The guiding territory reaches from Francois Lake on the most eastern point to the continental divide between the interior of British Columbia and the coastal area of British Columbia. There is 40% of the territory that are accessible by vehicle and 60% of the territory that are accessible by float plane or hiking.

Nanika Guiding is a family owned and operated business with every member of the family assisting is one way or another. Nanika Guiding has been in business since 1948 and boasts a 70% client return rate.

Nanika Grizzly

1.  Cost or Value

2.  Availability

4.  Comfort

One of Nanika's many locations

5.  Species Hunted/Trophy Quality

To maintain trophy quality harvest, the outfitter (Jim Tourond) is very selective on how many hunters he allows to hunt a particular area. This solidifies the chances of having a trophy hunt. The only exception to trophy or large animals may be the moose harvested. However hunter satisfaction in almost perfect.

Nanika black bear - they shoot nice bears!

45" spread. Notice the difference in antlers from the moose below.

46.5" Moose

Very nice grizzly

Nanika Goat

6.  Hunting Area

Nanika Falls

7.  Hunting Success/Season

Black Bear – Each hunter is allowed 2 bear per season due to the heavy bear population. The Spring and Fall hunts are 99% successful. The hunts are spot and stalk.

Moose Hunting – Moose hunting season is from September 10^th to November 15^th. The moose hunt package is 6 days and takes place at the remote camp at Nanika Lake, which is accessible only by plane.  By the way that’s one of the moose hunts.  There are several other including very exclusive 1-2 person per year areas.  HINT HINT!!!!

Mountain Grizzly – Nanika Guiding offers a 12 day Spring or Fall Mountain Grizzly Hunt.

Mountain Goat – This is a 6 day fly-in hunt which occurs during from the middle of August to the middle of September.

Combination Hunts – A 10 day hunt combining Moose and Black Bear.

Here are a couple of categories that we thought might be helpful for this review…..

Location/Travel

There are two ways for clients to reach Nanika Guiding.

The first way is the fastest and most direct, commercial aircraft from Vancouver (YVR). Vancouver BC is accessed by international flights from all over the United States and the rest of the world. Most flights into Vancouver can be booked to connect to the flight north to Smithers BC.  Nanika Guiding staff will meet the flight and transport you to our base at Francois Lake BC, an 80 mile trip.

Animal Quantity

Several of the guided hunts provided by Nanika only allow 1 hunter per hunt.  This preserves the quantity of animals to be hunted hence the quota type area.  Which is a tiny part of Jim’s whole area.

Nanika is a great, better than average area for most of what British Columbia is famous for.  If you’re after great trophies Nanika is hard to beat.  4/5

Family Friendly

Very family friendly environment with examples of 14 year-old boys hunting with their Dads.  Family owned and run.  Caters to whomever.  Jim’s family will tend to adopt you and your family.  5/5

NANIKA GUIDING IS JIM OWNED AND RUN BY HIS FAMILY.   I LIKE THE OUTFIT AND THEIR BUSINESS.  ‘CAN’T WAIT TO GET UP THERE!!!

We feel comfortable talking about Jim’s business and would love to chat with you about his outfit or any of the many others we’ve visited.

801-372-6166

Go to outfitter reviews for an explanation of how we rank outfitters.

Killed with a 100 year old Winchester 30-30 lever gun

These new technology’s make the choice of a lever gun as “the best” a very, very difficult question to answer. Now, I guess we can’t rule out grandpa’s old 45-70, or 25-35. Even the 30-30 becomes quite the little spit fire.

I’m not suggesting blowing off the dust and using the antique levers and your favorite big bore gun. We should all be careful when it comes to sticking a souped up bullet in an old gun. However, I now have added respect and use for the old levers and find myself not just using them more often in the field but checking them out at the local retail used or new gun spot.

Now back to the modern Browning lever. (all Browning levers are not modern) Browning’s BLR was introduced in 1971. This rifle was Browning’s offering to the lever action lover and over the years has gained notoriety and a following with avid hunters. The nice thing about the Browning BLR is the rotating bolt allows for positive lockup and the side ejection makes scope mounting easy. It also has datable box magazine the rounds are fed through. Remember the clip or box does away with any worry about the end of the bullet hitting the firing pin of the one behind it as in the case of the cylinder feed type lever gun.

