I started hunting my second year of college in 1965 with my first mule deer. I've shot at least one mule or whitetail deer most years since then.
I shot my first elk in 1966. Elk are the only animal that I kept track of in a book. The last elk that I shot was number 35.
I shot my first pronghorn antelope in 1971. Since moving to Montana in 1975 I've shot an antelope most years since then.
If you count coyotes, a bobcat, and a wolverine I've shot 20 species of North American game animals that also include 3 black bears, 2 Shiras moose, a mountain goat, 3 bighorn rams, a Dall ram, an American buffalo, a mountain lion, a musk ox, 4 species of caribou, and a Sitka blacktail deer. Other than my Canadian animals, my buffalo and mountain lion, all of my other North American animals were on DIY hunts, and most of them were also solo hunts.
I shot 3 exotic Texas animals including a Scimitar horned oryx, a blackbuck, and an aoudad.
In New Zealand I shot a Red deer stag, a fallow deer, a Himalayan Tahr, a chamois, an Arapawa ram, and a bunch of wallabies.
I've hunted 3 countries in Africa on 6 trips, and have taken, I think, 37 species of animals including a cape buffalo and a leopard. For the most part I only shot one animal of each species, however I have shot 2 or 3 animals of some species. I think my longest shot on any animal was in South Africa where I shot a gemsbok at 348 yards with my .375 RUM.
I think the last animal on my list would be the Dagestan Tur that I shot in Azerbaijan 3 years ago.
I should be my taxidermist's favorite customer as he has mounted at least one of each of these species of my animals (although I'm still waiting on 11 animals).
