Any hunts you wouldn’t do again?

[steve white]

Mountain goat in the Chilcotin Mountains of British Columbia. Would return for black bear anytime, but getting above the tree line is a challenge for a younger man. I think it is the steepest terrain I have ever attempted to hunt. We had a full week, but spotting weather on only three days. No goats spotted one day and did two blind climbs on the other two. On both occasions, the goats were across the drainage when we topped out.

Oh yes, and they are WILD and tough. Used to be good walkup WMA in Castro county but it phased out of the program. Sketchy but doable around other near areas.

 

[Doubleplay]

Are the holes in the bills where they had something so the roosters wouldn’t peck and fight one another? And then removed before being liberated.

Exactly!

 

[steve white]

Should never have bought a Weatherby Vanguard just to receive a free hunt for feral sheep in south Texas as a sales bonus. Pretty tame experience.
OTOH, a pickup pulled up to a taxidermy place that morning with an aoudad that measured out the second largest taken on earth.(#1 was from N. Africa in the late 1800's?) I lacked 3/4 inch being able to close my extended thumb to middle finger around the bases, and the horns were so long they almost met at the back and turned up into a sort of lyre shape. Fellow from Red Oak, Tx had shot it on low fenced land, it never having been seen before. Old and scarred as well....so there is hope of connecting with something wary out there.

Oh, wait! I forgot about being invited to hunt deer on my buddies land in E. Texas when I was only 15. Didn't realize it was only 5 acres and before the day arrived my uncle asked if HE could go! Well, he brought three of his friends in a camper and they built a big fire and got drunk on the property. Neighbors called my friends grandmother who didn't know we were out there and had us all arrested! For years, my relatives would say "need a place to hunt--Steve'll set you up." Really.......

 

[Doubleplay]

One hunt I would not do again was a red stag hunt in the Wicklow Mountains of Ireland. The outfitter assured me that a good red stag was realistic. When I got there, they really pushed me to shift my focus to Sika. Nothing against Sika, but I was there for red stag. Bottom line, I got put with the guide’s son because they had a client doing a promo article hunt with the guide. We got on one red red stag and the kid made the most godawful squeal and blew that stag into the next county.

The final straw was when they started pushing sheep. I knew they were planted, but they didn’t know that.

Needless to say I won’t go back.

I hope it's not the same outfitter, I'll do a Sika hind cull hunt with...

 

[WAB]

I hope it's not the same outfitter, I'll do a Sika hind cull hunt with...

PM me. I’m not going to go any further on an open forum.

 

[BRICKBURN]

Are the holes in the bills where they had something so the roosters wouldn’t peck and fight one another? And then removed before being liberated.

Beak guards. Fastened through the nasal holes. Cut off before liberation. You can see through the nostril on pen raised birds, not wild.

 

[CD24]

Dove hunting in 100 degrees with dusty wind blowing my hat off. F that all day long.

Sounds like you've been to Yuma

 

[Sideshow]

One hunt I would not do again was a red stag hunt in the Wicklow Mountains of Ireland. The outfitter assured me that a good red stag was realistic. When I got there, they really pushed me to shift my focus to Sika. Nothing against Sika, but I was there for red stag. Bottom line, I got put with the guide’s son because they had a client doing a promo article hunt with the guide. We got on one red red stag and the kid made the most godawful squeal and blew that stag into the next county.

The final straw was when they started pushing sheep. I knew they were planted, but they didn’t know that.

Needless to say I won’t go back.

Offfooo that’s sounds awful. Heard a few stories of that in NZ. Most kiwi hunters really look down on that sort of farmed deer hunting. The other is heli hunting of Thar. Fly up land shoot fly off again. It’s to us equivalent to walking into a barn and shooting! What’s the point?

 

[mark-hunter]

From my research, there are a lot of options in NZ. My long term plan....

The best is to be flown by chopper to remote mountain area, stay in public mountain lodge, have one week hunting walking and stalking, climbing.
You and (eventual) guide, have to take care about your food (either canned, or something you shoot), after a week, or as per agreement, chopper collects you back.
There is public database of public mountain lodges and they can be booked online

Option no. 2 rent a 4wd, go to the mountains, find a public lodge, and do the same.

Option no 3, do the same under tent.

Then remaining options are farm based outfitter, who can offer estate hunt, or hunting trips in public land, by chopper or by 4wd.
Shooting tahr and deer in New Zealand on public land is free (trophy fee - zero), but there will be outfitters charges.

Shooting tahr and deer on fenced property, you pay for each head.

Shooting from chopper is possibility. But only one of the possibilities, not the only one.

If you want to organized DIY hunt on publc land is possible, but it takes a lot of research and prep. basically models 1 to 3 above

The best advertising and arrangements you can find on internet are fenced hunts (most expensive), everything else needs more deeper research. Large NZ stags, with massive antlers are usually in fence.

I havent done NZ hunt yet, but close friend of mine who lived in Australia did this frequently

 

[Sika98k]

One hunt I would not do again was a red stag hunt in the Wicklow Mountains of Ireland. The outfitter assured me that a good red stag was realistic. When I got there, they really pushed me to shift my focus to Sika. Nothing against Sika, but I was there for red stag. Bottom line, I got put with the guide’s son because they had a client doing a promo article hunt with the guide. We got on one red red stag and the kid made the most godawful squeal and blew that stag into the next county.

The final straw was when they started pushing sheep. I knew they were planted, but they didn’t know that.

