Aside from Africa, what are some memorable guided hunts around the world that rival the experience of an African Safari?

[Happy Myles]

several decades ago i found hunting Marco Polo sheep a unique experience. Camped at 15000 feet and hunting as high as 17000 feet in the Pamir Mountains was hard work to accomplish the task of taking a great ram. Also hunting sheep in Mongolia was a wonderful experience. I enjoyed the Mongolian people very much during two trips there. The nomadic way of life appealed to me.

 

[Red Leg]

several decades ago i found hunting Marco Polo sheep a unique experience. Camped at 15000 feet and hunting as high as 17000 feet in the Pamir Mountains was hard work to accomplish the task of taking a great ram. Also hunting sheep in Mongolia was a wonderful experience. I enjoyed the Mongolian people very much during two trips there. The nomadic way of life appealed to me.

Good to see a post from you my friend. I truly envy you that Panir experience. Regrettably, at my age, that will await another lifetime.

 

[Rimbaud]

Africa gets into your soul, and hunting there deepens the experience. I cannot wait to return and to once more see the colors of the place, and the people and the game. Africa’s nations are unlike any place that I have ever been. The Highlands in Scotland are incredible, and the bird and sika hunting were great, but the country‘s allure and history was just as intriguing. Argentina is worth doing for birds, but it gets a bit tedious after a few days, though the food and culture is truly something to experience. The same is true of England because of the contrasts between the hunt and cities and towns. Hungary, however, is something to experience for roe deer and boar. The hunting culture in the old Austro-Hungarian empire is old and deep. The American west is a type of heaven. As fun as all of those places are, and were, it’s truly hard to top being down South with close friends driving at 0-dark thirty to the hunting property to maybe take some whitetails that will fill the freezer. I hope I am lucky enough to experience Alaska, Mongolia, Scandinavia and some of the deepest wilderness in Russia where the big bears live.

 

[WAB]

I went out of Whittier about 50
Miles. Mine was a rough pack out of about 25 feet!

I ran a boat out of Valdez for many years. There aren’t many spots in PWS we haven’t explored. The duck hunting has to be seen to be believed. We also found some late silver runs in small crystal clear streams that were almost unfair. I think my favorite in the sound is the Dollie’s on a 3 wt. it’s easy to catch 100+ in a few hours.

 

[Longwalker]

African hunting is very special, and unique in many ways. I've loved every hunt I've had the privilege to participate in. The variety of game animals, the local cultures and tribes, the various habitats, are all so varied that it would take several lifetimes and a fortune to explore and experience them all. But I've always been amazed that to my Canadian perspective, I have never experienced true wilderness in Africa. There are people living, more or less in every place I've hunted there. That's not a big problem, but a fact that took some adjusting for me.

I am accustomed to picking a spot with a nice lake ( we have 100,000 lakes in my province of Saskatchewan alone ) hiring a float plane, and having the place to myself for a week or two. "Do it yourself" hunting and fishing is geographically unrestricted and without competition for a resident of our province because of the vast wilderness areas of crown land that we enjoy here in our "North". However, our Canadian hunting opportunities are usually restricted to our province of residence, unless we hire a guide/outfitter, and much of the best hunting for deer is on private land.

It's a different reality in much, or nearly all of Africa. Population pressures are real, and increasing.

I have had the privilege of a traditional guided horseback hunt in the Yukon territory, where game on licence can be Dall sheep, Mountain goat, Mountain Caribou, Grizzly bear, Moose, Wolf, and perhaps Black bear. Nowhere near the species diversity and variety of critters that exist in Africa, but I think that's the closest thing North America offers to "compete" with Africa. British Columbia and the Northwest Territory offer similar opportunities, as does Alaska in the USA. You will never see another human on such a trip, and very very little evidence that humans were ever in the places you will be hunting. I like that a lot, but it is a much more physically demanding style of hunting than most African hunts, and my body just can't take it any more.
If you're fit enough, and find the right outfitter, and have the equivalent $ of a dangerous game African safari in Tanzania to spend, three weeks in the Yukon's Mackenzie Mountains by horseback would be a great way to experience a grand adventure.

 

[gizmo]

I have a hunt report on this posted here but for me Romania was an incredible hunt. There was just something way cool about being in Transylvania and the Carpathians. Fishing in The Brazilian Amazon is also an incredible experience. I’ve absolutely loved every adventure I’ve been on but Africa has always had my heart.

