Safari Nordik Outfitter

Submitted by: Jim Banducci

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Review Submitted: Sep 9, 2013

Hunt Date: Aug 22, 2013

Species Hunted: Quebec-Labrador Caribou

Days Hunted: 5

Hunt Type: Guided

Primary Terrain: Foothills

Method: Rifle

Price Range: 7000-8999

Safari Nordik 2013

I just recently returned from a guided hunt with safari nordik. And to say the least, I was so satisfied by this outfitter I rebooked for next season already. Having researched caribou in Quebec, for quite some time, and reading reviews across the board about Safari Nordik, I decided to make my own decision.( as you well know some people on the internet have some varied opinions and wild stories) I went to the SCI convention and met Kurt Santoro. An easy guy to get along with and very knowledgeable about the caribou and the logistics of my future trip. He assured me that he would personally guarantee my trip would be handled by the Safari nordik team from A to Z. His excitement about the hunt and not just being the salesman was easy to see. I did ask Kurt about the bad reviews on the internet. And he simply stated "do you believe everything you read on the internet?" Laughing, he simply said to me I read all that stuff to and unfortunately I cannot claim to you, everyone every time gets 100% satisfaction. I am very close to that satisfaction rate,but what sets me apart from the other outfitters is simple there are 2 things, I own my camps and hunt out of my camps, my competitors have to lease camps on a year to year basis from out of business outfitters and dont have any guarantee that they will have the camp from year to year and every competitor I have bad mouths me to no end and I will not plat that game of trash talk. I hunt caribou not slander others to make myself look good. Safari Nordic's closest competitor takes 3 years to hunt as many caribou as my clients do in one season. He said he had noticed over the years the target on his back by the other outfitters. What really got my trust for Safari Nordik was Kurts simple statement. He said Mr. Banducci, of all the garbage on the internet if you could tell me how many bad ratings we have compared to the amount of clients that choose to hunt with us and are completely satisfied I will give you a free hunt. Obviously I didnt know that. So Kurt pulls out of his folder about 25 copies of bad ratings by hunters, including a couple from this site as well as several others. He said over 700 hunters annually hunt with me and this is the majority of serious complaints about me, I am thinking that this satisfaction rate is extremely high. he said let me ask you a question about the chat rooms and things that float around. He said next time look at the code names of the individuals and how often they chime in and how often they mention a specific outfitter. You will quickly see it is usually the same person and are obviously promoting for the outfitter, and they have never even seen my operation. He said having said that, I dont compare myself to anyone else. my job is to get you in the right spot and safely and professionally execute a service to you that will make you "give me a good review on the net". Needless to say I trusted Kurt and booked my hunt. From the beginning everything went smoothly, just as Kurt had told me. From A to Z. I booked what they call the platinum package that included everything from my home airport and back. Once in camp we settled in. The caribou were scattered but there were enough bulls for the 11 hunters in camp to take 22 in just three days. Kurt said they have not seen big numbers of animals yet. I saw plenty. I also was able to take several ptarmigan and catch brook trout and lake trout. The food was perfect and the atmosphere was great. I remember Kurt every morning walking in with a huge smile on his face with a cup of coffee saying we gonna get em today. Always positive. and the other guides and cook were great as well. I cannot say enough about Safari Nordik. They exceeded my expectations and this trip has gone down as my most rememberable trip during my 50 years of hunting.

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Submitted by: William Colby

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Review Submitted: Apr 10, 2013

Hunt Date: Apr 10, 2013

Species Hunted: Quebec-Labrador Caribou

Days Hunted: 7

Hunt Type: Guided

Primary Terrain: Praire

Method: Rifle

Price Range: 7000-8999

caribou hunt

Ther was three of us in our group and our guide was between 18 and 21 yo. We hunted every day on foot or by boat. The whole week you could count how many caribou we saw on one hand.And nothing worth shooting or to far to get a shot. Our guide would climb up a hill and we would glass looking for caribou and in 5 min. he would be sleeping on the ground. And we would have to wake him up to move. One time we left him sleeping and stated hunting on our own. They should have moved us to another camp since their were no caribou in the area.When we checked out of camp the last day we were told by the camp leader that we would come back next year for free since the hunt was guarnteed. The next year we called to set up our return and they would not give us a free hunt they wanted us to pay for our flight to kuujjuaq.

