Any hunts you wouldn’t do again?

[DonPablo]

I got drawn a few years ago to hunt Sambar deer on St. Vincent Island in Florida.


Too many hunters

Very primitive camping

No way to keep anything cool (I brought a sealed cooler of dry ice, that had turned in to gas when I opened it)

Too hot (even in December)

Crazy humid

Mosquitos

Ticks

Had to hire a Captain to get my supplies to the island - I do have my own boat, but there is nothing to tie to. A gale that caused your anchor to drag could leave you high and dry.

Primitive weapons only. (I hunted with an in-line muzzle loader. After the hunt was over, I tried to discharge my rifle to unload it. The 209 primer would not ignite the powder-pellets. They were probably too damp because of the moisture. I may have hunted all weekend with a gun that would not fire!)



I might go again, but it would be more about comradery around the campfire than hunting.

I've put in for this one a couple times but have never drawn. This is good to know. Thanks.

Pablo

 

[WAB]

I've put in for this one a couple times but have never drawn. This is good to know. Thanks.

Pablo

I’ve thought about it as well. Based on this I’ll give it a pass!

 

[rookhawk]

Three hunts come to mind:

New Mexico Oryx. It was a great time and we had a wonderful guide. But after the effort to draw the tag for my son at 1600:1 odds, plus a 28 hour drive each way, plus the lodging and meals, plus the guide fees and trespass fees to get a quality Oryx, the hunt doesn't make sense. ($8000 all-in?) For that money for that species, go hunt one in the Namib.

New Mexico Cow Elk. None seen. Not a sporting hunt. Not a good outfitter. When you find cow elk, you usually find a lot of cow elk. Or you find piles of bulls (saw hundreds) and no cows. Spending a few thousand bucks for a meat hunt that ended without meat, I just don't want to do that one again either.

Zimbabwe Plains Game Hunt - My first African hunt was non-dangerous game. I wanted a tent camp experience and paid about $14,000 for ten days. To do a dangerous game hunt (hippo/buffalo) for 14 days of the same quality would have been $3000-$4000 more. It was dumb money. The advice from the PH/Operator was to do a PG hunt first, but that was just a poor use of capital when for 20% more I could have had a much broader hunting experience. (the flight costs, tips, ground transport, licenses, insurance....they all cost the same whether you kill an impala or a leopard)

 

[Doubleplay]

Three hunts come to mind:

New Mexico Oryx. It was a great time and we had a wonderful guide. But after the effort to draw the tag for my son at 1600:1 odds, plus a 28 hour drive each way, plus the lodging and meals, plus the guide fees and trespass fees to get a quality Oryx, the hunt doesn't make sense. ($8000 all-in?) For that money for that species, go hunt one in the Namib.

New Mexico Cow Elk. None seen. Not a sporting hunt. Not a good outfitter. When you find cow elk, you usually find a lot of cow elk. Or you find piles of bulls (saw hundreds) and no cows. Spending a few thousand bucks for a meat hunt that ended without meat, I just don't want to do that one again either.

Zimbabwe Plains Game Hunt - My first African hunt was non-dangerous game. I wanted a tent camp experience and paid about $14,000 for ten days. To do a dangerous game hunt (hippo/buffalo) for 14 days of the same quality would have been $3000-$4000 more. It was dumb money. The advice from the PH/Operator was to do a PG hunt first, but that was just a poor use of capital when for 20% more I could have had a much broader hunting experience. (the flight costs, tips, ground transport, licenses, insurance....they all cost the same whether you kill an impala or a leopard)

Who was your NM cow elk outfitter if you can PM please. I can avoid him as I'm looking for a cow elk hunt.

 

[Safari Dave]

I have only taken 6 guided hunts (4 in America and 2 in Africa)

I nearly always prefer DYI, but there is no way I could pull it off in Africa, so I wouldn't even try.


2 were duck hunting trips to Arkansas, and I just don't have (and don't want to) invest in the equipment necessary for it.

1 elk hunt in New Mexico - by no means perfect, but I did learn enough to DYI it moving forward (I'm batting 100% so far!)


1 dog/hog hunt in South Carolina (It was worth it!)




Now, guided fishing is ANOTHER STORY!

I couldn't even imagine, that a few of these jokers would have the gall to charge money for their lack of professionalism!

 

[John the Electrician]

The hunt I don’t want to do is the common version of the way hunting whitetails in Wisconsin has evolved to be.

The context behind that is as follows:

When I was 10-12 years old, all I wanted to do… ever was play baseball and go deer hunting. All things me and my friends did generally revolved around things like that.

We had to use shotguns with slugs, generally hand me down bird guns that you couldn’t hit the broadside of a barn with. For years, my dad hunted without seeing a deer at all. The 9 day gun deer season was heavy on tradition and family, low on ego and prestige.

