Quebec-Labrador Caribou
At one time hunters agreed with biologists in considering the caribou of northern Quebec and Labrador "woodland" caribou. Many years ago, however, it became obvious that regardless of subspecies, this caribou had antlers that averaged much larger than the caribou of Newfoundland. Caribou hunting in northern Quebec was pioneered a generation ago, and remains one of North America's most enjoyable and reliable big game adventures.

The author shot his first woodland caribou in 1986--he has yet to shoot a better bull in Newfoundland.

The traditional caribou herd is the George River herd, accessed primarily from Schefferville. It is stable today, but not as big as it once was. Still growing fast is the Leaf River herd, generally accessed from Kujuuaq, but today some outfitters reach this herd with longer flights from Schefferville.

This is a migration hunt, with camps established along traditional migration routes. Unlike most Canadian provinces, nonresidents are not required to be accompanied by a guide, so options include hunts that are fully guided, semiguided and drop camps. However, the big pitfall with any caribou hunt is that no migration route or timetable is foolproof. Routes occasionally change, and in any year may be early or late depending on the weather. The best outfitters allow you to move to where the caribou are. This can be costly, but if you miss the migration completely the alternative is spending your hunt glassing empty landscape.

The Quebec-Labrador is a large-antlered caribou, with racks that are typically tall with reasonable tops, good shovels and, most typical of this caribou, an extremely strong bez formation. Hunting is generally done from August through freezeup in late September. There is no "best time," since the migration varies, and a caribou migration is not a mad rush but a steady stream that can take weeks to cross a given point.

In September caribou are easier to judge in hard antler than in velvet; there are fewer bugs after it freezes; and if you can't hit the migration perfectly, it's better to be on the tail end than the beginning (big bulls often tail, but rarely lead, the herds).

Central Barren-Ground Caribou
Although established as a category some twenty-five years ago, this is still the "newest" of our five caribou. Its creation was based on the opening of the big herds of central Northwest Territories to nonresident hunting. I actually made the first nonresident hunt for this caribou, back in 1979, but at that time we simply called them barren ground caribou. Over the next few years it became fairly obvious that these caribou were smaller in both body and antler than the caribou of Alaska, and indeed on this one the biologists agree: They are of different subspecies than the Alaskan caribou, so a new category was created for them.

While Alaska offers a better shot at a big bull, barren-land caribou can also be found in the Yukon, where the author shot his.

Today NWT is a small but well-established caribou hunting industry, with most camps accessing country northeast from Yellowknife. The same caribou is also now hunted on a more limited basis in northern Manitoba, where some really spectacular heads have been taken in recent years.

Like northern Quebec, this caribou offers primarily a migration hunt, with camps established along traditional migration routes. In fact, back in 1979, it was near Courageous Lake where I saw the true spectacle of a caribou migration for the first time. The hunting is routinely very successful, with two caribou on license. Like most caribou hunting, this area offers a mixture of glassing and hard walking among boggy tundra tussocks. However, depending on where your specific camp is located, a fair amount of hunting is done by glassing from boats along the shorelines of larger lakes.

In appearance, these caribou are essentially similar to Alaska's. Better bulls have a "C" conformation to the main beams with a good mixture of strong shovels, good bez formations and top points. At their best these caribou are slightly smaller in both antler and body than really good Alaskan bulls, but the difference really occurs only when you're dealing with the best of the best. On average, Central Canada barren-ground caribou are magnificent and the hunting consistently reliable.