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Campfire Ranger
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What is your favorite North America big game animal to hunt and why? Pronghorn. It's all spot and stalk. Plus I love the high plains environment where I've been able to hunt them.
Every day on this side of the ground is a win.
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For strictly hunting, it would be pronghorn. For the meat, and the camp, it would be elk.
If you love someone set them free If they come back no one else liked them Set them free again
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Without question and for quite some time now, it's been Coues whitetail deer. I thought for sure you were going to say Russian women. LOL!
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I enjoy the hell out of the spring hog hunts with my buddies. Sometimes, we even kill hogs.
The western pack horse hunts I've enjoyed were spectacular, more for the majesty of the land, than for which animal I pursued while there.
As for animals, specifically, I'd have to say elk. There's nothing like having a bull bugling his face off at you at 10 yards, and having nothing but a bush between him & yourself.
FC
"Every day is a holiday, and every meal is a banquet."
- Mrs. FC
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Without question and for quite some time now, it's been Coues whitetail deer. I've never seen a Coues, but I know there are a lot of aficionados. What is it that makes Coues a favorite? The remoteness. The terrain. The weather. The wariness of a whitetail buck that's pursued on a daily basis by mountain lions, the occasional jaguar, the occasional red wolf, coyotes, bobcats, black bears and humans. The difficulty of trying to even see an animal that's so incredibly camouflaged. And the allure of chasing specific older age-class bucks that are virtually unseen, in an ecosystem that's beyond challenging. Not to mention how petite and beautiful they are. Used to be that Dall sheep were my favorite big game animal to pursue. That was the case for about 15 years or so. Now it's Coues whitetail deer and that's been the case for about 20 years or so. Currently, second place belongs to mountain goats and older age-class brown/grizzly bears. Dall sheep have fallen to fourth place, behind desert bighorn sheep and California bighorn sheep (tied in third place). Older age-class mule deer -- Sonoran, Rocky Mountain and Pacific (sub-species) -- are tied in fifth place. Didn't realize the red wolf was quite that far West... The only one's I've seen were in Smokey Mountain National Park.
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Without question and for quite some time now, it's been Coues whitetail deer. I've never seen a Coues, but I know there are a lot of aficionados. What is it that makes Coues a favorite? The remoteness. The terrain. The weather. The wariness of a whitetail buck that's pursued on a daily basis by mountain lions, the occasional jaguar, the occasional red wolf, coyotes, bobcats, black bears and humans. The difficulty of trying to even see an animal that's so incredibly camouflaged. And the allure of chasing specific older age-class bucks that are virtually unseen, in an ecosystem that's beyond challenging. Not to mention how petite and beautiful they are. Used to be that Dall sheep were my favorite big game animal to pursue. That was the case for about 15 years or so. Now it's Coues whitetail deer and that's been the case for about 20 years or so. Currently, second place belongs to mountain goats and older age-class brown/grizzly bears. Dall sheep have fallen to fourth place, behind desert bighorn sheep and California bighorn sheep (tied in third place). Older age-class mule deer -- Sonoran, Rocky Mountain and Pacific (sub-species) -- are tied in fifth place. Didn't realize the red wolf was quite that far West... The only one's I've seen were in Smokey Mountain National Park. We have introduced sub-populations within the Blue and down in the Gila. There's also quite small sub-populations in the Sierra Madre Oriental and also the Sierra Madre Occidental. Out here they're oftentimes referred to as Mexican red wolves or Mexican grey wolves. The type specie is canis lupus baileyi. It looks very much like the eastern red wolf, but possibly even smaller. Pretty animals, though.
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Gotcha. Thought maybe you were referring to Canis rufus. Never hear of the Mexican wolves being referred to as red wolves.
Carry on.
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Got to be Pronghorn.....quite a challenge.