 

[Mtn_Infantry]

African hunting is very special, and unique in many ways. I've loved every hunt I've had the privilege to participate in. The variety of game animals, the local cultures and tribes, the various habitats, are all so varied that it would take several lifetimes and a fortune to explore and experience them all. But I've always been amazed that to my Canadian perspective, I have never experienced true wilderness in Africa. There are people living, more or less in every place I've hunted there. That's not a big problem, but a fact that took some adjusting for me.

I am accustomed to picking a spot with a nice lake ( we have 100,000 lakes in my province of Saskatchewan alone ) hiring a float plane, and having the place to myself for a week or two. "Do it yourself" hunting and fishing is geographically unrestricted and without competition for a resident of our province because of the vast wilderness areas of crown land that we enjoy here in our "North". However, our Canadian hunting opportunities are usually restricted to our province of residence, unless we hire a guide/outfitter, and much of the best hunting for deer is on private land.

It's a different reality in much, or nearly all of Africa. Population pressures are real, and increasing.

I have had the privilege of a traditional guided horseback hunt in the Yukon territory, where game on licence can be Dall sheep, Mountain goat, Mountain Caribou, Grizzly bear, Moose, Wolf, and perhaps Black bear. Nowhere near the species diversity and variety of critters that exist in Africa, but I think that's the closest thing North America offers to "compete" with Africa. British Columbia and the Northwest Territory offer similar opportunities, as does Alaska in the USA. You will never see another human on such a trip, and very very little evidence that humans were ever in the places you will be hunting. I like that a lot, but it is a much more physically demanding style of hunting than most African hunts, and my body just can't take it any more.
If you're fit enough, and find the right outfitter, and have the equivalent $ of a dangerous game African safari in Tanzania to spend, three weeks in the Yukon's Mackenzie Mountains by horseback would be a great way to experience a grand adventure.

This honestly is my dream. A month in the Yukon, British Columbia, or Alaska. If it wasn’t for Canada’s gun laws I’d have considered trying to get a job in the Yukon or BC to do just this. AK is still on the radar to try and find a good job up there to do some DIY but also make enough money africa every year or two is possible.

 

[ActionBob]

<that rival the experience of an African Safari?>

That last part of the opening headline precludes there being an answer other than no where.

Where else can you for 5 to 28 days and average a trophy animal per day? Where else can you hunt in a million acre wilderness and have luxury accommodations and a full staff taking care of your every need? Where else will you have professional chefs cooking several course meals for you every day with full wait staff? Where else can you do all that together at the same time in a complete package at a very low cost for what you are recieving.

Yes you can get components of this all. You can hunt vast areas in Australia, Alaska, Canada, Russia... but not with the staffing and quality of accommodations and not with the variety of game. You can have the quality of accommodations and even meals in many places but you will unlikely have the vast areas to hunt and certainly not the wide variety of game to keep you hunting for more than a week.

And nowhere will you find the value.

 

[Dhutson]

Dall Sheep in the Yukon.

 

[R eight]

Most memorable hunt....there have been a few. But I guess my first ever "guided" outing is definately memorable.

It wasn't a hunt but a day's fishing....and it happened on my honeymoon almost 30 years ago...to the day !

The missus and I had been married just a few days and we were driving around the South Island of NZ in a hire car. We had stopped in the small town of Omarama. A beautiful spot with it's nearby lakes and the Southern Alps capped in snow. The sky was pale blue, not a breath of wind nor a cloud to be seen. I was sitting/waiting in the car, as yet, unaccustomed to the ways of my wife when it came to shopping for souvenirs and other such crap. Anyway she was happy playing tourist and I was enjoying the sun looking at the mountains and dreaming of one day hunting chamois.

After a bit, I noticed a flyer on public phone box near where I was parked. It was advertising for a local fishing guide, named Frank. I thought...what the hell... and I gave him a ring. A bloke with an Austrian accent answered and in no time flat were discussing fishing. We started discussing availability and prices.....and...he says come up and see me. A bit perplexed by the comment I ask where is he ? His reply was "look out of the box and up the hill....can you see a bloke waving?". "Yeah" was my reply. "That's me" says Frank "come up and see me".

Timing was perfect and the wife got back to the car with an arm full of treasure/crap not long after I had settled back into the car.

