A Father-son Hunt at Louisiana’s Dry Creek Ranch

My boys and I arrived at Dry Creek Ranch in southwestern Louisiana on a sunny afternoon in late winter. The Forets, part of our father-son group of hunters, arrived a few moments before us. We were out in the middle of nowhere it seemed, and happy to be so. The grounds of Dry Creek Ranch were perfectly manicured and the lodging was inviting. Off in the distance, red stags were grazing and guides driving John Deere Gators were getting ready for our hunt. The pointing and flushing dogs were whining in their kennels.

The final members of our party arrived shortly after us. Once down, we all poked through the ranch house and rooms and then met with Josh Sill. Sill, the owner of Dry Creek Ranch, swapped stories with us and made small talk until we were all ready to go. Sill owns and manages the 900-acre preserve and his love for this place and accommodating hunting groups is very evident with his great demeanor and the magnificent grounds we were looking at.

We jumped on the Gators after introductions were made with our guide and we headed to the duck pond. We were making a mallard hunt and all of our boys were ready to do some shooting. The first groups of ducks quickly came in after we set up in the ground blind. My son took a quick passing shot and knocked down his first duck on the wing. Another group came in and Todd’s son folded a drake and suddenly we were on a roll. All of the boys rotated through and the shoot was amazing. Our boys love to hunt and this opportunity was a big one in their development and passion for the sport.

After quickly filling up our limits, we headed back to the lodge and kicked back for a relaxing night and incredible dinner provided by Sill. We dined on stuffed chickens from Hebert’s Specialty Meats, corn and a garden salad. The best pecan pie, in my humble opinion, was served right after. Everyone retired to bed at different times that night, including a rambunctious bunch of boys in the adjacent room that were still high on the duck shoot that afternoon.

Their energy level kicked back up again at 5 AM, and the boys who cannot seem to get up during the school week suddenly came to life in the predawn hours, waking the whole camp. Apparently they did not get the message that the morning’s quail and chukar hunt would not start until mid-morning when the frost wore away.

Breakfast in the dining hall was eggs, sausage, and biscuits. We all devoured the delicious breakfast and then geared up for the shoot. Josh Sill met all the boys outside and then went through the safety procedures of an upland hunt. This, he said, could be one of the most dangerous kinds of hunts, so teaching the rules of safety and simulating a hunt with the boys was one of the steps to ensure a great and safe morning. The boys learned and the dads nodded approval. The guides pulled up and we took off.

Patrick Gill was our guide and we started walking a field with Gordy, a Brittany Spaniel. Gordy got birdy right away and Gill talked us through the steps he wanted us all to take to get a good shot and make sure that our party of hunters were all safe. Gordy nudged closer and with a stomp of our guide’s foot, a drake pheasant erupted from the brush and took off in to the wind. With a report from the Remington 1187, the rooster fell quick and dead. The hunt was on.

Steve Lanza and his son were in our group for this hunt. The dads held a gun at the ready on the right flank as backup to the boys. Our help was not needed very often. The boys took to wing shooting like they did riding a bike not too many years before. After a few misses they started to pick it up and soon looked like veterans.

Gill, in his mid-twenties, was a superb guide. He laughed and joked with the boys, told stories in between shots, ran Gordy and made everyone feel special. He was a role model and teacher for the boys and he put us in some great action on the field.

About midway through the hunt, Gill gave Gordy a break and pulled out Ranger, a German short-haired pointer, and Layla, an English setter, to close out the hunt. We had flushed some birds that had stretched the hunting field some and rangier dogs were needed to lock on to the strays so we could finish the hunt. Ranger took to the field and covered a lot of ground fast. Layla worked hard too, if not a little slower and maybe a little more thorough. But Ranger found bird scent and went from a full run to a locked point. Gill screamed out a “WHOA!” and Layla abruptly stopped where she was and honored Ranger’s point. We worked our way to the pointing statue of a dog and flushed a chukar. Down it fell after another great shot by our boys. The dogs took off to find more.

Our hunt and stay at Dry Creek Ranch was a great experience. The lodging is top notch and the bird hunting is the kind that keeps you dreaming of coveys and bird dogs on point. The boys and dads told stories for days, and those stories will likely be told for years and be a part of history like the pictures on the walls of Dry Creek. Great memories were made on that father-son hunt at a great establishment in Southwest Louisiana. We all look forward to returning again next year.

Read and join the discussion on A Father-son Hunt at Louisiana’s Dry Creek Ranch at OutdoorHub.com.

Making Your Black Bear Hunt the Trip of a Lifetime with George Flournoy

Author’s note: George Flournoy has made numerous hunting trips to Canada, Alaska and Africa and is a PSE pro. He also provides information for hunters about hunting in these countries and books trips for hunters.

For many hunters, a black bear hunt is the trip of a lifetime. On a black bear hunt, you have several different options and methods for hunting. You can go on a baited hunt, which means you’ll be hunting over bait. On the baited hunt, you may be asked to pay for the baiting, and/or for the pre-baiting of the bear, before you arrive. Farther east in Canada, in Saskatchewan and Alberta, these hunts are fairly reasonable and will cost from $2,500 to about $3,000, for a week-long hunt. On these hunts, you will be put on a stand and hunt over bait. You will be hunting out of an established camp, but on these hunts you may be like the 37th hunter to hunt out of that camp, that year. Your chances for killing a really big trophy bear won’t be as good as if you’re hunting somewhere else. Also, in British Columbia, you can go on dog bear hunts, which cost about $4,000 to $5,000. The majority of these bears will be black color phase and larger than the bears you find in Saskatchewan and Alberta. But in Saskatchewan and Alberta, your odds will be better for taking a brown color-phase black bear. These hunts over bait are usually scheduled for April, May, and June. The dog hunts are usually scheduled in late August and early September.