Browning BLR

The Browning BLR is chambered for .22-250 up through .325 WSM and most popular cartridges in between, including the other WSMs–.270 WSM, 7mm WSM, and .300 WSM. If it’s a long-action cartridge you want, the BLR is also chambered in .270 Winchester, .30-06, 7mm Remington Magnum, and .300 Winchester Magnum.

The BLR can be used for almost any shooting, from plinking to hunting. Since the BLR can be chambered for so many different cartridges, it has very many uses. The .22-250 and .243 Win can be used for small game such as coyotes, the .308 is very suitable for deer or elk hunting. Large calibers will handle almost any large game in North America.

Little maintenance (parts and pieces are easy to get from Brownells, Midway USA, etc) is needed to keep the lever-action rifle in working order. A lever rifle is designed so that if it is dropped in the dirt or mud all you need to do is wash it up, dry it out, and it will remain operational. The typical level rifle is shorter and lighter than a bolt action rifle and the thin profile makes the lever-action rifle a natural fit in cramped areas.

For the big-game hunter, modern technology combined with old, proven designs means that lever guns can now equal the performance of the most modern rifles on the market.

The lever guns have been around now for over 130 years. They’re here to stay and that’s a very good thing. Great gun companies like Browning, Marlin and many others produce, fun to use, rifles in the lever style. They shoot good, look good (especially next to you on a horse, butt forward, of course) and make a great addition to your gun collection. I hope your gun collection also contains grandpa’s ancient lever as well!

notice my lever-action rifle in the scabbard - butt forward

With his 8mm he hammered this big old deer. We still have the B&C score sheet showing the buck’s score at 189 6/8. A great trophy in most anyone’s book.

The 8mm brought home a lot of game. Deer mostly, but also antelope, elk (from the Selway river) and at least one bear. Dad got the 8mm just post WWll and I received it after his death. Now my son has that rifle.

I called Mitchell Mauser earlier this year and purchased a German military, stored since WWll, rifle that looks almost new. It came with a thick coat of grease, but with a quick clean it shoots like I can’t believe. It’s already harvested a porcupine and a few prairie dogs. This gun’s action is the famous Mauser German action we should all covet. Here’s a Mauser/8mm brief history.

Mauser, based in Germany, is a manufacturer of a line of bolt-action rifles and pistols. Mauser has been in business since 1870 and the majority of their designs were built for the German armed forces. Mauser has also been exported and licensed to a number of countries since the late 19th century and early 20th century. Mauser’s are also a very popular civilian firearm as well as their military firearms.

The later years of the 19th century saw an arms race develop in the improvement of small arms. The French Army introduced the Lebel Model 1886 (in the year 1886), which used smokeless powder. The Lebel Model 1886 allowed for smaller diameter rounds, higher velocity, and accuracy up to 1,000 yards. Theses enhancements made most other military rifles obsolete. The disadvantage to the Lebel was a slow-to-load tube magazine.

In 1888, the German Army adopted the best features of the Lebel to the Gewehr 88, along with a modified Mauser action and a Mannlicher style box magazine. The 8mm Mauser came into existence in 1905 when the 7.92x57J was upgraded with a 154 grain spitzer bullet with a diameter of .323. This was also the primary round used by the German Army during both World Wars. This is the cartridge that is commonly known today as the “8mm Mauser” as it was later used in Mauser rifle models.

The 8mm Mauser is widely chambered in European sporting rifles, but American gunmakers have not adopted it as a standard sporting caliber. American cartridge companies only put out one loading, the 170-grain bullet at 2360 fps. If loaded by European companies such as Norma or RWS, it is in the same class as our 30-06. The “J” or “I” in the name denotes infantry ammunition. The German capital “I” was mistaken for a capital “J” by U.S. military interpreters after World War I and the “J” misnomer came into common use here and even in Europe thereafter!

The 8mm Mauser was not very popular in the United States prior to WWII. This has since changed with the large number of surplus 8mm military rifles sold since the end of the war and the uses have increased substantially. The 8mm Mauser is adequate for any North America big game hunting if the proper bullets and full loadings are used. There are a large variety of good .323-inch bullets available for the individual hand loader and this is a huge advantage for the American shooter in the use of the 8mm Mauser.

