TAG-A-LONG Outfitters Offering "Bowhunting Only" Hunts For Newfoundland Caribou & Moose!
The island Province of Newfoundland offers some special opportunities to hunters. This is the only place one can hunt Woodland Caribou (one of five sub-species of North American caribou recognized by both the Boone & Crockett and Pope & Young record keeping systems), it has the highest densities of Canadian Moose in North America, and some of the largest black bears in North America call this island their home. To make it even more "interesting" you can often put together a hunt for all three species, and do it for much less than comparable hunts anywhere else in Canada.
For all these reasons, I have spent a number of years searching out the right area and operation to work with to chase these magnificent animals. It was not easy to find the right place, especially for a bowhunter! Much of Newfoundland is covered with either seemingly never ending bogs, or the densest tangle of evergreens and tag alder a person could ever have to fight their way through. In these areas, the hunting consists of trudging through miles of bogs hoping to find animals that have moved out of heavy cover. Once found, you are looking at a long shot, or a belly crawling stalk though 6" deep cold water to hopefully get close enough for the right shot. I never enjoyed crawling through cold water in the fall, and refuse to take long shots at game! I came home from the first few trips empty handed.
Finally, a couple years ago I stumbled across a brand new operation that was opening a camp in an area that had not been hunted in 10-12 years. They had decided to try to make it "bowhunting only" and were looking for a few bowhunters to give them a try. I raised my hand, and it proved to be one of the better decisions of my hunting career. They had no moose tag allocation the first year, so I joined a few good friends on a caribou hunt. After taking a "monster" the third day of the hunt, I was able to talk the ministry into an experimental/promotional moose tag, and with only one day left of the hunt, connected on a nice bull! I was hooked, and booked a return trip the following year.
Year 2 I took a pair of record book stags (they call the caribou bulls stags in Newfoundland), and had several great opportunities on moose over 50". I could give you a list a page long of all my "excuses" for not bringing home one of those bulls, but will not bore you. I am going back this fall to try again!
Because of the great luck we have all had in this camp (they are 100 % on stags for three seasons), this camp books full early, and with the limited number of tags has to turn some people away each season. As a bowhunting consultant this created a dilemma, I have finally found a place that many of my clients want to hunt, and they cannot take them all! The obvious solution was to try to find another outfitter in the same general area, with available tag allocations, that could be talked into setting up and running a trophy bowhunting only camp.
It took a year to find the right operation, with the right mind set, which was interested in setting up a camp in a new area, and keeping it exclusively for bowhunters. The next step was to find the right camp site. I went up in February to help comb the country side on snow machine to find a place that offered everything we needed. It had to be remote enough to keep out the locals, yet have access so they could get in supplies and clients. It had to have the right mix of terrain types to hold animals and allow them to be successfully hunted by spot and stalk bowhunting. And, most importantly, it had to have lots of animals that had not been hunted! One corner of the outfitter's grandfather's old trapping area was perfect, and his brother (and excellent bowhunting guide) still traps that area every winter and knows it well. Problem is, the camp area is outside the area the outfitter's tag allocation is for.
Since winter, we have been trying to get his tags transferred to this new area, but the Ministry has been slow to move on the request, making it impossible to book clients for this season. Until now! I just found out that the outfitter has been granted six moose and six caribou tags on an experimental one season basis for this fall. I know it is late in the game to find twelve clients, but this is an unbelievable opportunity! There will never again be "the first time opportunity" to hunt this camp site. There will never again be the chance to chase moose and caribou (in this area) that have never been hunted before. The dates are open, so I can put interested clients into this camp during either the prime moose rut or the caribou rut.
Unlike most of Canada, the weather is still very seasonable during the October caribou rut, allowing hunters the opportunity to chase the biggest stags at a time when they are out chasing does. They are very susceptible to calling at this time and are easy to find and stalk. Twenty yards shots are not at all uncommon! With a high bull to cow ratio the moose are very susceptible to calling during the rut, and these guides know how to call moose!
The six day moose hunts are $2,750.00 US and the caribou hunts are $3,240.00. Prices include the cost of the tags, fly in and out of remote camp site, 1X1 guided hunt, camp cook, and preparation and retrieval of meat from the bush. Interested bowhunters should contact me for more information.