What’s your favorite hunt that you’ve been on? Also, I don’t mean because you were hunting with family or friends to make it more special- nor a hunt that you killed your biggest buck, bull, etc (both family/friends and the potential to take big trophies mean a lot, but that’s not what I’m asking here). I’m just looking for fun hunts to plan in the future, so was wondering what kind of plain old hunting gave you the most enjoyment from just the hunting aspect.

For me, the most fun hunt I’ve been on so far was a horseback elk hunt in WY, just riding around in that country was enough to keep me happy for the week I was fortunate enough to spend doing it.

By far, every coues hunt. But i haven't expanded my horizons much.

Rut archery bull is probably the best, but it only lasted a couple days and those tags are few and far between. I get to spend 2-3 weeks a year chasing coues.

Probably antelope, for me.

You'll almost always at least see some.
They're relatively easy to pack out.
Tags are not hard to draw (in some states).
You don't have to get up hours before dawn or get back to camp well after dark.


No stress, at all. Just fun.

Big mule deer in remote,rugged country.

A pack in full wall tent camp elk hunt in Wilderness area when I was using my own string of mules. Punched tag or not, didn't matter.

Can't decide between 3:

- Archery elk in Idaho with an outfitter. First time we heard an elk bugle, the smile on my wife's face was priceless. Add in the beauty of hiking in the Idaho Mountains for a week and it's hard to beat.

- This fall, our first in WY, chasing antelope with my wife. As someone said, easy to see, of all the time we hunted together, my favorite was her first antelope, spotted ,stalked in, but watching my wife belly crawl through a mud puddle to the sage ridge, pick out one and drop it at 187 yards, then help take it apart and she packed it out. Priceless.

- for sheer fun and smile on my face, youth waterfowl weekend with my two sons, 12, 13 at the time. Calling in ducks, chatting during slow periods and calling in a goose for them that the both hit and it almost landed in the blind with us. Sheer joy, that may be the winner. GREAT morning.

It would have to be my archery bear hunt in Utah. It took me 7 years of applying to draw a tag, but well worth it. I baited in a number of bears and ended up shooting an absolute toad of a boar. His skull measured 20 2/16" and made the top 10 all time for Utah archery kills. A super enjoyable hunt with a chance to see a number of different bears hitting the bait. An early September hunt with beautiful weather, listened to a number of bugling elk and even took the bear with a recurve and cedar arrows I made myself. The memory of a lifetime.

Caribou hunt just north of the Arctic Circle in Northern Quebec. Two bulls, northern lights, fantastic scenery, great camp, excellent price.

Well, they sure ruined that, didn't they.

My favorite hunt for all time is chasing the big desert muleys in Kalifornia's low desert. Very challenging hunting. Something like 5-6000 deer spread over 6000 to 6600 square miles. Very high buck to doe ratio. And the bucks live far longer than they anywhere else.
The hunting requires a different hunting method. One must look for tracks and then track the buck. No other method works anywhere near as well.
And then there is the changing desert. Rainfall varies a lot. As in an "average of 3.5 inches that varies from almost nothing to three or more times that amount. That means in wet years, the bucks are much more scattered. Frankly, you gotta love the desert to do this. Not many do. Which is fine with me. I rarely see another hunter when I'm out of my Jeep. E

Red stag in the Patagonia Andes on horseback. Sneaking over a rise on your belly with stags roaring and fighting all around you.

Agreed!!

Big mule deer really turn my crank, and have done so since 1971.

Mine was a 2015 elk hunt in southwest CO near the Continental Divide. With the help of an outfitter, my hunting buddy and I packed in by horseback 6 miles into a wilderness area and was dropped off along with all our gear including teepee and stove. It was a week long hunt and we had a blast. It was warmer than normal and we only saw a couple of cows and one very young bull. But our disappointment was short-lived as the area was just an incredible place to hunt and hike. We never saw another hunter.

