What’s your favorite hunt? I know some of you been all over so I would love to hear them. Mine is still Indiana Rifle season. Bucks rutting, cool weather, great times and memories.
Ive done 3 outfitted hunts and have a 4th booked, hunt just about everything around home but my favourite hunt is still our firearms deer season here. 1 week of doing drives with friends and family
The next one I’m planning, usually. They each hold a different spot in my mind and heart. This is sorta like asking a parent who is their favorite child, an impossible task, for me anyway. Each one is unique and special in its own way.
The next one I’m planning, usually. They each hold a different spot in my mind and heart. This is sorta like asking a parent who is their favorite child, an impossible task, for me anyway. Each one is unique and special in its own way.
Some days it’s one of them and other days it’s the other one, just depends on what is going on. That’s the beauty of it all, my children are so different in their personalities and behaviors but each of them holds all of my heart in their own ways.
Same with my hunts, each one had it own challenges and obstacles to overcome. I will say that the older I get the more I enjoy hunting with family and friends. Here recently those are some of my favorites.
My favorite deer and elk hunts were with a group of good friends hunting in the Flattops Wilderness area in Colorado. We hunted there from 1980 until 1993. Worked our tails off for game and had some insane cold and snows. We all had each other's backs. I've only done one Africa hunt, Botswana with NKWE Safaris in 2023, so that is my favorite there. But, I also believe that entire experience will always be memorable for me.
Pronghorn antelope in Montana since I was a kid. I love the wide open area and long walks. I love being able to see them a mile or two away and then take over an hour to get there and into position. My heart soars when I think about those hunts.
Elephant hunting.I love the walking, thinking. If you thought walking down the aisle to get married was a severe moment in questioning one’s judgment… closing in on an elephant is nearly as scary. I can report favorable outcomes thus far, the former being a single event, the latter requires to be repeated.
So many ways to answer the question...I love turkey hunting and learning where they want to be and then getting there ahead of them while they chase each other and dance and talk...Coues deer in the high desert where you alternately freeze and sweat while burning your eyes out looking for the grey ghost and then he stretches under the cholla and you setup for a long shot...or mountain lion hunting where the dogs bail off the rimrock into the canyon and you realize it's going to be a VERY long day...or watching dogs point upland game or retrieve waterfowl...watching a bear walk the woods and streams as if he owns the place (because he does)...seeing a sable walk among the lesser species with his head held high, like the prince that he is...watching my hawk or falcon pursue fur and feather like a little rocket...it's all wonderful in its own way but my favorite hunt is getting close to dangerous game...close enough to smell them and hear their stomach rumble...watching the elephant's padded foot squish silently into the ground and hearing the crack as he pushes trees over...watching a leopard pull on the bait with their strong shoulders...darting rhinos that are as big as a truck...sneaking around the thorns with the buff and then realizing he has circled back and is behind you again. I look forward to more of all of this and new species and memories as well.
I have loved all my hunts, even the ones where I came home without a trophy. But in the end Africa is where my heart lies. The best hunt overall was probably the first time I took my kids to Africa. All 3 of my children hunted on that trip and we had such a great time. Our PH, Janneman Brand, and his wife Aldalene were great hosts. Janneman was very patient with my young children and to be on safari with my wife and kids and watch my children experience Africa for the first time was truly the "trip of a lifetime"
Every hunt I go on is my favorite. I give thanks for every one. Just being outdoors away from the noise and bustle of everyday life makes it special. Breathing fresh air, observing animals going about their business, anticipation every time you hear a twig snap. The sudden noisey flush of a grouse, the whistling wings of doves. I love it all.
Myself and IGS are leaving in a couple of hours to a farm where we turkey hunt to do some tree work. We will scout and cut in a new two-track ring road on his property over the next few days. Along with that we've packed our shotguns for pattern testing and a few rifles to sight in. Also going to clear some areas where we want to set up our blinds in the spring.
I love them all. One of the extra special is wild boar driven hunts for two reasons:
1) Hunt itself: Quiet snowy woods in January. Boars roaming through the snow and young spruces thickets. Only seconds to react, judge the animals and shoot fast. Majestic red deers make the special picture complete.
2) People: it is the only (or one of a few) opportunity to meet some of my further located hunting buds in whole year and finish the hunt with drinking, talking and exchanging hunt stories.
I can't even think about how to choose a favorite. Only to say any hunt my son can go with me on. With a young family his opportunities are limited now. I'd give up anything else to hunt with him or my grandsons.
Other than that I enjoy new places and new animals to hunt no matter what they are. I have never had hunting friends so I go alone on the rest of my hunts.
Favorite just comes down to the word hunting itself.
I've said in the past I could likely kill a world record buck today and happily grab my rifle and head out with a doe tag tomorrow.
Woodchuck hunting in my native Potter County, Pennsylvania in 1988. I have recently served on the Marine Corps Rifle Team and was at the top of my shooting ability. I took a weeks leave and spent every day scouting the fields for ground hogs.
I was armed with a M98 Mauser with Nazi eagle stamps, 26" Douglas heavy barrel chambered in .22-250, a Jaeger trigger, and glass bedded by me. I had my handloads dialed in for .5" MOA or better. Then there were no available laser range finders or wind meters for the a yet to be invented smart phones. Rather it was all field craft to estimate the range and wind and calculate the drop and deflection of the projectile. I made a few 400 yard shots which a few years ago I returned and verified that distance with a $100 laser rangefinder. My, how things have changed.
The photo below was 36 years ago... Those days have been superseded with "deadlines and commitments" to quote a Bob Seager song. Many of those fields are now posted No Trespassing, and the abundant population of woodchucks has been greatly reduced by eastern coyotes.
I still have and always will have that rifle, although she has been re-barreled. Its a good feeling to have shot out a barrel working up load, practicing, and hunting varmints.
I suppose I at this point in my life my youthful days are but a memory. I will have to be content to plan and execute an elephant hunt.
Saw a good looking knife you posted a pic of with the watermelon. Can I ask the make? Looks like you hunted with Guav Johnson? We overlapped in the Save once. Would like to hunt with him one day..
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