Hunts not often talked about

[dogcat1]

I have made 15 trips to Africa. Started in South Africa and moved to Zim then to other places to get the full experience.
For me, I truly enjoyed a Lord Derby hunt in Cameroon - all tracking, all work, all hunt. Same in Ethiopia for Mountain Nyala.
Another was a leopard hunt in Zim using baits and dogs. All adrenilin all the time on that.

What hunts have you done that was extra special?

 

[Sabre]

I have made 15 trips to Africa. Started in South Africa and moved to Zim then to other places to get the full experience.
For me, I truly enjoyed a Lord Derby hunt in Cameroon - all tracking, all work, all hunt. Same in Ethiopia for Mountain Nyala.
Another was a leopard hunt in Zim using baits and dogs. All adrenilin all the time on that.

What hunts have you done that was extra special?

I think for me it isn't a specific animal or specific hunt. It's been more about the situation. Like if odds are very stacked against you and you end up connecting on an animal.

For instance if the animal is very difficult to hunt, or if things have just not been going in your favor. Even if it is considered an easy animal to hunt typically, but that hunt for you is just not working out, nothing is going well, but you stick with it and end up connecting. That always makes it special and memorable to me.

And of course if you happen to be with people that are fun to hunt with or that have special significance to you, that can always make a hunt more special as well.

 

[Tundra Tiger]

It's the circumstances and the people you are with, IMHO. Any animal or location or hunt can be extra special.

A fairly recent example. The moose was world class. The location is one of my favorite places on earth. But it was my 2 best friends in the same place for the first time ever that made this trip.

Frankly I think a person's mindset going into a hunt has a lot to do with the outcome - how a hunt has a chance to succeed, whatever the measures for success might be, and how it is ultimately remembered. YMMV

 

[franzfmdavis]

I wholeheartedly agree with @Sabre’s sentiment!

I spent 6 days on public land in Colorado hunting Rocky Mountain Elk in Colorado in late 2023. During the first 5 days I saw nothing - not even a rabbit - which left me quite deflated. The days were cold, snowy, and exhausting.

On the last night, I left a lot of my gear behind, including my knife and quartering bags.

At sunset I spot a bull 230 yards away in a field. I had just been scouting the valleys behind me and was not yet back to the spot I intended to hunt the clearing so I only had some brush to hide behind to set up for a shot, which I took with my support elbow resting on my knee.

With all the adrenaline and lack of a solid rest, my shot was further back than I wanted. The bull moved about 15 feet and then stopped. I aimed again and took another shot which caused him to go over. I saw his hooves come up through the tall grass.

I then made my way to him. When I got to about 50 feet from where I knew he was, he popped his head up, got up and ran into the nearby treeline with me chasing behind.

As I was moving through the trees I unknowing passed him (probably hiding). All of a sudden, I heard a sound of galloping behind me and turned to see him pass about 15 feet to my left. I swung my rifle and hit him with a third shot as he ran past. Luckily, I hit him in the right hip joint and he went down and didn’t get back up.

The 60 or so yards that I was tracking him through the woods, with my heart pumping and sweat pouring, rifle up and ready, and then hearing him behind me as he ran past me, is one of the best hunting memories I have ever had. Especially after being so deflated that whole week.

The bull is certainly not a trophy in any record book, but for me, it is one of my most cherished trophies because of the challenging journey to get him!

 

[dogcat1]

Story well told! Thanks

 

[DLSJR]

Two hunts come to mind above all others…

In 1980 I enjoyed a great hunt in Alaska when I was 22 years old. It was a 15-day Alaska Range Dall Sheep & Grizzly hunt by horseback in September. It turned into a grand adventure, riding through wilderness that was filled with sheep, moose, caribou and grizzlies. I shot a nice Dall Ram on my first day and a beautiful Toklat Grizzly on the 16th or 17th day (of a 15-day hunt). We rode over 100 miles, crossing wild, glacier fed rivers, slept wherever we wanted to spend a few days and got to see the best of Alaska.

The other was my first African hunt, in 1983. I hunted 24 days in Zimbabwe’s Deka Safari Area with Roy Vincent, then of Rosslyn Safaris. I had everything on license except for lion. I’d have had to extend to 28 days to add a lion and chose not to. I should have as had I added lion it would have been the first African big game I shot. We bumped into a fantastic old lion all alone at 25 yards during my first afternoon. As the hunt went on I was fortunate to take a very full bag, highlighted by 2 good buffalo of 41+ & 42+”, a very big leopard, 58 lb elephant bull that we shot at 9 yards as it was bearing down on us (Roy & I both shot at same time. He apologized but explained the bull was intent on killing us and he didn’t know if I’d perform or freeze up. We both made great shots!). It was a grand safari where I got to see all of the Big Five up close and we were in the middle of buffalo and elephant herds at different times. I took 16 animals. That adventure was the catalyst for my love of African hunting.