The worst hunt I've ever been on was backpack elk hunt in CO. It was a week long hunt from hell. Carry and climbing with a 60 lb. pack was too much for me even though I was only 62 years old and in decent shape at the time. After the hunt, I was pretty sure this was the reason God made horses.

I miss quail hunting, plenty of shooting!

I think the hunts I enjoyed the most was grouse hunting in the mountains above Salmon Idaho...We would drive the ridge road in the evening and stop occasionally to walk the old fire/logging roads...

My absolutely favorite hunt was hunting dove at my friends grandparents farm South of San Antonio at Charlotte Texas. There were dove everywhere. I used my dad's old 12 gauge Remington Model 31 Pump with modified choke. That was one dove assassin. It knocked 'em out of the sky. Loved that and the dove were everywhere. I made some great shots with that old gun. Also, we each got a limit of doves every day.The sky was black with doves.

I've also had some great deer and pig hunts. We used to get invited to a ranch between Junction and Menard Texas North of Interstate 10 about half way between Junction and Menard. I killed a beautiful 8 point one year with my .270. I've still got his head mounted which is right over to the right of my head as I type this.

I miss South Texas dove hunts also! We had some dame fine dove hunts in Coleman county too!

That would be it for me, except for the mules, I don't own any. My son and I are doing one in '21.

When I was a kid ( we didn't have any deer ) I would grab the Ithaca 20 gauge and start walking trough the woods and fields. Some days I would come home with squirrel, rabbit, dove, and quail. I think I enjoyed that hunting as much as any thing I have ever done.

I think my favorite is hunting chukars and staying in a wall tent camp. It can be as tough or as easy as you want to make it, you get to see some great country that a lot of folks don't get to play in, and you get to try and knock those little SOBs out of the sky. Then at the end of the day, you come back to a warm tent, relax, eat good food, and live like kings.

For big game, there's nothing that can top a Dall sheep hunt for me. Its all fun though, just in different ways.

If I lived up there I might say the same, but us cheechakos can't afford to make that hunt very often.

Archery Elk and Any and all bird and fowl hunting.

Deer first any kind.. Then birds any kind.. Then antelope for the reasons Tman mentioned.. Also coyotes.. No gutting, no tags, everyone is happy to have them shot...

For me it's a tossup between antelope and moose.

As related by T Inman antelope is low stress and flexible as to what time of day you want to hunt, plus my wife is my hunting buddy and I love being able to take her around the area we are hunting and setting her up to look at multiple bucks till she decides which buck she wants then set her up on the sticks for her chosen animal. We have made a lot of memories on those hunts.

Pretty much the same for moose when we got to hunt them. We know the area well, so finding animals was not hard. Even after the shot it was not all that hard. Good horses and good friends took a lot of the work out of it.

I have had many many wonderful Deer hunts with and w/o pards.
I've been on some REAL duck hunts in the Duck Capital of the world ..<Stuttgart Ark. area>

We had G S H pointers when I was growing up and Quail hunted a m a p. Miss hunting with my Dad.

I would love TO hunt mule deer (4 legged grin) & elk but haven't.

My FAVORITE hunting is Rabbit hunting with good Beagles. Tops in my book.
This is one of those Bitter Sweet things. Back then we did NOT have deer to hunt, period.
Now however EVERY where you go there are DEER out the yang and Rabbit hunting is near impossible.
I've had beagles that did not run deer BUT today there aren't nearly as many rabbit as there used to be.

I don't hunt deer from stands of any kind and I move.....I see few rabbits. It's been that way quite a while.


Jerry

I guess predator hunting because it is so available to me and is logistically simple and always a challenge.

Mule deer, when possible, is special and you can get plenty of alone time in the eastern part of central/northern Nevada.

Then there is winter wolf hunting in Idaho and Montana


so much fun, so little time.


mike r

Chukar hunts in the 70's

Big sky spot and stalk. Pronghorn, sheep, caribou in the proper habitat. The fact that one can near always see one somewhere on the horizon can keep one going forever. even if he can't get there in a day. Enduring an entire season in some dense forest without ever spotting an elk can be quite disheartening.