Then in the 90’s the deer population boomed here and Realtree and Mossy Oak became commercially successful. (Nothing personal against these companies). TV shows exploded with huge bucks and sponsors.

Then, the farmers were plagued with people wanting to hunt and hunters squabbling over permission. Enter leasing of hunting land and exploding costs of recreational land. Neighbors no longer being friends during the deer season and beyond.

My own family now hunted for horns and “mature” animals we would only shoot if we were willing to pay to mount them. Sort of a regulation by your own wallet. We were blessed, without a doubt, to have been able to buy a really nice piece of woods to hunt on. Because without land, hunting deer is nearly impossible.

Several years ago, we now had nice rifles and scopes (the law against hunting with rifles was lifted), gang hunting with deer drives had given way to sitting alone waiting for a Booner to come along. No longer did we take our deer to town to register them, instead of seeing all the locals and celebrating their deer, we registered them on line. Awesome.

That sucked.

Today, through fate (that’s a nice way to say shitty things happened to me) I hunt with my only child, he is 13 and my nephew, he is 27. My nephew has been hunting for only 4 years; I’m the only person he has ever hunted big game with.

We no longer care about big antlers or age or horn size. We shoot the deer we want to, whether it’s big or not. I’m not saying we shoot fawns, we just accept whatever the woods gives us. My kid has killed a couple of spikes and my nephew shot a really big buck a few years ago.

I am happy to say hunting has gone back closer to what I loved it to be. Hunting now is a celebration of family and tradition. Things are different than before but, closer to what they should be.

The hunt I won’t do again is full of conflict, judgment and jealousy. I want nothing to do with that anymore.

John

 

[Mtn_Infantry]

What did you dislike about the hunt in RSA?

Several different things. It was better than a good day of work but not something I’d repeat again

 

[BRICKBURN]

I made an error in research. I failed to ask the size and make up/layout of the property we would be "hunting".
Showing up in the dark did not reveal what we would be in for the next day.
A wide open short grass property with one hill and animals that acted as though they had been chased every day, all day for months on end.
I found out that from that one hill I could set up with my bipod and literally snipe anything available on the entire property. Not my idea of a good time.
The final kicker on this incredible wilderness hunt was the Escom worker that came screaming up the entrance road honking his car horn completely blowing a friends hour long belly crawl stalk.
Have you ever felt your jaw literally drop? I thought the guy must be some kind of greenie. Turns out he was just a moron with a gate key trying to get another workers attention.
I will never repeat that mistake!

 

[Manny R]

I have been on quite a few hunts but the hunt I would not return for is a Muskox. Me living my life in the heat of Texas and never been on a snowmobile it made for an interesting story.
On the 2nd day after arriving in Inuvik, Canada he headed out on a 9 hour snowmobile drive with the temperatures at -25 degree. on the way to the wood cabin where we would be hunting the Indian guides would only make brief stops for water and snacks. Once we finally got to the cabin and unpacked the sleds and got the cabin situated ; I said to my guides let's have dinner. A few minutes later they said the outfitter forgot to pack food. I said to them how in the F_ _ _K do you forget food with temperatures -25. They did have in the cabin a little odds & ends of food. That night I had 1 burger patty and 1 piece of bread. Being tired from my long snowmobile drive I got my sleeping bag and called it a night. I woke up in the morning to have 2 small pieces of sausage and coffee. Well we packed up the sled going out to scout for Muskox. After several hours we found a herd of Muskox and there was a large Bull in the herd. We made a plan to cut the large bull out of the herd and the plan went together. After quartering the bull we headed back to the cabinet warm up and finally have some meat. It was a good dinner of Muskox tenders and bread and water. The next morning I woke up early and woke the guides up and and said let's get out of here. The fog was so thick we could not leave . They felt the fog would life around noon. We sat around and finally the fog was lifting ,sleds were loaded and was excited to get back to civilization for a full meal. Ten hours later back to the trucks and on the way back to Inuvik.
Got to the Hotel ordered food from a restaurant,took a shower, repacked my bag and went to bed.
Flying out of there the next day and thrilled.
It would have been a good trip if we had food and more organized by the Outfitter.
I am glad I got my Muskox early but have no plans to do it again.

