Best Bang For The $ Hunt Of A Lifetime?

Before Russia invaded Ukraine, a brown bear hunt in Kamchatka was a reasonable price compared to brown bear or grizzly anywhere in North America. I don't think that you can do that hunt now.
 
Any hunt could be a once in a lifetime as long as you don’t do it again.

$10k budget for two is tough. You can go to some cool places for that but you won’t be shooting monster animals, and you might have to spend more if you want to bring any trophies home. If you’re good with that, figure out where you want to go. Axis deer in Hawaii? Nilgai in Texas? Roe deer in England? Black bear in Canada or Alaska? Plains game in Africa? All are doable.
 
Pre covid I was looking at going to Hawaii with my wife and hunting axis and goats then maybe some fishing mixed in with days on the beach with fruity drinks. That sounds really fun to me.

I view a lot of cheaper easy to do DIY hunts as once in a lifetime simply because I don’t have the time. I want to go hunt whitetail in Oklahoma and Arkansas, mule deer and antelope in Wyoming, etc.

I know I’ll never swing something like a moose or sheep hunt.
 
That’s a hunt I’ve always wanted to do. Hard to do now with kids in school, but I have enough diy adventures planned in the meantime. Lol
Put it on the back burner for awhile anyways the deer numbers are way down you can only get one tag as a non resident
 
My bucket list hunt has always been a moose hunt in Canada. I want to do 7-8 nights in a spike camp. I’ve found my outfitter, and have the hunt booked for last week of September in NW Alberta in the Peace River Valley. I’ll be driving up and back, so I’ll have to factor that into the trip. Guide service is $7,250. I’m expecting to tip my guide $1,500, meat processing about another $500, so all told it’ll be around $11,000 (ar least that’s what I’m budgeting). I don’t see anyone doing it at a lower cost.
 
What do you figure is a good rough plug cost for a car and chopper? Always good to have a finger on the pulse of costs just in case a guy wants to put something together and sell it to his wife in concept.
My wife and I are headed down there in a couple weeks for our honeymoon for 12 days. Flights were about $1700 a piece and we rented a land cruiser with a roof top tent to camp the entire time for $1800. We're not hunting but I bet if we wanted to hunt DIY we could have easily kept the total cost under $10,000 for both of us.
 
My bucket list hunt has always been a moose hunt in Canada. I want to do 7-8 nights in a spike camp. I’ve found my outfitter, and have the hunt booked for last week of September in NW Alberta in the Peace River Valley. I’ll be driving up and back, so I’ll have to factor that into the trip. Guide service is $7,250. I’m expecting to tip my guide $1,500, meat processing about another $500, so all told it’ll be around $11,000 (ar least that’s what I’m budgeting). I don’t see anyone doing it at a lower cost.
That's a very generous tip for your guide. Especially in US dollars.
 
I have been to South Africa four times. Including flights ten grand for two could be tight but doable I think. Deals have recently been popping up on AfricaHunting.com forum. You can see a certain Ontario Hunter over there fairly frequently. I prefer the East Cape province for scenery. Don't let anyone poo poo the "high fence" thing. There is no public land except national parks and some of the farms I hunt are huge ... as in hundreds of thousands of acres huge.
20230813_173608.jpg
Look at taking impala, springbuck, blesbuck, and blue wildebeest. Possibly one more animal in higher price. Gemsbuck or black wildebeest maybe. Sometimes kudu are available but price has been jumping up on them. They are quite numerous and free roaming so prices vary.

As to bringing them back, go "dip & pack" skulls. Five skulls with a couple of back skins should be about $2K but you need to shop for a shipper. Been a lot of ripoffs with them since COVID. That forum can provide a lot of help. I would not bother with shoulder mount over there. Terrible pricey, especially shipping, and too easy to get screwed by taxidermist. I've had enough problems with just skulls. I suggest a couple of springbuck skins and blue wildebeest backskin if you shoot one with stripes. Gemsbuck make a very nice euro mount. I can help you with hangers.
Here's some samples:
This year's gemsbuck (my 3rd). A respectable bull.
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Last year's gemsbuck on the wall (grouse fans are for client). An "okay" bull.
20231009_212345.jpg
A good springbuck ram
2019-08-24 springbock.JPG
An exceptional blesbuck (silver medal)
2019-08-23 blesbuck.JPG
An exceptional impala
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An exceptional black wildebeest
20220821_094827.jpg
 
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November rut hunt?
You might be able to find a crappy/ shady outfitter in SE Montana. The quality ones by the time you figure in all expenses are going to cost lots more that 10K
Drive around in a 90's model Suburban, listen to highly inflated stories for five days and get to shoot a 150 inch three year old buck from the hood of the Suburban. Hunt of a lifetime.

Good luck Sytes, I hope you find a true hunt of a lifetime.
 
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Sitka blacktail on Kodiak, boat based for a week. Halibut fishing, blacktail hunting, dungeness crabs, shooting cool seaducks.

One hunt I've done I would do again.
This hunt was on my bucket list. My neighbor just returned from Kodiak. Six hunters saw 4 deer total. This guy has been there five times. They hunt from and stay on a boat. Apparently the winter kill was terrible.
 
You might be able to find a crappy outfitter in SE Montana. The quality ones by the time you figure in all expenses are going to cost lots more that 10K
Drive around in a 90's model Suburban and listen to highly inflated stories for five days and get to shoot a 150 inch three year old buck from the hood of the Suburban. Hunt of a lifetime.

Good luck Sytes, I hope you find a true hunt of a lifetime.
Stop, you’re getting me excited
 
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