An Alaskan black bear hunt is usually an add-on to another hunt, like a moose hunt. On most all of your hunts in Alaska, you can add on a wolf tag for $25, and a black bear tag for $25. This way, if you see a black bear or a wolf on your hunt, you also can take those animals. There are some boat hunts for black bears available out of Prince William and Prince George islands that take place between May and June 1. Your camp is the boat. You get off on the island and hunt every day for five or six days along the beach for black bear. These boat hunts cost about $4,500 to $5,000. The success ratio on these hunts is usually pretty high.

If you’re hunting for a really big trophy black bear of a lifetime, I probably will go on a spring hunt in southeast Alaska or British Columbia. That hunt will cost about $6,500 for everything, which includes a six- to seven-day black bear hunt. Always read your contract with your outfitter carefully. Make sure you know what your financial responsibilities are, before you sign the contract with your outfitter. On the black bear hunts, you will have to have a CITES (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species) permit issued by the Canadian government. Once you get that CITES permit from the game department, you will have no problem bringing your black bear back into this country.

A question I’m often asked is, “How far in advance should I book a hunt?” I always recommend you look at a minimum of two years in advance. The only exception to this rule is if you can go at anytime that your outfitter might have a cancellation. You may not have any more than 24 hours’ notice to take advantage of that hunt. Remember, you must have a lot of flexibility to leave quickly, get on a plane and go on one of these hunts. Just about every outfitter will have from two to four cancellations every year, to hunt each one of the species we have discussed.

For instance, if you go to the Safari Club Convention in January 2013, if you want to hunt moose, you probably will book your hunt for the fall of 2014, with the exception of black bear or caribou. You often can book a hunt for these two species in January for the fall of the same year, but for sheep, brown bear, or moose, you’re more than likely going to have to book two years in advance. If you book two years out, most outfitters or booking agents will expect a 25-percent deposit, to confirm your booking. Then, they will expect a 50-percent deposit by the year of your hunt. If you have booked a two-year hunt, you have put up a 50-percent deposit, and you cancel that hunt two months before the hunt takes place, you’ll usually lose your deposit. Once again, read your contract where this information is spelled out. If you cancel six to eight months before your hunt, you may have the option to roll your hunt over to the next year or may have the option of trying to find a buddy who will take your hunt. This way you can get a partial refund of your money that you put up for deposit.

For more information, you can contact George at gflournoy@iglide.net or call him at 1-755-673-5513.

To get “Bowhunting Deer: The Secrets of the PSE Pros” by John E. Phillips, go to http://www.amazon.com/kindle-ebooks, type in the name of the book, and download it to your Kindle and/or download a Kindle app for your iPad, SmartPhone or computer.

Read and join the discussion on Making Your Black Bear Hunt the Trip of a Lifetime with George Flournoy at OutdoorHub.com.

Advice for Your Dall Sheep Hunting Trip from George Flournoy

Author’s note: George Flournoy has made numerous hunting trips to Canada, Alaska, and Africa and is a PSE pro. He also provides information for hunters about hunting in these countries and books trips for hunters.

A Dall sheep hunt is the dream of many bow- and gun hunters. In Canada, the season opens on July 15 and in Alaska on August 1. All of these are backpack hunts in the mountains. Stone sheep hunts are August 1 in British Columbia, and in the Yukon, these hunts are also backpack hunts. If I’m booking this hunt for myself, I’ll book a September hunt.

I have taken two Dall sheep with my bow. Both of those hunts were in September in the Northwest Territories. I was there on the first hunt of the year, on July 1. I took both rams on the first day of the season with my PSE bow. I really like the longer-haired rams, which usually will show up around August 15. Your best long-hair rams are in mid-September until October 1. The later in the season you plan your hunt, the greater your odds will be for inclement weather. You have a real dilemma here, in that the later you plan your hunt, the longer the hair will be on the sheep, but also your chances of losing hunting days are much greater later in the season. Most sheep hunts are booked back to back. So, if you book a 14- or a 15-day hunt, rarely if ever will an outfitter give you additional days of hunting because of inclement weather. When you’re hunting sheep, you never know what the weather will do. When you go sheep hunting, you may have 15 days of good weather and good sheep hunting, or you may have seven or eight days of your 15-day hunt when weather prevents you from hunting. There’s really nothing an outfitter can do about bad weather. I suggest you be prepared to lose two or three days to weather, on almost any hunt.

The Dall sheep hunts in Alaska are a little bit cheaper and cost between $8,000 to $10,000. The Northwest Territories and Yukon hunts costs about $15,000 to $18,000. The more expensive hunts are usually horseback hunts where you’re flown into a base camp and all your gear is loaded on a pack stream string and taken into the mountain ranges. You usually will have a guide, a cook, a wrangler, and possibly a sub-wrangler. So, you have a pretty large crew of people trying to help you get your animal. On the Alaskan hunts, you are flown into a mountain range and dropped off with your guide and your backpack gear. You have a strictly backpack hunt.

