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

[BRICKBURN]

What was your hunt that was challenging to complete

@Thumper Mcgee ...and yours?

 

[Mike Van Horn]

Wolf in the lower 48 (Idaho & Montana). I’ve been actively hunting them for 10 years and have yet to shoot one. I have put eyeballs on a grand total of 9 animals not counting trail cam photos.
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this is one that is high on my list, first diy black bear, than wolf and mountain lion.

 

[375 Ruger Fan]

Archery elk hunt in Montana. Day 5, I put an arrow in a big bull at 28 yards and then watched it trot about 20-30 yards away and then continued to walk another 20 yards or so and stop. The big bull, now about 80 yards away, just stood there with his rear end pointed our way. He stood for several minutes, looking left and right and never bugled again. I guess you lose that luvin' feeling with an arrow running through you. The bull then slowly walked out of sight. It was late in the afternoon and we sat still for about an hour. My guide, Randy Petrich, said we had two options. We could wait until almost dark, about an hour away, and go look a few hundred yards beyond the last sighting. Randy was concerned if we bump the elk, he might take off. The other option was to quietly back out and come back the next morning. We did that. One hour hike back to the horses and an hour ride back to our tent camp. Up early the next morning and back to the spot at daylight. We searched all morning, crawling over a lot of fallen timber, and didn't find the elk. At noon, we ate lunch and took a short nap. With the afternoon warming up, the thermals rising from the valley, helped the guide smell the elk (I kid you not). Shortly afternoon, we found the elk. Exhausted, but elated! The 6x7 bull scored 333 gross and 315 net and qualified for P&Y. Not bad for my first archery elk hunt!

 

[CoElkHunter]

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!

It’s VERY difficult hunting elk inside the forest during rifle season unless there is some fresh (not frozen) snow to deaden the sound of your footsteps. If not, they’ll here you a hundred yards or more away. I like hunting the edges of the forest and openings inside the forest when I can walk quietly on grass to get in there.

 

[CoElkHunter]

Archery elk hunt in Montana. Day 5, I put an arrow in a big bull at 28 yards and then watched it trot about 20-30 yards away and then continued to walk another 20 yards or so and stop. The big bull, now about 80 yards away, just stood there with his rear end pointed our way. He stood for several minutes, looking left and right and never bugled again. I guess you lose that luvin' feeling with an arrow running through you. The bull then slowly walked out of sight. It was late in the afternoon and we sat still for about an hour. My guide, Randy Petrich, said we had two options. We could wait until almost dark, about an hour away, and go look a few hundred yards beyond the last sighting. Randy was concerned if we bump the elk, he might take off. The other option was to quietly back out and come back the next morning. We did that. One hour hike back to the horses and an hour ride back to our tent camp. Up early the next morning and back to the spot at daylight. We searched all morning, crawling over a lot of fallen timber, and didn't find the elk. At noon, we ate lunch and took a short nap. With the afternoon warming up, the thermals rising from the valley, helped the guide smell the elk (I kid you not). Shortly afternoon, we found the elk. Exhausted, but elated! The 6x7 bull scored 333 gross and 315 net and qualified for P&Y. Not bad for my first archery elk hunt!

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Nice bull!

 

[CoElkHunter]

I have actually found elk hunting fairly easy, that is up to the time that you pull the trigger and have to start packing it out. I've been quite successful on all of my elk hunts and they all have been on public lands.

Boy, you’ve been fortunate especially on public land. When I’ve had a bull tag, I see nothing but cows or bulls with less than the legal four points here. Or with a cow tag, I see mostly spike bulls or legal bulls. With those limiting parameters, I figure my elk hunting success is about 30-40 percent WHEN I draw a tag which isn’t every year. This is DIY rifle hunting season.

 

[Red Leg]

Thus far: Climbing, Climbing and then Crawling to Stalk Vaal Rhebuck with a Bow up high in the Mountains in South Africa.



Click the image to view the video. This is the day I resigned and put down the bow.

With a bow? Oh hell no.

 

[Thumper Mcgee]

Wolf in the lower 48 (Idaho & Montana). I’ve been actively hunting them for 10 years and have yet to shoot one. I have put eyeballs on a grand total of 9 animals not counting trail cam photos.
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they are elusive

 

[Thumper Mcgee]

@BRICKBURN love hunting in tornados, I also cant really think of a hunt that was particularly challenging, more or less just a test of patience

 

[Pheroze]

Late season moose hunting in Northern Ontario and Quebec has to be up there. Its a dense forest and uneven, rocky terrain and lots of snow. If you have a dozen friends you can pull out the lawn chair and sit in various areas along a path (I have literally seen this numerous times). But, with 4 or 5 buddies, dogging the woods is a hard slog. A ton of fun!

 

[Nyati]

So far, that will be Buffalo, Eland and Aoudad, if you are looking for the right animal, it will take time and effort, four days for each of them.

