Home Forums Hunting & Shooting General Big Game What was your best hunt?

Best can cover a lot of ground from hunting with family and friends to an outstanding trophy to a magical time in the field. Culling through years of hunts from shooting quail over my springer, sitting on deer stands with my grandfathers or under a fir in the Rockies waiting for daylight and hearing elk bugle close by, the one that stands out to me as the high point is a safari in the Selous.
A close second was a red stag horseback hunt in Patagonia.
I've only done a handful of guided hunts in my life and those are the only ones where my wife has been with me and that has made them particularly special.
Details of the trips.
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The day granddaughter killed her first buck. She was 9.

When my son Chad "High Brass" got his first deer. First time deer hunting.

What a great photo Dave.

Second best when granddaughter got a good buck.
She was 11

Solo mountain goat

When my father was getting ready to retire I took him to Africa for a 9 day plains game hunt. He sacrificed a lot for me and my brother over the years and he had always said he wished he could do Africa but he had more important things to spend his $$$ on. So I treated him. I cherish the days I got to spend hunting with him. Cancer took him in 2013 so those memories are precious.

Horseback dry ground lion hunt over hounds in Northwestern AZ. I didn't get a lion, but my son was with me. He was 17 at the time and we had an amazing time riding through the desert. The hounds cold trailed a lion for a few hours on the last day. Amazing scenery. He always talked about moving west but I think the trip sealed the deal. He is in college in Wyoming now.

the last time i went

Thank you sir. I came across this picture just a couple of days ago.

All the hunts with my sons. But there was one day, a friend and I shot our limit of bobwhites over my pointer and caught our limit of rainbow trout that afternoon. That will be hard to forget.

2009 season, was with my wife first & then our 12 year old son, when they both took their first deer on the same weekend !!

My best hunt hasn't happened yet. They've all been incredible so far but for different reasons.

Some of the most memorable include a guided elk hunt, a five-day solo handgun hunt for deer on an island off the coast of Washington, several feral cattle hunts in Hawaii, and hunting whitetails on family ranches in Texas in the 70's before everything got leased up.


Okie John

The one I’m doing this year!

Details guys, we like details. Not many of us will go after a cape buffalo with a .375 like Blacktrailer, but a memorable hunt is great reading for lots of us in the off season. When I’d get my Outdoor Life magazine, the first thing I’d read was always the This happened to me page.

Last year solo Sitka Blacktail hunt. About as peaceful as it gets sitting in the sun on a mountain in silence with a that buck before the long hike back.

My favorite successful hunt was the time I'd watched a herd all week and memorized its movements morning and evening. Finally i got up early and put myself in position for an easy shot when the buck walked past me. They changed their routine that day! I ended up crawling (no higher than my hands and knees but mostly on my belly) for 6 hours to get a 380 yard shot on a desert muley. Not my biggest but a fun and memorable hunt.

My absolute favorite hunting memories are the two years I got to go elk hunting with my (at the time) 89/90 year old grandpa. We didnt get any elk that year but he had a great time trying and I enjoyed the time spent together.

2006 Pa deer season ranks right up there. Not for any great success or huge buck but simply because I was able to get out and hunt. I had fallen through a roof hatch and tore up my right shoulder earlier in the year. I had rotator cuff surgery about 30 days before the regular gun season opened on the Monday after Thanksgiving. When I asked the Dr. about going hunting, his response was "Are you nuts?". While that is still open to debate, I knew I was going to do my darndest to be in the woods.

I'm right handed but figured I could practice enough with the Redhawk in my left hand before the season. After all, I was off work, what else was there to do but go to the range? Anyhow, my wife drove me to the range several times and after a few sessions, i could keep all the rounds in an acceptable size group. Yes, i was shooting off a bench and only 50 yds. but I knew a spot on a sidehill above a flat spot where I could sit down and use a shooting stick setup.

The big concern was if I fell in the woods, would I tear out the Doc's handiwork? So we rigged up a sling and swath to bind my arm to my body, then dropped a 3X orange vest over my head and off to the woods I went. My Dad and my son would both be available for gutting and dragging duties if I needed them.

Opening day, I saw mostly does (only bucks were legal) in the area I was watching. I did see one buck but he was off to my right in the brush, I couldn't get scrunched around enough to get the sights on him. Headed home the next day for PT etc. but was back out on the first Saturday. Saw deer but again, not the right location for me to take a shot I was comfortable with.

The last Saturday, a buddy came out to see if he could stir up some deer. I was watching a pipeline and had a tree limb at the right height to use for a rest. He put 2 deer out of the brush but they stopped right at the edge of the pipeline and I knew Dean was somewhere in the brush behind them so again, no shot. Darn deer, had they crossed the pipeline and then stopped, it would have been a safe shot.

So no deer that year but a hell of a lot of fun and good times with family and friends.

Dale

This one. Booked with an outfit that had a heavily hunted concession, where game was scarce.got my shot in the last 20 minutes of the last day of a 14 day hunt. The hard hunted buffalo were harder to sneak up on than a whitetail buck in the open. Collectively we ( myself and the PHs and trackers) used everything we ever learned about hunting anything to get it done. Throw in some literal last minute drama with a PH injured, and two lions who felt they should have possession of the buffalo, and there you have it...

Awesome! What caliber?