"It's sad that governments are chiefed by the double tongues." Ten Bears NRA Benefactor LIfe Member USCG Veteran
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Moose in the calling season. And moose in the late season. I've never been a real good moose hunter but I keep trying. Calling a moose in close or tracking one to its bed are skills that I aspire to perfect. Moose mystify me. But recent opportunities are different than a few years back, with easy moose in our farming country and scarce and educated moose in the bush. So they frustrate me too.
So probably elk, although elk hunting for me is a very easy hunt. Our farmland elk are wonderful to eat but the hunt is a bit too predictable to be all it could be. We do depend on that great meat for many family meals�
Mule deer are fascinating and live in wonderful country. they are a contender. But our mule deer have fallen on hard times with bad winters and CWD�
Maybe another trip for caribou is in order, just because of where they live.
I dunno what was the question again?
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#1 Aoudad, #2 predators.rio7
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I've hunted and been fortunate enough to take whitetails, muleys, elk, antelope, and black bear. The elk, mule deer and black bear share a fair amount of overlap when it comes to terrain and I have enjoyed them all. Antelope country is a different kind of pretty and there are usually lots of them all day long. I hunt whitetails locally every year so the excitement level isn't as high as for the out of state hunts but I have thoroughly enjoyed all the species. Moose and caribou are definitely on the list at some point.
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Joined: Nov 2002
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Campfire Ranger
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Campfire Ranger
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Spot and stalk spring bears for me. I've only hunted them the last six years, so it's still new enough to be exciting and it amazes me you can walk up on a bear. That, and it's usually the first hunt of the year after a long winter, so I really look forward to it.
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Campfire Ranger
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Spot and stalk spring bears for me. I've only hunted them the last six years, so it's still new enough to be exciting and it amazes me you can walk up on a bear. That, and it's usually the first hunt of the year after a long winter, so I really look forward to it. I wanna try that sometime too. I don't have much interest in killing one from a tree, but the spot and stalk version sounds like a blast.
It is irrelevant what you think. What matters is the TRUTH.
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Campfire Kahuna
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Campfire Kahuna
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What is your favorite North America big game animal to hunt and why? Axis More bang for the buck. Public hunt Texas Whitetails are hardly worth the effort. A couple of the biggest deer I"ve seen were public land TX Whitetails in East Tx. Unfortunately, I"m a bit ethical and refused the fleeting iffy shots... but they were over 150 inches anyway. And saw one at 198 ish that was shot out there..... But I"d prefer the Axis by far. Of course my favorite is anything in Alaska.
We can keep Larry Root and all his idiotic blabber and user names on here, but we can't get Ralph back..... Whiskey Tango Foxtrot, over....
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What is your favorite North America big game animal to hunt and why? Moose, because I used to hunt them with my father and grandfather. Later in life made two trips to the Yukon for this purpose. 1st trip = no moose. 2nd trip = no moose, but did get a B&C mountain caribou. I've shot three moose here in NB over the years. Hard to get tags here in NB as it's on a draw. Might be time for another trip elsewhere. Moose in the calling season. Yes sir!
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Living in Arizona, drawing a quality tag no matter the species is what I enjoy. Archery elk and December rifle coues far and away take the cake.
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Mule deer. Posters Mule Deer and BC30cal have expressed my preferences well.
A close second is mountain lion. Like Cocadori said: hunting is the operative word. Hunting mule deer is like a favorite wife in the harem and mountain lion calling is like a mistress!
Last edited by Okanagan; 04/16/14.
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I truly enjoy hunting, period. But my favorite is elk.
What you do today is important, you are trading a day in the rest of your life for it.
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Having only thus far hunted and tagged moose, cougar, deer, elk and black bear I have to say that bear are my favorite, especially in the spring. Calling them in is quite exciting!
I would dearly love to hunt mountain goat, sheep and caribou as well as griz/brown bear but doubt I will ever be able to afford it. Maybe one of these years I will get lucky and draw goat and sheep here in WA State.
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Elk, for a variety of reasons..
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