Albert Peters

After the third day of our Sept 03 Caribou hunt with Ungava Adventures, I was starting to become concerned about not seeing a nice bull to take back to my taxidermist.

My oldest son and I had booked this hunt three years prior and had been practicing with our rifles every weekend throughout the summer on groundhogs. We both shoot Rem. 700's in 7mm Mag but I prefer the 175gr bullet and Scott likes the 154 gr. I have my rifle topped with a 3.5-10x44mc Zeiss Conquest with mil dot reticle that I purchased from SWFA. We both shoot this type of scope and prefer that reticle for the ability to use it not just to range with but for hold over and windage. During the summer groundhog sessions, one of us would shoot and the other would spot the shot because we were shooting at ranges from 450 to 700 yds and we becoming pretty good at using the mildots.

At no time shooting in Pennsylvania did the wind treat us like it did during this hunt. 18mph winds were about normal mixed with rain and gusts to 35mph were not uncommon. We both agreed, it was a good thing that we had drop and wind charts made out in mils set up for each gun. Goretex clothing and rubber boots was the everyday attire. The guides were experienced and friendly and we had already made numerous new friends on the plane flight into camp. Each night our new friends had stories to tell of the caribou that they shot during the day.

Some hunters had already limited out with their two caribou but I was still looking. Sure we had seen numerous bulls already but nothing like the ones you see in the hunting videos. Today our guides would take us upriver. Hopefully the new spot would spell sucess. The guide dropped us off and made chit-chat for awhile before he continued on upstream to position another hunter. The boat wasn't even out of sight before the caribou started to appear. I was using my Leica 10x42BN binoculars from SWFA to spot with when I noticed a really nice bull about 800yds away but I knew instantly that this was a bull for me. Thanks to the clarity of the binoculars, there was no guesswork concerning his tops or shovels.

We hurriedly placed our backpack on the rocks we were sitting beside to make a rest for my gun. The caribou was actually coming closer to us and it was closing ground fast. During this time, we were talking about the wind drift and how fast he was walking to come up with the lead factor. Hoping that he would stop and then we only would have wind and distance to deal with. He stopped for a moment at 518 yds but only long enough for me to get the sight picture of three mils for drop and two for wind. At 476 yds, ranged with a laser rangefinder, he stopped just below a rock outcropping.

I asked my son if he was ready and he said whenever you are. I touched the shot off and as you can see by the picture, the bull fell in his tracks. One shot at 476 yds and my day became another memory for me to cherish. I was anxious for my son to shoot now, but that is another story.

Albert used:

• Zeiss 3.5-10x44 Conquest Rifle Scope