Rite of Passage

Rite of Passage

Corey's first caribou.

     My lips were still tingling from the too-hot sip of coffee I'd just taken.  It was early.  Corey's hot chocolate sat unattended on the action packer as he struggled to get up and out of the tent.  Thirteen year old boys, as it turns out, are pretty fond-of-the-pillow and if left alone have been known to sleep all day.

      "There's one."  Right behind camp not 500 yards away stood a nice bull caribou.  I grabbed my binoculars to confirm. "Corey!" I  whispered loudly, "Let's go."  We gathered the essentials and quickly decided upon a line of approach.  

    Soon enough we were within range and as the sequence-of-events played out I found myself becoming more nervous than I am when it's just me behind the gun.   

     Before too long the deed was done and there was much to  celebrate.  We watched my brother and his whole family as they made their way through the tussocks and tundra and up to the kill-site.  They were all there to congratulate Corey on his Harrison family rite-of-passage. 

     We returned to camp after a couple of hours of field dressing and the pack-out was easy.  As we settled back into camp Corey made his way over to the action packer to claim his cocoa which had cooled down considerably. Nevertheless he gulped it down enthusiastically.  "How was that cocoa?" I asked.

      "It was nasty." he said with a smile.

Field dressing

The whole crew minus photographer Amanda Harrison

Brenton Harrison bagging a few ptarmigan.

Uncle Steve teaching the finer points of field dressing a ptarmigan

Amanda bagged her first caribou too!

Pete stirring the camp jambalaya with a willow stick.

The mighty hunter

European mount tip: remove as much of the soft tissue in the field as you can.
It makes a lighter load and you don't have to deal with the mess at home.
Keep the skull moist or submerged until you are ready to blast with a pressure washer

After a couple of weeks of drying this baby will be ready to mount on the wall in
Corey's room.