Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Most enjoyable hunt you’ve ever been on

As I age and likely am closer to the end than the beginning, each one gets better as time passes. The last, a scheduled 6-day elk hunt that turned into a 12-day effort.

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I’d been taking my oldest son to TX on an annual archery hog with my brothers and their sons. My oldest had been successful which really made my youngest boy jealous(9yoa). I promised if he’d practice shooting every day in our basement range his pellet rifle, we get him a shot with a rifle (he wasn’t strong ending to pull more than a 25lb bow at the time). We practiced every night for 6 mos focusing on perfect sight alignment and a perfect trigger squeeze. When we finally got to TX, I explained my hopes for my son. He produced an open sighted 22mag loaded with plastic tipped rounds. That evening, we drove around after dark and came across a group of 70-80 lb hogs in the headlights. We’d set up a rest on top of the truck cab that was perfect height. With 3 adultswatching, he fired. All of us were certain he’d missed. I was feeling really bad for him. He said dad, the sights were perfectly steady when I squeezed off a shot. I hit him exactly where you told me to. Because there was nothing left to be said, we went looking in the thick brush. 30yds away, I nearly tripped over a very dead hog that had been 10 ringed. There were 3 humbled adults that evening, a proud 9 year old boy, and an even prouder father. Best hunt of my life!

About 10 years ago, I packed out my first big game animal, an elk, with my llamas. That opened a whole new world of hunting. It also added 5 to 10 years to my hunting career. I'm to old to be packing elk quarters on my back any more but I can still walk a long way if I don't have to carry a load.

Last March when my buddy and I shot about 200 Eurasian doves in about 4-4.5 hours of hunting over 2 days.


I am sure that there have been others, but that was the latest.

The last hunt I had with my Pop...We watched a clearcut for couple days...I finally got him on a nice young 3 point bull, but he couldn’t see him on the side hill in the low Christmas trees. I tried to line him up and guide him to the bull, but his 76 year old eyes just wouldn’t allow him to see it.

Finally, Pop said, “Son, would you just shoot the damn bull”

I shot the bull. I was able to get my truck closer to the side hill where the bull was down by taking an old skidder trail and thrashing the hell out of my truck...So what! I got us close enough that I could walk down the mountain and start working up the bull to haul it out.

As I’m working away, I heard a snap of a limb above me, I look up and see Pop hobbling down the mountain with a long stick he’d found to use as a cane...The old guy looked like Moses coming towards me...I said “What the hell are you doing”? He said “I figured you could use some help”.

We got the elk out together...It was a great hunt for us...I wish Pop could have made that last shot of his hunting career, but he said to me as we were working on the elk, “Son, I killed a lot of animals in my lifetime, just being here, with you, is perfect” “Good thing you didn’t miss him”...That was my dad. “Good thing you didn’t miss him” Laffin....😎

A campfire member took me on my first prairie dog shoot/hunt.

Probably this one..the last big mule deer Ingwedog and I got together...

boat based black bear in Alaska. for raw beauty and so many different things to see and enjoy. eagles, deer, bear, wolves. otters seals the 4 legged kind, moose. will always be my best memory. also great eating on the boat. can't go wrong.

My very first time bow hunting the Badlands in ND and I scored on a Mule Deer buck. I was so pumped!

Where were you in Alaska when you saw deer and black bear on the same hunt?

Probably a brown bear Riley shot at the end of a long day of running the river in a miniboat he had built. He spotted the bear on the mountainside and ran up and shot it on his own. It was all about him spotting it, running up to shoot it, and then doing a very good solo job of it. Have failed to be there for just a very few of his big game animals and much prefer watching him shoot these days.

They are in the same areas throughout SE and Prince William Sound.

3 good friends, 2 smart dogs and bob white quail. It doesn't get much better than this.

kwg

Is there black bears on Montigue island? I just thought it a strange place to take someone that far our for a black bear in the sound.

Too many of them, if they weren't enjoyable I might have to quit.

Perhaps a favorite was one in NW PA. Evening hunt after work. Required to wear blaze orange on the way out to my hunting area as I was trying for a squirrel perhaps too. Didn't need blaze to archery hunt deer, but did for small game. Got out to where I wanted to set up, alongside a reservoir with the water drawn down and waist high brush growing along the edge. Deer routinely came down the hill for water in the evening. Knelt down to take off orange, had bow resting across brush in front of me. Took off hat and vest and was putting them up, look up, doe coming down same trail I had just used. Stops 30-40 yards away, directly in front of me and grubs around base of hickory tree. Trail continues on down toward water at an angle that would have brought her within 10 yards or so on my left, which is perfect for a right hand draw on a stick bow. I wouldn't attempt a shot at over 15 or so as I had just started using a bow that year. So I was excited as it looked like a perfect set up.