If I’m booking a sheep hunt for myself, I probably will choose a Dall sheep hunt in the Northwest Territories. I have hunted from a town called Norman Wells, which is about 70 or 80 miles from the Arctic Circle. I also have hunted in Nahanni Butte country in the Northwest Territories, where you are flown into your base camp by helicopter and dropped off on the top of a mountain. On those hunts, you will be walking down the top of a backbone ridge, and you will be looking down the mountain for sheep. You will move all along this backbone ridge for about 10 or 12 days, during your hunt. This hunt is really good for bowhunters, because the success ratio is very high. This area has traditionally been where bowhunters seem to have the most success. One of the reasons that bowhunters have had so much success is because when you’re on top of the ridge glassing -down, you can cover much more country than if you’re at the bottom of the ridge glassing-up. Also, when you are on top of the ridge, the hunter stays more rested and doesn’t have to spend most of his day climbing. On these mountains, there are little tabletops or plateaus with pine ridges, which provide good cover for stalking sheep. The hunts in the Nahanni Range cost about $15,000, which includes the helicopter ride into the mountains. But the helicopter ride isn’t included on some of the hunts. This expense is one you need to negotiate with your outfitter or your booking agent.

I suggest you talk to two or three outfitters. Take a day or two, think over each outfitter’s deals and evaluate the costs and how successful each outfitter has been with bowhunters. Then, make the best decision. There aren’t many hidden costs in a sheep hunt. The Dall sheep can be tagged. Then the head and cape can be rolled up and put in your duffel bag, and you can carry that bag on as carry-on luggage. I have flown straight from Canada into San Francisco, California, with a Dall sheep in a duffle bag as carry-on luggage.

For more information, you can contact George at gflournoy@iglide.net or call him at 1-755-673-5513.

To get “Bowhunting Deer: The Secrets of the PSE Pros” by John E. Phillips, go to http://www.amazon.com/kindle-ebooks, type in the name of the book, and download it to your Kindle and/or download a Kindle app for your iPad, SmartPhone or computer.

Read and join the discussion on Advice for Your Dall Sheep Hunting Trip from George Flournoy at OutdoorHub.com.

Making Your Dream Moose Hunt a Reality with George Flournoy

Author’s note: George Flournoy has made numerous hunting trips to Canada, Alaska, and Africa and is a PSE pro. He also provides information for hunters about hunting in these countries and books trips for hunters.

A big bull trophy moose will weigh about 1,400 pounds. One of the first things to consider if you’re planning a moose hunt, is that every piece of edible meat has to be brought back to the town where your hunt has originated, to the game department in that town. After you have tagged your moose in the field, you have to bring the horns, the hide, and the meat to the game department. When the regulations say all the edible meat, this includes all the meat between the ribs, the neck meat, and the lower leg meat. You’ll have a huge amount of meat, plus a huge cape and hopefully a large set of horns to transport.

If your moose hunt costs $15,000, your charter flight into your hunting camp and back will cost another $1,500. The flight to carry your meat out will also cost about $1,500. That’s an additional $3,000 to get you and your moose into and out of camp, and your moose out of camp and back to your town of origin. Then you will have to pay an additional amount to fly your horns out. If you want your horns brought out in one piece, so they can be mounted, or if you plan to have a European skull mount of your trophy, there will have to be another flight, usually with two or three other hunter’s horns. The cost for that flight can usually be $200 or $300 more. If you’re taking a non-hunter, like a buddy, your wife, or a girlfriend, you can expect to pay another $2,000 or $3,000 for the hunt. In sum, your moose hunt may cost $20,000 to $30,000, if you’re successful.

Driving a pickup from the lower 48 up to Canada or Alaska is still a much cheaper way to get to and from your hunt with your trophies and your meat. Once you get your meat back to your point of origin, and it has been certified by the game department, your outfitter can distribute the meat to the needy people in the area, or the local guides can divide the meat up, and/or you can choose the pieces of meat you want to bring back. If you have taken a truck with some coolers in it, you can bring all your meat back, but if you fly in, you will have to pay for additional baggage to bring the meat you want back home.

Where to Go

In most instances, the moose hunts that you see on outdoor TV shows aren’t the type of moose hunt you’ll have. On TV, oftentimes you see the host fly into camp, get into a canoe, float down a river, and take his moose at 10 to 50 yards from the river’s edge. Some of those hunts may take three years of pursuing a moose to get that 20-minute episode that you see on TV. You have to remember on all these big game hunts you see on TV, they usually don’t take their animals on the first day of the hunt, or the first hunt they go on.

If you see a TV show where the moose is being called in close enough for a hunter to take that moose with a bow, most of those hunts are taking place in the Yukon at the first of October. In British Columbia, the season starts about October 10. In Alaska, most of the moose seasons close about September 25, before the heaviest part of the rut is starting. Therefore, your chances of hunting a rutting moose in Alaska are usually not very good. If you want to hunt moose in the rut, more than likely, you’ll have to hunt in British Columbia or the Yukon. The Yukon has the longest moose season, and that is where most of the TV hosts go to film moose hunts. Most moose hunts are scheduled for 10 to 14 days. Often you will lose four or five hunting days due to inclement weather. If you get lucky and get to hunt all 14 days of your hunt, and your hunt falls between the dates of September 24-28, you will have an excellent chance to spot-and-stalk moose in the Yukon. The moose will be rutting, and you have a good chance of calling in a moose.

An Alaskan hunt will more than likely be from a base camp or a spike camp on top of a mountain. On an Alaskan hunt, the hunting technique you will use generally will be spot-and-stalk. You’ll walk across the tops of these mountains and use your spotting scopes to glass willow flats and look for moose. Then you can spot and stalk down the mountain to try and get in for a close shot at the animal. If you’re bowhunting for moose, you really need to spend some time talking with booking agents and outfitters to learn as much as you can about the hunt before you get there. All moose hunts are a little different, and the demands on the hunter can be quite different–from Alaska to Canada, and from ridge-top hunting to canoe hunting.

