Conference vmsnet::hunting$note:hunting

    What you want to know? I went there about three years ago.
    
    I highly reccomend it but watch out you may be asked to
    eat some parts on a deer that you never thought of :-)
    
    I had a great time and I went with my father who is nearly
    75 years old.
    
    You should learn a lot.  I have a deer call that use up there.
    
    Don't hesitate, Go. Make me reservations also.
    
    Bear

    
      I've never been there but I know some "Drywallers" from the Man-
    chester area that have gone the last two or three years. You get
    there in an old DC3 (they did) from Montreal I believe. I think
    that there is three different type of packages that you can select
    from such as 1) Guided hunt from a nice lodge. 2) Hunting with no
    guide out of housekeeping cabins or 3) hunting from heated tents
    with wooden floors...
    
      Success rate is incredible up there. Of the four who went the
    first year they came back with 7 "nice" bucks! And they had the
    tent package no less. There is a two deer limit.
    
      If you have the money, go!
    
    
    Joe

First of all there are government run Camps and Private Guiding
Services. The Camps that my father and I went on were Government
owned and operated.

When we went you could fly in from several different airports
and I understand that you use to be able to take the Ferry
but we had no luck finding the ferry running so we flew
out of Mount Joli.

Mount Joli is a small town with a nice airport just a little bit 
better than the one in Nashua. The parking is free and there
are about three different flying services that offer connection
to Anticosta Island.

The air fair includes the cost of bringing back your animals
whole. So it is your flight over and back and the flight
back of the deer.

The success rate in near 180%. 100% being 1 deer each and 200%
being 2 deer each.


You are allowed to shoot two deer in four days of hunting and 
many people do it the first day. There are allot of other animals 
that you can hunt for and one group that was with us shot over 
30 snow shoes in about three hours.

I find that people who don't shoot two deer fall into one of two
groups. 1) very poor hunters or 2) very selective hunters.

Actually there are few of the 1) because of the 2,000 dollars
it cost to get there. 

Most people who shoot only 1 are looking for something in 
particular and have passed shots at many deer before the
hunt is over.

I saw approx. 40 shootable deer a day.

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As I understand it there were 3 or 4 plans available but I don't 
believe the Americans have this many choices.

There are 10 people to a camp.  some plans allow a guide
for four people and others require a guide for two people.

also there is the tent version mentioned earlier.

I believe the only thing that is available to the Americans is 
the one guide per two people. At least this is what we
were told.. Perhaps if you can get in with a bunch of Canadians
as I suspect the drywallers did from Manchester that you can get
in one of the other plans.

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Each camp is assigned 6 hunting areas and a hunting area is 4 
square miles. there are 5 groups so one area is not hunted each 
day. you will or at least we did rotate thru the areas hunting a 
different area each day.

This makes it a little difficult because everytime you hunt you
will not be familiar with it because you have never hunted there 
before.

we hunted the very last hunt of the year and it was over 
Thanksgiving Weekend. Out of the ten hunters in camp there were
19 deer shot. 3 does, 1 spike horn. and 15 really nice bucks.

The 15 bucks Ave about 160 pds and I understand if you get there 
earlier in the season that they will be about 20 pd heavier.

After you arrive at the island you will stop a get your licenses
and eat lunch. Then depending which camp you are in a bus will
take you to the camp. Our camp was one of the longest ride and 
we had a 4 hour plus ride in the buss to get there. Of course 
the buss ride is extra. 

when you arrive at camp there is a camp chief and a girl that 
will take care of camp. Usually they are perhaps married and
the feed was out of this world. The guides live in a bunk
house right there at camp. They will escort you to your hunting 
area each day . usually around lunch time they will fix a 
good hot lunch for you.

I don't know what else I can tell you so I guess I should
wait for your question.

One more thing they take reservations starting a a certain time 
on a certain day. Well it is real hard to get thru and by the 
time you do they might be filled. Thats what happened to
us so we went on a waiting list. ( In case some one canceled )

Right around the 4 of July they called saying that they had an 
opening for two. we took it.

I understood that the government wanted to get out of it and turn 
it over to private guiding services. I think the private guiding
services were about 800 dollars more expensive but the government
claimed that it was loosing 200 dollars on each hunt. 


I hope this helps. Bear. 
P.S. It will help if you know French
P.S. I had a great time and can't wait to go back.

    What I ment to say was a "Camp Chef" not "Camp Chief" even though
    the Chef might be A Chief.

    I just thought I'd let you know the rumor I heard from some friends
    that went there this year, the were telling me that they had a winter
    kill in the thousands. So you might want to check on that before
    you go. They were not very happy when they got back, they only got
    3 deer out of 8 guys. When they booked the trip ( they go every
    year) the guide never mentioned anything about the winter kill.
    So it might not be a good idea to ask the guides so see if you can
    find someone that went this year, or maybe someone else has more
    info. I don't mean to discorage you but I thouht I'd let you know.
    Hope this helps.
    
                                                          Mike     
       
                                                              

    Thanks all! Great info barring the last reply 107.5. I'd like to
    find out about winter kill. But I'm sure if I ask a guide, he'd
    still claim the hunting to great, as not to loose the business.
    
    So If anyone knows anything about how this past seasons hunt went
    I'd sure like to hear about it.
    
    Also Bear and the others who responded, I'd like to know what you
    guys hunted with. I read there is a lot of open country, and many
    shots are 100 yds plus. I'd really like to hunt with bow and
    Muzzleloader, but if long shots are more prevelent, I'd bring the
    30 06 just to be sure I'd get at least shots!
    
    Another thing just came to mind, could those of you who have gone
    give me the name of the guide service that you booked with?
    
    Thanks Again!