If you were limited to hunting one animal exclusively ... what would it be and why?
Mine would be cape buffalo. To get in the herd and look them over - then leave if you don't find the right one - to me is awesome. I only wish you didn't have to travel so far to hunt them. I'd be happy just hunting them exclusively if I could do it more.
Jeff
Women
Moose, or bison (one or the other)
Pheasant. Even if you go scoreless on the day, being out there watching the dogs work is alot better than most days.
Probably whitetails. Mostly because I can't think of any other big game animals that inhabits as wide a variety of different locales/ecotypes. That and tags are easy to come by in most places.
Without a doubt, whitetail. Nothing gets my blood going like a day in the woods chasing whitetails.
Probably Red Stag in Hungary. Magnificent creatures and a great locale. You could definitely get some quality "unwind" time in Budapest and across the border in Vienna.
(My answer would be totally different if the question was "If you had only one hunt left in your lifetime, what would it be?")
Without a doubt,gray squirrels.
WB.
Somebody wake me up, I'm having a nightmare!
without a doubt----wild turkey gobbler. Love the spring morning & the Gobble. CB
If I could get tags elk.
Blacktail deer fascinate me too and you can get tags.
Tought call for me. There is nothing like a turkey gobble on a spring morning.
But walking the northern MN woods on a cool October day with a mist in the air, orange, yellow, and brown leaves falling to the ground. And a big fat grouse busting through the popples setting your heart into your throat is not something I could ever give up. Not ever.
Guess...
.
DN
As much as I love squirrel hunting I would have to go with cotton tails instead.
Ditto on the last 2! Elk would be my choice. In my eyes, any elk is a good elk, which is something I can't really say about any other big game animal.
Elk. If I don't draw a tag here in Alberta, I can just get an OTC tag in a non-draw WMU. Best of both worlds here!
"...the rest of your life..."
Only one choice: Squirrels!
I'll be able to afford to hunt squirrels when I'm living on Social Security. I'll be able to pack them out as long as I can still hobble about. They taste good! And it will ease my transition to the next life because a hardwood ridge on an autumn day is the closest thing to heaven I know!!!
American pronghorn. Absolutely.
Steve
Whitetails. No doubt.
Unless it was bugling season, then of course elk.
If fresh snow has just fallen, I'd have to say moose.
When the chokecherries are turning red and the sage smells so good, probably mule deer.
Heck, what was the question again?
Coues deer with a bow, the most challenging & rewarding of them all. Stone sheep would be right up there too.
If they were available and I was young enough to walk a lot-Quail. Like it is now-White tail deer. miles
Mr. Bob White.
Scary how a few of those feathered bombs can discombobulate both men and dogs.
Never chased elk so this could change one day...
Mule deer for me right now.
Women
When I saw the title of the thread, that was the FIRST thing that came to my mine!!!!!!!
speed goats...........i like hunting elk but it can be horribly masochistic at times.......pronghorn however is always fun, weathers warm, and if you actually hunt them instead of long range sniping they are a freaking blast.......crawling through the sagebrush, "playing cow" with my wife across flats........creeping up on them to discover a rattler sunning himself on a rock a foot or so infront of your face to get the blood really pumping
though im really tempted to say ground squirrel i spend more hours after them than anything
Elk, always have and will until I can't hunt
Tough call. Digger squirrels or blacktail deer. Blacktails are probably the most fun, but one shot and I'm done for the year. I can hunt diggers dang near year round.
Um, probably mule deer. Or maybe pronghorns. Or pheasants of Cape buffalo. Then again there are axis deer: a lot of fun to hunt when free-ranging, beautiful, and REALLY GOOD TO EAT. But then again so are moose and elk.
Ruffed grouse are about as much fun as pheasants, and then there are cottontails--and both can be hunted with dogs. Oh, forgot about gemsbok and kudu and bushbuck. Or red stag! The nice thing about them is you can generally hunt during the roar with a rifle.
Or maybe caribou. They aren't too bright, but they are beautiful and have HUGE antlers and taste good, and generally they also live in excellent fishing country. Then there are Canada geese. Hard to beat a big flock coming into the decoys, and my wife knows how to cook them.
Geez, what a question. Ask something simple next time, like two big game rifles for everything on earth.