Maximizing Your Chances

If I was scheduling a moose hunt for myself right now and taking my best friend, I believe I’d book a Yukon moose hunt in Canada for some time between September 25 and October 10. There are usually two hunts in that time frame. Some years the early hunts are the best, and other years, the late hunt is the best. There is no way of knowing for sure which one of the hunts will be best for your taking a moose. That hunt will cost right around $20,000.

For more information, you can contact George at gflournoy@iglide.net or call him at 1-755-673-5513.

To get “Bowhunting Deer: The Secrets of the PSE Pros” by John E. Phillips, go to http://www.amazon.com/kindle-ebooks, type in the name of the book, and download it to your Kindle and/or download a Kindle app for your iPad, SmartPhone or computer.

Read and join the discussion on Making Your Dream Moose Hunt a Reality with George Flournoy at OutdoorHub.com.

George Flournoy’s Tips for Planning Your Alaskan Brown Bear Bowhunt

Author’s note: George Flournoy has made numerous hunting trips to Canada, Alaska and Africa and is a PSE pro. He also provides information for hunters about hunting in these countries and books trips for hunters.

If you’re a bowhunter, and want to take a brown bear, which is one of the biggest dangerous game animals in the Americas, here are some things you should know about brown bear hunting in Alaska.

• A bear that lives more than 150 miles from the ocean is classified as a grizzly bear (a subspecies of brown bear) in Alaska. If you take a bear within 150 miles of the ocean, it is classified as a brown bear.
• You can divide Alaska almost in half. All the land west of Anchorage is considered western Alaska and is where the largest brown bears are. The bears in this section of the state often will weigh from 900 to 950 pounds and stand 10 to 10-1/2 feet tall. In southeastern Alaska, there are more brown bears than there are in western Alaska. But the bear in this part of the state are quite a bit smaller than the bears in western Alaska, averaging 600 to 750 pounds. Finding a 10-foot-tall brown bear in this part of Alaska will be rare. These two types of brown bear are basically the same animal. They are just in two different sizes.
• The southeastern Alaska brown bear hunts are generally less expensive than the western brown bear hunts. Southeastern brown bear hunts cost about $10,000, and the bear hunts in western Alaska cost between $13,000 and $14,000.
• The opportunity to slip up on and get within range of a brown bear is much greater in southeastern Alaska than in western Alaska. One of the advantages of going through a booking agent is that he can tell you, based on his experience, what size bears are being taken in different areas of Alaska and Canada, and what size bear you may have the opportunity to take with various outfitters.
• The earlier you hunt in the season, the lighter the bears’ hair will be. The later you hunt in the season, the thicker and the longer the hair will be on the bears you hunt.
•  Some areas of Alaska only have brown bear hunts every other year.
• You will go to your base camp in western Alaska in a float plane most of the time. Your spike camp probably will be on the top of a mountain or near the mouth of several river drainages, where the bears are feeding on salmon. You will mostly be hunting tundra and clumps of willows.
• The primary way of hunting in southeastern Alaska will be stalking along the river banks in more heavy cover than you’ll encounter in western Alaska. You will be hunting in the mountains and in the timber country.

Hidden expenses for hunting brown bears:

Usually, there aren’t many hidden expenses on a brown or a grizzly bear hunt. However, make sure before you book that there are no trophy fees involved that vary depending on the size of bear you take. When you’re choosing an outfitter, be sure to go over your contract for the hunt before you sign it, talk to other hunters who have hunted with this outfitter before, and find out if they had to pay for any extras.

Getting your trophy back (your bear skin and skull) is fairly simple. Your bear skin usually goes to a taxidermist in Alaska where it is fleshed, salted and dried, and then can be shipped right to your taxidermist in the United States. The bear skull is usually included with the bear rug and shipped to your taxidermist in the same box. The bear hunt is one of the easiest hunts in Alaska for bringing your trophies back home. If I was booking a brown bear hunt for me or my best friend, I probably would book it for either early or mid-May, when the bears have the thickest and the longest hair. I would also consider booking a late fall hunt, when the salmon are still coming up the rivers. As a bowhunter, I would probably book a September hunt in western Alaska for a spot-and-stalk hunt along the rivers.

For more information, you can contact George at gflournoy@iglide.net or call him at 1-755-673-5513.

To get the books “How to Hunt Deer Up Close: With Bows, Rifles, Muzzleloaders and Crossbows” and “Bowhunting Deer: The Secrets of the PSE Pros” by John E. Phillips, go to http://www.amazon.com/kindle-ebooks, type in the names of the books, and download them to your Kindle and/or download a Kindle app for your iPad, SmartPhone or computer.

Read and join the discussion on George Flournoy’s Tips for Planning Your Alaskan Brown Bear Bowhunt at OutdoorHub.com.

Planning a Caribou Dream Hunt with George Flournoy

Author’s note: George Flournoy has made numerous hunting trips to Canada, Alaska and Africa and is a PSE pro. He also provides information for hunters about hunting in these countries and books trips for hunters.

Now’s the time to start planning for and saving your money for a North American big game hunt. The good news is if you do your research, begin to collect the gear that you will need, interview and find the outfitter you want to hunt with, you only may have to put down a 20-percent deposit. Then you will have two years to save up the money to pay for the hunt. For many bowhunters and rifle hunters, taking a caribou in Canada or Alaska is the trip of a lifetime. So, let’s look at some things you may want to consider.

For instance, if you want to get within bow or blackpowder rifle range of a caribou, you’ll need an experienced guide who has worked with hunters in the past and knows how to get them in close enough to take shots with their bows or muzzleloaders.