 

[Manny R]

Forgot to show a picture of the Muskox

 

[MarkB]

I have done no hunt I would not do again. I have done hunts I cannot and will not be able to do again. As others stated a day hunting, no matter how cold, wet, tired or bleak it is/was, its still better than no hunt for me. Living in British Columbia (BC) I have been truly spoiled by my DYI hunts, only bison wild and 2 sheep sub species elude me from all BC offers. Looking back I now know how blessed I was and never realized while doing those hunts. Now with "an old man back" most of those hunts are behind me and memories, now I must pick and choose based on my ability to recover the game. Sad

As for safaris, none have gone exactly as planned/stated, I did them backwards from the "norm", started in Zim a few times, then Namibia, all wild, no fences and absolutely wild game, then I choose RSA, not the same hunt, not the wild Africa, yet prices are much lower so a toss up, quality vs quantity. I need to do better research before I return to SA and outfitters need to actually do what they state. But I must/will hunt SA again with more verification.

Any hunting is still better than almost all other things, I regret none.

MB

 

[John the Electrician]

Forgot to show a picture of the Muskox

View attachment 565078

I was young and headed up to the North Slope of Alaska. The people who knew things about that area kidded me about my up coming adventure.

“There is a beautiful woman behind every tree up there they said.”

Notice how many trees you see in this photo!

 

[Woodcarver]

Although it's been a few years since I've gone deer hunting with my buddy and his son what WAS the third season here, I'm not going again since it's now the old fourth season since they've pushed the seasons back a week and the temps. are brutal. They told me last year the high was 6 and a low of -17. Screw that! I'm not hunting a stinky, sage eating deer (usually a doe) in those temps. I have to figure out a plan B.

Been on more than a few 3rd or 4th season hunts where the temp never got above 20* and the nights were -20* to -30*. On one, the high temp for the entire hunt was 10*, most days hovered at or below 0*. Another dropped 36"-40" of snow on us over a day and a half with winds to match the depth. First and only time I've had to take advantage of the quarter charged for S&R with every license (I did shoot a collared cow on that hunt though!).
But with an either sex tag and a cow tag in my pocket, my son and I will be hunting over Thanksgiving about 15 miles west of Frasier. I'm hoping we only suffer the cold. I'm pretty well equipped for these late season hunts, but they are getting to be more work.

 

[lionofluangwa]

The hunt i would do once and never do again is a Big Horn sheep hunt. After 9 hours of riding a horse into BH sheep country to get to our camp, 6 days of sleeping in below freezing, drizzling, snowy weather in a tent, and an every day multi mile climb up to the top of a mountain where I thought I couldn't take one more step by the end and would die on the mountain, all to finally get that one shot at a true trophy. Yep, all this pain to shoot a heck of a good sheep but man o man would I never go do that again.

 

[LivingTheDream]

The hunt i would do once and never do again is a Big Horn sheep hunt. After 9 hours of riding a horse into BH sheep country to get to our camp, 6 days of sleeping in below freezing, drizzling, snowy weather in a tent, and an every day multi mile climb up to the top of a mountain where I thought I couldn't take one more step by the end and would die on the mountain, all to finally get that one shot at a true trophy. Yep, all this pain to shoot a heck of a good sheep but man o man would I never go do that again.

Day 6 is pretty good. Where did you hunt and what was the time-frame (September, October, etc). More curiosity as I am thinking of booking one here soon.

 

[R.M.C.]

The hunt I don’t want to do is the common version of the way hunting whitetails in Wisconsin has evolved to be.

The context behind that is as follows:

When I was 10-12 years old, all I wanted to do… ever was play baseball and go deer hunting. All things me and my friends did generally revolved around things like that.

We had to use shotguns with slugs, generally hand me down bird guns that you couldn’t hit the broadside of a barn with. For years, my dad hunted without seeing a deer at all. The 9 day gun deer season was heavy on tradition and family, low on ego and prestige.

Then in the 90’s the deer population boomed here and Realtree and Mossy Oak became commercially successful. (Nothing personal against these companies). TV shows exploded with huge bucks and sponsors.

Then, the farmers were plagued with people wanting to hunt and hunters squabbling over permission. Enter leasing of hunting land and exploding costs of recreational land. Neighbors no longer being friends during the deer season and beyond.

My own family now hunted for horns and “mature” animals we would only shoot if we were willing to pay to mount them. Sort of a regulation by your own wallet. We were blessed, without a doubt, to have been able to buy a really nice piece of woods to hunt on. Because without land, hunting deer is nearly impossible.

Several years ago, we now had nice rifles and scopes (the law against hunting with rifles was lifted), gang hunting with deer drives had given way to sitting alone waiting for a Booner to come along. No longer did we take our deer to town to register them, instead of seeing all the locals and celebrating their deer, we registered them on line. Awesome.

That sucked.

Today, through fate (that’s a nice way to say shitty things happened to me) I hunt with my only child, he is 13 and my nephew, he is 27. My nephew has been hunting for only 4 years; I’m the only person he has ever hunted big game with.

