Sportsman's Quest

Welcome to BC Safaris, British

Columbia’s finest hunting

We pay attention to the details we believe will ensure that you have a safe and successful hunt. Some of our hunters had their first hunt with us in 1986 and we haven’t worn them out yet! Whether it’s your first, second, or 14th hunt with us we will be happy to have you here and will make certain you know it. 

Web site: bcsafaris.com

Address

PO Box 1491 , Prince George , BC V2L 4V5  

Contact Information

 Tel 1 (250) 562 - 0071  Fax 1 (250) 964 – 6595

About us

BC Safaris Ltd. was formed in 2001 when Keith Connors and Shane Black purchased Turnagain River Outfitters Ltd. from Eugene Egeler. Turnagain River Outfitters dates back to 1963 when Gene Overton took over the area, he then operated it until 1988. Keith and Shane are committed to providing an uncompromising quality to the hunts they offer. We have a great deal of respect for the wildlife we hunt and the people we hunt them with. We have the exclusive guiding rights to over 2000 square miles of some of the finest hunting country in North America. Along with that we have excellent facilities and equipment as well as the experienced guides and dependable horses to ensure that the hunt you book with us will be as good as it gets. The service is personalized with the owners/outfitters always there. Their friendship and partnership having been strengthened over the last 10 years of business, they are looking to continue the tradition of good huntin’. This is a family oriented business with both Keith’s and Shane’s wives actively involved, Joan at camp and Colleen in the office.

If you want to hunt Stone Sheep, Mountain Caribou, Moose, Mountain Goat, Grizzly Bear or Wolf this is the place. The success rate is over 90% on moose and caribou and 80% on sheep and goats. Our hunts can be tailored to your requests. Generally our hunts are on horseback but we also hunt moose and grizzly by boat and have excellent success on our backpack sheep and goat hunts.

Keith Connors has guided in B.C. every year except one since 1976 including 27 years as a guide-outfitter with experience in 4 different guiding operations. Keith is a commercial pilot with over 8,000 hours, all of it in the mountains. He has trapped and logged many winters. A director of the Guide Outfitters Association of B.C. (GOABC) for 21 years including a term as president. He is a long time member of Foundation for North American Wild Sheep, the Grand Slam Club as well as Safari Club International.

He purchased his first guiding area in 1978 with partner George Cogar on the Finlay River. Along with his wife Joan, sons Brian and Rob they built a very successful guiding operation that they sold in 1993. Keith spent the next couple of years working for Central Mountain Air and then operated the Finlay again in 1996 for the current owner. He followed that with a stint with Ducks Unlimited raising millions of dollars for the cause before returning to aviation with Northern Mountain Helicopters.

After looking at more than a dozen guiding operations in BC, the Yukon and Northwest Territories, he decided one day in 2000 to fly into Turnagain Lake to see if Eugene would consider selling. It was a timely arrival as the Egeler’s had just decided it was time to move on and a deal was quickly struck. Keith guided part of the season of 2001 for Eugene and along with Shane took over full operation in 2002.

Shane was born and raised in Prince George has trapped and hunted most of Northern British Columbia. He raced canoes successfully across western Canada and is an avid shooter and exceptional at trap shooting. He is also an excellent photographer and enjoys sharing his knowledge for capturing the ideal moment with others. Shane owned and operated Black’s Furs in Prince George for over 20 years, and during that time strongly supported the guiding and trapping industry. Following the death of a close mutual friend, Rod Holst, Shane discussed his desire to leave the retail business and become an outfitter. It took  some time for all the pieces to fit but the dream came true in 2001. He guided for Dennis Smith of Bear Paw Outfitters and Collingwood Brothers in the Spatsizi in the meanwhile learning a lot about the industry and especially about horses. As well as keen eyesight and an accomplished guide Shane is an excellent farrier and horse trainer. He has been featured on several TV hunting shows including Canada in The Rough and Peterson’s Hunting.

