Worldwide Game and Fish Adventures

2003 Muskox Hunt

Anniversary Muskox

By Jason Dyck 

It was now August and the snow had not yet fallen as our floatplane landed high in the arctic of Victoria Island, Nunavut. We were here to hunt the prehistoric Muskox that few have hunted before. Most people believe that to hunt Muskox, one must endure dog sleds and extreme cold artic weather, well not in our case. This was an early season hunt and the time when the long silky hair on these ancient animals are clean looking and can make a beautiful trophy. We arrived at the lodge only to be greeted by the guides and a welcome sign buried in caribou antlers and Muskox horns. Finally we were here!

  After a hot meal and orientation, we were introduced to our guide Tommy. Tommy has been a guide for Muskox, Walrus and Polar bear for the past 20 years and calls the arctic “home”. He took us out behind the lodge and asked us to fire a few rounds with our rifles so he could get a feel for our shooting. When the echoes from our 300 magnums died out our guide calmly spoke “we now go find BIG boss”. (The boss is the mass of horn on a Muskox head like antlers on a caribou.) The weather in the artic can change in a heartbeat; today it was ranging from –10 C to +10 C with a lot of wind so we needed to dress in layers. We headed for the boats with anticipation of hunting our first Muskox.

 We traveled in our 18 ft alumarines along the shorelines looking over a few small herds of Muskox and the occasional Island caribou (Perry caribou) from the boat but none the monster we were after. 2-3 hours had past when Tommy whispered “there’s the big heard I’ve been looking for” Dale, my brother in law and hunting partner had won the coin toss and was going to be the first to take a trophy. Our eyes stayed fixed on the herd of 25-30 animals as our guide quietly manuvered the boat through the rocky shorelines to dry land. “Load up and follow me but stay close, this is the rut and these guys can get real mean” Dale walked crouched down behind Tommy and I following with the camcorder. We moved to within 250 yards and sat down behind the largest piece of cover we could find, a shrub no higher than my knee.

 It was amazing to see these prehistoric animals that dated back to the ice age grazing only a short distance from us. After carefully choosing the largest bull in the group, Dale set up his bipod and took aim with his 300 Remington mag. ”He’s the furthest one to the left” replied Tommy, ”big boss”. I quickly got into position to catch the whole thing on video. I could see the excitement coming from Dale as he was repairing to shoot. “Ok, are you ready jay, I’m going to take him” as he quietly turned off the safety. “Ready!” I whispered. Dale waited as the Muskox grazed the tundra, the anticipation was high and finally what seemed forever, the shot rang out but was quickly swallowed up the howling winds. The shot proved to hit its target as the bull ran only 50 yards and fell over like a freight train derailing. The adrenaline flew as we approached Dale’s trophy, “unbelievable” were the first words from Dales mouth. “Big boss” came from Tommy. The bull had a huge boss on its head with long sweeping horns that faded into ivory colour with black tips. The long hair on it’s back started off blonde and faded into chocolate brown at the ends “Beautiful animal” were the words repeated. Minutes later the camp floatplane flew overhead and landed near our boat. The pilot had heard the shot ring out as he was loading up another hunter’s animal that had been taken a short time before and only a mile away. ”Busy morning” replied the pilot, as three other hunters had already tagged out.

 Day two of the trip began with pancakes, eggs and bacon and stories of the previous day hunt. All 7 of the hunters in camp had tagged out on trophy size Muskox the day before. I was the only one left without my animal but that was ok because today was to be my anniversary bull. A year today I was married and my wife was not too happy that I was going to spend my one-year wedding anniversary with the Muskox. Hey, what better way to never forget an anniversary again then to have it associate with this day.

 Travelling the shorelines like the day before we looked at several herds with great bulls in them that would have without a doubt made the books. It was early in the day and I had time to find that one that I wanted. We rounded a bend in the shoreline to find two big bulls standing on a hillside grazing on their own. We stopped the boat and looked them over to see if it was worth a stalk, “Big boss” replied the guide but unlike the other bulls we saw that day he was standing up. As we were taking a closer look, Dale had noticed more Muskox about a quarter of a mile away, “ Let’s check out that herd first before anything to make sure there’s not a bigger one in that group” Now we could tell our guide was getting excited as this was the most he had spoken so far. As we looked over the herd Dale spotted, I had noticed that the two big bulls on the hillside we had just looked at turned into three. There were some real nice bulls in this group but that third spot on the hillside just had to be check out. The closer we got to the animal the larger it appeared and soon I realized that this was the trophy I was after.” Good thing we came back” replied dale, “Big boss” replied Tommy with his binoculars glued to his eyes. We pulled the boat up on shore and followed Tommy in the direction of the bulls. Now picture this, Tommy never left the boat without his life jacket on and Dale and I could not figure out why, but we were soon about to.

