I had a 1000 acre lease to myself in Coleman Texas. Big bucks, tons of quail and doves.I had it for 25 years. I miss it. Owner died, kids sold it.

private land rice field, Morehouse Parish, La. (one of the first goose hunts I ever made with my son)

I grew up pheasant, grouse and woodcock hunting after school. I could walk down the street, jump into an abandoned piggery, very overgrown good for pheasant/rabbits, cross the farm fields on the other side into great grouse/woodcock cover behind the farm, make a loop and back out through the piggery and home.

Now, it's all houses.

Damn, hanco! This brings tears to a glass eye, it does.

Rogue-Siskiyou National Forest. Combined 1.7 million acres. Yep, I do have to share it but so few people get off their truck seats, they don't really affect me much. I can't see why anyone would limit themselves (here) by hunting private land.

1000+ acres of private land up by Seiling, OK that has been in the same family since they seized it in the land run.

Never did kill much but saw lots of game and a few big'uns. Rolling hilltops planted with wheat with cedar infested draws and creekbottoms.

Was a beautiful place just to sit on a high spot and watch for an entire afternoon.

For the best goose hunting, a buddy of mine's father and a couple of other guys used to lease a pit blind between Easton and St. Micheals, MD. The old guys used to hunt in the middle of the week and left Saturdays for us. Nice guys. We almost always got our limit before noon.

For deer, Poolesville, MD about a mile from the Potomac River. These were taken from my tree stands.



Back in 1978 I shot my first deer about 100 yards from this stand.

600 acres in Crawford County, Crossingville, Pa. Now State Game Land 269. It was our fish hatchery. Pa took it by eminent domain in 1969. They took our fisheries at the mouth of Walnut Creek in 1973. Love that eminent domain. Grrrr.

Family ranch in Llano County, Texas.

We didn't have the biggest bucks. But my Granddad would take me deer hunting every year.

It is him and those hunts that were the best!

I'd give anything to have just one more day doing that with him.

Best place for ducks was the north end of Milford Lake in Kansas. We used to limit out on greenheads like it was nothing.

Best place I have lived for hunting, variety and public land, has got to be Arizona.

Kodiak is magical, but the damn bears are a pita.

So..."best place" is where we are right now....nothing like killing critters on your own place.

Ten minute walk from house to the back stand.
We give thanks every day.

Recent bucks for wife, son and me...

On a 320 acre piece of land near Gladwin, MI, in a crappy blind made of 2x2's and burlap, next to my dad. Never got a big or even decent buck there, but it really doesn't matter. He's gone since 2003, I miss those days.

Next best is on a 160 ac plot near Mesick, in a much better blind, when I can get my daughter out there to hunt with me. Will be there after Christmas for the late antlerless.

Old70

broomd, that is super uber, my Man. My back yard is similar.

There is little public hunting land in Texas.

Tossup between the Hoback River area in Wyoming & the Arbon Valley area of Idaho.

Completely different areas in terrain & hunting style but both great in their own way.

MM

Landelani Lodge in South Africa.

Taken mostly by eminent domain for dispersal to the coal industry. For the twelve years I managed that property and ran the safari business there. It was a giant piece of land with so much game we never really even knew what we would find next there. I caught Several Pangolin there and brought them back to the lodge to share with visitors and hunters.

One American could not really understand the fuss, and asked his PH standing there what is the big deal about this? That PH said to him " most of us live a life time without ever seeing one of these" Another said to him, it's almost like what you would feel if somebody brought in a bigfoot in your country!

We also had wild dogs on this property which were thought to have been shot out 40-50 years ago. We would frequently see Aadrvarks there as well. It was the best most crazy wild place I had ever hunted up to that point in my career!

The best place that I ever hunted was for pheasants on a farm in SW North Dakota. I saw more pheasants on that three-day hunt than I have in the rest of my life.

I use to hunt elk in the West Elk Wilderness NW of Gunnison. Good hunting spots come and go. That one isn't a good as it use to be. But is was great for a couple of decades.

KC

Used to own a property near Orchard, CO. Some of the finest duck and goose hunting you could ever imagine, along with pheasant, dove, mule deer and whitetail deer.

Limpopo. South Africa

Done lots of expensive stuff in neat places. The best: freely roaming the farm fields and woodlots of Virginia after woodchucks, mourning dove, bunnies, squirrels, and quail as a high school kid in the 60's.