 

[Muskox]

I have made 15 trips to Africa. Started in South Africa and moved to Zim then to other places to get the full experience.
For me, I truly enjoyed a Lord Derby hunt in Cameroon - all tracking, all work, all hunt. Same in Ethiopia for Mountain Nyala.
Another was a leopard hunt in Zim using baits and dogs. All adrenilin all the time on that.

What hunts have you done that was extra special?

I saw this and I thought of Ross, then I saw that it was Ross and it made me smile.

Congrats Ross, keep moving. Always a pleasure to read your exploits. Or sell you Blaser stuff.

Or buy Blaser stuff from you.

cheers,

Seth

 

[Hunter-Habib]

AFRICA

The first time I took my son on Safari

The first time I ever hunted with a double rifle

My best lion

My best hippopotamus bull on land.

My best Sable

ASIA

First time I took my daughter hunting

My three man eating Royal Bengal tigers (Three of the only four to be legally hunted in Bangladesh)

My Gaur bull

My best Axis stags

My Seladang bull

Every hunt is a true blessing for me, be it for a dove or be it for a hippopotamus bull. Hunting is food for my soul. But the ones listed above are (so far) amongst my most memorable. Hopefully when I bag a rhinoceros bull someday, I can add that to my list.

 

[Muskox]

The 2022 pronghorn fiasco.

By 2021 I had something like 9 or 10 points for antelope in Wyoming. I knew I wanted to hunt a certain unit, and had been given bad advice multiple times from my father on a unit he wanted to hunt in. His unit was one of those Red Desert units that have been all the buzz in Wyoming since the 1960s. He lives in Wyoming and every couple of years he draws a tag there . So to him, this is the unit.

I didn't think I could draw a tag there and I relayed this though process to my then 82 year father and he said, no you are good do it. So I listened to him and of course did not draw a tag.

In 2022 I now had another point, and I knew that I could "probably" draw a tag in another unit outside of the Red Desert that had a lot of public land. Populations were way down, there was a drought and of course why wait another year. So I applied and drew my unit in 2022.

Funny thing on that draw, I actually drew the only tag at my point level in that unit. So my odds were not 100%, they were 5%. The 9 of the 10 non-resident standard tags went to the highest point holders, and they all had 12 points. I drew mine with 11, and another 20 people did not draw.

My sister called me on my drive from New Mexico to Wyoming and told me that parents were both sick, and she thought it was Covid. I got to Cheyenne and my phone rang, with me thinking I was driving to my destination alone. The old man told me he was fine, and he was going hunting with me. So I overnighted at their house and we spent the next day driving from their house to the location. We stopped in the unit and found a couple of bucks in the 14 inch range.

He was visibly sick when we got up in the morning. We stayed with my aunt and uncle with the plan to hunt the next morning, as they live in the unit.

The next morning Dad was ok, I was feeling something growing inside of me with sinus pressure. We took off for the area, and drove in about 2 miles and saw our first group. Nothing great, drove another couple of miles and my dad and uncle decide I am going to shoot the one in front of us. He was your typical 12 inch buck with nice cutters. He stood up from his bed, I shot him from 105 yards, he walked about 40 yards and fell over.

New Mexico is big antelope country, we have antelope in the 18-20 inch range. Wyoming has lots of antelope and this unit should have been possible even in a drought to get a 14 or 15 inch buck with good cutters. I am a disabled veteran and Wyoming has a 5 day extension for those with disabilities, and I had all the proper paperwork from the state. So having a 5 day advantage on the place we could had have a hell of a time looking for Mr. Right.

We drove back to Cheyenne that night. I drove back to New Mexico the next morning and gave my entire family covid. Everyone survived. My aunt and uncle did not get covid. Or at least they did not admit to it.

At 50 years old I look at this hunt as a fiasco. Dad is still alive and maybe we will hunt together again. Maybe we won't. Either way it paints of picture for me of these high odds points programs situations and how much they suck, they cause you to put a lot of pressure on a tag you have been waiting for for 10 years. I have the memory of hunting in the same unit with my Dad as I did in the 1970's, 1980's, 1990's until I left Wyoming as a kid and joined the military, so far never to return.