Horn Hunting in Utah

Horns are a trophy and have been forever, I suspect.  The bigger the better and the more the better, right?  In Africa, no animal I know of sheds its horns.  Here in North America and in many other parts of the world we have many horn shedding animals.  Some, such as the North American antelope, aren’t of much interest while others like mule deer, whitetail deer, elk and moose make up a fad/sport that is booming.

The horns have a value in real dollars or pesos or whatever, depending on where you live.  This price is dictated by the market value, just like a value for potatoes.  The market is dictated by their use, for things from jewelry to aphrodisiacs.

Today, two of us spent from 6am to 6pm on the venture.  We caught the horses, drove to our secret spot 2 ½ hours away and rode with saddle and pack horses about 10-15 miles.  The cost to us was minimal, only diesel, horse feed, pasture, horse trailers, pickups, horses, pack and riding saddles and equipment, time and the list goes on.

We had a great horn-gathering day with approximately 20 single elk sheds and 3 deer sheds found.  One elk shed was even big.  I’m sure the $ value of the horns is $200-$300, at least.

Here’s the truth.  We got muddy, sweaty, worked the horses to death and gabbed our lips off.  We saw deep snow, mud, rocks, cliffs, springs, water falls and other cool terrain.  There were deer, elk, turkeys, moose, ducks and geese and multiple small creatures to see.  We saw bear tracks, mountain lion tracks, Indian artifacts, new spring grass, flowers like crazy, and a lot more.

A lot of physical exercise and horse training got done, not to mention the chance to breathe clean, cool air all day.  After we parked the horse trailer and started, we did not see one human, human track or a domestic animal except the two of us and our 3 horses.

Great activity!

Lilly was born on December 31, 1856, in Wilcox County, Alabama. His family soon moved to Mississippi, but by the age twelve he was living with an uncle in Louisiana. This is where he learned to track, trail, and kill bears and cougars.

His 180th black bear was killed in 1906 as he was living in the Big Thicket country of Texas. President Theodore Roosevelt hired Lilly as a hunt master but Lilly proved to be a poor guide as he was only content in guiding only for himself. Lilly moved to Mexico a couple of years later and this is where he killed his first grizzly bear in Chihuahua, Mexico.

The years between 1911 and 1916 proved very profitable for Lilly; he was hired at $75 a month as a forest guard/trapper for New Mexico’s Apache National Forest. Each year Lilly killed up to fifty bears and lions. In 1916, Lilly became a government lion hunter in the New Mexico-Arizona District, but he was a “mountain man” at heart and did not like having to obey the early game laws. He was ultimately terminated in 1920 for spending excessive amounts of time killing grizzlies and not enough time killing lions and wolves.

In an attempt to wipe out bears and cougars, Lilly joined other early hunters, who rendered themselves and their lifestyle obsolete. Ben Lilly, and the other hunters like him, did their jobs well. Grizzly bears were eventually abolished in the Southwest.

Ben Lilly, a true mountain man and bear hunter, found his final resting place near the headwaters of New Mexico’s Gila River on December 17, 1936. He died a few short days prior to his eightieth birthday on land he had traveled and hunted for many decades

Check these famous Ol’Lilly quotes

“Anyone can kill a deer but it takes a man to kill a varmint” (bears,mountain lions, and wolves).

“Property is a handicap to man”

My favorite: “I never saw a man with his face shaved clean until I was a big boy. When I saw him I thought he was a dead man… walking about, and I was mighty scared.”

Maybe this quote is a little of all of us: “My reputation is bigger than I am. It is like my shadow when I stand in front of the sun in late evening.”

Here are some books about Ben Lilly if you’re interested:

Or (I don’t have an image for this one): Ben Lilly’s Tales of Bears, Lions and Hounds

No matter which example is your idea of proper rifle storage, here are some suggestions for you to get your rifle out from under the bed or stuffed in the garage in a corner and into an improved environment.

I’m a gun safe fan but a good cabinet is the same.  Even a big box or small shed is better than the random corner of the room or under the bed stuff.  We all should consider our rifles prized possessions and treat them as if our grandkids will inherit them and use them.  That said a cabinet or safe seems a better investment or gift.