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Submitted by: Kenneth Lancaster

Review Submitted: Feb 15, 2011

Hunt Date: Aug 25, 2008

Species Hunted: Quebec-Labrador Caribou

Days Hunted: 8

Hunt Type: Guided

Primary Terrain:

Method: Bow

Price Range: 2000-2999

Caribou

These guys really have there ducks in a row. From the time we landed in Canada till the time we got back home every detail was planned for and a detailed schedule was in place. We were well informed and all questions were answered in a good fashion. our camp was ok, nice as you could expect being that it was in the middle of nowhere. the first morning we awoke to find hundreds of Caribou in every direction you looked, all 10 hunters in camp were tagged out with 2 nice Caribou by the 3rd day. They shipped us out and quickly moved some more hunters in from another camp that were not having as good of luck as us. This showed me that no matter the cost of flying those guys in, they wanted to make sure they had a great hunts well. And they did, they were done by the nest day. Safari Nordik really goes the extra mile to make sure you have a great hunt!

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Submitted by: Kenneth Lancaster

Review Submitted: Feb 13, 2011

Hunt Date: Aug 21, 2008

Species Hunted: Quebec-Labrador Caribou

Days Hunted: 8

Hunt Type: Guided

Primary Terrain: Foothills

Method: Bow

Price Range: 2000-2999

Qubec Caribou

These guys pay attention to detail, everything was very well organized from start to finish. We got to camp and as a group killed 18 caribou in 3 days, they were hundreds!!! We hit it just right and the migration was on, when we got done they got us out of there and moved some other hunters in that were in a spot that was not as good. That showed me that they didn't mind going that extra step to make sure they had a great hunt too. I mean they could have just kept them in the camp they were in... but they flew them in at they two were tagged out in just a few days.

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Submitted by: Shane Smith

Review Submitted: Feb 10, 2011

Hunt Date: Aug 25, 2008

Species Hunted: Quebec-Labrador Caribou

Days Hunted: 10

Hunt Type: Guided

Primary Terrain:

Method: Bow

Price Range: 2000-2999

Caribou

I was very impressed with the time this outfitter payed to details of the hunt. Everything was on time and laid out with great care and detail. Some friends went and hunted with them in 2007 and had a great hunt... every hunter in camp killed 2 Caribou and were done in 3 days time. However, I was not that lucky... I hunted with a group of 10 hunters and in a 10 day period the group only killed 3. But this outfitter did offer some free and half priced hunts if you were unsuccessful, so that helped. The lodge was as good as it could be for being in the middle of nowhere, and the food was ok. Fishing was great and since the hunting was not that hot while I was there it did help. I was told that our unsuccessful hunt was due to the slow migration, and I do believe that to be true. I would probably go back with these guys but would ask more Questions about the hunt to cover myself from a BOMB hunt again.

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Submitted by: Mike Blasius

Review Submitted: Aug 30, 2010

Hunt Date: Sep 25, 2009

Species Hunted: Quebec-Labrador Caribou

Days Hunted: 5

Hunt Type: Guided

Primary Terrain: Praire

Method: Rifle

Price Range: 5000-6999

Caribou hunt

Avoid this place at all costs - and the cost is immense. No one to meet you at airport or to get you to your flight out from the hotel. Horrible food - can't believe I did'nt get sick. Herds of caribou are non-existant these days. Did'nt see one for three days. Lucked up and killed one final day, but nothing to brag about. We were pulled out of a camp when a few caribou started to arrive, to allow for a large corporate group to kill the animals, and moved to another camp where there were none. Received my cape and horns ten months later.

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note: The following reviews predate the numeric rating system and are not included in this outfitter's overall rating.

