt

[BD]

Jeez, a guy goes hunting for a week and the old place for posting inane ramblings is up and gone.

In any event I just got back from a very succesful caribou hunt in northern Quebec. We were lucky this year in that the migration stayed very well consolidated all the way down to the Quebec Hydro road. It is really something to see a million animals moving across the terrain together. In the two days we hunted the migration I got to watch between 8,000 and 10,000 animals pass within 100 yards of me, at times within 5 yards. In this situation shooting the animals is definately secondary to experiencing the migration.

Hunting the migration is really more about driving than hunting. "Camp" is a 42 hour drive north of where I live and the migration hit the road 175 miles east of camp, leading to a seven hour round trip to hunt each day. I filled my tag with a pair of two year old bulls the first day, and spent the second day helping out the other guys and just watching the show.

There was the usual amount of road hunter a**holery occuring along the hydro road, but if you bring a sled to pull the animals out you can leave all of that behind and hunt undisturbed animals just by walking in a mile and hunkering down in the snow. All five of us filled our tags in three days and by working at night we had the 10 animals skun out, quartered and packed by the end of day three. Any thing you leave for the next day will be frozen.

This is off topic as I was hunting with condoms because in years past, when we didn't hit the migration, shots have been long in pretty windy conditions across frozen lakes. I think it's time for me to come up with a cast boolit rifle more suitable to this task as the Canadians are definately not letting handguns in for hunting any more. A young guy with us was using a borrowed 35 rem which seemed well suited for the situation. I'm thinking a .358 win would be ideal. Any thoughts on twist? I'm thinking a bolt gun with a relatively short barrel and a low power scope. I've heard the lever action model 88's are pretty accurate, but I have no experience with one.

Although the weather was unusually warm this year, the waist deep snow and frozen lakes were a welcome chnage. It's become clear to me that my heart is in the mountains and north country. Time to start planning the end of my sojourn in the southeast.

BD

[waksupi]

Sounds like a good hunt, BD. I'd like to see that migration some time.
For twist in the .358, I beleive the 1-12 is a good rate. This handles the big 358009 class bullets well. On my newest .358, I went with a 1-14, to shoot lighter bullets. It seems to like the 225+ weight well. I also want to try lighter bullets in this, but haven't had a chance.
Thanks for the report!

[Larry Gibson]

Agree with waksupi, if you are going to use bullets up through 210 gr then a 14" twist is best but if you go heavier then the 12" twist should be better. Though I can't imagine (having hunted Ground Barren Caribou) that a 200 gr RCBS cast bullet at 2200+ fps wouldn't kill caribou out to 200 yards without problem.

Larry Gibson

[Bass Ackward]

I disagree with everybody. Does that surprise anyone?

Slow powders are where it's at for lead hunting loads. Slow powders produce the best velocities in longer tubes. 14 twist will handle up to and including 310 grain Woodies out to 300 yards and hold MOA. At that point, the groups do start to string a bit at cast velocities, but jacketed, running at jacketed velocities, keep on keepin on.

If you want to plink around with it too, you will want the 12, especially if you want to stay with that short tube.

[Bullshop]

Click click click, click click click, oh yes I know that sound of clicking hooves, and the sight of a wave of moving animals as blowing grass on the prairy tossing to and fro.
A sight to behold indeed. Nothing seems to stop the flow, not mountain, nor lake nor river, not even death amidst them.
Blessings
BIC/BS

[mainiac]

I was up there in 1990, and see the brunt of the migration. Thousands of caribue,everywhere! Would like to go back now that my boys are growing up. From here,it is about 600 miles of driving,to get to labordor city. There we took plane to shepperville, and from there flew otters into camp. Never forgot the experience. Now i have to relate something i personaly wittnessed. I have always done my hunting with a 25-06,and my friends laughed at me saying all kinds of things about my pop-gun. One guy had a 35 rem (marlin 336) and was shooting rem 200 gr core-locks. He fired 4 shots into a bulls front shoulder,and the critter just kept walking! 9 shots later,the bull made the tree line,and we never found the bull. As I say, i watched the hair fly on the shoulder when he shot them first 4 shots, they were good hits. I dont know if it was the bullet or the cartridge,but i will never forget.BTW, my pop-gun with 100 gr pills, took 2 bulls with 2 shots.

[mainiac]

Forgot to mention, the camp had a couple 18 foot canoes that we could use, if we wanted to hunt across the lake. They had 8 horse johnson motors on them. One day 3 of us was in a canoe, and a herd of bulls was crossing the lake, we cut across to them, and when we got abreast of them,we couldnt keep up with them! Motor wide open,and they were leaving us! I still remember the noise of the water as there hooves churned. Amazing experience!

[BD]

They're on a "mission" for sure. The only things that seem to bother them are people standing out in the open and the noise of snowmobiles. It's like a river flowing; the herd just splits and flows around a disturbance. If you hunker down or back into a tree they will move right on past you within just a few yards.

The key to hunting them is to find a natural choke point where you can look over the herd coming towards you, but they are single or double file as they pass your position. This lets you pick an individual animal, and minimizes the risk of a pass through shot wounding a non target animal.

As far as the .358 win, it looks like the factory ballistics for the heavier bullet weights would be pretty easy to achieve with cast. Is there a real down side to the 12 twist?

BD

[AnthonyB]

My 356 Winchester has the 12 twist and I'm very happy with it. I don't have the target saved for proof, but it has put five of the 35809 Improved at over 1900fps into an inch at 100 yards. I'm not an inch shooter, and know the rifle is capable of more accuracy than I can use in the field. It also does well with the 358156 for a plinker, but I haven't done any real accuracy testing with those loads. Tony