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

[Ragman]

PAC elephant at night...
PAC hippo in suger cane fields at night...
PAC lions....
Vaal Rhebuck in the Drakensburg
Large Eland bulls on foot...buffalo are easy by comparison...
Leopard in certain areas, attention to detail is most important for success.
Bushpigs on foot in mature maize at night.
Blue duiker.
Tuskless elephant can also be very difficult and dangerous.

I feel like I should know by now, but what does PAC stand for?

 

[Ragman]

@IvW
What are PAC animals. Haven't heard of them before.
Bob

You asked that as I was typing my question!!! Lol

 

[IvW]

@IvW
What are PAC animals. Haven't heard of them before.
Bob

Problem animal control

 

[VertigoBE]

Hah, you make it sound so easy!

Whenever I have to drag a beast in Scotland it always seems to consist of desperately dragging them out of a gully so steep it's practically a ravine, with their legs catching on every single tussock of heather, every rock and every patch of grass, with your feet slipping on the ice and snow, often knee deep in bogs. You do this for what seems like an eternity, plagued by mozzies, with every step forward being met with one back and your lungs escaping out your mouth.

You then get to the top of the hill and for one glorious moment the struggle is over, the vehicle is in sight and you see a nice little stream to follow on down.

Then it starts... An ominous slithering in the grass behind you, the rope goes slack and the beast slams head first into the back of your legs, tumbling you into the snow and dragging you down hill after it. Gone now is the catching on rocks, no more the bitter struggle to progress over the terrain. It's all you can do to kep upright and grasp the drag line, knowing deep in your heart that if you lose control even for a minute, the recalcitrant anmial will immediately veer back down into another dip and the ordeal starts all over. The trials of Sisyphus have nothing on dragging beasts out of the Scottish highlands I tell you!

Indeed, so far I have been lucky not to have the animal fall in a ravine or gully

The part of the animal deciding to race you to the jeep definitely is true, very dangerous too if you decided to take the short cut and go straight down a slope filled with only rocks and boulders....

Good memories though.

V.

 

[VertigoBE]

Problem animal control

Ah so that’s what that stands for. I didn’t dare to ask as it seemed so obvious to everyone

 

[JES Adventures]

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..

I was on Kodiak hunting Sitka Blacktail last November and the weather was crappy at best. High winds and rain made for an uncomfortable but successful hunt.

 

[JES Adventures]

Blue Sheep in Nepal. Extreme altitudes (the altimeter on my watch maxed out at 17,000 and we were still climbing), cold temperatures and long shooting.

 

[Happy Myles]

I guess i should have mentioned a challenging moment was thirty years or so ago when I was rolling around on the ground wrestling with a leopard which was trying to chew my arm off in angry. We had been ordered by officials to stop an expensive elephant hunt and take care of a “problem cat”. We were mad and did not go about it in a professional manner, thinking regular leopard procedures did not apply to us. Mother Nature showed us who was boss. Pretty embarrassing.

 

[CoElkHunter]

Thank you for the morning laugh. .
(Who knew I was so far ahead of the curve.)

Ha! Ha! I too HATE hunting when it’s very windy!

 

[CoElkHunter]

I'll agree with the DIY public land elk hunt. Not much success over the years. Lots of country to cover via shoe leather express...makes you think twice before pulling the trigger as your asking yourself "How am I getting this out of here??"


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That’s just it. Getting the animal out is the miserable conclusion to a successful hunt, but it must be done. Fortunately, for most of my hunts, we’ve had horses to pack out the elk(s). One first season hunt back in the early 2000s, we had seven elk down and it took two full days to get them out. The next year we had five and same thing. All with horses. Anyway, I’ve talked to hunters in the back country on foot, who had no idea how they were going to get an elk out if they shot one. No horses or freighter backs. “We’ll figure it out” was the typical response.

