What was the most challenging animal you've ever hunted?

[Scott CWO]

1. Bongo on day 14 of a 21 day hunt. Hot, humid, tsetse flies, dogs not working well and long, hot hikes while tracking for hours. Made a running shot on a spooked bongo after the dogs, once again, failed to alert us to the bongo’s presence or to bay the bongo before it spooked and ran.

2. Stone’s sheep on day 13 of a very physical 14 day hunt. Even though I hunted in one of the top areas, populations are scattered and densities are low where these sheep live. We worked hard and the ram was larger than any other ram entered into the Wild Sheep Foundation ram awards that year.

 

[Kelly G]

Dall Sheep
West Alaska Range

 

[yhc]

Yup DIY Dall Sheep for sure for me. It challenges the hunter both physically and mentally.

 

[Red Leg]

This big fella was a unique challenge. Bridge River Drainage, BC. Not even trying to make him look big - my left knee is holding him on the log. Smaller interior grizzlies are taken every year. Made a fun article.

Bridge River Bear Assault (3).pdf

The other would be four days walking down a Livingstone Eland in late October in coastal Mozambique (seriously hot and humid, and mosquitoes so thick they should have been measured in the air quality).

 

[WAB]

Elephant was the toughest by far. 25 clicks a day in Kalahari thorn scrub!

Dall Sheep isn’t very far behind. My buddy and I packed a 13 yr old ram i shot 8 miles back to the airplane. From there we still had a 5 mile pack back to camp. Cooked sheep backstrap for dinner, slept a few hours and then broke camp and packed back out to the plane.

Hunts like those make you question your sanity, but they are also the most rewarding.

 

[Happy Myles]

I have had so many challenging hunts around the world for decades it would not be fair to single one adventure over others. A few would include hunting a Forest Bongo without a PH in the C.A.R. Forty years ago. A Stone sheep hunt which began after I broke three ribs a couple days before the trip began. In those days it was a two day pack train trip into the hunting area. Now days you fly In to the base camp. Took a Marco Polo sheep at 17,000 feet in a snow storm. Got back to camp at 15000 feet at 2AM..

 

[Thumper Mcgee]

@Red Leg @375Fox those are some massive bears

 

[Mike70560]

Hyena for me, still don’t have one.

I shot a buffalo late November in the Omay with Lin Stanton. It was hot, hilly, hot, a long walk, hot, a long stalk, and did I say hot. That was one memorable hunt. Afterwards I asked Lindon if he would have been upset if I missed. He just said it would have been a long ride back to camp.

 

[npm352]

Public land mountain lions when I have to hike to find a track to start.

Public land mouflon in Hawaii with bow. Best eyes and spookiest of 60+ species of big game (except turkey if you classify them as big game.)

 

[Ragman]

In my neck of the woods it’s got to be hunting in the bush for elk on crown land. During calling season there are more hunters bugling than bulls. After years of trying and only killing a cow, I’ve given up. I want to kill a bull bad, but it’s going to have to happen some other way or some other place.

 

[mdwest]

Sitka deer on Kodiak this past November..

The weather was simply atrocious.. Hard snowfall every day.. long walks up steep inclines and across difficult terrain each day.. we stayed pretty soaked and frozen the entire week (should have had better cold/wet weather gear)..

Runner up is rio turkey in NW TX.. suckers can see everything.. and spook incredibly easily.. They are definitely an exercise in patience, stillness, quiet, etc..

 

[Kelly G]

Dall Sheep
West Alaska Range

 

[Mike Van Horn]

Elk, in the Holy Cross wilderness, 4th season. Knee deep snow, cold and snowing everyday. Got the bull just before dark, on day 4, made it back to camp at 11pm. Took all day for 2 of us to get him out the next day. That much snow on the ground in mountainous terrain is a tuff go.

 

[CoElkHunter]

In my neck of the woods it’s got to be hunting in the bush for elk on crown land. During calling season there are more hunters bugling than bulls. After years of trying and only killing a cow, I’ve given up. I want to kill a bull bad, but it’s going to have to happen some other way or some other place.

Public land hunting for elk or really any game can be really challenging at least mentally and often times physically. You are not only trying to outwit the game, but your trying to out guess all of the hunters too. Spot and stalk? Good luck with that. Your stalk WILL most likely be screwed up by Billy Bob! The videos I’ve seen of elk hunting on private ranches in AZ, NM, etc., where they haven’t been hunted much and stand around waiting for you to shoot them, is foreign to me. Anything taken on a public land hunt is special in my book, and if your fortunate enough to take a really nice trophy, you most likely worked very hard to earn it!

 

[Tra3]

Elk for sure. The effort to climb to get one, then the multiple trips on foot to get it out, is well beyond other hunting experiences I’ve had.

I spend a day tracking eland, it was awesome, hot and beautiful. (We didn’t get a shot) it was a lot of walking, but the terrain was not like elk country.

 

[CoElkHunter]

Elk, in the Holy Cross wilderness, 4th season. Knee deep snow, cold and snowing everyday. Got the bull just before dark, on day 4, made it back to camp at 11pm. Took all day for 2 of us to get him out the next day. That much snow on the ground in mountainous terrain is a tuff go.

Very nice bull! THAT was a tough hunt in those conditions! Been there, done that in my younger days, but we had horses to pack it out. Indescribable less pain!

 

[Philip Glass]

Leopard. 3 safaris, 40 days afield, and it ended with a charge and my PH mauled. Report on AH.

 

[Dr Ray]

So far my most challenging has been in Rusa deer and scrub bull hunting in Australia’s tropical grasslands a d scrub.
It’s very difficult to stalk let alone see the animals and when you do see them, they’ve seen you and run off.
The deer are hard hunter and are very very wary.
The scrub bulls just seem to blend into the paper bark forests in the Northern Territory.

 

[Ragman]

Public land hunting for elk or really any game can be really challenging at least mentally and often times physically. You are not only trying to outwit the game, but your trying to out guess all of the hunters too. Spot and stalk? Good luck with that. Your stalk WILL most likely be screwed up by Billy Bob! The videos I’ve seen of elk hunting on private ranches in AZ, NM, etc., where they haven’t been hunted much and stand around waiting for you to shoot them, is foreign to me. Anything taken on a public land hunt is special in my book, and if your fortunate enough to take a really nice trophy, you most likely worked very hard to earn it!

In Saskatchewan the only place where I can just go and hunt is all in the thick forest. I don’t have the skill to stalk a bull elk in there. Any of the more open areas that would be a bit easier to hunt, is mostly private property and you pretty much have to know the right person. Which I don’t. Also there are the special draw areas where it can take 20 years to draw a tag. Maybe I’ll get lucky someday!

 

[YancyW]

I did a rifle opener elk in WY a couple years ago, I have hunted a fair amount of elk, but nothing has rugged as this. Hours a day in the saddle with sleet and then snow, everything was covered ice. Would leave camp, it was so dark I couldn't see my horses head, much less the ground. The only way to really follow my outfitter was seeing a spark of the shoes of his horse every so often. I have a lifetime of riding experience and it was still beat to a pulp every night.