   We crawled within 200 yards of two of the bulls, “where’s the third one?” I asked “not sure “ replied Tommy. One of the two was exactly what I was after, he was larger than the other two we had originally seen earlier. I set up my shooting sticks and got ready for the shot as Dale began to video the set-up. My bull was bedded down next to the other one but still no sign of the third one. “ Be ready guys, things can change in a hurry,” replied Tommy as he was glassing the tundra. Seconds later Tommy yelled out “ RUN!! ” and began to run for the boat, now I’m thinking, are you crazy? What for? my trophy Muskox is still here?! But as an experienced guide myself I know better than to argue with your guide, so if he runs than so do I. Things were happening so fast that the only thing we ran with were our rifles and the video camera in Dale’s hand, the rest stayed behind.” hurry, hurry get in the boat” Tommy replied with excitement in his voice. As we were quickly climbing into the boat I could hear the heavy footsteps of a charging Muskox. We pushed the boat off into the water and looked back to see the bull only feet from the waters edge hoofing at the ground and rearing his head back and forth, It was now clear to us that wearing a lifejacket while hunting Muskox may not have been such a bad idea especially if the boat is not close enough to get to. The bull slowly made his way out of sight over an esker. Tommy decided to move the boat a couple of hundred yards along the shoreline to head them off again as now they were on the move. Again, we parked the boat and made our way up a steep shore bank. Just as we crested the hill we spotted all three Muskox quartering away from us at about 250 yards. I quickly set up my shooting sticks for the shot with my 300 Weatherby mag. I asked Tommy and Dale to tell me which one was the big one as I wanted to make sure I was looking at the right bull being difficult to tell with their heads facing away and all three being so big. “The one on the far right” replied Tommy, “That’s the one Jay” from Dale. A deep breath and a squeeze on the trigger, my shot rang out followed by the sound of a solid hit, the Muskox stopped and stood there as if nothing had happened. A second and then a third shot all on target and yet there stood my trophy Muskox. “What’s going on, I hit him all three times didn’t I?” “Yup! He’s about to go down” replied my guide. Sure enough seconds later he tipped over. Now I have been on several hunts from east to west, north to south but this was the most excited I had ever been. This was definitely going to be an easy day to remember for the rest of my life.

We spent the next hour or so taking pictures and video as our guide got ready to cape out the hide for the life-size mount I was after. I was so overwhelmed in the whole experience. What a rare trophy to hunt, one of Canada’s exotics!  We had tasted the meat the day before in camp from another hunters harvest and could hardly wait to try it again. As Tommy was capeing out the Muskox, Dale and I walked back to the place we had left behind our gear after being chased back to the boat. It was easy to laugh and joke about it now but at the time it was no laughing matter. From here we could see the camp float plane flying towards us and within a few minutes like before he had landed near the boat and walked to us.” I see you got one” with a smile on his face “yup!” I replied. We loaded up everything and headed back to camp. That night in camp everyone was celebrating the awesome experiences we had all encountered.

  The rest of the trip was spent fishing for huge lake trout and photographing Muskox and caribou and not to mention the occasional Artic fox. On our last day at the lodge, the outfitter flew us by floatplane to fresh water rivers that flow to the Arctic Ocean that hold huge Artic Char. We would wade out into the river and cast down stream only to have these bright red bellied char fight like there was no tomorrow. We stopped at several of these places and caught loads of fish. At the end of the river where the fresh water and salt water meet are Polar Bears hunting for seals on the Ice fields that move with the tides. Later that day back at camp we had the experience of trying some raw artic char dipped in soy sauce, fantastic!!

 Our five-day adventure on the Artic seemed to fly by, we enjoyed the hospitality from the outfitter and all his staff and learned to appreciate their life style in the Arctic. I’m glad I had a chance to experience it all and one day plan to do it all again! 

For more information on this hunt please contact

                  Worldwide Game & Fish Adventureseandfish@mts.net

Phone 204-433-3999

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