She was a bit surprised when I told her we were going to visit Frank.

Two minutes later we are at Franks place and having afternoon tea with Frank and his wife. During Tea, Frank came to know that I was on my honeymoon, that I'd never been trout fishing and that all I really wanted to do was catch a trout on a fly. And that my wife was happy to sit on the bank and watch or read a book.

A think the tea party was actually an interview, of me, by Frank. And as the last of the tea was drunk Frank said. "Be here tomorrow morning at 9am and I'll take you and your bride out fishing. Don't bring anything...I'll have it all ready." Arrr okay, sounds good but how much are we talking Frank. "$150 Nz if your happy with that?" was his reply. I certainly was and the wife and I went off to book into a motel for the night.

Next morning at 9 am sharp we in his vehicle and soon after that fishing on a nearby lake. I caught my first ever trout ...a rainbow of just under 10 lbs. and by lunch time I'd managed a couple more.

Lunch was a picnic with a hamper fit for a king. It was truely a feast. The weather was perfect and the scenery! Snow capped mountains surrounded the mirror surfaced lake and every thing about the place was perfect.

By 3pm we were back at Franks. Said our good byes to him and his wife and we were heading off to Queenstown. Even now....30 years later, the wife still talks about that day out fishing.

I later found out that Frank was a bit of a legend in those parts and his usual rate was US$500 per day back in '93. During the day we talked fishing and hunting...and I found out that he had been a salmon fishing guide on the Kenai.... Years later I would also fish the Kenai and....I'd also hunt chamois in the mountains not too far from where I had my first ever "guided" adventure.

Anyway.... "memorable" it certainly was .

 

[LivingTheDream]

I caught my first ever trout ...a rainbow of just under 10 lbs.

Hell of a start!!!

 

[R eight]

Hell of a start!!!

Yep…..it’s been mostly down hill since then

 

[Hunter4752001]

There was a member of our hunting club a few years ago, sadly now passed. He and 2 close friends formed a plan to go on a hunt every year in a different country. Several parts of Africa, Europe, North and South America, Asia, South Pacific. I think they had the right idea. All hunts are special, life's short - go out there and enjoy everything the world has to offer.

 

[Mark Audino]

Kyrgyzstan

 

[buffybr]

I've been fortunate enough to do 6 very memorable hunts in Africa and the variety of game animals probably puts Africa on the top of the list of memorable hunts. However my last two African hunts were both in Mozambique and I only brought one animal home from each of those hunts.

I think that next to Africa, New Zealand offers the largest variety of available species of animals. In 2014 my GF and I went to New Zealand. We spent the first week with me hunting and the next two weeks driving on the wrong side of the road. It was a great trip except for the rains.

The animals that I hunted on that trip were Red Stag, Fallow deer, Tahr, Chamois, Arapawa ram, and one night I did a predation hunt for Wallabies.

I have done several very memorable hunts in Canada. I believe that all Canadian big game hunts require nonresidents to have a guide.

My first Canadian hunt was in the Mackenzie Mountains in the Northwest Territory. We flew into base camp on a float plane and out to our spike camps in a Super Cub. On that hunt I came home with a great Dall ram, a Mountain Caribou, and a Wolverine. I would also have gotten a Wolf, but an over zealous guide got between the wolf and me.

On my second Canadian hunt I brought home 2 Central Canadian Barren Ground Caribou and a Musk ox. One of those Caribou and the Musk ox made the B&C record book. One night the display of Northern Lights was beyond exceptional.

My 3rd Canadian hunt was the last year that Quebec allowed nonresident Caribou hunting. We flew to camp in a 70 year old Otter float plane. You could spend a lifetime fishing and exploring all of the lakes that we flew over. The camp and staff were great and I met some great other hunters there. I passed up quite a few Caribou bulls until I saw the one that I wanted and he was one of the largest taken that season and also went into the B&C record book.

In 2010 a couple of friends and I went on a hunt in West Texas for Exotics. We hunted several ranches and saw a lot of different animals, but it was more of a shoot than a hunt.

While at the GSCO Convention in Las Vegas in 2017 I booked a Dagestan Tur hunt in Azerbaijan. That is a part of the world that I had never been in and other than me being 71 and not in my 40's like I was for most of my bighorn sheep and mountain goat hunting, those mountains were some of the steepest and highest mountains that I have ever hunted. That was a very memorable hunt and I have a very unusual trophy Tur on my wall to enjoy seeing every day.