ELK, the rolling steep and wooded and open canyon country you hunt them in and the challange,of getting in close, the usually cool weather conditions, frequent snow and the animals themselfs just are the essence of hunting to me!
Quail, without a doubt one of the most enjoyable ways to spend a day. A stroll with some good dogs and friends...doesn't get any better!
Mule deer a close second, but nothing tops whitetail hunting on my own land, way too many great memories, plus the kids get to go with me every year.
I sure do like it out west though....
and geee, I haven't even tried elk yet....
If I lived where there were squirrels, I might say that - for the eating.
But It's gonna be prairie dogs for me.
You don't have to wake up the rooster, there's no license, no season and no limit. You never have to drag them anywhere, they are self-field-dressing (!) and some people even offer you money to shoot them.
Whitetail deer or coyotes.
Nothing quite like hunting the big brown growlers in SE Alaska.
Dall sheep are fun but getting to be too physically taxing.
In Africa, my favorite hunting is leopard and Cape Buffalo.
Easy one for me.....mule deer.
Probably blacktail... I like the one-on-one nature of it.
-jeff
Coyotes, because they're smarter than hell, and there ain't no bag limit or set season.
Stone's Sheep w/late Nov mulies a close second!
Elk are there other species
Whitetails. Everywhere available, and the game can be as hard or easy as you want it.
Elk by a large margin.........
Whitetail deer. However, I have always yearned to hunt Cape Buffalo and that is what I will be doing in about two years.
Landrum
Richardson's groud squirrels/ gophers/ digger squirrels/ picket pins/ whistle pigs or whatever else they are called in your neck of the west.
Lots of great shooting, generally warm sunny weather, you don't have to drag them home to eat, nor skin them out.
You can hunt them using anything from a 22 up to whatever your recoil level will stand.
And lastly - lots of raptors feed on the left-overs so you look like you are a real animal lover when people see all of the birds feeding.
Attaboy, Rocky. No p-dogs here, but plenty of PA woodchucks that still need some killin'. I can't imagine not being able to shoot pasture poodles 'til I'm too old and feeble.
I'd miss hunting deer, but have enough friends that'd be happy to keep me supplied with venison, I'd not go hungry.
For all out adrenalin rush, elk in the rut!
Get a big bull inside 10 yards in the thick timber; bugling and beating the brush, breathing, snorting, glunking, seeing his antler tops, smelling his musk and the fresh pine pitch while he's shredding the trees just feet away, and see his legs moving...but try to get a clear shot at his vitals with an arrow or a bullet...now that's living!
Tough call ... but I'd settle for either Sambar deer or quail. Someone else can pick which one for me. But both would be hunted with Brittany's!
Cheers...
Con
This is a tough one but, for me, it's ducks & geese over decoys. With all the gear, the calls and calling, the shotguns: whether semi-autos, pumps, or double barrels, the retrievers, the sunrises spent in the blind with buddies, the hot coffee and steaming chocolate, squished PBJ sandwiches...and the graceful flip of a flock of Pintails cupping to the dekes. It'd be tough to give all that up so I'm shootin' waterfowl boys.
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Nice pics, AZJR.
For me -- elk. Wildebeest might be second.
Man oh man, I can't get it down to one so I'll just do one in the USA and one in Mex.
Bruins in the USA and Coues in Sonora........that fair enough?
Dober
I'll have to do as Dober, and qualify by location.
In Alaska...Sitka deer.
In America....Whitetails.
Both are small enough, that no matter how old a geezer I become, I can still get after them, and be able to get them out of the field on my own. Plus they're just plain fun to hunt, and good to eat!
Jeff
Wild Ring-Necked Pheasants, without a doubt. More to watch the dog work, than to kill the pheasant.
I was wondering when somebody was going to get to waterfowl hunting. There have been years when I passed on every other kind of hunting just to hunt ducks anyway. I hunt them two to three times a week from October into January.
Like AZJR said, it's the whole package, well trained dogs, a duck boat you made yourself, hunting with a Model 12 that was passed from your grandfather to your Dad to you, hand carved decoys, having your special spot all to yourself, that twenty minutes before shoot time, after the dekes are all set, the boat blind is camoed up and ready, you and your buddy are sitting there with a hot cup of coffee (tea in my case), your retriever is sitting at full attention as birds glide in and land, the sky is pink in the east, almost shoot time. Thats my favorite.