Location

B.C. Safaris – remote wilderness with reasonable access. Dease Lake is the jumping off point for all of our trips. Located on Highway 37 ­ the Cassiar Highway  Dease is about a 20 hour drive from Seattle on good hard surfaced highway.

There are scheduled flights 3 times a week from Vancouver via Smithers, B.C. with Northern Thunderbird Air. Our main lodge at Turnagain Lake is just a 25 minute flight from Dease Lake by floatplane. The company has its own DeHavilland Beaver floatplane that is leased to and operated by Ootsa Air Ltd.

Our guiding area has the mighty Stikine River as its southern boundary starting on the west at Beggarly Creek and continuing eastward to the Pitman River and up the Pitman about 20 miles. The Eagle River forms part of the northern boundary and Tanzilla Butte is generally the northwest corner post. King Mountain at just under 8000 feet, is our highest peak. For 1:250,000 maps of the area you will need Cry Lake – 104i and Stikine River 104h.

Facilities

The main lodge at Turnagain Lake will impress you with its setting, its comfort and especially the view. The spacious and bright log building provides family style dining and lounging area with comfortable chairs and couches. And you can always get a cool one at the “Turnagaian Trough” or a strong one at “Milt’s Wolfpack Pub”, named for our late friend Milt Warren. There are 3 separate log cabins for sleeping, with comfortable bunks and cast iron wood stoves for heat. There is a washhouse with shower and sauna. Our hot water system is propane powered. We also use quiet and clean propane lighting for our main source with a backup solar system and also two 110 volt generators. Calling the place luxurious might be a stretch, but for a location where everything has to be flown in it’s hard to beat our comfort level. That includes the new roof replaced in 2009.

We have 4 other camps with cabins but for the most part our hunting is done from a base camp using wall tents. Generally there are 2 hunters and 2 guides in camp and we use two 14×16 wall tents as a camp. The guides bunk in one with the cookstove and the hunters have the other to themselves. We use wood burning stoves for heat in these camps.

To allow us to get within easier reach of game animals we often use mountain tents as a spike camp from our base camp. This allows a hunter and his guide to move quickly and still provide a roof over your head. When we use these its generally only for a couple of nights.

And when we really get aggressive you might end up “siwashing”. That’s spending the night out unprepared. But they’re usually pretty enjoyable night as you  have your animal down if you’ve gone so far from camp you can’t get back. Always a good idea to have a space blanket in you pack, even if the outfitter yells at you for bringing too much stuff!

Our Services

At BC Safaris “The Resource Comes First”.It has to be that way for us to survive, but our clients come a very close second! Gene Overton, who owned this area from 1963 to 1988 had guided for us until 2005. After looking over his old hunting grounds for a couple of seasons he told us the game was at least as plentiful as in its best years. That’s a legacy we’re intent on maintaining.

As with any business we are profit driven or we wouldn’t survive, but that goal of profit is tempered with integrity. We strive to be the best but that’s a very subjective goal in a service industry. “We’re as good as any and better than some” might be a humble way of putting it. We want our clients to leave after having the best experience and to that end will do everything that’s reasonably possible to make it happen. We believe the key to that is letting you know what we can do and more importantly finding out what you expect. On some occasions the 2 will not meet and it’s better for both parties to know that so a mistake isn’t made.

Our business partnership is strong, we’re both good friends and complement each others working style. In the past we have both guided the full season although future plans are for us to guide alternate hunts. Our assistant guides are superb outdoorsmen with exceptional hunting and people skills and are also good friends of ours. No matter how good the food, the equipment, the quality and quantity of game; if the outfitter you book the hunt with doesn’t provide a guide that you have confidence in and is easy to get along with, your hunt is probably going to seem a lot longer than what you had booked.

We pay attention to the details we believe will have the greatest influence on providing a safe and successful hunt. Some of our hunters had their first hunt with us in 1986 and we haven’t worn them out yet! Whether it’s your first, second or 14th hunt with us we’ll be happy to have you here and make certain that you know it.