How many species have you hunted, and other fun facts

[Tundra Tiger]

I have killed 65ish (+/- a few) big game animals representing 15 species in North America and Africa.

I would note that my mid 30s through mid 40s was largely a black hole thanks to a divorce that left me living paycheck to paycheck and raising my kids with what I did have. There wasn't a whole lot of hunting that happened, so I am playing catch up now.

 

[Longwalker]

I've had the great privilege of hunting everything available in my home province of Saskatchewan - Whitetail and mule deer, elk, moose, black bear, pronghorn, bagging multiples of each. Also hunted BC, Yukon, and Manitoba, and one USA State Montana. Those trips added a mountain Caribou and Dall sheep to my list of Canadian game.

Several hunts in Germany were for wild boar and roe deer.

One hunt each in South Africa, Namibia and Zimbabwe for a variety of species, including Mountain Reedbuck, Gemsbok, Kudu, Eland, Burchell's Zebra, Impala, Giraffe, Cape Buffalo, and Warthog. I'd love to add an Australian water buffalo to that list, and an African elephant. Just returned today from a local elk and bear hunt. Got an elk a few days ago (number 29) , but bears eluded me this time. Hunting moose next week on our own property.

I also hunt all manner of our very abundant migratory waterfowl, upland birds and small game. Varmints and furbearing animals too. Did a little trapping in my youth, but don't trap much any more.

Canadian hunters probably drive pickup trucks at least as commonly as USA hunters do, maybe more. I've always driven a pickup truck, currently a Jeep Gladiator 4WD.

 

[Jay Kelley]

Virginia. Texas and Kansas. I've hunted (successfully) mostly small game and birds. Pheasant, quail, Turkey, dove, rabbit and squirrel for the most part. I've found I like wingshooting and the intensity of calling a big Tom turkey is awesome.

 

[chashardy]

Surprisingly, in the U.S. just a couple of whitetail deer, feral hogs and a scimitar oryx. (I need to work on that beginning with an elk in the near future.) In Africa about 18 to 20 different species and 35 total animals taken in five safaris. I'm booked for water buffalo in Australia next year.

 

[mdwest]

I had to give this one some thought... I honestly couldn't recall everything off the top of my head and had to write things down....

excluding birds and small game like squirrel, rabbits, etc.. 7 big game species in NA (across 7 states).. Ive hunted North America (including Alaska), Central America, South America, and Africa.. and will be adding Ireland (Europe-ish ) to the list in a few weeks.. Ive bagged 11 species in Africa (a few of them have been hunted multiple times).. hunted a few more species than that and just haven't been successful yet (I'll get you next time Mr. Steinbuck! )...

And I drive a truck

I probably hunt more hogs than anything else.. mostly out of convenience (there's a property a few hours south of here that's covered up with them that I hunt somewhat routinely... I enjoy hunting them, and the property needs the help.. the pigs are jacking up the deer and turkey population pretty bad and are constantly tearing up the property).. I used to hunt whitetail a lot more, but these days I pretty much only do that a couple of times a year and its more for the social side of things than anything else (I help organize a "veterans" hunt over veterans day weekend every year that brings about a dozen of us together that's a lot of fun.. and then I might hit the woods one or two more times each season for deer tops).. I try to put 1 or 2 deer in the freezer each year and that's plenty.. Im not a horn hunter at all when it comes to whitetail.. so once Ive got enough meat to get me through the year, I'm pretty much done with whitetail hunting until the next season.. I wont keep going out "in search of...."

 

[buffybr]

I grew up in Colorado but my Dad didn't hunt, so I didn't start hunting until I was in college almost 60 years ago. I started off as a meat hunter but I proudly hung the spike mule deer antlers on my college bedroom wall. I've always engoyed wildlife and in my earlier years I decorated my walls with wildlife art.

After I began hunting I began to replace the art with taxidermy of some of the animals that I had shot, starting with a rug of my first black bear and a shoulder mount of my first pronghorn antelope. All of my hunts were DIY, and many of those were also solo, until 1999 when I went on my first guided hunt that was for a Dall ram in Canada's Mackenzie Mountians. I also shot a Mountain caribou and a wolverine on that hunt.

My last few years living in Colorado and for many of the years that I've lived in Montana I shot a deer, an elk, and an antelope just about every year. Of these animals, the only ones that I kept count of was the 35 elk.

My early years in Montana provided me with some outstanding hunting opportunities, like multiple tags for Montana's Big Three where I was lucky enough to tag 3 bighorn rams, 2 Shiras bull moose and a Mountain goat...all on DIY or DIY solo hunts.

As my hunting successes grew so did my taxidermy bills as I had my unusual and my best animals mounted. In 1988 my mounts outgrew my living room wall space so I built a 1000 square foot trophy room addition to my house. My taxidermy mounts now total 83 which includes 5 fish and 2 birds.

I made my first African hunt in 2000, and and have gone back there 5 times. I've done hunts in South Africa, Zimbabwe, and Mozambique. I've shot 37different species with a few duplicates of African animals and have mounts of most of them.

I went to Texas in 2010 with 2 friends and I shot 3 different exotic species of animals.

In 2014 my GF went with me to New Zealand where I shot 5 didfferent species of animals.

With a total of 4 Canadian and 3 Alaskan hunts I've shot 19 different North American big game species plus coyotes and my wolverine.

And in 2017 I went to Azerbaijan where I shot a Dagestan Tur.

I think that makes a total of 67 different species of big game animals that I have shot.


And I drive 2 pickup trucks, one that I keep my snow plow and chains on so I can get from my house to and from the county road in the winter, and the other to carry or haul things too big to fit in or behind my Subaru (which I have carried an elk home in).