Needless to say I won’t go back.

I hope it's not the same outfitter, I'll do a Sika hind cull hunt with...

Not surprising that they pushed you towards a Sika stag really. There are no red deer stags in Wicklow.
Were those the infamous “stone sheep” bought at the mart last week ?
However I’m sure you had a warm rather than a glacial welcome to Ireland.

 

[WAB]

Not surprising that they pushed you towards a Sika stag really. There are no red deer stags in Wicklow.
Were those the infamous “stone sheep” bought at the mart last week ?
However I’m sure you had a warm rather than a glacial welcome to Ireland.

They were those self same sheep. I love Ireland, it was the hunt that was the issue. As I said, we did get on one scraggly hill stag so there is at least one in the Wicklow mtns.

 

[Hogpatrol]

To the OP's question of never again, a deer hunt in the laurel swamps of northeast Pennsylvania. Was a teen at the time and went up with a buddy who had relatives living there. Didn't know it was all driven hunting. First day, I was given a metal pot and a spoon and told how the drive was conducted. After an hour of beating on the pot and busting my ass under and over these gnarly laurel bushes, I came out in to the open and all hell broke loose, sounding like a firefight in bumfrakistan. Hit the dirt until the shooting stopped. Told my pal, I've had enough and I was done being a driver. Next drive, got set up at the end of another patch of the same plants. Sure enough, a half dozen deer bust out in to the open. Another firefight ensued. Told my pal, if it's all the same, I'll just go sit under a tree somewhere. That was umpteen years ago and yep, never again.

 

[Berettaco]

Every year I drag my butt out of bed at 3:00AM to shoot at some ducks and ask myself why…. Why do I do this

 

[Doug3006]

I was unaware we had any pheasants in West Texas.

It is why I usually hunt western Kansas.

I’ve hunted wild Pheasant in the pan handle. They’re there, if the Spring rains cooperate.

 

[Doug3006]

I’m not a fan of liberated bird hunts in general. When I had a pointer, I’d use those places to train and keep my dog sharp. Pen raised quail are worthless. Many won’t even flush, which tempted my dog just to grab them. I found better results with pen raised Pheasants. Chuckars and Huns are they best flyers out of the pen raised birds.

Ive also hunted properties that do early released birds. They release them from the pens in the Spring. By October, the survivors are wild as hell. Zero difference between them and wild birds. If an operator tells you they do early release, you’ll be able to tell for sure the first time your dog goes on point and you flush them. Night and day.

 

[Hunt anything]

I’ve hunted wild Pheasant in the pan handle. They’re there, if the Spring rains cooperate.

I’ve hunted them around Dumas and Etter in the pan handle as well and they were some pretty good hunts.

 

[steve white]

Should never have bought a Weatherby Vanguard just to receive a free hunt for feral sheep in south Texas as a sales bonus. Pretty tame experience.
OTOH, a pickup pulled up to a taxidermy place that morning with an aoudad that measured out the second largest taken on earth.(#1 was from N. Africa in the late 1800's?) I lacked 3/4 inch being able to close my extended thumb to middle finger around the bases, and the horns were so long they almost met at the back and turned up into a sort of lyre shape. Fellow from Red Oak, Tx had shot it on low fenced land, it never having been seen before. Old and scarred as well....so there is hope of connecting with something wary out there.

Oh, wait! I forgot about being invited to hunt deer on my buddies land in E. Texas when I was only 15. Didn't realize it was only 5 acres and before the day arrived my uncle asked if HE could go! Well, he brought three of his friends in a camper and they built a big fire and got drunk on the property. Neighbors called my friends grandmother who didn't know we were out there and had us all arrested! For years, my relatives would say "need a place to hunt--Steve'll set you up." Really.......

BTW, I meant thumb and middle finger of BOTH hands, just to be clear.

 

[IvW]

Sengwe Campfire 1,2,3 although I tracked my last 100 lb+ there...
Save river Moz....

 

[Ontario Hunter]

I had a not so great guided goose hunt in Saskatchewan a few years back. The guide really didn't do any guiding. He just dropped us off with decoys and disappeared for the day. Weather was awful and a couple of hunters in the party were ... not my kind of people. Two continued to shoot after hours and one guy brought his mean useless Cheasapeake retriever along. I had to leave my dogs in the car. Any dog that has to be taken into the field tied to a thick rope is not to be trusted. That mutt was bipolar. I understand the following year's hunt was even worse.

I have no problem shooting multiples of same species. This last trip to Africa I shot my fourth impala, third gemsbuck, and fifth springbuck. Some of those animals were management culling but most were very good trophies. I also have two blesbuck, two black wildebeest, two warthogs, three kudu, and twoq buffalo skulls on the wall. Last trip I was gunning for a fourth kudu and third buffalo but it didn't work out. No big deal. I could hunt nothing but buffalo and kudu for the rest of my life and be right in heaven. I agree that sable are no challenge. About on par with blesbuck. Waterbuck maybe slightly more challenging. Impala and springbuck can be challenging ... and they are cheap. Best bang for the buck (ram) I think.

 

[Hookboy88]

As teenager a friend talked me into going with him squirrel hunting using his hunting dogs.

Never again. We dumped the dogs out and followed them for miles through the mountains. Everytime they treed and we got they the dogs would be treed on multiple different trees. I assume because the squirrels would just jump from tree to tree and the dog would tree in whatever tree it last seen the squirrel in.