Got a special rifle for you. My favorite rifle

Gary Reeder
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Monday, June 26, 2023, 17:33 (1133 days ago)

(even though I very seldom use one unless I am in Canada or up on the Arctic Circle) is the Ruger #1 AS, the light sporter. Recently we got a #1 in on a trade that was in 30-06. Now there is nothing wrong with the 30-06, but it just doesn't do anything for me. Anyway I had picked up a #1 AS barrel, like new, in 45-70 a while back so we converted that '06 to 45-70 and completely refinished it. The stock is the original but the forend is the Alex Henry forend, the light forend that I like so much. We ended up with the perfect big game rifle for close up. We added a pad to the stock and did some big game engraving on the frame. The gun was hunted with when it was a 30-06 so it has a few light nicks and light scratches in the stock and forend but that just gives it character. With the new barrel, a 4X compact Burris scope, and the other things done to the gun it became to me the perfect rifle for brush hunting dangerous game. The Ruger #1 rifles are hard to find these days and usually sell as quick as we get one it. This beauty won't last long either. Normally this rifle would run around $2900. I have it specially priced at $2450, or $2200 without the scope.
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A pic of mine up on the Arctic Circle for Caribou

Gary Reeder
[subject]
Monday, June 26, 2023, 17:49 (1133 days ago) @ Gary Reeder

The Hornady 350 grain .458 soft nose bullet went all the way thru from the left side center chest and exited at the right side short ribs. Great bullet. [image]
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Always wanted to try for one.... Whose the

james
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Wednesday, June 28, 2023, 12:21 (1131 days ago) @ Gary Reeder

mountain man??;-)

He is the stud that is carrying out his Caribou's

Gary Reeder
[subject]
Wednesday, June 28, 2023, 13:24 (1131 days ago) @ james

horns. Up there the only thing we can leave in the field is the gut pile.

special rifle

Joepjs
[subject]
Wednesday, June 28, 2023, 14:17 (1131 days ago) @ Gary Reeder

If you ever get a Ruger #1 in 270 please save it for me! I still have the one you did for me in 45-70

The Caribou hunt is a great hunt. It is a do it yourself

Gary Reeder
[subject]
Wednesday, June 28, 2023, 15:08 (1131 days ago) @ Gary Reeder

hunt. We were living in Sarasota Florida so it was a 3 day trip to get to the camp. We flew to an airport up on the Canadian border, then the second morning we flew in an old DC-3 or an older plane similar to that. We flew to Schefferville, which was a nice if abandoned town. There was a sign in the small restaurant that said you could buy any of the nice abandoned houses for $1. The catch was you had to move up there and live there. In the restaurant a small pizza was $40, a Coke $15 and so on. We overnighted there and the next day They fly you in on one of the Otter or Beaver or Possum planes, and land on the water near a spit of land. You bring your own freeze dried food and the first one to kill a Caribou becomes the camp cook. The plane ferries in 6 hunters and they are allowed a max of 300 lbs per person, gun, gear and all, so fat guys stay home. The caribou are migrating from one of these little islands to the next one and so on. The herd is in the hundreds of thousands and all night outside the tent we could hear the Caribou going by. There is a "guide" there in his own tent and he is there in case someone gets hurt, he can call in one of the planes.

In the morning he tells us to go that way, pointing in a certain direction. I thought boy he is a helluva guide. But we walked over the hill behind the camp and there in front of us were hundreds of Caribou all heading to a place only they know where it is. There were 6 of us and each went in a different direction as we could see Caribou in every direction. I went from large rock to large rock thinking they might see me. But that was not the case. They never even looked my way.
The problem hunting Caribou in the Quebec/Labrador area is picking out a big one, preferably one with a big set of horns, double shovel and all. I got antsy and within 30 minutes of getting behind a big rock I shot one I thought was huge and really nice and within 5 minutes 30 or 40 much larger Caribou walked by. I was sort pissed at myself as we still had 5 more days and half of my hunt was over. I gutted my Caribou, skinned it, rolled the skin up and laid it behind a big rock. I quartered the animal up and started carrying it back to the camp. It took me 5 trips back to camp to get the meat, the hide and horns back. There was another tent that all the meat and hide was placed. The temps were in the mid 20s so it wasn't going to spoil.
Having plenty of time on my hands, besides automatically becoming the camp cook, I sliced off several back straps to go along with our freeze dried food. Caribou is very good eating, and we had plenty of it to go around. Each of us were allowed 4 waterproof wax covered boxes, each weighing I think, 50 lbs, to put the meat in to bring home.
I waited until the 3rd day (which about drove me nuts having to wait) but late on the 3rd day just before a snow storm moved in I shot the large Caribou shown in the pics below with a custom Ruger #1.

I used my Ruger #1 in 45-70 on the first hunt. A few years later I went back and used a Drilling (3 barrel rifle/shotgun combo) that was a 16 gauge shotgun in the upper left barrel, a 22 magnum Krieghoff insert in the upper right barrel and 9.3 X 74 in the lower barrel. I took both my Caribou with the 9.3 barrel, took an Arctic fox with the 22 Magnum barrel and several Ptarmigan with the shotgun barrel.

A self guided Caribou hunt is a great hunt and not too expensive. I think I spent around $6000 total on the hunt, maybe just a bit more. If memory serves the hunt was $3500 and the rest was the airfare and incidentals. And if I am real lucky maybe I can go back again.
Some of the pics below.
The 6 of us in the hunt

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our ride leaving us on the little island.
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Our deluxe accommodations
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Our cooking tent
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The 3 tents we used. One to sleep in, one to cook and a half tent in which to store our meat, hide and horns. Our bathroom was a white bucket on a small hill behind camp.
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We each did all the skinning of the hide for taxidermy and that was a new experience.
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Late on the 3rd day it snowed which made it sorta neat hunting Caribou in several inches of new snow and the slippery tundra under the snow.
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The last morning we packed all our gear up and sat back to wait on our ride. In an hour or so the larger plane came in and the guys started loading our gear and meat.
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All 6 of us got our Caribou and plenty of meat to bring home. All in all it was a great experience and I hope to do it again one day.

Sadly. The Quebec herd is almost gone.

John W
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Wednesday, June 28, 2023, 19:08 (1131 days ago) @ Gary Reeder

I believe that the last legal hunt was a few years ago. I chatted with a guide from Canada as to why it happened. The province let too many people hunt in the winter where many were killed along with pregnant females.

They basically got greedy and wiped them out.

Mountain man

Tchilev
[subject]
Friday, June 30, 2023, 15:25 (1129 days ago) @ james

Dang!! I didn’t think they had cameras that long ago!

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