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outfitter review submitted by: Bob Hassel on Dec 19 2008

Species Hunted: Caribou

Game Quality: Great

Accommodation Quality: Great

Camp Condition: A little rough (explain)

Food Quality: Good

Guide Experience: Good

Other Personal Experience: Good

Overall Impression: Excellent

Recommend: Everyday

Reviewer Comments: This outfitter did everything they said they would and more.We had nine hunters in our group and we harvested 18 GOOD bulls.(14 bulls are getting mounted,some of the guys are having both of their animals done)Our hunt dates were Oct.11-18th. By going so late in the year the weather caught up with us and the camps. A couple of mornings everything froze up including the camp generators so we had no water or electricity for lights. The camp managers finally got this problem sorted out so we at least had lights in our hooches and hot coffee in the morning. No one really minded this as the bottom line was, we were there to hunt not to camp. We really just had a blast, cold weather and all. I was lucky enough to take a trophy of a lifetime by harvesting a monster non-typical bull. My pictures of my bull were destroyed in my camera but I got ahold of Berni and Martin at Safari Nordik and they got ahold of my guide and got his pictures that he took with his camera and sent them to me. As far as I'am concerened that is REALLY taking care of your clients. Feel free to contact me anytime about this outfitter

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outfitter review submitted by: Brad Bogard on May 5 2008

Species Hunted: caribou

Game Quality: horrible

Accommodation Quality: average

Camp Condition: good

Food Quality: average

Guide Experience: horrible

Other Personal Experience: poor

Overall Impression: the worst

Recommend: no way

Reviewer Comments: This was without a doubt the worst hunting trip I have been on. The number of lies told by the outfitter easily doubled the truths that were told. Myself and my partner saw two shootable caribou all week. We were encouraged very strongly to shoot these caribou while they were swimming by our guide!!!!!!!!!

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outfitter review submitted by: Dick Hoffman on Oct 25 2007

Species Hunted: Caribou

Game Quality: Poor

Accommodation Quality: Average

Camp Condition: Good

Food Quality: Average

Guide Experience: Good

Other Personal Experience: Average

Overall Impression: Poor

Recommend: No

Reviewer Comments: This is the poorest guided hunt I have ever been on. First, the hunts were overbooked. There were way too many hunters in the camps, and the hunting in too many of the camps was extremely poor. Second, many times there were too many hunters assigned per guide. We paid for a three-on-one hunt. The first three days there were six hunters per guide. Third, the two hunters I went with were sent to another camp after two days. I didn't get to go with them because I had harvested a "mature" bull. They went to a camp with more caribou. It was overcrowded! Fourth, we were lied to. Our luggage, which had our ammunition and warms clothes, did not arrive on time for the flight to Kuujjuaq. The representative in Montreal assured us that as soon as it got to Kuujjuaq, it would be flown to our camp. It sat in Kuujjuaq for a day and half before being sent to our camp. We were deprived of two full days of hunting. Finally, our camp manager and head guide was obviously frustrated by the number of "new" hunters arriving at his camp. The reason for this frustration was that he knew it was merely a staging area; there were few to no caribou there! There were many problems with communications before our hunt. The organizational skills of this outfitter need a lot of work. In conclusion, there are many more minor reasons why this trip was a bust. I will never again ever consider using this outfitter!!!

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outfitter review submitted by: Warren Hoffman on Oct 5 2007

Species Hunted: Caribou

Game Quality: very low

Accommodation Quality: very good

Camp Condition: very good

Food Quality: very good

Guide Experience: ok

Other Personal Experience: ok

Overall Impression: ok

Recommend: no

Reviewer Comments: Outfitter runs to many hunters through camps. You lose a day of hunting by being moved to bring in other hunters. They average 150 hunters per week. The number of caribou my group saw was very low.They guarantee two trophy bulls. Found out they call a trophy bull as any bull that is of breeding age. Rack does not matter. They claim to have 32 camps but they keep moving hunters to bring in more hunters. They moved us after 2 days to a better camp, when we arrived at the new camp the hunters there were waiting to get on the plane when we arrived. those hunters told us good luck because they did not see anything to shoot.

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