To begin to develop your plans for the hunt of a lifetime, I suggest that you go to one of the big sports and outdoors shows, like the Safari Club International show in Reno, Nevada. The next show will be held January 23-26, 2013. The Dallas Safari Club show will be held January 3-6, 2013. These places are where many outfitters go to meet potential clients.

Just remember, some of these outfitters are like used car salesmen. You can hear just about anything you want to hear that will cause you to book a trip with them. Some of your information will come from talking with friends and acquaintances who have been on hunts with caribou outfitters in Canada and Alaska. Find out who they recommend and why, or talk with a booking agent who has hunted with one of these outfitters. They can give you first-hand information about which outfitter can provide the type hunt you’ll enjoy the most. Remember, a booking agent has his business and grows his business from satisfied customers. Therefore, the agent wants to help you find the type of outfitter who will help produce that dream hunt of a lifetime for you. In considering an agent, make sure you also talk to someone who discusses with you the possible down side of a hunt.

Here are some questions to ask the outfitter/guide:

• Does he have any openings for the year you want to hunt and the dates you want to hunt?
• Can you hunt a caribou bull in the velvet, and when?
• Ask about the outfitter’s bad weather policy, because in Canada and Alaska you may lose two or three days of hunting due to bad weather. Find out how many days the hunt will last, and whether you can extend your hunt at no extra cost for three to five days if bad weather prevents you from hunting during your scheduled time.
• Learn how much experience the outfitter has with bowhunting or blackpowder hunting, because the guide’s responsibility is to get you in close enough to take a bull.
• Ask about how far you’re expected to shoot accurately.
• Know your guide’s past experience with hunters who have used the equipment you plan on using.
• Learn if there has been a herd die-off in the area, and how dependable the migration has been each year, before you go. In a September hunt, all the bulls will be in hard antler with white capes, and the bulls will be on the march, migrating. There have been huge die-offs of caribou in Quebec and Labrador, and among the Barren Ground caribou in Alaska. Caribou numbers are down almost everywhere, due to disease, and in Labrador and Quebec, the increase in the number of coyotes. The result has been that quite a few caribou calves have been killed. But I can’t say what the truth is about the declining number of caribou. Knowing herd trends in the area you plan to hunt is critical.
• Find out what the total cost of your actual caribou hunt will be. At this writing, the cost is about $6,500 to $7,500.

Unexpected expenses and hassles to consider:

The airline fees keep changing, including costs for luggage. If you’re going on an extended caribou or sheep hunt, you’ll probably need one or two additional bags, which means you’ll have three or four pieces of luggage. These extra bags may cost you $100 or $200 each on every leg of your flight, to get to your destination. Say you’re flying from Florida to Chicago, then from Chicago to Edmonton, and from Edmonton to Fairbanks, well, every one of those legs of your flight will cost you $100 or $200 for your extra luggage.

Most outfitters will limit you to 50 pounds of gear when you’re on your hunt, but you can take all the gear you want to into your base camp. That 50 pounds on the hunt is usually considered your maximum, whether you’re getting to your hunting destination by horseback, float plane or canoe. You’ll always need rain gear, two pairs of boots and if you are hunting later in the year, pack some snow boots. When you consider these basic essentials, 50 pounds isn’t much gear to take on a hunt.

You need to be aware that if you’ve ever had any type of law enforcement violation in your past, regardless of how minor it may be, all the way back to college or high school days, you may not be permitted to enter Canada with a gun. Recently, I had a party on a bear hunt to Vancouver Island. One of their members had been arrested for a DUI 35 years ago, when he was in college. The Canadian government wouldn’t allow him to enter Canada because of that DUI.

The person you meet with as you go into customs can make these kinds of decisions. I had some Mexican clients from Sonoma, Mexico on a September hunt a year ago. The customs officer even asked them if they ever had been to the Middle East. Getting your guns into Canada can be difficult. Before you arrive, the Canadian government will send you a form. When you fill out the form and send them the serial number of the gun you’ll be hunting with, you cannot take a different gun into Canada. You absolutely have to use the gun that has that serial number on it. For this reason, many Canadian outfitters have guns that their clients can rent or borrow. This way you don’t have to be concerned about getting your gun into Canada.

You’ll want to bring your meat home, but that’s usually limited to 50 or 100 pounds, depending on how much you have to pay to ship the meat with you on the plane. If you want to bring all your meat home with you, instead of flying, you may want to drive to your hunting destination with either a pickup truck or towing a trailer. Then, you can bring all your meat home with you. Your capes have to be dried, and your horns have to be crated to ship home. Oftentimes the expense can be about $500 for crating and shipping your horns home. Because of the additional expense, I believe the sportsman can save a lot of money, depending on where he lives, by driving to his hunting destination instead of flying. If you plan to drive instead of flying, all expenses for the trip will be about $10,000. If you fly, your expenses will be close to $12,000, all inclusive.

If I was booking a caribou hunt for me or for my best friend, I would book a September hunt. I like hard-horned caribou, the capes would be white by then, and the caribou migration starts in September. You may be looking down in a canyon and see 200 or 300 caribou in one day. Once you find one of those migration trails, you generally can set up a good blind along that migration trail and have a really good opportunity for a trophy bull.