Likely my most imprinted memory of the night before opening day of the duck or deer or elk hunt, as a kid, was the smell of Hoppe’s Gun Solvent as we cleaned our gun in preparation for the hunt.

The post season cleanup of a gun doesn’t hold the excited memory but is pretty important in keeping a rifle functional for me and my grandkids.

The first rule in storing rifles is to keep them away from moisture/humidity and keep them stored at a stable temperature. Many gun cabinets/safes are equipped with the ability to add warming units. Some rifle owners use a simple low-energy “curly fry” fluorescent bulb and find that these will run continuously for about 10,000 hours with very low power consumption. You also want to make sure your cabinet or gun safe has a good seal or gasket around the edge. This seal is also important for fire protection.  The more humid your environment the more critical the prevention of moisture becomes.

When doing your rifle maintenance try to wear a pair of lightweight cotton gloves, especially if you have sweaty hands! This prevents the exposure of moisture, and hand oils which will reduce the chances of corrosion as your gun sits after use.  Don’t under estimate how much bad gook your hands can leave on a gun.

For long-term storage, all metal parts (inside and out) should get a coating of grease. Pay particular attention to the bore, chamber, and breech face. Brownell’s sells a product called Rust Inhibitive Grease that works perfectly for long-term storage.  This year I purchased a WWII German 8mm from Mitchell Mausers that had been in storage for over 60 years.  The thick grease it came with was messy but easy to get off and left me with a like new, very functional fun rifle.  For shorter storage I’ll often use light oil instead of grease.  Time spent on this step is time well spent!

Although you will know how the gun was treated prior to storage, a family member or hunting buddy might not. I suggest attaching a note to the rifle that clearly states, “Grease coating – - bore, chamber and bolt face. Remove grease prior to firing!” Accumulated moisture and dirt, or solidified grease and oil, can prevent the gun from operating properly.  Cleaning up a gun after storage will be another topic but knowing, or remembering how you stored your gun last year or 10 years ago is a great saver.

Many factors must be considered when deciding where and how to store guns. There is also an array of products available to prevent scratches, dents, and provide moisture protection.  These products are available through several online retailers or places such as Cabela’s or Brownell’s.

Be sure to always store firearms so they are not easily accessible to unwanted users and ONLY STORE UNLOADED RIFLES. Always store ammunition and the rifle in separate places to maximize safety for your self and family.

I have a spot in front of the TV in the family room where I can spread out a gun safely and work on it while I watch the hunting channel.  This has given me the time I need to keep up on my rifle maintenance chores.

The stuff we can use for cleaning and maintaining our gun make great small gifts.  Try hinting for this stuff as gifts and keep a head of what you need.

Here is a link to the Hoppes oil that I love to use (it’s around $14 through Amazon):

Or Brownells has smaller amounts starting at around $4 (a little bit of this goes a long way in my experience):

Gun Solvent

At Brownells you can get pretty much any type of gun cleaner you’ll need for proper rifle storage.

That fall, still wanting a brown bear, I rebooked, at a discounted rate, with the same guy.  I took a commercial airline to Yakutat (a fishing Indian town), then shuttled to Icy Bay via canvas covered light aircraft owned by the outfitter.  That day, on his news radio, we had an Alaskan tsunami warning with a time of arrival.  We didn’t know if the wave would hit us 100ft high or what.  We started hacking a trail through the overgrown forest, up the mountain with urgency.  The Alaskan coast is a jungle with alders, devil club and other inventions intended to keep humans out.  We figured we made the 100 foot elevation we desired and packed many supplies up there.   The owner took off in the canvas airplane to save it.  The tsunami arrived–approx 4-6 inches of ocean rise.

Icy Bay is fed by multiple glaciers with floating, hanging and calving glacier chunks.  There are seals, lots of birds and I assume gobs of fish.  It’s a beautiful place in a very rugged way. After the tsunami scare the owner and guides were busy cleaning up and replacing our mountain stash.  I, meanwhile, became more and more daring and ventured down the coast–first several hundred yards then several miles.  The landscape was ocean to my right with a coarse sand beach.   The beach was approximately 20 feet wide then a bank about 5 feet tall beyond which was a tundra plain of 100 to 1,000 yards deep to the forest.  My thought was to walk the beach but hopefully sneak up on a brown bear, out on the tundra.  I could quietly walk along the beach and peek over the bank every once in a while for the hopeful dumb bear.