Elk hunting in SW MT used to be some of the best in the USA. People came from all over the world to hunt the elk here. Those days are gone now.

I've been lucky to hunt 3 great ranches in South Texas.
The Jaral in Zapata county
The Cooke in LaSalle
The Cochina in LaSalle and Dimmitt
When it's happening you think it will never end but sadly it does. Hasbeen

From a small island Near Kodiak I have killed several B&C blacktails, scads of seaducks, foxes, river otters, and in sight of it I have been there for a half-dozen brown bears. Two of the bears were on my own tags.

But then we have killed seven bull moose in the last two years from the same camp with only one tag unfilled.

I have never paid for hunting rights on anything, except a Newfoundland guided moose hunt. That being said, the best hunting is wherever I am currently standing with a gun in my hand.

I have hunted in Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona and Wyoming, plus on land owned by my ranch friends here in Nebraska and I cannot pick one that was less fun, or productive than the others.

It is really hard to beat a Wyoming cow elk hunt, though, just for the toughness of the country.

Just for something different, a little goose hunting with friends is always a hit, too.

I've hunted all the western states, and colorado probably has the best diversity of species.

Nevada for Mule Deer and Elk and some Pronghorn. Nowadays it is very difficult to draw the good tags.


mike r

I had a place in Shenandoah County which was my favorite. I can't say I had the most success there, but I had the most fun.

Richland Parish, Louisiana....before the bulldozers came and ruined it all in 1964! Had hundreds of thousands of acres of hardwood timber I could go anywhere on to hunt....whitetails and mallards galore!

And I've killed quite a few bucks down in Dale County, Alabama hunting with folks named Sconyers!! Good times galore!!

Wayne/Hardin County TN - near a little knob called Olivehill,TN.

Have a cabin on Hardin Creek with a wood stove, electricity thru a generator, hot shower, dish TV for football games after hunting, deer a plenty +P, and always have my 5 best friends there.

Around 700-1000 acres. Some yrs 700, some 1000.

Aroostook County in Maine, I took my first and biggest buck there. That deer sported an enormous palmated 11pt. rack and field dressed 254#, harvested in 1974 it holds the camp record to this day. Something about hunting the big woods, spent some time hunting in the Adirondacks too.

My aunt is the judge in Claiborne (Homer), Bienville, and some other parish.

I love that area.

My best has been in AK.
I have flown into country a man never see unless he charters a Beaver on floats. It's wonderful country.

Namibia

The best hunting to me was in NW PENN hunting grey squirrels.

My friends ranch here in NW Wyoming. Lived on it for 10 years, now we are about 10 miles down the road. Still guide and cowboy for them and hunt.

The public land that dad and I hunted, never got much but good memories.

Komga South Africa

Back during my college days living in Cushing and Cleveland Oklahoma. Pawnee and Osage county Oklahoma. Turkey, Bobwhites, Whitetails, Fox, Bobcats, Dove, Ducks, you name it. Fish, fur and game was plentiful.

I know that area in general, and a few spots in particular. It's truly some of the most beautiful and productive land in Texas, which is saying something! I bet you miss the hell out of that place.

For me, there have been some wonderful hunting places, but I can't say that any of them were ever the best place. I know some farms along the Red Deer River in southern Alberta that were thick with pheasants and huns (and probably still are), and the duck-hunting in the sloughs along the river was sometimes spectacular. And the mule deer hunting in the foothills of the Alberta Rockies is visually spectacular and the deer are huge. But I've also hunted some spectacular country in eastern Wyoming for pronghorn and deer that, although beautiful by day, was a wonder for the brightness and sheer unimaginable numbers of stars at night. And my first sunset over the bushveldt in Zimbabwe sealed the deal on my love affair with that gorgeous, game-rich country.

There is simply no best place for me. Except perhaps the next place.

My wife's niece was doing missionary work there. She met one of the locals and brought him back, and married him.

It was some pretty good culture shock when he got over here.

North central Nebraska in the Sandhills. My favorite place to be. Plenty of big ones and scenery is great. The fact that we own about 80 acres of it helps. Not a big spread, but enough.

In the seventies it was a a little parcel of private land in Mendocino County. I never saw a black bear though.
In the nineties it was a private lease in the coastal hills behind the watershed for San Francisco. I was a guest of some great guys who treated this Soldier like an old friend. I can't thank them enough.