In the almost 50 years that I've lived in Montana I've been fortunate enough to have hunted all of Montana's big game species with multiple hunts on most of them and most of those hunts being DIY and many of them with my horses and also many of them solo. Using my horses to get into Montana's backcountry on elk, moose, and bighorn sheep hunts were some of the most memorable hunts that I've done.

For many years I've wanted to hunt a Brown bear in Alaska. Two years ago I fulfilled that dream and although he's not a monster, I got a beautiful Toklat Brown bear on that trip. We didn't see any any moose, but I enjoyed seeing some new and beautiful country, topped off with a couple of days fishing for arctic grayling and catching and releasing at least 150 of them. I would do that trip again.

 

[Rare Breed]

This could be anywhere in North American, South America, Europe, Asia, Australia etc.

What are some memorable guided hunts that every hunted should add to their wish list?

Nothing tops Africa but if I had to choose I would say the Yukon where you just buy tags for animals…your hunting bear one moment then a moose appears

 

[nomspc]

Nothing compares to Africa. But I loved hunting in Greenland. Beautiful, primitive, you feel as though you’re hunting in the Pleistocene. We chased caribou, musk ox and Arctic hare. Spectacular.

 

[whitetail]

As stated previously multiple times- Africa is in a league of its own— but, I went to hunt with Marius @HUNTROMANIA in July of this year and had a fantastic time hunting roebuck there in the Carpathian Mountains of Transylvania! I really encourage folks here on AH to consider going to Romania to hunt with Marius as the sheer beauty and culture is spectacular!!

 

[Mark Audino]

Seeing the adventures others have taken is always enlightening. Hats off to all of you. As I think through my own adventures, putting aside the success on animals, I always remind myself that THE HUNT is the real TROPHY.

I am old enough to remember sitting in front of the TV as a boy and watching The American Sportsman hosted by Curt Gowdy. Fascinating stuff. The show featured celebrity hunters hunting big game and birds or fishing somewhere. These were the days when many celebrities were not afraid to be identified as hunters and have their hunts captured on film. The opening video of the show featured exciting short action sequences of hunting and fishing around the world. One that struck me was of a big Alaskan-Yukon moose breaking out of the willows in a run that conveyed its awesome power and majesty. People can say what they want about the looks of the moose, but they are awesome. Anyway, the actual show about that moose shown in the trailer featured the musical artist and sausage maker, Jimmy Dean. He was being guided by a log-time Alaskan guide, Ron Hayes. They had spotted a smaller moose, and Hayes told Jimmy not to shoot. Jimmy thought it was big enough and said, "Oh, Come on!" Hayes insisted and patience paid off in the end. Jimmy took a big moose.

It's in that spirit that I want to honor the moose with this picture of one I took in Northwest Territories, Canada. What took me there was a hunt for Dall Sheep & Mountain Caribou the year prior. After taking those animals on a backpack hunt using pack dogs, I was standing on the banks of the Twitcha River fishing for dinner. A monster moose appeared on the opposite bank. This was the rut. The thing called to me and when I called back with a grunt, it jumped into the water and took a couple of steps toward me. It grunted again and when I grunted back, it came two more steps forward. At that point I yelled, and it turned back and effortlessly hopped onto the bank and disappeared. The very next year, I crossed the Twitcha to find him. I'm not sure if I found that very moose but I got lucky on this bull. It was just 58.5" wide but scored B&C owing to its palmation and lengthy points.

 

[double rifle newbie]

I know you said guided, but I did a DIY caribou hunt out of Kotzebue where we got dropped off in the foothills of the Brooks Mtns. It was a pretty magical 7 days of hunting. The scenery was gorgeous, saw grizz every day, moose, musk ox, dall sheep up high…but no caribou. Still one of my most memorable hunts. Glassing on a knoll, munching on blueberries while your glassing a grizz doing the same thing 500 yards away is not a bad way to pass the time.

ive done the exact same trip andhunted the noatak and kelly rivers for griz and caribou. different than my namibia plains game hunt as namibia was fully guided/slept in a nice warm bed/meals made for me/etc. the alaskan bush hunts can be brutally physical but unbelievably memorable at the same time.