A brown bear is really a grizzly bear that eats a lot of salmon and grows much bigger, so a respectable grizzly is 6 1/2 feet to 9 feet and a respectable brown is 9-12 feet.  Browns are huge bears.  They weigh approx 900-1800lbs–kind of the same weight as a cow.

I felt safe walking along the beach with the tundra to my left and the ocean to my right, and I kept checking the tundra as not to be surprised.  The next instant is difficult to put on paper.  My right peripheral vision picked up a massive animal coming at me from the ocean.  I formulated in my mind, in that fraction of an instant, a killer whale beaching itself out of the ocean, having me as a meal. I’ve seen the movie where they do that to seals in South America.  I don’t recall doing anything heroic to prevent my fate–a common reaction I have to scary events.  I do remember how my stomach instantly felt as I turned to meet the killer.

Out in the ocean (it must have fallen off steeply) at about 15 yards, a car sized white whale again surfaced blowing steam from its blow hole. Another 20-30 foot white blunt faced whale followed the first.  I was embarrassed that I had reacted with a death grip to such an innocent and beautiful animal, as I tried recovering enough to enjoy them. Since that occasion I’ve learned they were beluga whales.

The next morning I stood with my guide on the landing strip ready to go out and hunt brown bear.  My guide, Mike, sucked down 3-4 cigarettes while we waited.  I got brave–not a common Smith trait.  I told him if he didn’t smoke for the week we were together I’d have a good hunt and tip him well.   On the other hand, if he smoked, with us living together in a small domed tent in the rain for a week, I would not have a good hunt!   Bless his heart, he borrowed a bunch of chewing tobacco and didn’t smoke that whole week.  We were ferried to a gravel sand bar, given a tent, tarp and dried food and left for a week.  It rained constantly, but we had fun.  Again we saw little.  We sneaked up on a small noisy stream one day thinking it was a bear fishing only to find 30 lbs salmon spooning in a 2 inch deep stream. We found many sites with fresh bear sign–fish bone and tracks.

Our terrain was a huge gravel glacial river bottom with alder (willows) and streams and a massive glacier behind us, it coursing up into the high Canadian snow capped mountains.  I believe the mountain range behind us was Mt. St Elis (the tallest mountain in Canada).

We made it back to the protection of our tarp for lunch one day and while eating something very non-memorable we spotted a bear walking down a stream about 800 yds away.  The hunt had been long and hard enough to know right off we wanted him, so we took off in pursuit.  The bear’s pace was his pace and it was much faster than I could walk, probably about a good jog pace.  After about a 1/2 mile, with us losing ground, we saw him dive into a stream and come out with a salmon.  Sneaking up to approximately 250yds (before rangefinders) I lied down, got a rest across my backpack, and smacked him with two .338 bullets.  He screamed, whirled around in circles and took off (remember it was raining this whole time).

We waited 30 minutes then approached the scene.  We could see the partially eaten salmon, bear hair and bone fragment as well as blood splattering following his pie pan sized tracks off into the alders.  The terrain was flat and quite open, mingled with patches of alder.  We assumed he was done for as we slowly followed his track. Mike, also had a .338 win mag and both of us were ready.  We left our packs at the fish site and planned on a short hike.  About 100 yards of easy tracking came to a 9 1/2 foot brown bear behind a scant bush 30 yds in front of us.  Without speaking I raised my rifle and gave him one in the chest.  He was there, I assume, waiting for whatever hurt him to come.  He was sniffing the air when I shot and without any pause came at us, around the bush, then head on.  We each emptied our rifles as he came.  I recall seeing the bullets hit him behind his head, on his back and noticing the water fly off his grizzly hump from the hits.

The bear died at 10 paces.  Mike turned to me and said, “Go and see if he’s dead.”  I said, “You go see if he’s dead.”

Mike was breathing in short jabs as if he couldn’t get any air.  I didn’t think it was funny ’cause I was doing the same.  We reloaded, caught our breath and the rest is a bear rug on the wall.