Lately, on public land here in northern California, I have had better luck finding drug grows and labs instead of game. I guess I have the wrong tags.

Kodiak

The sea duck hunting was great. Jump shooting ducks on small creeks was productive. Salt Marsh duck hunting could be outstanding as well. Snowshoes made for great entertainment. Prior to Hurricane Katrina I had an antler mount (in velvet) and a shoulder mount SCI bucks. I hunted bear. There are some pretty big ones on the island. I was hunting a bear my bud ended up killing. It made #13 B&C all time. There's something about hunting in a place where you can become the hunted that adds an element of excitement to the hunt. There's a small herd of Caribou though I never hunted them. The mountain goat population was growing nicely when I left. I never hunted ptarmigan, but I killed one with my four wheeler.

Cool place Kodiak is. Fishing there didn't exactly suck.

Several farms in SW VA that are now, sadly, all summer home subdivisions, Christmas tree farms, or Llama Sanctuaries.

we killed bunches of deer, groundhogs, squirrels, rabbits, crows and had lots of good times before they were all sold off to relocating city folks.

Best place you ever hunted? The last one. Memories fade -- take lots of pics to help remember.

Depends on what I am hunting.

Waterfowl: a mile long both side lease on the South Platte river in Colorado. Great duck hunting and okay goose numbers.

Quail: SW Kansas on public land.

Pheasant: Private land near Winner South Dakota.

Deer: My farm in western South Dakota.

Elk: Public land in wilderness area near South Fork Colorado.

Antelope: Public land in the Great Divide area near Craig Colorado. Used to take 5 to 7 years to get a permit there.

I grew up on the Sacramento Delta where duck and pheasant hunting was fantastic. My uncle managed a large ranch for years so I was issued a pass every year for permission to hunt.

For big game I thoroughly enjoyed Modoc county mule deer hunts but the best place, without question, was outside Toad River BC. Unbelievable place loaded with a wide range of critters.

Key words are "used to be"..........I've pretty much given up on hunting there anymore out of our family place in the lower Ruby's.

I'll probably still go for family reasons, but not because I expect to kill anything decent.

MM

Bayou DeLoutre (Luter) bottom from Greens Bridge to the Ark. line.

I love that area. I fish for smallmouth on the Buffalo quite a bit.

The best for me was near home in Montgomery county, Tn. As a teenager through college I had permission to hunt several farms near home, one particular farm near the Cumberland River bottoms. It is a beautiful place and I learned how to be a hunter there. It was covered up in deer, and some great bucks that gave me the slip more often than not.

I still think about the hardwood ridges and many bow kills made there. I live an hour and a half away now and new owners had different hunting plans.

Turkey hunting Hawaii, no doubt. I hunted around 8-9000 ft. I could look up and the snow cap was still on and I could look down (way down) and see the ocean. Definitely my most memorable.

Send a pm. We may have room. Steelhead has first rights.

Things be changing.

That is one helluva'n area.

I sat on the side of the Alaska Highway at Toad River one April afternoon and watched herds of sheep, moose, caribou and mountain goats all on one mountain side and flat.

I honestly thought I was seeing things, there were animals everywhere of every species. Incredible.

I saw a big herd of elk within a mile of the store at Toad River in 2005. Have spent a few nights there on occasion, nice country.

I live in Fauquier County now but some of my fondest memories were fishing Stoney, Little Stoney and Passage Creek. We used to stay in a cabin near Basye and as kids would watch all the adult men drink whiskey, play cards and swear while my buddy and me hid in the loft sneaking cigarettes during the opening weekend of trout season. Loved deer and turkey hunting along North Mountain and camping at Wolf Gap and along the road over the mountain to WV. Damn that's going back to the mid 70's !

Awesome reply. I have hunted from Yukon to Moz and all in between but Zim and Tanzania are definitely on my bucket list. I still get a thrill hunting squirrels with a .22 here in VA. Been to a lot of great places but still trying to keep it real with what got me here.

MacDougal's Gap to the Western side of the Wyoming Range, 20 years ago. Closest thing to heaven back then.

Last month I hunted elk the Uinta national forest on the Wasatch unit in Utah. In three and a half days I saw 15 bulls and passed up shots at 8 different bulls before taking a 320" 6x6. Best hunt I've ever had.