Equipment checklist for a caribou hunt:

• 1 good external-frame backpack (Kelty Omega, Camp Trails, Cabela’s Outfitter)
• a proven means of carrying a bow or gun so hands are free
• 1 par of good broken-in hiking boots; preferably one-piece leather sides and waterproof
• 3 pairs of heavy socks
• 1 pair of long underwear
• 3 pairs of underwear
• 2 polar fleece shirts for layers
• 1 light sweat-wicking shirt
• 1 pair of polar fleece or light wool pants
• 1 2-piece lightweight rain suit
• 1 wool jacket with a hood, lightweight but warm
• 1 lightweight warm sleeping bag
• 1 lightweight Therm-a-Rest mattress pad
• 2 wide-mouth 2-quart water bottles
• 1 lightweight rifle with 300-yard capability, 60 shells
• 1 bow with 70-yard-plus capability, 30 arrows (carbon recommended)
• 1 mosquito jacket
• 1 quality pair of binoculars
• 1 good camera
• 1 plastic or metal cup and spoon
• 1 waterproof bag; 16×30 inches

Optional equipment:

• 1 range finder
• 1 spotting scope
• 1 video camera
• stocking cap
• 1 stuff pillow
• any of your own preferred food

What to understand:

You will have to put a bulk package of food in your backpack, consisting of freeze-dried food, chocolate bars, drink packages and salt. The total weight of this should be 10-12 pounds. Make sure that you have used your pack before you hunt, and test all the straps and fittings. Please work out physically before you come, because that will make your trip that much more enjoyable.

For more information, you can contact George at gflournoy@iglide.net or call him at 1-755-673-5513.

To get Bowhunting Deer: The Secrets of the PSE Pros by John E. Phillips, go to http://www.amazon.com/kindle-ebooks, type in the name of the book, and download it to your Kindle and/or download a Kindle app for your iPad, SmartPhone or computer.

Read and join the discussion on Planning a Caribou Dream Hunt with George Flournoy at OutdoorHub.com.

The Dog Men’s Deer Season Tradition

Deer hunting is a lot of fun, and most Michiganders avidly anticipate to the traditional November 15 start of the firearms season. But some friends and I have another tradition we partake in for a day during the last two weeks of November.

We’re dog men, and like to take our pooches hunting on a Michigan shooting preserve.

The tradition started when pal Tom Carney, editor of Upland Almanac and The Bird Hunting Report, invited members of our regular October bird camp to hunt quail at the impressive Farmland Pheasants operation near Brown City on the east side of the state. Pretty soon the annual event became known as “Carney’s Quail Quest,” and noted dog trainer Preston Mann, Jr. of Farmland Pheasants, always put out some hot-flying quail for us.

The first time I attended, I left my barely trained golden retriever Coach at home and we hunted with just Lucy, Tom’s great English setter. In subsequent years I did bring the hard-charging Coach, and dogs and men all had a good time, even the year we attempted what became known as “The Coursing Retriever Experiment.”

The coursing retriever scenario requires at least two dogs, a pointer and a retriever. The pointer finds the bird and points, while the retriever remains at heel until the handler sends it in to flush the bird that the pointer has pointed.

Sounds simple and it is, although to be doable, you must have a pointer that will stay steady on the bird, and a retriever that heels. And while Lucy was a stellar pointer, exemplary of her breed, Coach was a hot-blooded field-trial stock in the hands of someone (me) who didn’t know the first thing about training a dog. Heeling was not his forte.

But it still sounded like a good idea, so Tom brought Lucy and we met at Preston’s place with several other friends of Tom’s, and headed to our quail-filled field. I had Coach on a leash, and he came very near to separating my shoulder while he tore up big clods of turf while watching Lucy run free. We weren’t the field for five minutes when she slammed on point, and Huntmaster Tom rallied the hunters in a semi-circle around the steady white dog. Coach meanwhile continued moving earth and straining my rotator cuff. Finally, the moment of truth arrived.

“Send in the flusher!” commanded Carney.

I gratefully dropped the leash and Coach, who had the best nose of any dog I owned before or since, charged in front of Lucy, sniffed and snorted in the clump of and then made an audible “Ulp!” as he grabbed the poor little quail that made the mistake of not flying.

Thus ended the coursing retriever experiment.

When Preston’s source of quail dried up, Carney’s Quail Quest became Carney’s Pheasant Fest, and the fun continued through the years, although for various reasons the tradition stopped about seven years ago.

Carney and I are looking forward to renewing it next week when we take Tom’s new setter pup Abbey and my five-year-old (and much better trained) golden Gabe out to Rolling Hills Shooting Preserve near Marcellus.

While it would be nice to be able to hunt wild pheasants, those are few these days in the Great Lakes state. The alternatives are hunt clubs or preserves where pheasants are raised under high nets and are released the day of the hunt. With few exceptions, they act pretty much like inexperienced wild birds. While wild roosters are adept at taking to the air 40 or 50 yards in front of hunters, preserve birds usually get in the air a lot closer. Preserves can be the only choice for dog men who want to work and train their canine companions with live birds without making a trip to the Dakotas.

My grandfather once gave me some sage advice about beer brands when he said “They’re all good and some are better,” and that’s pretty true of hunting preserves, too. Rolling Hills, (http://www.rollinghillshunting.com/ 269-646-9164) where I’ve been several times, is a better one in that the birds are strong and the landscape is hilly enough to be challenging, but not brutally so for older fellows such as myself. The cover is also varied with plenty of places for birds to hide in native flora. The same is true of Farmland Pheasants (http://www.farmlandpheasant.com/ 810-346-3672), which encompasses several farms with fields set aside for wild plants to grow. Some hunting preserves I’ve experienced set pheasants out in picked-over bean fields and it’s not unlike hunting in an unkempt parking lot. Still fun, just not as challenging—or as much exercise for the dogs and hunters.

For a list of hunting preserves in Michigan, check out www.michiganhuntingpreserves.com.

For more information on Michigan hunting go to michigan.org.

Read and join the discussion on The Dog Men’s Deer Season Tradition at OutdoorHub.com.