Reach up, grab bow on bushes, look up.................dang doe is headed straight at me. Looking my way. Somehow I managed to get an arrow out of the hip quiver and on the bow, still horizontal on the bushes when she turned her head slightly. I was willing her to turn toward my left as she got closer and closer. No such luck. She angled slightly to my right, which a right handed archer has a hard time turning to while kneeling 8 yards from a big ol set of eyes and ears. Eventually she passed right next to me at 9 feet, stopped, looked directly at me, then all hairs stood up, eyes widened, and she took off.

Best I can figure is she saw my big ol' white forehead as I had no time or opportunity to get my camo facemask and hat on after taking off the orange stuff.

Kinda hard to beat having a wild critter walk up to within 3 yards, unaware until the last instant.

there's a few other hunts that rank nearly as high, if not the same. But for sure that one is not forgotten.

Geno

It wasn't a hunt, but this summer, 3 of us sat on a ridge at about 9k and could see 2 bucks, 2 bull elk, a cow and a bull moose, and a goat, all at the same time.

My other most enjoyable would have to be getting my first antelope in SD with a rifle. I don't get the chance to hunt with a rifle much because we're in the shotgun zone so to be able to stretch one out was a lot of fun!

In November 1980 I had just completed The Basic School, as a new 2ndLt in the Marine Corps, at Quantico, Va. While awaiting orders to Pensacola flight school, my company commander, who had befriended me, suggested we take advantage of the muzzle loading deer season which was just a few days away. I gladly accepted and we went to the woods to sight in our rifles. Mine was a .50 Cal CVA Hawken I had put together from a kit, and which I still have. After sighting our rifles (I used 100 grains of FFg behind a .50 cal round ball,) we then departed to scout the area we had drawn, on base, for the next morning's opening day. The Major dropped me off on a dirt rode that paralleled a creek bottom. I picked out a tree, with low limbs I could easily climb, that provided a excellent perch that overlooked the creek bottom. It looked very "deery," if you know what I mean. I marked my trail back to the road with some ribbon, and the next morning the Major dropped me off at zero dark thirty. I used my USMC issue flashlight with a red lense to follow my Hansel and Gretel trail of "bread crumbs" back to my tree stand. I loaded my rifle, (without a cap,) then tied a rope around it, in order to lift it up once I had found my perch. By the time I got settled, first light began to break. It was a crisp, clear morning, and I shivered a bit as I put a cap on the nipple, and half cocked the hammer.

Morning finally broke and the creek bottom began to sparkle from the sunlight striking the fallen leaves. Just then I noticed some movement to my left, in my peripheral vision. I slowly moved my head to the left and there was a large bodied buck sauntering slowly along, about 30 yards away, moving left to right. I slowly cocked my hammer, making sure not to make a noise, then set the trigger. The slight click of the set trigger caused the buck to stop and look in my direction.. I froze. My rifle was laying across my lap. The buck began moving again with his nose to the ground. I slowly began to raise my rifle to my shoulder, and when the grey ghost moved directly in front of me and stepped out from behind a tree, I lined up my sights and followed his movement. Once I was lined up on his right shoulder I began to press on the trigger, utilizing the BRASS concept, the Marine Corps emphasized.

The rifle exploded with a sharp retort in the silent woods. A large white cloud of smoke blocked my view as I looked up to see if I had hit my mark. The buck had dropped in his tracks. .50 cal round ball did it's work, again. I had a grin from ear to ear.

After I finished gutting my deer, I dragged him up to the roadway. Shortly thereafter, the Major pulled up in his Jeep. He congratulated me on killing my beautiful 6-pointer less than an hour after dropping me off. He said he heard my shot, and was hoping I had scored. We mounted the deer on the top of his spare tire, and drove it in to the check station. He was bragging about the deer to anyone who would listen. Seemed he was enjoying my success as much as I was.

I'll never forget that hunt.

My brother and I both got drawn for cow elk in Southwest Colorado in 2010, the year after our dad died. Both of us tagged out on the second day and we were able to drive right up to one of the Cows and load it into the truck...First time we had that much luck on a elk hunt in Southwestern Colorado...I think the old man was helping us along...

My most memorable wasn't the hunt itself, but the recovery. Got a deer way up behind locked gates. Gutted it and went back to my grandparents to get a cart to pull it down the roads and back to their place. My gramps, who died this month, went with me to get it. He took a break up high and I went the rest of the way on my own, till I met up with him again as he rested, but that walk up the mountain and back with him, was a good walk under the stars.