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No question about it. Elephant Hunting!!!

Archery deer and elk > this year will be my 55 th year bowhunting !

Elk hunting on horseback at or near timberline.

Calling cougars in the snow.

Second most fun for me is hunting big mulies in late season snow.

Rattling whitetails in the Canadian Rockies was stiff competition to both of the above when a grandson could join me.

I love sheep hunting, but Kodiak Island deer hunts from a nice boat are what I call fun. Climb steep mountain, fantastic scenery, likely not see anybody else, can shoot multiple deer, easy to pack them out, bear factor adds excitement, back to a nice comfortable place to sleep at night. Boat adds mobility to hunt a different location every day. Awesome.

That’s what my Father in Law always says. In about exactly that manner too. I think that’s the only thing he is interested in going back to Alaska for after 37 years there
I think he stayed in a cabin on Raspberry Island mostly

Yeah, that sounds perfect.

Dan, you crack me up. Keep on keeping on

So far, my two favorites are Whitetail Deer and Eastern Wild Turkey.

I have both available right out my back door. Both have seasons in Kentucky that come just at the right time for me.

In Spring, I love sitting with my back to my favorite 200 yr old white oak, and laying out that first tree call and getting a comeback from a gobbler.

I do podcasts in the Spring of my turkey hunting exploits. Here's a good one from last year:
I shot Pepe LePew

Starting in August, my life becomes consumed with hunting Whitetails. I used to bow hunt, and mid-October used to be my favorite time of year, but I got a bum shoulder in 2007 and I've been gun hunting exclusively since.

There's nothing I like better than sitting up in my treestand on the Rifle Opener, seeing the light come up, and somewhere about 10 minutes into season having a 250 lb+ buck saunter by.

The Savage Speaks Again

It has been over 20 years since I have done it, but my favorite type of hunting is rabbit hunting behind well-trained beagles on a frosty Kentucky morning. I used to spend every weekend from the weekend after Thanksgiving, and several days of Christmas break, through the end of January in pursuit of cottontails. I liked this type of hunting due to the walking and social activity of it, as well as the fact that the rabbit were plentiful and there were plenty of placed to hunt in my area, including our farm.

I enjoy all types of hunting. Each has its own merits. But the sound of beagles chasing a rabbit back toward an anxiously awaiting hunter is a thrill I do miss.

The only hunting I have done west of the Mississippi was pheasant hunting one time in Kansas when I was in high school in the mid ‘80’s. I hope to do some western antelope, elk, and mule deer hunting at some point in the future. For now, I will continue to enjoy hunting Kentucky white tails, doves, sandhill cranes, turkeys, and squirrels.

Thank you for sharing this story. It is a good reminder that the experience of the hunt is often more meaningful than the trophy. One of my favorite hunts was two seasons ago when I got to sit next to my youngest son as he took a spike buck. It was his first deer, and he was the one who approached me about wanting to start hunting. The smile on his face was better than any trophy I have taken.

I'm guilty of not reading all the posts, but without a doubt it was the time I spent hunting with my dad out of our central Pennsylvania deer camp. I didn't get a whole lot of time with dad. Sadly, he got his wings when I was 21 years old. I was able to take my first deer a few minutes before he was called home, and I think he was a lot more excited about it than I was. No matter where I roam, the hills and hollers of central Pennsylvania always beckon to me. Miss you so much Dad. We'll hunt together again soon.

Solo mountain goat.

Sitting in my deer hut with my grown daughter who still likes to be with dad. Does not get any better! Ed k

You stipulate our favorite hunt, but not because of family or friends being with us? But that's the icing on the cake. What fun would a great hunt be if you couldn't share it with people you love? Those are the very best hunts! Those are the kind of hunts that stand out above all others. The fact that I did it with my dad, or my son, or my daughter, or my nephews, my family and/or close friends all that made it that much more worth waking up before day light and/or braving the cold and going out in search of game. The killing of game was just the gravy, and if you didn't kill anything, so what? It was a great experience made special by special company.

Anyway, even so, one of my favorite hunts happen to be with my dad and his friend. They had been palling around together that day and both knew how much I liked to go with them so they picked me up at high school that afernoon one cold grey November day when I got out at about 3:30 P.M. This was in a more innocent time and my dad and his friend, Henry, were both feeling the effects of a few drinks. In fact they had almost a full bottle bourbon with them. Back in the 60s this was fairly common and if a cop stopped you and smelled alcohol, unless you were just really messed up they usually would just tell you to be careful and don't drink too much or tell you to go home and sleep it off.