What Dreams are Made Of

Have you ever heard the sound of light freezing rain as it lands on a tent, ground blind, or a ladder stand? Have you ever noticed the smell of an approaching rain storm, and did it cause you to stop and dream of being out fishing? Does a painting or photograph of an old barn, snow-covered fence row, ocean waves or a foggy river bottom cause you to live in a moment that is simply perfect?

I believe there are moments in life that captivate the soul and reserve a special place in our hearts. These moments, when called forth, not only power our dreams but also shape our present reality. For years I have told people that my life begins at 65 degrees; a temperature at which the hot summer sun is broken and deer season begins, at which old man winter gives way to the spring turkey season and spawning fish. We each relive memories that are special to us, but how often do we find ourselves in the moment where a dream is being crafted, a moment you realize will haunt your passions for a lifetime?

It is the fall of 2012 and I have come to realize that I am experiencing such an instance while standing the in the heart of Buffalo County, Wisconsin as a 55-degree late morning breaks into a misty, overcast afternoon. With more rain on the way and the wind lightly blowing across corn rows planted nearby, I find myself in a moment that dreams are made of. This realization occurred while I stood on the porch of a 100-year old homestead encompassed by tall bluffs covered in oak trees. Neighboring the old farm house is a resolute red barn that in of itself could tell legendary stories. I can smell bacon frying, hear laughter from the bunkhouse and feel the heat steaming from my coffee cup. In this moment the world stops spinning, there is no stress, and the one thing I long for is the opportunity to capture this memory to share with others.

Dreams shape our passions as well as our realities. My passions are more than just hunting, trapping and fishing. They are a pursuit of a frozen time when life is simple, elegant and perfect. When temperatures reach 65 degrees, my heart continues to smile and when a cool damp wind blows over my shoulder I will smell the truth in life. Now more than ever will have a benchmark for measuring what dreams are made of.

In closing, I must confess that I’m not sure what Tom Indrebo expects to see when he reaches heaven. I can’t imagine it’s anything more perfect than what he already has. Tom and his family own Bluff Country Outfitters located in Buffalo County, Wisconsin, the place I speak of in this story. Please consider visiting Bluff Country Outfitters for terrific views and the biggest bucks in the United States. You can read my full review here.

Read and join the discussion on What Dreams are Made Of at OutdoorHub.com.

Estimating the Cost of African Safaris with Bowhunter George Flournoy

Editor’s note: Avid bowhunter George Flournoy has made six safaris to Africa lasting more than 30 days and several other safaris with other hunters, videotaping their hunts. He helps hunters find the types of hunts they’re looking for on the Dark Continent. He advises them on what to take and what to leave at home, tells them what to expect and helps bowhunters pick the hunts that fit their pocketbooks.

“What will an African hunt cost?” is one of the most frequently asked questions for me. From the time people leave their homes until the day they return, they want to know how much money they’ll need for a round-trip ticket from Atlanta to Johannesburg, South Africa, and other costs. At this writing, the cost is about $1,750. Now the airfare price fluctuates up and down every year by about $200, but this cost is the average. If you take an extra, medium-sized duffel bag with you, you’ll usually pay $100 to $150 extra. So, pack as lightly as possible.

I always recommend a 10-day safari. I never recommend anyone going to Africa for less than 10 days. This type of hunt will cost you $4,000 to $4,500. Now your bill is about $6,500. If you have a pretty successful 10-day hunt, and you take five animals on your 10-day plains game hunt, your trophy fees will average about $3,000 to $3,500. If you take more animals, your trophy fees will be higher. You can expect to pay about $10,000 for your entire hunt, door to door.

Your outfitter will tell you about how much you can expect to leave for a tip, which usually averages about $100 a day for a bowhunt. So, for a 10-day hunt, the average is about $1,000 in tip money. Generally, your professional hunter will distribute the tips for you to the people who are supposed to receive them. You usually pay $5 to $10 a day for the tracker.

About 6 months after you return home, you will receive a shipping bill for shipping your five or six trophies, which can usually be put in one box to your home or taxidermist. The shipping bill is usually 1,200 to $1,300, depending on how big the shipping crate is, and how many animals you have in it. If you’ve only taken four or five animals, you only may have to pay $400 or $500 for shipping–another cost you need to find out from the outfitter with whom you plan to hunt. I never suggest that a bowhunter leave his animals in Africa to be mounted. You’ll probably be told that having your trophies mounted in Africa will cost less than it will to have them shipped home and mounted. I promise you that it will not be less expensive. Also, you have absolutely no recourse if anything is wrong with your trophy if your animal is mounted in Africa.

Let’s say that you have had a highly successful hunt and taken six animals. On big animals like gemsbok, you can expect to pay about $1,200 for each animal to be mounted. A warthog will cost in the neighborhood of $600 to be mounted, impalas about $400 dollars, a zebra rug about $1,200 to $1,400 and a Cape buffalo about $1,700 for a shoulder mount. Learn from your taxidermist what you’ll be charged for each animal you plan to take before you leave this country, and about how long the mounting process will take once the taxidermist receives the animals. I suggest that you look for a taxidermist who specializes in safari animals. You are probably looking at $850 to $900 per animal that you take on a 10-day plains game animal safari.

Oftentimes, if you take your animals early, your outfitter may offer you the option of returning to Johannesburg for a day or two of sightseeing and shopping. If you take this option, you may want to consider taking an additional $800 to $1000 for spending money. You can eliminate this cost completely if you don’t plan to go shopping. But I don’t think I ever have had a bowhunter go to Africa who doesn’t want to bring home gifts and souvenirs. Therefore, from the time you leave home to go to Africa until you get back home, and your animals are mounted and put on the wall, you’ll spend around $18,000 to $20,000 total for a 10-day plains game African bowhunt.

