Two days 'till the Great White North!..been and back with muskox...PICS added...

[Ryan Rothhaar]

Been there and back....Great Trip! Scroll down for story and pics...

R


Hey guys, haven't been on here in a while...busy as busy gets...

Finally flying out friday for Ulukhaktok, NWT to chase muskox.  This hunt has been two years in the planning.  The bag is packed, the Snuffers are sharp and I've been sneaking up on the wife's Highland cattle for two weeks (she still won't let me bounce blunts off them, though!).  I'll post some pics when I get back.  Only a four day turnaround and then off to MT for a couple weeks of elk hunting (the vacation is all getting chewed up FAST this year).

Good luck on your hunts....THAT time of year is FINALLY arriving!

R

[Tom Leemans]

Best of luck to ya Ryan! I'll be checking the edge on my Snuffers soon enough! Got a new place to hunt this year!

[Gun]

Good Luck Ryan. Hope the weather is good for ya.

[Ray Hammond]

good hunting, Ryan.  

[bohuntr]

Good luck Ryan. We expect stories and lots of pictures when you get back.

[BillyBobHowdieVern]

good luck ryan and let us hear from you when you get back

john

[Guru]

Best of luck with your hunting and travels Ryan          

 Already looking forward to hearing the stories and seeing the pix!

 Take Care bud

[K.S.TRAPPER]

Be careful and good luck    
Yes,Its finally that time of year.

Tracy

[VinnieB]

good luck

[the Ferret]

Go get em Ryan!

Looking forward to the hero pics and stories  

[Joseph]

Good luck buddy, Give me a holler when you head to Montana and let me know where you wil be at.  I am in Billings now.  Joseph

[2-BIG]

Good luck Ryan!  

[hill boy]

Keep your nose in the wind and your broadheads sharp!  good luck

[Ryan Rothhaar]

Great Trip!  The Land is amazing, muskox are very interesting critters, and the people are some of the friendliest I've ever met.

To begin at the beginning....

Travel is a major part of any hunt in the Far North.  I flew from Indianapolis to Minneapolis, Edmonton and Yellowknife the first day.  Overnight in Yellowknife and off to Ulukhaktok via Kugluktuk after a meeting with the outfitter.  He told me he was putting me in a separate camp from the other two hunters (rifle hunters), which was good news as far as I was concerned.  After arriving in Ulukhaktok and meeting my guide Ross Klenkenberg and his helper Donald Notaina we drove out to camp by quad, a cabin on the shore of the Arctic Ocean approx 15 miles from town.

 

I had a talk with the guides after putting my recurve together about distances and hunting strategy.  Ross felt confident we could get close if we could find animals in broken terrain (which did not turn out to be a problem).  I made it clear I didn't want any chasing going on (illegal, but still quite common).  They had never had experience with a traditional bowhunter before and couldn't keep away from my bow.  We spent quite a bit of time shooting around camp and they had a ball.  Very good natural shots too.

Hunting consisted of covering country on the machines and glassing from high spots.  There is no shortage of muskoxen on Victoria Island and we spotted around 30 animals the first day.  The country is OPEN, but rolling.  There are no trees on the island (Ulukhaktok is approx 300 miles north of the Arctic Circle), but lots of drainages with green sedges that the muskoxen feed on.  Animals in these drainages were very stalkable.  If the muskox saw a quad, though, they got the heck out of Dodge...and they can really cover ground when they want to.

Muskox country....

 

Fortunately the days are long up there this time of year, and later in the afternoon we located a herd of muskoxen in a drainage that looked to be a good opportunity to get close...

[Jason R. Wesbrock]

.....and?  

[Killdeer]

And...?  

[Killdeer]

And...?   :eek:

[Ryan Rothhaar]

We worked into the animals on foot and ended up in a dry creek with several cows and calves above us to the right and the herd bull in the creek bottom.  A second bull tried to make a move towards the cow/calf group and the larger bull pushed him up a side drainage.  While the bulls were talking politics Ross and I made a move and ended up 10 yards away from the bigger bull with a 3 foot high bank blocking us from him.  I could see the top couple feet of his shoulder hump as he fed facing us head on for several minutes then he turned to intercept the second bull which was trying to work around behind to get to the cows.  When the bigger bull turned broadside at 20 yards I shot him in the ribs.  He ran up the bank and pushed up against a cow in a defensive position (the rest of the animals took off) and I put a second arrow in his chest for good measure.  The bull went down shortly and we actually had to wait for Donald to bring a machine to scare off the cow that decided to protect the downed bull.

 

Here we are with the bull...myself, Ross and Donald left to right.

 

Ross was very excited about the stalk, he said that was the closest he ever was to a muskox.

After we skinned and butchered the bull and were taking a tea break this little Arctic fox (summer pelage) sneaked in to steal a meal...

 

 

[Ryan Rothhaar]

After getting the bull back to camp we worked on the hide 'till dark -- boy the flesh really flew when Donald broke out the ulu.  He told me he was turning 65 next year and has used an ulu for 64 years...


The next day I asked the guys to take me out to get some pictures of live muskoxen.  We covered some country and got some really nice pics.... I'll share a couple here..

We surprised this wooly old warrior on his own out in the open and he backed up to a rock and posed for photos...he's an Old Timer, but his right horn is broken half way up so he gets a lifetime pass from the sport hunters (and the Inuit only kill young oxen to eat)-- he's out to stud for life.

 

A few miles later we found a group of animals in a drainage and stalked in close (real close actually, we backed out from 25 yards when the animals spotted us and the bull got aggressive).  I didn't want a bull getting shot just for pictures, and Ross's rusty old .222 didn't look too impressive against a mad bull muskox anyhow!

Here's a nice family group pic (that is a DANDY bull, by the way):

 

[Killdeer]

So beautiful! The land, the bull, the fox...great pictures, what a hunt!

Killdeer