What’s your favorite big game hunt ?
- Thread starter trumperman
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SAM55
Well-Known Member
I don't have ready access to hunting property, so I have to do some traveling for big game. My favorite hunt is a plains game hunt in Namibia. There are a lot of bargains to be had if you are not after record book trophies.
Guy M
Well-Known Member
So many different hunts in the responses above! Love it!
You asked about favorite big game hunts... I have to admit that my favorite hunt is for upland birds, pheasant in particular, with my dog, my family and friends.
But... for big game... Wow... About the time I decide I like something best... I try something else.
Mostly I hunt mule deer. There's a good population of them in my local area here in central Washington, and I can hunt them either up in the Cascade Mountains, or out on the sagebrush covered plateau to the east. Either way has an attraction for me, and I've done pretty well both places. Usually I'm hunting with friends and family, sometimes alone.
I also go to Wyoming for mule deer every couple of years. I hunt a large private ranch there, and it is indeed something special to share a 40,000 acre ranch with only one or two other hunters! Think about something like that, it really is quality hunting. The animals are largely undisturbed by other hunters, and are pretty much just going about their business every day.
Antelope hunting in Wyoming is an absolute blast! I've only hunted them in October, four times, and each time managed to take a buck. I've stalked and failed to take a couple of real whoppers! Always seem to "settle" for an average buck. That's fine, the backstrap steaks are delicious!
I haven't done enough elk hunting to call it my favorite. Have taken one good 6x6 bull on a wilderness hunt. We packed on horses, set up a traditional western tent camp and hunted from there. It was an outstanding experience, highly recommended!
Later, took a nice fat cow elk here in Washington, only a few miles from home, on a DIY late season hunt. Also fun, fairly challenging, and again, delicious meat!
Bear hunting... This really got me worked up... Good population of black bear, in several different colors, here in Washington. All spot & stalk here, no dogs, no bait. It can be challenging. Managed to call one in with a predator call! That was INTENSE. Photo is of a bear my son took a few years ago:
I think each hunt has a distinct flavor and appeal to it. When I was younger I tended to do more backpacking hunts for high country mule deer. I may do that again this year, but maybe not. There are a lot of different possibilities and I think you ought to figure out which one appeals to you the most, now. Priorities may change later.
Mostly I value the experience of the hunt. I've been able to tag a good number of big game animals over the years, but that's not the only way to measure success. I'm happy when I've had a "good" hunt. Happier when that hunt fills the freezer.
Regards, Guy
You asked about favorite big game hunts... I have to admit that my favorite hunt is for upland birds, pheasant in particular, with my dog, my family and friends.
But... for big game... Wow... About the time I decide I like something best... I try something else.
Mostly I hunt mule deer. There's a good population of them in my local area here in central Washington, and I can hunt them either up in the Cascade Mountains, or out on the sagebrush covered plateau to the east. Either way has an attraction for me, and I've done pretty well both places. Usually I'm hunting with friends and family, sometimes alone.
I also go to Wyoming for mule deer every couple of years. I hunt a large private ranch there, and it is indeed something special to share a 40,000 acre ranch with only one or two other hunters! Think about something like that, it really is quality hunting. The animals are largely undisturbed by other hunters, and are pretty much just going about their business every day.
Antelope hunting in Wyoming is an absolute blast! I've only hunted them in October, four times, and each time managed to take a buck. I've stalked and failed to take a couple of real whoppers! Always seem to "settle" for an average buck. That's fine, the backstrap steaks are delicious!
I haven't done enough elk hunting to call it my favorite. Have taken one good 6x6 bull on a wilderness hunt. We packed on horses, set up a traditional western tent camp and hunted from there. It was an outstanding experience, highly recommended!
Later, took a nice fat cow elk here in Washington, only a few miles from home, on a DIY late season hunt. Also fun, fairly challenging, and again, delicious meat!