Moose, or bison (one or the other)
ditto
The two best eatin' meats that I've ever et.
Boy, I'd much rather be limited to having to hunt with just one rifle. There is just so many great things to see and hunt in this world.
White-tailed deer in the North Maine Woods
Blacktails or anything else that would allow me to get away from everything at work for a few days of solitude.
Waterfowl and pheasants with my Labs. Having geese come into the decoys and watching my Labs working. And when possible Elk
....I don't like to think about being limited to just one quarry, but pressed I'd say at this stage of life, with my family grown and off into the world on thier own, I'd have to say Squirrel. SQUIRREL? Yes, Squirrel, the little critter provides all the good eating I, by myself NEED, and is the most challenging game I hunt from the standpoint of necessary marksmanship skills (.22RF only please). BUT what would I do with all my 'artillery' if only squirrel was on the list afield.
...... No , whitetail deer bring the taste of wildness into rural land, and they capture a hunter's heart with the thrill of a wilderness hunt in tamer country available to us all. I just couldn't give up my deer hunting so long as my legs can carry me afield in thier pursuit. My dogs sure would be disappointed if my venison locker ceased to offer them some treats from time to time as well!
....I don't like to think about being limited to just one quarry, but pressed I'd say at this stage of life, with my family grown and off into the world on thier own, I'd have to say Squirrel. SQUIRREL? Yes, Squirrel, the little critter provides all the good eating I, by myself NEED, and is the most challenging game I hunt from the standpoint of necessary marksmanship skills (.22RF only please). BUT what would I do with all my 'artillery' if only squirrel was on the list afield.
...... No , whitetail deer bring the taste of wildness into rural land, and they capture a hunter's heart with the thrill of a wilderness hunt in tamer country available to us all. I just couldn't give up my deer hunting so long as my legs can carry me afield in thier pursuit. My dogs sure would be disappointed if my venison locker ceased to offer them some treats from time to time as well!
Olhippie, I agree for me I'd have to say Squirrel also. "Yes, Squirrel, the little critter provides all the good eating I, by myself NEED." But the old lady will not eat them. So, I have to say rabbit. We both like rabbit.
But I would be hard pressed to give up deer. We both like venison also.
For me it would be Elk...have tried to get a draw for the past
six years...no license...hope to do it before I die...
Rabbit over Beagles.
Nuff said,
cur dog
Moose, or bison (one or the other)
ditto
The two best eatin' meats that I've ever et.
Never had Eland, eh Ken?
Women
Because of these my good friend can't afford to hunt any thing else. As for me it's elk
The most exciting hunt for me is elk in the rut.
Quail. Nothing like the flutter of a covey exploding under your feet. Almost breath taking. kwg
If i was to get this one tag every year : December rifle coues deer.
September rut archery elk.
"Rabbit over Beagles.
Nuff said"
I have to second that notion.
(Then comes whitetail, then comes bass, then comes...).
Elk-I love the challenge and the country they inhabit. Also like to eat em!
RLD
With apologies to "The Most Dangerous Game", stalking something that also likes to hunt and kill wouldn't get boring, and would give a little more incentive to success.
Wayne
Whitetails in northern Minnesota
not being able to change would make it so boring I would only hunt to eat.
trophy mule deer or archery elk for big game
chukar for upland game.
I thoroughly enjoy hunting deer, turkey, and squirrel so much that I couldn't pick "just one".
trophy mule deer or archery elk for big game
chukar for upland game.
Me too.
If it didn't involve so much travel, I'd say trophy Taliban. Looks like a hoot, and no need to pack 'em out of a deep canyon.
i'd have to say hogs also you can hunt them year round their smarter than deer and taste better also
Feral Hogs!
No bag limit, no season (can be hunted 24/7/365), any means, no shortage in population (hunting doesn't even make a dent), make fine table fare.
They're also more exciting and challenging to hunt than deer as they're extremely smart and adaptive. And depending on where and how you hunt, there can be a bit of risk and danger involved to make it a bit more exciting....
Rattler,
I,m with you! Pronghorns! But as you say, not spot and snipe, but rather spot and stalk!
M. Bell