^^This, same here except I grabbed an old L.C. Smith 16 and a handful of paper hulled shells...still love the smell of a fresh fired paper shotgun hull..

That area gets full of dove in early September. I miss it too.

Vermont Moose. I did it twice. First time I was drawn second time I won the auction hunt. Cost me $4K. But those days are over now.

Antelope hunting every year, just enjoy the stalk and sneak on them as well as the same for deer.

Mule deer & elk in remote country w/horses!
Wolves in the winter.

Chinese ringneck pheasants over a good pointer with a Mod. 21, 20ga. Just me, the dog and the shotgun.

Too hard to answer. But bull elk rates high😊

Whitetail deer hunting in the South, particularly on the Mississippi River with hounds. It was electric, started in 1966. To this day hearing a deer coming through the woods on a frosty morning makes the hair on my neck stand up, I love it. A good dove Hunt is a pretty close 2nd place. But deer just make me tingle regardless of size.
We had many hounds over the years, and they were a big part of the joy, I was the dog man meaning I took them out and got the deer jumped and the race started.
How lucky I am to have seen the sun rises I’ve seen.

Another vote for big mule deer here, and Gemsbok.

I'd have to have to say hitting the fence lines and creek bottoms with dad and grandpa, mixed bags of rabbits pheasants squirrels ducks pidgeon doves, have not had that kind of hunting around since the 80's. Big game . Antelope with the wife for the reasons already listed.

Squirrels
Sandhill Cranes

Squirrel hunting with an accurate 22 LR bolt gun, head shots only. Rifles used? .Rem 540 xr, CZ 452 American, Winchester 310, Anshutz 1411.

Woodchuck hunting with my Sako A1 varmint 222 Rem.

Gophers.

Antelope

For fun it's deer with my flintlock.

For a purpose driven hunt (meat in the freezer,) it's elk. I enjoy this most with iron sighted rifles but in the last week or so of the season, if I have not killed my elk I get out my "cheating guns" my 270 or sometimes my 375H&H .......both with scopes

Newfoundland moose with Westwoods Outfitters. I'd like to get this 80yr body out there again.
Jim

Ducks in Arkansas

Doves with my buddies each September. A true southern tradition.

South Dakota pheasant hunt this past fall was a great time too.

Clearly, these two boys understand what I call “old Carolina”. It doesn’t get any better than described above. I wouldn’t have wanted to grow up any other way. Cheers to The Old North State!

My favorite hunts have all been northern Alaska caribou hunts. Honorable mention to predator calling when coyotes or wolfs come in really aggressive.

Anything deer.

Elk hunting during the rut

I would enjoy hog hunting out of a chopper.

Yep. Dove hunting in Coleman County sucks nowadays. Hardly no birds the last 3 years on my buddy’s Ranch.

Hardly any on our Ranch in Stonewall County either. Rarely every see a quail anymore either here. I think the hogs wiped out our quail here at the Ranch.

Dove and Deer hunting are still my favorite. Followed closely by Prairie Dogs and Antelope.

If I could use a electric 30 cal mini-gun ! 🤠

You got that right cwh2, it's all good!

Coolest adventure hunt was mountain goat with my pack goats
https://www.24hourcampfire.com/ubbthreads/ubbthreads.php/topics/14186583/1

My favorite hunt was my one and only antelope hunt. No good campgrounds so I finally got a room in Fields, Oregon to stay in after the first buch checked out.. Great people, great food, great town.

I did it alone. I got out there 5 days late. Hunt was remote from towns, fuel and water supplies. I got it in the evening and it took til midnight to get it to the road.

He was in the fourth bunch I saw, 15 in very nice conformance. Got him at around 265 yds. .30-06 M70 FW, .30-06 180 gr Partition handload, 57gr H-4350, 2.5-8x36 Leupold. Rifle has iron sights also.