Bear hunting... This really got me worked up... Good population of black bear, in several different colors, here in Washington. All spot & stalk here, no dogs, no bait. It can be challenging. Managed to call one in with a predator call! That was INTENSE. Photo is of a bear my son took a few years ago:
I think each hunt has a distinct flavor and appeal to it. When I was younger I tended to do more backpacking hunts for high country mule deer. I may do that again this year, but maybe not. There are a lot of different possibilities and I think you ought to figure out which one appeals to you the most, now. Priorities may change later.
Mostly I value the experience of the hunt. I've been able to tag a good number of big game animals over the years, but that's not the only way to measure success. I'm happy when I've had a "good" hunt. Happier when that hunt fills the freezer.
Regards, Guy
Guy M
Well-Known Member
The Brooks Range grizzly hunt... That was something really special too. Took me years to save for it. But what an experience! Living in little tents for nine days, well above the arctic circle. No roads. When that plane left us, two hunters and two guides, it was dead silent up there except for the stream running across the rocks. Amazing place.
That was one heck of a hunt, but not the sort of thing I can do year after year.
Regards, Guy
That was one heck of a hunt, but not the sort of thing I can do year after year.
Regards, Guy
Doublezranch
Well-Known Member
seattleman1969
Well-Known Member
DIY elk in Montana with my brother. Family/friends, scenery, and elk...
Coyote_Hunter
Well-Known Member
Favorite hunt is the annual Colorado elk hunt. Favorite meat is the antelope from Wyoming.
Hunting Cape Buffalo in Zim with CM Safaris. The experience is magical; the people, the land and animals are amazing. To this day, I am still in awe of how the trackers are able to navigate and track these brutes. Their professionalism, passion and patience and knowledge of animals are second to none. Just watching them solve seemingly unsolvable problems with a smile on their face is worth the trip. Watch out, this is worse than eating popcorn....one handful is never enough.
ballisticxlr
Member
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- Jul 12, 2014
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African plains game. Nothing in the world like it if you find a place that you can do a real proper hunt on instead of riding around in a pickup bed all day. Cost is surprisingly cheap compared to guided deer and hunts. African game are ridiculously tough compared to American big game. The difficulty of making the perfect shot on skittish critters and the plain old wariness of plains game helps to make up for the fact that where there's game, there's usually a lot of it by American standards. If we see one deer or elk with bones on it over a 5 day hunt we're over the moon. Where you see African horned critters you usually see quite a few at a time. That does not make it easy. If you're on foot you'll get a real challenging spot and stalk experience. If you go to most safari outfitters you'll do it in a truck and it kind of feels then like doing a drive-by shooting of a cow in a grocery store.
Springbok by spot and stalk is probably the most challenging to the shooter. They're smallish, a bit smaller than a typical west coast blacktail deer. They dig seriously open ground and are quite wary and run pronghorn fast and long. They're pretty tasty too, a bit like mild goat or lamb. You can hunt them any time of year where I've been. When you find yourself inside 300 yards you're really pretty close. Getting a lot closer takes huge amounts of patience but can be done. I've been inside 70 yards. You best be fast with your shootin' iron. If it winds you it's gone.
Eland by spot and stalk were not quite as challenging as some things but still a huge amount of fun and not easy to get very close to but they're not as skittish as sprinkbok or kudu by a mile. They're huge animals, as big as a large horse, and delicious. Tastes like good beef. Monstrously tough animals that need a hard swat to go down. Pretty intimidating to find yourself in the midst of 20 or so of them at conversational distances.
Kudu by spot and stalk are seriously challenging. I just got mine this year. They have radar dishes for ears and skedaddle at the first sign of far off trouble. Twice the size of a good deer and can get quite a bit bigger than that. Mine was 95kg minus guts, head and feet and was apparently pretty small. He was old and kind of thin too. They taste exactly like blacktail deer but unlike deer quite a few bits are easily made fork tender without having to slow cook or braise. You can do the tenderloins over an open fire and they come out tender. Not too intensely flavored but just enough flavor to let you know you're eating something different. Even a smallish bull gives a really beautiful trophy. Plan longish shots and bring something with some thump and bring all of your patience.
