Any hunts you wouldn’t do again?

[Ontario Hunter]

Ontario, you worked hard but got yourself into a great spot and for a No Boat/No Decoys hunt - you shot a mess of geese. Sounds like a fun Hunt - although the walk back to the truck was more of a “workout” then hunt. Your Brit did a fine job on the retrieves - geese are like lifting a cinderblock for that small dog....but you wouldn’t have recovered those geese without a dog. My first Brit was also a do-it-all dog and water retrieved well for ducks & geese, ducks were delivered to hand but geese were “Left at the bank”, just didn’t want to carry 10-12lbs and he was a larger then standard Brit. He’d also retrieve rabbits, woodchucks (liked to catch/kill them himself). For grouse, woodcock, pond & freshwater ducks/geese I think Brits are great - not too big but “big enough”. I switched to a Lab when I started doing more duck hunting and always on tidal water or ocean bays - the upland bird hunting in NJ really deteriorated by the late 1990s, fewer house and almost no wild quail.....but great waterfowling. My lab would also retrieve in icey water and temps well below freezing, they have the same gentle affectionate temperament and a shorter coat that keeps cleaner and never picks up burrs. I like both breeds and hunting dogs really change-your-life....I found myself hunting many days (that I would’ve stayed home) just to spend time with the dog. My days afield “tripled” after I got my Brit, hunted before work or cut out early to catch last few hours of daylight. Later when I switched to my Lab - I hunted 40 days of a 60 day waterfowl season and (while still working FT in Manhattan). You must enjoy your dogs greatly - they add value and enjoyment to every hunt - even the ones with an empty bag

Lab Ellie is doing the retreiving in the photo. Britt Puppy will retrieve uplands if the birds are crippled and I'm hunting her solo. Dead birds she'll just stay with till I find her. She will attempt to retrieve any duck on the water. Has a fascination for ducks! Lab Ellie doesn't have a great nose for finding geese, not like her predecessor Black Pearl. But this Lab is absolutely deadly hunting pheasants. Works very close and a dynamite pointer. She can find pheasants every time in the same awful crap we were battling yesterday. I have no hesitation wading into cattails over my head to shoot roosters. Formerly, when I was hunting two other Labs and Puppy, I kept them out of that stuff because most of the time downed birds were lost. In the last three years I know I have shot more than 75 roosters and probably 2/3 in cattail thickets. She lost three downed birds, not counting three others that got back up again and flew off. Puppy is an excellent pointer but often works a bit too far for spooky late season shot up roosters. I almost never work the dogs together as they keep bumping each other out of range. One is always kept beside me while the other works. No electronics. I've been raising hunting dogs since 1964 and never had to resort to outfitting them with technocrap. Just live with them. Then everyone is bonded and on the same page.

Well ... most of the time.

 

[Doubleplay]

Respectively disagree. Good luck paying $60k plus and never having an incredible experience that I had this year

Regardless of money there's no comparison between the two unless you equate hunting with shooting an animal.
I know more about CLH than most people on this forum having visited where they were bred and brought one back with a PH to his property for a paying client to shoot couple days later.
Having said that, I don't want to take this conversation any further...

 

[PerH]

Seeing the Aussie mentioned here

See this movie and notice what they say about US FDA and Beef

 

[IvW]

Can you give us some more context?

Joined 10 years ago.....10 posts 1 a year?

 

[Bob Nelson 35Whelen]

Seeing the Aussie mentioned here

See this movie and notice what they say about US FDA and Beef

@PerH
A great story of days gone by.
Pity the part with the Aboriginal people is just tokenenistic bullshit.
Bob

 

[BenKK]

@PerH
A great story of days gone by.
Pity the part with the Aboriginal people is just tokenenistic bullshit.
Bob

Been awhile since I’ve seen this wonderful movie, Bob. Which bit is tokenism? I can’t recall. I lived there for a couple of years and it was very special to show people that video and see their faces light-up recognising family and remembering old times.

A friend still lives at one of the places in the documentary. He is an excellent hunter and he and his wife quietly cruise out in the bush and shoot cattle and boars. His Dad killed buffalo with spears but is quite elderly now.

Another friend tells of how the main bloke in the doco got nipped by a brown and managed to fly himself to Darwin hospital. My friend was just a kid at the time. Another of his stories is of being carried on the shoulders of his Dad who saw a wallaby break cover and without missing a beat he launched a spear perfectly from his borndok and nailed that wallaby on the run - with my friend still on his shoulders.

 

[Bob Nelson 35Whelen]

Been awhile since I’ve seen this wonderful movie, Bob. Which bit is tokenism? I can’t recall. I lived there for a couple of years and it was very special to show people that video and see their faces light-up recognising family and remembering old times.

A friend still lives at one of the places in the documentary. He is an excellent hunter and he and his wife quietly cruise out in the bush and shoot cattle and boars. His Dad killed buffalo with spears but is quite elderly now.