Anyway, that fact just added to the moment for a young kid going duck hunting in a November Cold spell. The wind was howling out of the North and very cold as I remember it. We drove about 12 miles South from Port Lavaca down to a little settlement South of here on the shores of Matagorda Bay named Indianola. Back in the 19th century it was one of the biggest ports on the Texas Coast until the Hurricanes of 1875 and 1886 about wiped it out. That killed Indianola as a thriving port as most everybody who survived moved inland and left a ghost town, especially the famous 1886 storm which still ranks as one of the strongest hurricanes to hit the shores along the Gulf Coast. Now days the area is a very rural fishing village and there are lots of little brackish water ponds and creeks just inland from the bay which make for lots of great waterfowl hunting.

There to this day are oil and gas company hunting leases around there and at that time back in the 60s McCullough Oil Tool Company had a lot of the place leased for hunting. Henry and my dad were both friends with the guy that managed the area for McCullough so they got permission to hunt a little salt water pond with about 200 decoys in it. This pond was about 50 yards wide by 150 yards long with a little plywood shack of a blind big enough for the three of us about thirty yards from the edge of the pond on the east side.

The way the decoys were laid out and with the pond being situated North and South, the wind was blowing down the length of the pond and the ducks were coming in over the decoys from the North making a North to South pass and then turning and landing into the wind. We were waiting patiently when a flock of canvas backs ( Canvas backs are some of the fastest flying ducks) with a 30 MPH tail wind came flying in low about 90 MPH out of the north over the decoys. It looked like they had no intention of slowing down and landing so Henry and I took a good luck shot. The only problem was they weren't on our side of the pond and were about 80 yards out from us.

Henry, who was by this time feeling no pain, said "Let's Take 'em!" and shot and missed. My dad being a bit more sober, thought rightly that they were too far out, so he held his fire. But after Henry shot, I being a relatively inexperienced kid, picked one of the last ducks in the flock, which was a big Canvas Back Drake, and shot about the time my dad was just beginning to tell me they were too far out. I think I led him every bit of 5 feet. To my amazement the big Drake cartwheeled and hit the water hard. My dad was in disbelief. That duck was every bit of 80 yards out from the blind. Of course that was before lead shot was illegal for Federal Waterfowl and lead carries better for longer shots. But still, that was a long way for a 12 gauge 2 3/4" Chambered shotgun with a modified choke no less to knock down a duck.

To this day, I really believe that duck was just flying so fast with that wind to his back at that range the fact that the shot had no doubt lost so much of its velocity, that it was more a fact that the duck hit the shot string so hard rather than the shot hitting the duck, that broke its wing and knocked it out of the sky. Until the day he died, my dad always talked about that shot and marveled at the fact that I killed that duck at that range. However, in my heart, I know that it was the luckiest shot I ever made. Probably the luckiest shot anybody ever made.

Filaman,

I didn’t ask the question in the manner I did to minimize the importance of family or friends in hunting- I just wanted to get an idea of what hunting is the most enjoyable to people responding because of the hunts, not the companions that were along on the adventure. I love to get out in the woods every year and hunt just like my dad and I did when I was 12, but I wanted to see what else was out there besides the deer, squirrel, etc. that I hunt not only for fun, but tradition and remembering times past. I hope I explained myself without seeming harsh or insensitive.

No man, it's all good. And thanks for your explanation. I guess I've just had some really special times with family through the years. But I get you. Anyway, my example of my favorite hunt or I guess I'd have to call it one of my most memorable hunting experiences, reflects just how much enjoyment I got from hunting water fowl. I've had my times in deer camps too and really love it all.

OK so you must be an elephant hunter. Can you tell me why elephants paint their toenails red?

That's so easy, So they can hide in the strawberry patch.

Deer, I enjoy the solitude of archery the most but the oldest bbn I get the more I enjoy a family member or friend in a stand not to far away in another stand.

Rifle season for me is spent trying to get other people on deer.

I had a great time in Montana elk hunting back in 2017, would love to go back but will wait til my son graduates high school so I dont miss any football games.

I do like a good tree rat stalk for sure! I am trying to put together a Auodad or mule deer trip, maybe even a pronghorn something spot and stalkish. Treestand hunting had become very drab and painful for me, cold feet or skeeters aint cutting it no mo for me.