Now if photobucket will just work I can share it here.

Wow, some of these descriptions had me right there along side you guys. Thanks for that, as it is food for the soul, and by far my favorite passtime. We are truly a blessed bunch of hunters.

It is very hard for me to pick a favorite so I'll have to list 3:

Sonora, MX-some of the biggest mule deer on the planet, very desolate, and fantastic people. Nothing like the Sonora desert in January.

West Texas Sandhills--land of giant mule deer, tons of blue quail, fantastic people, A very unique environment. Private land makes it very inaccessible to just anybody, and I like that.

Namibia--a dizzying array of game, and high quality of people that live there. It is one of the most desolate places on earth. I cannot get enough of it.

Still a great area , I still fish Stony quite a bit.

I miss the owner of that place. His name was RCSparks. He told us great stories of the depression years. He told us about how tough it was to work in the Boeing plant in Fort Worth during WWII.

The place in the picture is part of Little Crease Moutain in Fort Valley. The owner who is my cousin's father-in-law had a cabin here and another further into the "fort". He has since sold both. I remember walking through the mountain some mornings and it being so cold I would do jumping jacks to keep my feet and hands from going numb. The older guys would get back to the cabin and have all sorts of fanciful tails of what they saw or what had happened years before. At the time I hung on every word they said. When we stayed overnight they would snore so loud, I would swear the cabin was going to shake apart. Wood stove, kerosene lamps, no electricity, or running water. It was quite an adventure for a kid raised in the suburbs. I do miss it.

Luangwa Valley, Zambia

Wind River Mountains, Wyoming. Awesome.

Best place to hunt? Outdoors. If you hunt indoors, they kick you out of the petting zoo......

Wrapping up the hunt descending just off the Alaska Highway.

Yep, that is the spot...heaven on earth for the hunter.

Omay North, in Zimbabwe. Camp overlooked Lake Kariba. I was with my son. we were hunting dangerous game. It was awesome!

I got to go 3 times to Oceaneering's 6000acre high fence ranch in south Texas. I didn't kill a whopper but a couple of the other guys did. I saw several giant bucks, but they weren't old enough to shoot. Very cool place.

The "best" places I've hunted have also been the worst places I've hunted, depending on the hunt. All said, I enjoy South Texas the most overall...and yes, that is a trip for me. I live 830 miles from El Paso.

For big game or upland........I think I'm settin' purty good right here.

Slave

P.S. For fatties? The dance floor at any bar with an active one..........yer welcome.

About 30 miles north of Dryden Tx on 7,600 acres. Indian Creek springs started on that ranch. When hot, we just took a plastic chair and beer to the springs, walked into water neck high and sat down to drink beer. Cooled you off for sure.
The springs ran into the Pecos east of us.

Wonderful 6 years on that lease.

I said Zambia earlier, but when I was a kid it was anywhere when I had my Model 61 Winchester with me. Probably better than Zambia at the time. Before that it was my Red Ryder but those were halcyon days.

SE Washington, Blue mountains and surrounding area is my favorite spot in WA. I've enjoyed some other places.

Western Nebraska.
SW PA just for the memories it holds.

Malangani, now part of the Bubye Valley Conservancy.

Western ND

Alaska for us covers it all. Just never knowing whats around the next corner or hill. Lots of other things to do along with the hunting.

Scenery is beyond any description for us.

The folks are great generally speaking.

I"ve been to quite a few other places and AK still tops the list.

Plus, on any given hunt, we very well have walked where no other human has set foot.

And we are not the top of the food chain. All in all it makes for a grand time.

Alaskan amber or scotch or bourbon sitting in a reclining chair at camp watching the northern lights in September, listening to the moose cut up, and the lynx roar and the wolves howl... wow.

Lived and hunted in Alaska and down south but my best is still here in North Dakota on my own property. My daughter who is now 25 years old is why. We started when she was 14 and still do it. Nothing exotic just plain old whitetail. ED K

Never hunted a bad place.

Makes no difference if I'm hunting squirrels, birds, or traveling for deer and antelope. If I'm hunting, I'm happy.

Some of my fondest memories are of the Uncompahgre south of Cimarron, Co., A family grain and cattle operation near Lanark, IL, the Bayfield peninsula of Wisconsin, near Washburn, and a 17 acre squirrel timber near Morrison IL.