In March I still had two months to a grizzly bear hunt and here came a spouse induced trip to the big island. That’s Hawaii not Kodiak. We were booked at the Hilton hotel for a week and had Nathan, my middle son, and his wife Nicole, with Lynne and me. Of course it would be fun. Active lava flows, volcanos, snorkling, tropical forests, sea turtles, fishing and stuff.

Nathan, the mighty hunter.

A couple weeks before we left I got a hair in my nose and booked a one day wild boar hunt for Nathan as the shooter and me as a tag along.

We showed up at 5AM, in full camo, and met our guide, on the huge cattle pasture, grass lands, side of a volcano of the famous Parker Ranch. I think the ranch is over 200,000 acres. After 10 minutes of light we had seen many pigs and one shooter (a boar with visible tusks). We bungled the stalk, but I was hooked!

These wild pigs have been on the island for about 2,000 years and to me look like Russian boars only smaller. They are black with long hair razor backs, extended heads with 6 inch tusks on the big boars. The hunt was on wide open rolling country with green grass, coules, and small clumps of trees that looked like cottonwoods. We spent a lot of time glassing (take your good binos) and could almost always see pigs.

We had 4-5 unsuccessful stalks before 10am. The pigs disappeared about 10am and were out again by 4pm. The wind was our worst enemy as the swine have great noses and wouldn’t wait around to say hi. I thought we had them as we approached a group of about 50, but again the wind switched on us and off they went with lots of snorting and inter-herd fighting. Dark was coming but we got a break. A large porker with tusks trotted by at 50 yards but kept moving. Nathan made a dash to a fence line for a fence post rest and smacked the boar with the .308.

The pig.

With 15 minutes of light left we video’d a small herd of the swine as they paraded by us. As dark settled we butchered the big boar, said our good byes, and took the 15 minute drive back to the Hilton and made dinner with all the golfers.

I’ve enjoyed Hawaii before, but now I know where I’ll spend at least one to two days of the trip. What a hoot! Nathan already has the skull trophy, great photos and wonderful experiences. I feel successful in making the “off season” shorter and the “season” longer!!

Next is British Columbia for grizzly bear.

The Wife.

Next on the agenda is a trip to Baldy Mountain Outfitters with a great friend, Harry Leuenberger.  This spring I’ll be hunting grizzly bear with him in his great area, and I’m pumped.  Harry, as a kid, helped his dad get this area going and when the time came he bought his dad out and has run the area for years.  I met him first about 15 years ago on a goat/deer hunt on a November deep snow hunt.  He hunts hard and seems to enjoy my success as much as i do.

British Columbia Goat

Over the years since, I’ve only missed a few years without a hunt to his area.  I’ve been fortunate enough to harvest lots of bears, a great goat, a Shiraz moose with a bow, been chased by bears and had dozens of wonderful hunting experiences.  Many hunts with Harry have involved my kids on thrilling hunts.  One fall my brothers and I hunted deer on a late November, cold hunt and had great success and a great time.

My daughter and I on a spring bear hunt in BC.

His area harbors healthy populations of wolves, grizzly bears, black bears, elk, white tail deer, mule deer, goats and big horn sheep.  His area is close to the continental divide just north of Glacier National Park.

Back to this spring hunt for grizzly bear.  Harry offers one grizzly hunt each spring and with the grizzly permit I will have 2 black bear tags.  We’ll spend our time glassing slide areas where the snow is just receding leaving tender shoots of grass the bears must like.  On other spring hunts there, I’ve seen the great grizzled beasts on the slide looking like they own the forest.  Grizzly bear hunting has been the object of much political debate in Canada and the U.S.A.  This seems very political, as the actual grizzly population is healthy a in most places….a little too healthy.

Micah’s black bear.  This is a great story for another time.

Other than the grand slam of sheep I place the grizzly bear on the very top of my trophy to have list.

If I can get Harry’s permission I’ll pass on the incident where he had a grizzly chew on him for a while.  He did show me the place, Alder Nob, where the episode happened.  I noticed for several years, after his to close of an in counter, he carried a shot gun with him.  Below are some photos of some friends and me in our various trips to Baldy Mountain Outfitters. intimate sensual e cards

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