Got back to camp and got it bagged and in coolers by 4 AM. Had to bone it out and put it on ice the next day. I have never had more fun.

My next favorite hunting is for varmints, oftensage rats out neear John /Day, Oregon.

That certainly looked like fun.

Slipping around on the ground hunting white tail buck deer with a 58 cal Hawken or Sharps Rifle, I put five on ice this year in three states with the largest topping 160+ inches, no better critter to match wits with and keep your chit sharp, imho.

......and warm

That's something I really want to do.
Preferably with someone else's mules, though.

This...

Do it while you're young. Borrow the money if you have to, that's what I did.

Squirrel hunting when the hickory trees are full of nuts. I use a pellet rifle with moderator. The leaves are so thick you can hear the squirrels but can't see them. I've spent a half hour trying for a head shot.

We had great times shooting jackrabbits at night in Ozona back in the late 70’s

For me, nothing can compete with the carefree days in the field as a kid. Squirrel hunting with a German Shepard named Chrissy and pushing heads for deer, when nobody cared about what a buck scored and the buck you shot hadnt been named. Ignorant of the coming inherent stress and anxiety of adulthood. A bolt action Mossberg .410 for squirrel and a Mossberg 12 gauge pump with 00 Buckshot for running deer. Those were the days. Nothing can replace them.

Elk hunting in Teton Park back in the early 90's (pre-Clinton wolves) it was as good an elk hunt for big bulls as any you could find. I shot my 2 biggest bulls there.

I love being in the Cascades in October whether I'm hunting elk, hunting deer, fishing, or just backpacking. Crisp frosty mornings, warm afternoons, amazing colors, and usually not that many people. I feel much the same way about the southern part of the Oregon coast range though the rain often starts earlier. I've shot enough deer and elk, caught enough fish ... I don't really need to do it in the rain anymore. If I want to get serious about killing something, then just above snow level .. cutting sign and tracking individual critters in the snow is fun.

Tom

A 2008 fly in horse back elk/moose hunt in northern BC. An incredible wilderness experience. I will be back up there for 16 days this fall chasing goat, elk and moose. With some luck a mountain caribou...

NICE!

Any, but Africa hands down, the hunting I did in Alaska was limited but it still ranks highly.

Just had a great hunt for red billed pigeons and whitewing in Tampico last August, hope I can go again. We didn't shoot huge numbers but plenty enough to be satisfied at over a 1,000 for two of us. We stayed at a friends ranch and it was hunting like it used to be in Mexico. The full experience and not some lodge trip where you get carted around. Great local food and company. Saw Jagurundi which are very secretive, no jaguar this trip though.

Elk hunting in the high country in Colorado for the past 15 years with my friends. I think I have killed 9 elk in that spot in 15 seasons. Winding down with old age setting in, but I’ll keep going until I can’t.... Happy Trails

[quote=scenarshooter]


Do it while you're young.
----------------------------------------

F A N T A S T I C even A W E S O M E !!

I'm 70, when is too old ?


Jerry

Man I sure hope you have Good Luck & a GREAT fun time.


Jerry

When you are 6 feet under or bed ridden. Other than that were there is a will there is a way!

Man, you hit a chord with me. I love deer and hog hunting but for the whole experience you can't beat squirrel hunting. Especially with a rifle of some sort. And the quarry is much better than any game I've eaten. Fried young tender squirrel with biscuits and/or mashed potatoes and milk gravy made with the water you boiled the potatoes in and some good hot coffee. Damn I live for that to happen again before I die.

hanco, you struck another chord with me. When I was a kid like from 10-15 years old, I had a friend, well he was more like a relative since we had a common great aunt and uncle, (my great uncle was married to his great aunt)and his dad's family ranched on Matagorda Island. They used to take me over there and we'd drive around n the jeep checking the cattle and we'd shoot Jack Rabbits. We'd have 8 or 10 at a time and take 'em back to the ranch house and fry 'em up. Damn those things were tough, but it was a great experience for a kid. I think if we'd had a pressure cooker and could have parboiled them first or maybe fried 'em under pressure they would have been good eating. As it was I always had sore teeth for about a week.