Since 1971, Flournoy, who has shot PSE bows for 30 years, has been helping hunters find the type of African hunt and African game animals they want to take. For answers to any questions you may have about an African hunt, whether, you’re a first-timer or a veteran of many African bowhunts, Flournoy will be happy to help you. You can contact him at gflournoy@iglide.net or call him at 1-755-673-5513.

You’ll learn more-intensive hunting information and tips from nationally-known hunters in the new Kindle eBooks, “Bowhunting Deer: The Secrets of the PSE Pros” and “Jim Crumley’s Secrets for Bowhunting Deer” by John E. Phillips. Go to http://www.amazon.com/kindle-ebooks, type in the name of the book, and download it to your Kindle, and/or download a Kindle app for your iPad, SmartPhone or computer.

Read and join the discussion on Estimating the Cost of African Safaris with Bowhunter George Flournoy at OutdoorHub.com.

Bowhunter George Flournoy on How to Pick an African Outfitter and Safari Packing Tips

Editor’s note: Avid bowhunter George Flournoy has made six safaris to Africa lasting more than 30 days and several other safaris with other hunters, videotaping their hunts. He helps hunters find the types of hunts they’re looking for on the Dark Continent. He advises them on what to take and what to leave at home, tells them what to expect and helps bowhunters pick the hunts that fit their pocketbooks.

I strongly recommend that you go to a Safari Club convention before you book a trip to Africa. Talk to a wide variety of outfitters, and a large number of hunters who already have been to Africa–the quickest and easiest way to get the most information on outfitters and hunting opportunities in the shortest time for the least amount of money. Be sure to talk to several different booking agents the first day of the convention. Then, narrow your choices down to the two or three booking agents you’re most comfortable with and that you believe will reduce the number of hassles you may encounter on your first African trip. Many South African outfitters are very friendly, and their hunting concessions are set up well for bowhunters. When you get off the plane in South Africa, you’ll be able to get Pepsi, Coca Cola, Kentucky Fried Chicken and McDonald’s hamburgers. Plenty of people in South Africa speak English, and this country is safe. I always advise bowhunters, on their first African safaris to consider the country of South Africa, because the possibility of having problems of any kind has been greatly reduced there.

After you’ve picked where you’ll hunt in Africa, and who you’ll hunt with, the next question that comes to mind is what do you need to take. One big difference between hunting in Africa and hunting in the United States is you don’t need to take as many clothes on an African hunt as you do for a 10-day bowhunt in the United States. Every day when you return from hunting, your clothes are washed, ironed, folded and put on your bed. For a 10-day safari, a bowhunter only needs two changes of hunting clothes, a pair of gloves, a light jacket or vest, sunglasses, personal items, a light pair of trail boots (don’t take heavy hiking boots), a pair of tennis shoes or running shoes and a pair of sweat pants or a jogging suit for sitting around camp.

You need to put all your gear in one duffel bag. Carry a camera and one change of clothes for the trip to Africa in your personal gear with you onboard the airplane, because it is a 22- to 24-hour flight to Johannesburg, South Africa. You’ll need one big bow case that’s designed to carry two bows and have both bows set up exactly alike. I always include arrows in my bow case and try to take a few more arrows in my carry-on bag. For instance, when I was hunting in South Africa one time, one of my broadheads fell off a table, bounced on the floor, came up and hit one of my bowstrings, cutting three or four of its strands. When you’re in Africa, there’s no time to set up your bow, replace strings and shoot so that it is reliable. By carrying a back up bow, if you have a problem, you just can pick up your back up bow, shoot it two or three times to make sure it’s still on and be ready to go hunting.

I’m often asked questions like, “what kind of food do I need to expect on an African hunt? Should I pack three or four cans of sardines and a small pack of soda crackers, just to be safe?” I always smile and say, “No.” The food in Africa is very good and is very compatible with the American diet. One of the things that I’ll take is some jerky, because it is lightweight and easy to carry. If you like chewing gum or candy, take it with you, because you won’t find it in Africa. Don’t forget your sun block and any medicine you must have. Make sure what type of vaccinations you need to get for the country where you’re hunting.

For example, if you’re hunting in Zimbabwe, you’ll need yellow fever and malaria vaccinations. South Africa doesn’t require any vaccinations. Pack your range finder and a small compact pair of binoculars. Take a complete back up system for everything that may go wrong with your bow, including a spare release, extra sights and any other equipment you think may get damaged or broken. Most South African game ranges have very good bow targets for sighting in your bow once you get there.

Since 1971, Flournoy, who has shot PSE bows for 30 years, has been helping hunters find the type of African hunt and African game animals they want to take. For answers to any questions you may have about an African hunt, whether, you’re a first-timer or a veteran of many African bowhunts, Flournoy will be happy to help you. You can contact him at gflournoy@iglide.net or call him at 1-755-673-5513.

You’ll learn more-intensive hunting information and tips from nationally-known hunters in the new Kindle eBooks, “Bowhunting Deer: The Secrets of the PSE Pros” and “Jim Crumley’s Secrets for Bowhunting Deer” by John E. Phillips. Go to http://www.amazon.com/kindle-ebooks, type in the name of the book, and download it to your Kindle, and/or download a Kindle app for your iPad, SmartPhone or computer.

Read and join the discussion on Bowhunter George Flournoy on How to Pick an African Outfitter and Safari Packing Tips at OutdoorHub.com.

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