Home Forums Hunting & Shooting General Big Game Bucket List Animals.... where to start....

Bucket list desires aren't getting cheaper nor easier with age...let alone the future legalities of this sport we love. It is all working against you. Many critters listed thus far are attainable every year. Stop dreaming and start doing, or you'll wish you had.

I'd like a desert or stone ram but they're not really on my bucket list. That, and it just is not realistic as I am behind in points. I do put in for deserts, including the one non-res New Mexico tag and also throw my name in the hat for some Stone Ram hunt giveaways, so it might happen.


Two months from today though I will be hunting the last critter on my actual 'list'. I saved my pennies for years and the time is soon. Everything else I kill afterward is an unnecessary bonus.

Would like to add a Sitka blacktail and an Oregon or California blacktail to the collection.

Agree with Tinman again. I just heard it said " would you rather die with your dreams, or with your memories?"

like Tinman I got off my butt and went and did it, got the last thing on my bucket list when I was 48 years old, and it wasn't without sacrifice.....Everything since then has been gravy.

Sooooo...whats your last critter Tinman?

Mine is more about critters in certain locations.

There are some islands I really want to chase trophy bucks in alpine. Hopefully next season.

Mountain goat hunt on the CP.

I really want to do a rut heavy timber hunt on a certain island that is a 7 hour boat ride away.

December mountain goat hunt for down low goats.

Archery Roosevelt Elk.

I did my mountain goat hunt this year in short sleeve shirt🤭

My bucket list is pretty much done. Just wish I would have or could have started 20 years sooner. If I was 20 years younger it would include leopard, caribou, a bigger mule deer and a bigger elk.

Mine is to get an Elk

Wish I had started a lot, lot earlier - like when it was legal:

1. gaur 2. tiger 3. Great White 4. Saltwater croc.

A matching pair of bears in chocolate and black for rugs, a mature mule deer, mountain lion, elk and a nice axis. Planning on checking one of f this year or next at the latest.

GreggH

I’ve been lucky enough to shoot most all my bucket list animals. Only one remaining is a sheep. I’m to cheap to spend the big money and odds are certainly against drawing a tag in the states where I apply.

Funny that the op mentions badger. There is currently a nice male in my freezer waiting to go to my taxidermist. For various reasons I had never had an opportunity, until a recent Idaho coyote hunt. Make sure you make a good cns hit. They are really good about making it back to the hole.

Regarding the badger going down into their hole….that does happen. I’ve had fox and coyotes do it too, in addition to crawl into culverts, etc.

I carry a 6-7 foot piece of barb wire in the bed of the pickup with the last foot bent (into a ‘s’ or ‘z’) handle so that I can easily spin the wire. Stick the straight end as deep into the hole or culvert as you can and start spinning/twisting. The barbs will grab fur and get all tangled up. You can then pull your critter out.

Man there are so many things I'd like to hunt! Caribou, Alaska or Canada moose, wolf, aoudad, javalina, grizzly, some southern waterfowl hunting, I'd love to go to Africa... But I've been fortunate. I have a couple of good mule deer, a couple of good whitetails, some good black bear, a couple of good antelope, and a couple of good elk, all DIY. I've trapped and shot thousands of coyotes, fox, bobcats, badgers, coons, skunks, beaver, mink, muskrat, fisher, and marten. I've spent many hundreds of days afield over my own dogs hunting pheasants, grouse, partridge, and waterfowl. I've made many lifelong friends in the process of all that hunting and made some of my best memories spending time in the field with my son. Maybe I'll get some of this stuff knocked off my list, maybe I won't. Either way, I'll continue to have a lot of fun!

** To answer your question, badgers don't prime until late in the year. December and later will give you the best hide, but they're often hibernating by then. A November bird hunt on the Plains will give you your best shot. They're incredibly easy to trap, if you wanted to tag along with a trapper. As for a wolf, those baited Alberta hunts look like the highest odds for one with good fur.

Rocky Mountain Bighorn. MTG

Coues deer
Black bear
Sandhill crane
Canada goose
Flathead catfish

There's only 1 real way to shoot a bucket...

On my bucket list is:
Black Bears in Canada
Grizzly Bear, Alaska, western Canada.
Moose in Alaska.

When I decided to go bow only I made a bucket list that I felt was obtainable on a fireman’s salary. A bear, a representative elk, a moosea and a PY animal of some sort and a PY deer in Georgia. The bear was the first to scratch off. Bear hunts in Alberta were affordable back then and most let you kill 2. Seems prices have gotten stupid lately. I killed a nice PY whitetail in Kansas on a buddy’s farm. I hunted elk several times DIY and a NM guided hunt with no opportunities. A Montana hunt in the Missouri breaks gave me my first shot at an elk. The gravy was when the bull made PY. The moose wasn’t killed with a bow but after a horrendous hunt thanks to covid restrictions and an asshat Canadian government, I shot one with a rifle. The hardest target was killing a PY in my home state of Georgia. It took 25 years of hard hunting and many deer that missed the mark by inches. The best part was when I finally did it on my own piece of property. The following year I killed a second PY buck.
I had successfully accomplished my original list. So I started another list. I may never accomplish it due to the price increases of tags, outfitter fees and limited availability.
A real nice mule deer tops the list but since I have no idea where to start and again hunt cost are now $7-10k that one may never come to fruition. The second on the list is a cougar. The 3rd was a javelina and I took that one last week in Texas hunting with Mulie Mike.

When I was a kid, I remember when the movie “Hatari” came to the theaters. I couldn’t wait to grow up and go to Africa. That time is past, I never made it to Africa and never will. That spark has long since gone out.

Growing up in Montana and hunting all the big game, small game and fish, I have fulfilled my bucket list that I never made until I looked back at my life of hunting Montana. I have been fortunate to have killed all 10 of the big game species in Montana (including grizzly bear) and I just keep going out to hunt whatever I can get a permit for.

Hunting is different for each hunter, and I don’t feel slighted by not going to Africa, but if I could get there without flying or by boat, I would probably like to shoot a Cape Buffalo.

Hunting Montana still takes my breath away…

Big Game Bucket List (North America):

Pronghorn antelope
Elk
Mule Deer
Sitka blacktail deer (Kodiak Island)
Cous deer
Alaskan moose
Any of the 4 North American Sheep species (very unlikely, but this is a bucket list!)

African Big Game Bucket List:

Kudu
Blue Wildebeast
Gemsbock

I have been very fortunate to live in a state (Kentucky) that has ample opportunity to take big-game animals. I don't have to draw a tag. The county in which I live is zoned such that I can legally take one antlered deer and unlimited antlerless deer. However, the big-game animals in my state are pretty much limited to whitetail deer. I have hunted out of state for upland birds and waterfowl, but I need to get my arse moving on out of state big game.