Another friend tells of how the main bloke in the doco got nipped by a brown and managed to fly himself to Darwin hospital. My friend was just a kid at the time. Another of his stories is of being carried on the shoulders of his Dad who saw a wallaby break cover and without missing a beat he launched a spear perfectly from his borndok and nailed that wallaby on the run - with my friend still on his shoulders.

@BenKK
I've never seen a black fella run up to game like he did after spearing it.
Back in those days a lot of Aboriginal people did what they thought white fella wanted not how they did things in actual life.
Ceremonial dances where performed totally different to what was actually done. Sometimes in reverse so people could understand the story. This was done to protect their intellectual property.
The reason I know these things is because I am Aboriginal. Tokenism is still rampant in our society. My son used to get awards for the best Aboriginal student in the class at school. He told them it was bullshit as he was the only Aboriginal student in the class.
He wanted to be assessed on his ability not his race.
Bob

 

[IvW]

The way it should be in the world...

 

[Mtn_Infantry]

We called that "Hog Hunting" or "Hoggin" during my army days

“Hoggin” in airborne units, and earning your “Mount’n” tab.. Also seen guys throw in money for whoever “takes the grenade”.

 

[dchum]

Washington State Elk have gone twice and has been a train wreck each time.

West Texas Aoudad hunting. Stay away from HuntAoudad.com and High Caliber Outfitters
One is a questionable crook and the other is a lying druggy.

Never been interested in Grizzly or Brown Bear or the any of the big horn sheep.

That’s a shame, West Texas aoudad is one of the best hunts for your money in the US. There are plenty of good outfits all in the Trans pecos region.

 

[Mtn_Infantry]

A Bad Day of Hunting is better than a Good Day of Work. I’ve got 1 hunt I wouldn’t repeat (recent RSA hunt) if paying full price. On a REALLY great deal or as a guest of another hunter I would do it again since it’s better than being at work, and is still hunting.

If you’re in sales you’ve likely heard “there’s no such thing as bad product, just a bad price”. For me, that applies to hunts. I’d repeat every one of them, but some might have to be for less than that charge or what I paid.

 

[BenKK]

Fair points, Bob. I reckon I can pinpoint tokenism more in towns and cities rather than out in the bush. Maybe things are a little more real and down to earth in the bush.

You’re right about the old blokes not running up after they speared buffalo. They’d stay quiet and give it time, then carefully track it - hopefully even observe it crash.

I’ve seen plenty of young blokes enthusiastically run up to something just shot, which is fine if it’s an emu or similar, but they get growled at by the old/er blokes if it’s a buffalo or buliki.

 

[booker]

That’s a shame, West Texas aoudad is one of the best hunts for your money in the US. There are plenty of good outfits all in the Trans pecos region.

Oh I still hunt Aoudad down there in fact I have a hunt scheduled in 2 weeks. Just not with the 2 train wrecks mentioned. Love the country and the animals.

 

[PerH]

I wish i grew up In a area with more game In and not so much poaching . Same people poached , hunted legally in seasons . No one cared about boundaries or others landowners ownership at all .
Now come the other way , refuse to be like them and fine blood traces of game on your area and pets gone missing .

 

[PerH]

I wonder how Asian Forrest officials would handled them

 

[Doubleplay]

Oh I still hunt Aoudad down there in fact I have a hunt scheduled in 2 weeks. Just not with the 2 train wrecks mentioned. Love the country and the animals.

Would you mind telling me the outfit via pm.
Thanks

 

[Hunt anything]

You guys that have hunted aoudad multiple times, have you eaten the animals? The people I used to hunt with in Texas wouldn’t touch it, they said the coyotes wouldn’t even eat it. I would like to do a hunt for them but have a problem leaving that much meat for the buzzards and ants. I believe they were mostly referring to the animals in the mountains of west Texas and not corn fed ranch animals.

 

[dchum]

You guys that have hunted aoudad multiple times, have you eaten the animals? The people I used to hunt with in Texas wouldn’t touch it, they said the coyotes wouldn’t even eat it. I would like to do a hunt for them but have a problem leaving that much meat for the buzzards and ants. I believe they were mostly referring to the animals in the mountains of west Texas and not corn fed ranch animals.

It is just not that good. Jerky we had made was no good either and more akin to dog treats.
I’m sure tenderized and chicken fried ect it would be edible. It just not desirable or tender.

 

[Doubleplay]

You guys that have hunted aoudad multiple times, have you eaten the animals? The people I used to hunt with in Texas wouldn’t touch it, they said the coyotes wouldn’t even eat it. I would like to do a hunt for them but have a problem leaving that much meat for the buzzards and ants. I believe they were mostly referring to the animals in the mountains of west Texas and not corn fed ranch animals.

I was hunting auodad couple weeks ago and the lodge cook told me he and others tried every recipe known to man and it did not work.
He said he even wouldn't allow anyone bring aoudad meat in his kitchen now let alone cook it.
These are guys killing dozens of aoudad every year.

 

[Ontario Hunter]

It is just not that good. Jerky we had made was no good either and more akin to dog treats.
I’m sure tenderized and chicken fried ect it would be edible. It just not desirable or tender.

So ... dog treats don't taste that great? I'll take your word for it.