We no longer care about big antlers or age or horn size. We shoot the deer we want to, whether it’s big or not. I’m not saying we shoot fawns, we just accept whatever the woods gives us. My kid has killed a couple of spikes and my nephew shot a really big buck a few years ago.

I am happy to say hunting has gone back closer to what I loved it to be. Hunting now is a celebration of family and tradition. Things are different than before but, closer to what they should be.

The hunt I won’t do again is full of conflict, judgment and jealousy. I want nothing to do with that anymore.

John

Couldn't agree more, once the bickering starts about who's gonna hunt where and who's leasing the neighbors land it takes all the joy out. That's the main reason I'm only interested in hunting deer on my family farm in PA. I don't care to hunt anywhere else even if there's a big buck running around a few miles away. Deer hunting to me is only taking place on one property, usually the same field lol .

 

[Safari Dave]

I've put in for this one a couple times but have never drawn. This is good to know. Thanks.

Pablo

If you lived locally, AND you had a seaworthy jonboat (if they make such a thing), AND had several friends to help you pull it ashore, AND treated it like a backpacking trip, AND had a bicycle (better yet, an E-bike, if they are OK there), AND scouted sufficiently, it could be decent hunt.

I live 500 miles away and didn't have a way to deal with the practical logistics of getting a (potentially) 700 pound animal processed before it spoiled. Not to mention having to wade into nearly 4-foot deep water, make 4 - 300 yard trips, carrying all of our supplies above our heads, then walk through sugar-sand for another 100 yards to our campsite.

If you think you would enjoy it, I recommend you do it before you are 40!

 

[Tam Dl]

Everyone wants to see the view from Mt Everest but it wouldn't be the same if an elevator was installed.

It already has been. It is a travesty that aided ascents are still counted as ascents. It is up to the countries involved what kind of theme park they want to have, but the community should not have sold out to the charade that O2 ascents are real ascents.

Decoys aren't bait (to rise to the bait of an earlier question), the ducks don't eat them.

 

[gram2117]

The hunt I don’t want to do is the common version of the way hunting whitetails in Wisconsin has evolved to be.

The context behind that is as follows:

When I was 10-12 years old, all I wanted to do… ever was play baseball and go deer hunting. All things me and my friends did generally revolved around things like that.

We had to use shotguns with slugs, generally hand me down bird guns that you couldn’t hit the broadside of a barn with. For years, my dad hunted without seeing a deer at all. The 9 day gun deer season was heavy on tradition and family, low on ego and prestige.

Then in the 90’s the deer population boomed here and Realtree and Mossy Oak became commercially successful. (Nothing personal against these companies). TV shows exploded with huge bucks and sponsors.

Then, the farmers were plagued with people wanting to hunt and hunters squabbling over permission. Enter leasing of hunting land and exploding costs of recreational land. Neighbors no longer being friends during the deer season and beyond.

My own family now hunted for horns and “mature” animals we would only shoot if we were willing to pay to mount them. Sort of a regulation by your own wallet. We were blessed, without a doubt, to have been able to buy a really nice piece of woods to hunt on. Because without land, hunting deer is nearly impossible.

Several years ago, we now had nice rifles and scopes (the law against hunting with rifles was lifted), gang hunting with deer drives had given way to sitting alone waiting for a Booner to come along. No longer did we take our deer to town to register them, instead of seeing all the locals and celebrating their deer, we registered them on line. Awesome.

That sucked.

Today, through fate (that’s a nice way to say shitty things happened to me) I hunt with my only child, he is 13 and my nephew, he is 27. My nephew has been hunting for only 4 years; I’m the only person he has ever hunted big game with.

We no longer care about big antlers or age or horn size. We shoot the deer we want to, whether it’s big or not. I’m not saying we shoot fawns, we just accept whatever the woods gives us. My kid has killed a couple of spikes and my nephew shot a really big buck a few years ago.

I am happy to say hunting has gone back closer to what I loved it to be. Hunting now is a celebration of family and tradition. Things are different than before but, closer to what they should be.

The hunt I won’t do again is full of conflict, judgment and jealousy. I want nothing to do with that anymore.

John

Well written post that pretty much sums up my whitetail hunting life. My two biggest issues with modern whitetail hunting is the price of midwestern leases and the judgement of others in the whitetail hunting community. The leases have got to the place where I am not willing to pay it anymore when I can spend my money on other hunting trips. The judgement of other whitetail hunters that hunt no where near me just makes me scratch my head. What difference does the size of my whitetail make to them. Probably just be whitetail hunting the home place with a few guided trips throwed in.

 

[skydiver386]

Sounds like you've been to Yuma

Was stationed at YPG and liked hunting doves around the orchards. When they flooded the orchards, it drove all the rattlesnakes out, so you really had to be careful early in the morning.