I still hunt a place north of Seiling. We need to get together sometime.

Man this is a great thread. I am 60 now and it made think back on all the great places I have been blessed to hunt, fish, camp and just enjoy. From my first squirrel hunt as a kid to the last hunt in Moz for cape buffalo it has been amazing ride. Trout in the Rockies and Blue Ridge, billfish in the Pacific and Atlantic and BG and LMB at the house. Not bragging but realizing how great life has been. And That doesn't include the best part-my wife and family.

Yes, any hunt is a good hunt, that is just my favorite place. Anyone I ever took with me felt it was the best place they ever hunted.

Thinking a bit more, my elk hunts outside Leadville Colorado over the past 21 years have been truly outstanding.

This question is impossible. Thanks to God's Gift to American hunters, Odocoileus virginianus, there have been so many wonderful times in so many great places.

That said, I never enjoyed hunting any more than on Kodiak. AK is awesome.

Easy walk from your house? You pretty much suck.

Just past through there few weeks ago that is a neat place and have pretty good food as well...

There are so many great places that I have hunted. Most are only good for a couple species though.
The one place I have been that has all the different game that I care to hunt is Idaho.
I could make a list of places that is the best for one or two species.
Ducks- Stuttgart Arkansas
Snow geese- Eastern N. Dakota
Honkers- Rochester Mn
Pheasant- S. Dakota
Grouse and woodcock- arrowhead area Mn
Whitetail- central Mn
Mule deer- Missouri breaks Montana
Elk- Missouri breaks Montana
Pronghorn- Eastern Montana

i never hunted out of state and really don't care if i ever do.most of my hunting in 45yrs has been in 5-6 counties around my house. augusta,rockingham,highland,bath,albemarle and nelson in virginia.i've been a selfemployed contractor sense 1977 and i spend almost the whole season hunting.this year has been tougher than any i've had. trying to hunt while recovering from a bad lower leg fracture has not been easy. some of my stands i just haven't been able to hunt.

My hunting locales have been very limited as to geographic location until you factor in this place i call home

As a boy I hunted quail, cottontails and squirrels and white tails

Pretty small parcels of land in MO, but the hunts were thrilling to me, always a fence or road or creek to take you back to familiar surroundings if you got turned around

Here I've been fortunate to hunt from the north side of the brooks range to Kodak

I've floated remote rivers, flown into spots very few people have been to, killed moose, bear, ptarmigan, grouse, caribou and sheep

I've seen more of this state than most folks ever get to & im deeply grateful for the game not only that I've killed but just seen in their habitat

If I could do it all over again


I would


What a blast. So deeply grateful for this good life I've led

I haven't read the entire thread, so I might be saying what's all ready been said. The best place I've ever hunted was anywhere I hunted with my father. It made no difference if we killed anything or not. Just being together with him was the highlight of my times afield. Watching him shoot rabbits on a dead run, or just sharing a tree stand with him on a quiet morning when I was too young to carry a gun. Nothing will ever match time spent with my father.

I never had a Dad. You that do should try to spend some time with him. Mom too!

Best places I've ever hunted are all on National Forrest lands.

Had lots of good times hunting Mule deer in the Fremont national forest near Paisley, Or.

Now days, I'd have to say the most fun I have hunting, is Sage Rat hunting in alfalfa fields near Silver Lake Or.

LOTS of shooting when you get into a bunch of critters!


Virgil B.

Number one, our farm here in KY. Plenty of deer and squirrels. Now to the point of enjoying the grand kids getting after 'em. Number two, Colorado above 8,000ft. Game or no game, love the mountains !

The Badlands of North Dakota. Gorgeous ruggedness.

This!

Mad Mooner, shame on you!

This is a horrible place with no game no public land and horrible rude disgusting non English speaking criminals

No reason to even drive through here to check. The weather is bad traffic is a nightmare and the state has voted liberal democrat since the Wholly mammoth was here.

I ain't about to tell a public forum where the best place I've hunted is!

I can't pick a "best". It has been too good in too many places for me.

Top of the list contenders are Alaska,Alberta, Wyoming, and Kansas. But I have had great hunts in many other places that rank nearly as high.

Grouse and woodcock hunting in the old farms,orchards, and mountains of New England is a wonderful hunt.