 

[CoElkHunter]

Very exciting I can assure you..especially when you need to position yourself between them and the river because as soon as the spotlight goes on and after the first shot they charge straight for the river, they only way to get more than one is getting between them and the escape route....

I’m sure very exciting. I’ll stand at the side of the excitement and video it. Ha! Ha!

 

[Ravensview]

Public land Elk hunt unguided in Colorado with my longbow and homemade arrows,

 

[Ryan]

Arizona archery javelina. All stalk, no bait.

I hunted them six or seven seasons as a resident. Stumbled on them out of season, nothing in season.

Years later, hires a guide, got one first day and watched the other hunter in camp go about insane trying to get one the other two days. Put your feet on the ground and everything changes.

 

[JimP]

I have hunted javelina in Arizona now for 26 years during the HAM (handgun, archery, muzzle loader) hunt and usually pack a pistol. Just about every year I have had javelina within easy archery range. I have shot them with a pistol from any range from 2 feet to 120 yards. Yes, 2 feet and it had no idea that I was there. Most of them have been within 30 yards after stalking in on them once I had them spotted.

The trick is to find the other javelina in the group before you begin your stalk. When you find a herd of 20 or so that is a lot of eyes and noses to see or smell you as you try your approach. I have sat on a hillside trying to find all of them before a stalk only to have one bust me as I was getting closer.

 

[Kevin Peacocke]

Problem Animal Control Bob, that is why clients are normally not allowed on these hunts.
Kevin

 

[1dirthawker]

hunting in below zero weather for snow shoe hares...ironically while wearing snow shoes. cold and sweating like a pig the whole time. getting back to your vehicle, hoping it starts, as your sweaty clothes start to freeze.

 

[Velo Dog]

California deer.
At age 15, I began hunting them (mule deer on the east slope of the Sierra Nevada mountains and Pacific blacktails in the coast range).
TEN years later, I finally shot a miniature blacktail buck.
It was so small that it seemed as if it were comparable to perhaps an Irish setter bird dog, but with just slightly longer legs.
The bases of the truly tiny / single fork antlers, were no thicker than a typical pencil.

That said, here in Alaska where I have lived now for 38 years, the many hunts I’ve done on Kodiak Island, for Sitka black tail deer, have always been a lot of hard physical work and more often than not, dangerous as well.
The hard physical work is from having to climb, (one hunt, literally straight up a cliff each morning), until getting up above the thick woods and alders, as it seems like every deer, kind enough to let me get a crack at, was way up above timber line here.
The dangerous factor is in flying from the town of Kodiak, out to some remote part of the island, in what I would describe as a “lawn mower with wings”, too often in serious weather.
I know what the proverbial feather in a hurricane feels like.

Likewise, more than once or twice, I’ve had a grizzly follow me as I packed fresh bloody deer meat back to camp.
Nonetheless, I would prefer to deer hunt once on Kodiak, rather than a hundred deer hunts in California.
Ten years of hunting deer before getting a shot at one, sheesh.

 

[fourfive8]

The hunting in wind stories reminded me of a Wyoming deer hunt one year. I had to hunker down under the leeward edge of a sharp edged, bare ridge for about 3 hrs one afternoon. Not sand but granite pebbles were being blown over the top of the ridge. Had to cover the scope to keep the glass from getting pitted, not to mention my eyeballs. Just guessing but probably 90-100+ mph.

 

[Thumper Mcgee]

hunting in below zero weather for snow shoe hares...ironically while wearing snow shoes. cold and sweating like a pig the whole time. getting back to your vehicle, hoping it starts, as your sweaty clothes start to freeze.

i know some people snowshoe hare hunt with a pistol in those same conditions

 

[1dirthawker]

i know some people snowshoe hare hunt with a pistol in those same conditions

Yup, and hare numbers and type of cover rule the day. on a nice march day when the numbers are high, then a pistol would work, but when -20 and low hare numbers they are always in very tough cover because everything is trying to eat em. pistol would be tough to get any, but it can be done.