Home Forums Hunting & Shooting General Big Game What is your favorite NA big game animal to hunt?

Stealing a thought or two from JB here, but haven't found anything I don't like to hunt either. However, I've been lusting over wild sheep for 30 years and never hunted one. I love hunting free range aoudad, as they are a spot and stalk hunters dream. Another however, big mule deer bucks really turn my crank, and after 40 years of chasing them I never get tired of hunting them or attempting to outsmart one.

1. mule deer
2. mule deer
3. whitetail deer(all species)
4. antelope
5. tie between elk and sheep

I haven't hunted enough other stuff to say for sure yet, but I can't imagine loving anything a whole lot more than looking for mature mule deer. They are just such an incredibly cool critter and can be so wiley at times that I don't know how it could get much more fun.

That may change after this summer....grin

Tanner

Ive got to say whitetails.

gota be whitetails because no 2 are alike. trying to kill bigger,wider,taller,heavier with whitetail racks i enjoy most.we have lots of bear but they all look alike,you seen one you seen them all.i would like the chance to killa big elk,mulie or moose. pronghorns to me mostly look the same,don't believe i could stay interested in them long. but i do like long range hunting,so maybe i could.

It used to be moose. But I got older and my back isn't what it once was. I'd have to say pronghorn antelope. Chasing them around the prairie is some of the most fun I've ever had.

Mule Deers first paragraph. Dall sheep/ Mt. goat are #1 tho, with the sheep edging out goat.

I enjoy any hunting that requires movement and takes place in interesting environments. I love chasing Muledeer in transition zones where I may be in sagebrush in the morning and Pinetrees at lunchtime. Pronghorns provide the wide open vistas that I also crave. Elk are fun and challenging as well as delicious but for me are more complicated logistically. I can hunt coyotes any time near my house and I am currently obsessed with finding a wolf. Being outdoors w/ a rifle in hand always makes me happy.

mike r

Sitka deer or caribou for me.

This.

And this.

Hunting and fishing both have kept the kid in me alive for a long time. There isn't a patch of woods or pond I've driven or walked by that didn't have me wondering what critters were in there and how to kill or catch them. If it crawls, walks or swims it's my number one for that moment. Damn, I love the outdoors!

roundoak;
Thanks for the thread topic and thanks to those who've responded, it makes for some interesting reading for me to be sure.

Personally my favorite hunt would be mule deer in the high sagebrush bowls that run up against old growth Douglas Fir stands. The kinda county we see here.


Truthfully I don't hunt that country very often most years however, because typically it will only have mulies and black bears in it as far as big game.

We are quite spoiled here in BC in that we've got almost 3 months to chase big game and it's only from Nov. 11th onward that we'll only be chasing a single animal which is whitetail bucks. From Sept. 10 until then, we'll usually have a black bear tag, bull elk tag, bull moose tag, mule deer buck tag and lastly a whitetail buck tag in tow.

There's an area we haunt on the mountain behind the house that holds all of them and on any given morning in fall, if we're lucky we just might bump into any or all of them. Here it is on a November morning at first light - it's a lot "thicker" up here.


Anyway that's my choice, why I'd choose it and why I don't follow that choice many seasons - if that makes any sense?

Thanks again for the thread and all the best to you and yours this week.

Dwayne

I originally said this:



...which is true cuz I am working on hunting different animals right now, but this:



...is true for me so far. The fact that I can take my boys and have them LOVE the WHOLE experience (road trip, new country, many animals, spotting & stalking, etc) is the biggest factor.

Like many of you, being out in the fall is what makes it feel like hunting season to me. Here in Colorado, nothing better exemplifies that than first or second season elk. It also doesn't hurt that elk meat is my all-time favorite!

I am happy to be hunting about anything but in no particular order I like mule deer, whitetails and elk.

If I can get a tag for any of these I am a pretty happy camper.

Archery elk and Sitka black tail. Because they both taste great and are less filling!

I feel fortunate to live in some great Whitetail country, but Mule deer is my favorite big game animal to hunt due in no small part to the sight, sounds and smell of the Missouri Breaks. I have hunted Mule deer in the Rockies and Badlands, also, however the Breaks continue to beckon me back.

Dusty trails, stunted pines, juniper, sage brush, muddy alkaline water holes and an old trapper log cabin.

I used to prefer deer hunting, then coyote hunting, but now that wild hogs have moved in, they take first place.

My first four hog kills were made stalking through patches of cane in swampy areas, and were all less than 30 yards. It is very exciting to be in the cane, with 5-10 hogs within 7 to 25 yards, and not to be able to see any of them, just the cane shaking. It anchors you to the now, all your other cares are forgotten.

They taste great too!

Hunting older deer is quite a challenge, and coyotes are extremely challenging to hunt in this are, but I have come to prefer the get in amongst them hog hunting.