Is that north or or south of I-94. I hunted south of Medora a couple of times.

It's a tie for me.

The headwaters of the Omar River in NW AK with Moose, Silvertip Grizzly, Caribou, Cinnamon & Black Phase Black Bears, Ptarmigan, Snowshoe Hares, and Wolves.

A private ranch in Starr & Hogg Counties in South Texas. Whitetails, Hogs, Exotics, Coyotes, Bobcats, and more Quail then I've ever seen anywhere else in my life.

Ed

My hunting experience is very limited, but I still have great memories. I have to go with two, each of an entirely different nature. One would be my one and only moose hunt in NW Ontario. It did not result in a shot (bull tag - one cow seen), but the surroundings were absolutely wonderful. The other would be along the railroad tracks going into and out of my hometown. We shot many pheasants (and one partridge) along them.

"Best Place" is a difficult label to adhere to my lifetime of hunting.

BEST could mean many things, abundant game, most scenic terrain, biggest trophies or best memories..etc.

I've been blessed with so many bests that I honestly can't pick just one,but the ones that I've shared with my son are the best memories of all.

North. West of bellfield, not to far from TR's elkhorn site. Used to be a yearly trip. We also hunted the confluence area just west of Wlliston. Blue tongue hit hard, we haven't been out for about three or four years.

Ft. Sill, Oklahoma.

Some of the whitetail bucks I saw there still haunt my dreams.

Now retired I need to start chasing critters outside my place in north Idaho. Piles of public woods just miles from the place.

Behind my house

Wherever I hunted with my dad....

South Africa and Montana

The Gonabisi open area North of MK1 in Tanzania. Thousands of buffalo.

Alberta and South Africa. Great hunts!!

South Platte River nearly to Nebraska. Low altitude, lots of cottonwoods, grapes, berries, scrub oak. Lots of deer, few people, THEN. Haven't been back for several years.

You made me google, of course... Noorvik area... where the felon is on TV. LOL.

This is how I feel. Some of my most favorite hunts I never pulled a trigger...

Montana Badger, You anywhere near Sidney? Used to be a diner called M&M, they served you a breakfast that would last into next week!

I live 16 miles south, they leveled the M&M.

Too bad about the M&M, that was always a go to when I stayed in Sidney.
Nice country , you live in. Ever hunt the Breaks?

t32md border area of Penobscot and Washington county in maine for deer

back 40 on fort Campbell Kentucky for deer and turkey

Iraq 1991 and 2003 for haji

My ranch in Lasalle county Texas. Great native whitetail genetics and more game than I've ever seen anywhere.

nightclub called the sugar shack...

great deer in that area.

hunting was good, we used decoys to entice the other vixens in, the decoys were hot female friends who would go in with us to peak the other vixens curiosity.

Apache Ridge

Iowa, plenty of morning waterfowl and afternoon pheasants.

For what- ducks, geese, bobwhites, blue quail, squirrels, whitetails, muleys, turkeys, dove, sandhills, coyotes, elk, meese, hogs?

No not the breaks.

^ pretty much that.


My favorite places Iv'e hunted all had something to do with the people I was with.
e used to have a really good group of guys that I looked forward to being with and hunting with. Time, moving, family, death, etc, changed that slowly, and now I dont have a close group of hunting partners any longer. It honestly it sucks more than I thought it would. I miss that aspect, look back very fondly on the times when we had a close knit group, and envy those who have that sort of tradition.

Sounds semi-gay, but its all part of it. My boys are almost ready, and that'll be the next phase. Looking forward to developing my new little hunting partners.


As for as actual locations, I had a place in northern PA as a kid and it was liek 10,000 acres of basically private land. private property that bordered the 'back end" of a huge tract of state land. Effectively all mine. I imagine it was as close to heaven for a kid that could be found on the east coast.

Later, had a really cool swath of preserved land in the middle of suburbia. Maybe a thousand acres. Very mountainous by east coast standards too. LAsted a decade, now its a huge town-home development right on the mountainside. Thats NJ for ya.

Up in Maine we'd hunt in alton, which was sort far away from people I think it was all paper mill property and we'd see lots of moose and stuff. Deer were rare, but it was really awesome hunting rabbits and grouse and trying to find deer etc. Big respect for morthern maine hunters after that.