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

[Hutch01]

Vaal Reebok in vast open country. They seem to hear, see and smell as well as white tails, probably better. My PH and I hunted for 2 1/2 days before finally bagging one. After a couple of missed three hundred yard shots off sticks and few failed stalks we got him. He was the last specie of ten day hunt. I celebrated and my PH rec’d extra bonus for his patience and perseverance. That was my most challenging hunt I’d say. I still cuss that damn ‘valle’. I full body mounted him and he scored high.

 

[Thumper Mcgee]

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

oh my was your ph ok

 

[Neil Molendyk]

Rocky Mountain bighorn sheep. Spent many hunting seasons chasing them up and down mountains in western Alberta, never with any success. The season always seemed to end about a week before the ewes came into season. Then the rams were just so love struck stupid and you could almost get close enough to put a halter on them.

 

[cpr0312]

Eland...incredibly Wiley, stealthy, and camouflaged for their size!

 

[Philip Glass]

oh my was your ph ok

Yes. Surgery and the better part of a year to heal.

 

[Newboomer]

Two come to mind. I tried for 3 years to get a warthog and only saw one, a female with a litter. Second would be springbok. All three years we chased them round and round for most of a day before getting a shot. We'd see a herd and go after them and by the time we got close they'd take off and circle around way out of range. Then we'd drive like hell to head them off and they'd circle back around again. Very frustrating but fun to finally outwit them and get a shot.

 

[tedthorn]

DIY public land elk in the Rocky Mountains

 

[Thumper Mcgee]

I see a lot of people saying elk, I can imagine it would be hard with the terrain and possible hunting pressure

 

[JimP]

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.

 

[fourfive8]

Heckuva good question! Earlier in the thread, I noticed the post about zebra. Some can be easy obviously but I cull hunted zebra one time where they had been pushed pretty hard over the previous year or so. They were living in broken country with some pretty thick mixed forest. Selectively taking animals out of the small herds there was nearly impossible. Rivaled any animal I've ever hunted for being wary with the closest similar being eland after being spooked.

I grew up hunting mule deer. In areas without any agriculture- mostly very large wild areas of mixed vegetation, some very thick, all in a wide variety of topography. Tracking or slow still hunting single old mule deer bucks in heavy timber pre-rut is about as good as it gets, especially in those areas that have heavy hunting pressure. Extremely low odds, but teaches you to hunt.

From a different perspective for upland bird hunting- jump shooting prairie chickens as a single hunter on foot was about as difficult, IMO, as ever existed for even getting a shot within proper range.

Just considering brutal work and harsh conditions?? I don't know. Maybe spring brown bear on Kodiak. Or one moose hunt east of McGrath in SW AK- closest I ever got to serious frostbite on my fingers. Maybe one particular late season elk hunt with temps below zero and 50 mph winds- did loose a layer of skin off my face on that one.

 

[IdaRam]

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.

 

[Roan]

Vaalrhebok by far. Those little guys are almost impossible. 8-0 to them.

 

[BRICKBURN]

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.

 

[Tra3]

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.

This is what you say to your buddy to convince him to go with you on an elk hunt.

It is all about shot placement, as in shooting one close to the truck.

 

[Dr Ray]

Dall Sheep
West Alaska Range

Wow I checked out the terrain. Rey very strenuous

 

[cal]

My hardest hunt to date was my first Buffalo hunt, in the Omay area of Northern Zim in November. We hunted hard for 10 days, tracking one particular old bull for a number of those and never got a shot at him or any other bull. We left camp before sunrise and got back well after sunset with a quick lunch in the bush every day. We walked many km every day, it was incredibly hot and the mopane bees were incessant. I learnt a lot about hunting that trip and even more about tracking. I still look back at the hunt fondly, though I do wish I had got that old bull we followed for so long.

 

[MMAL]

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.

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.

 

[CoElkHunter]

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.

 

[BRICKBURN]

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.
View attachment 388999

Your chances are much better in the original province of Export. Still an extremely tough animal to hunt.

 

[BRICKBURN]

This is what you say to your buddy to convince him to go with you on an elk hunt.

It is all about shot placement, as in shooting one close to the truck.

Or, someones horse.