In the USA:
Cottontail rabbit are my all time favorite thing to hunt. If you find a spot with some there's likely to be a ton of them and once you learn how to hunt them you'll usually have no trouble filling a limit in a day. Fast movers and 12ga go together like peas and carrots. Not my favorite to eat anymore, already ate a semi-truck load as a kid growing up poor where they made up most of our protein. Tough as bulls balls, you need alligator teeth and bulldog jaws to eat them. Used to have endless fun pulling 10 or 20 a day in the spring and late fall. Not usually good for summertime hunting.
Springbok by spot and stalk is probably the most challenging to the shooter. They're smallish, a bit smaller than a typical west coast blacktail deer. They dig seriously open ground and are quite wary and run pronghorn fast and long. They're pretty tasty too, a bit like mild goat or lamb. You can hunt them any time of year where I've been. When you find yourself inside 300 yards you're really pretty close. Getting a lot closer takes huge amounts of patience but can be done. I've been inside 70 yards. You best be fast with your shootin' iron. If it winds you it's gone.
Eland by spot and stalk were not quite as challenging as some things but still a huge amount of fun and not easy to get very close to but they're not as skittish as sprinkbok or kudu by a mile. They're huge animals, as big as a large horse, and delicious. Tastes like good beef. Monstrously tough animals that need a hard swat to go down. Pretty intimidating to find yourself in the midst of 20 or so of them at conversational distances.
Kudu by spot and stalk are seriously challenging. I just got mine this year. They have radar dishes for ears and skedaddle at the first sign of far off trouble. Twice the size of a good deer and can get quite a bit bigger than that. Mine was 95kg minus guts, head and feet and was apparently pretty small. He was old and kind of thin too. They taste exactly like blacktail deer but unlike deer quite a few bits are easily made fork tender without having to slow cook or braise. You can do the tenderloins over an open fire and they come out tender. Not too intensely flavored but just enough flavor to let you know you're eating something different. Even a smallish bull gives a really beautiful trophy. Plan longish shots and bring something with some thump and bring all of your patience.
In the USA:
Cottontail rabbit are my all time favorite thing to hunt. If you find a spot with some there's likely to be a ton of them and once you learn how to hunt them you'll usually have no trouble filling a limit in a day. Fast movers and 12ga go together like peas and carrots. Not my favorite to eat anymore, already ate a semi-truck load as a kid growing up poor where they made up most of our protein. Tough as bulls balls, you need alligator teeth and bulldog jaws to eat them. Used to have endless fun pulling 10 or 20 a day in the spring and late fall. Not usually good for summertime hunting.
quailybirds
Well-Known Member
Cape Buffalo - but more specifically tracking small groups of dagga boys on foot! Nothing else quite like it.
lancetkenyon
Well-Known Member
Late season mule deer or pronghorn antelope.
I have never had a late rifle mule deer tag myself, but the luckiest kid in the world (my 17 year old daughter) has had one before, and she has one coming up very soon. So I get to live vicariously through her.
I have only hunted pronghorn twice, but I am hooked. Cool that you can spot them with the naked eye from 2 miles away, then get out the glass, and hope they don't spot you from 1000 yards and put 4 miles between you in 5 minutes.
I have never had a late rifle mule deer tag myself, but the luckiest kid in the world (my 17 year old daughter) has had one before, and she has one coming up very soon. So I get to live vicariously through her.
I have only hunted pronghorn twice, but I am hooked. Cool that you can spot them with the naked eye from 2 miles away, then get out the glass, and hope they don't spot you from 1000 yards and put 4 miles between you in 5 minutes.
Andrew Massi
Well-Known Member
Love to hunt mule deer with a rifle.