 

[Bob Nelson 35Whelen]

What was your hunt that was challenging to complete

@Thumper Mcgee
The older I get the more challenging any hunt gets, even the humble pig out on the plains, but I'm not ready for the pine box yet so I just keep going even if I'm a lot slower now.
Bob

 

[Longwalker]

Rocky mountain goats. Not sure if it counts, but the mountains that they live in almost killed me three times on three different hunts and I still haven't killed a goat. Hypothermia, a narrow miss by a falling boulder as big as a bus, and plain old lung sucking elevation and extreme exertion. I concede, and will probably never get a goat. Goat hunting made a 35KM backpack trip for Dall sheep in the Yukon seem like a picnic in comparison.

 

[WAB]

Rocky mountain goats. Not sure if it counts, but the mountains that they live in almost killed me three times on three different hunts and I still haven't killed a goat. Hypothermia, a narrow miss by a falling boulder as big as a bus, and plain old lung sucking elevation and extreme exertion. I concede, and will probably never get a goat. Goat hunting made a 35KM backpack trip for Dall sheep in the Yukon seem like a picnic in comparison.

We were climbing after an old billy about 60 miles out of Valdez. I leaned back against the mountain for a rest and was looking at our boat between the toes of my boots about 2,000 feet directly below me. There’s a fine line in there somewhere that I am quite certain we had crossed!

 

[Dirtdart]

Sitting in a blind waiting on a leopard while trying not to fart, sneeze, cough, or anything else that a cat might smell, hear, or see. I had to do a cost/benefit analysis on that and came to the conclusion that if I was going to spend that kind of money I needed to spend it on something that I found enjoyable.

One thing about walking/stalking is that at least you are seeing new country even if you ain't seeing game.

 

[BCD]

Western North Carolina Ruffed Grouse

 

[Tgood1]

Most recently a real wild hog hunt (unfenced) in the southern coal fields in West Virginia. Ridiculous terrain, lousy weather, but would do it again as soon as my Achilles tendons function properly again

 

[Thumper Mcgee]

Most recently a real wild hog hunt (unfenced) in the southern coal fields in West Virginia. Ridiculous terrain, lousy weather, but would do it again as soon as my Achilles tendons function properly again

that's how most hunting is around here, if you don't have a tree stand you have to hike 3 miles through nasty thick brush just to hope to be able to see a deer 20 feet in front of your face

 

[Hogpatrol]

My worst hunt was when I was a wee lad. Night time in the Pennsylvania mountains, late fall, leaves still on the trees, no moon, armed with only a burlap bag and a flashlight. Yep, the quest for the elusive snipe.

 

[Neil Molendyk]

Could not agree more. Same place and type of hunt. Leave at 3 am for a 2-3 hour horse ride in the dark. Snow drifts up to my waist. Being on the a horse trail where one stirrup is rubbing the side of the mountain and the other is hanging over the side of a 300 foot drop. The worst was on the way home the sun would melt the trail down and it would be a big mud slide. We would need to dismount and lead the horse for 2-3 miles down the slope trying not to fall and get run over by the horse. I have hunted Cape buffalo, hippo and elephant. A hippo charging me at 6 yards did not scare me as much as when that horse went back on its haunches trying not to slide into me on the side of that muddy trail. Would bet back to camp between 9-11pm from being out all day. Fix a dinner, pack a lunch for tomorrow and fall asleep. It was the most physically and mentally challenging hunt ever.

Yahoo! Those horses can be a lot of fun, can’t they? Ha! Ha! I’m almost done with where the hunting adventure becomes mostly the “adventure” of getting to and from where you actually are hunting. The actual hunting becomes a “side show” because your mentally and physically worn out before you even begin and after you get back to camp. I’ve been on several rodeos with my father in law and his horses similar to the one you’ve described and the “fun” part seems to have dissipated over time. I hunt on foot now and have the horses pack out the meat if I’m fortunate to get an elk.

Been there, done that. An elk hunt on horseback put me in the trauma ward for 4 days, two shoulder surgeries and numerous other pains twenty years ago. Ended up getting flown out of the mountains via helicopter. A friend of mine was at a veterinarian conference years ago and one of the attendees asked the question "is elk meat safe to consume considering the possibility of chronic wasting disease?" The guest speaker's answer was epic. "Lets see, you drive through traffic to get to the airport trusting every other motorist's driving, then you get on an airplane and fly across the country and they've been known to crash. Very infrequently but it happens. You then get in a vehicle to drive to your hunting departure point. Mount up on a strange horse (when was the last time you rode one) ride up into the mountains possibly in a snow storm and in the dark and then go hunting. And you're worried about chronic wasting disease? When elk hunting with all these factors, it's not if there will be an accident, it's when will there be an accident."