JustinL1, That would have taken place on a cold morning, December 28th.1963. I had just recently turned 11 years old, and I was hunting Whitetails with my “one armed” grandfather (Paw Paw) that lost his lower right arm in a sawmill accident when he was in his teens. At that time, deer were almost non-existent in Louisiana. We were sitting in the top of an oak tree that had recently been cut down.

We were cold, so, we had started a small fire. It was about 8:00 in the morning, the smoke from the fire was drifting down the little “two-track” road which passed by our stand. Suddenly, my Paw Paw whispered to me, “There’s a deer boy, he’s big as a yearling”! The deer was standing in the “two-track” with a thin veil of smoke around him. The smoke may have helped cover our scent, as he was downwind from us. My Paw Paw told me to shoot, but I was petrified, as this was the first deer I’d ever seen. I insisted that he take the shot. I didn’t realize that, from his angle he had to shoot between two trees. We later found out that 8 of the nine pellets from my Paw Paw’s Model 12, 12 gauge, printed a nice tight pattern in the size of one of those trees. At the time of his shot, the deer jumped strait up....then stood for a moment at “high alert”! This is when I took my shot! I was using my Stevens 22/410 over/under, and at the shot, the deer jumped straight up, seeming to do a 180 in mid-air and vanished into the timber.

We initially thought that I had missed, but, while following tracks in the muddy ground....my Paw Paw found a bright red blood drop. We followed blood, for what seemed a long ways, once finding a large pool of blood with a track in it, on a little high spot of ground beneath an old Beech Tree. The deer went into a “low lying” (we called it the “Flats”) area, which was covered with water.....making tracking a bit difficult. My Paw Paw was leading, and suddenly shouted, “There he is boy”! The deer had crawled into the top of another recently cut tree, and had died there.

We, with help from my Dad, got the deer back to my grand parents home, where we skinned him out. From there to a local community store/butcher shop to have him cut-up. It didn’t take long before the word was out, about the kid that had killed the big deer. Local folks came to the store to see the deer and meet the kid! I quickly became a “little, local celebrity”!
The deer, was a fairly large bodied, nicely balanced, 8 point (4x4)......all of 11” wide on the inside.

My Paw Paw, lived his entire life in the backwoods of Louisiana, trapping, hunting and cutting timber to support his family. He passed away in his late 80’s......never having killed a deer!

Since then I’ve been blessed with the opportunity to take, Deer, Antelope, Elk, Moose, Bighorn Sheep, and Bear.....but, none compare to that hunt! memtb

Hunting Whitetails in the Kentucky woods like my ancestor pioneers is as good as it gets for me. I even use flintlocks like they did during ML season. I'm hoping some day to get the chance to take a KY elk like they did also. Any time I can get in the woods hunting anything it is good though...

memtb:

I'm few yrs. older than you and we also had NO deer in S C Ark in the 50-60s.
My G father loved to hunt also and he died in 1978 at 72 y o and never killed a deer either.
Memories, Memories

Jerry

Varmints in SEA. Challenging but rewarding.

Locally I enjoy pig hunting a bit but my favorite is quail and turkey.

My favorite is shooting jack rabbits. Everything else is like shooting stop signs.

Mature (Really Mature) Whitetail bucks, anywhere they live, with any legal weapon you choose.

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.

Deer hunting in the Mississippi River bottoms with dogs.

For many years I hunted Coues Whitetail Deer and Javelina with a group of wonderful people. Some brought their wives and stayed in elaborate motor homes. Most of us had tents.
So one year I kiddingly mentioned to one of the wives that it sure would be nice to have some rocky road ice cream after dinner.
Guess what we had the next year and for TWO nights after dinner?
Simply great memories!

Turkey hunting and walking the swamps for wild hogs. Squirrels with a .22 is a blast as well.