Leupold BX-4 Rangefinding Binoculars

Favorite animal to hunt?

OntarioHunter

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I would have thought this should have come up before, but it didn't turn up when I looked (but maybe I didn't search properly?) So ... let's see what happens.

This is about animals you HAVE hunted, not bucket list hopefuls. I have always found whitetails challenging for spot and/or stalk. Treestand stuff or baiting them just isn't for me. Elk I never found particularly challenging. Their socialization is their Achilles heel. In this country moose are exceedingly challenging to stalk. They are solitary animals chased around by wolves. Unlike elk, they rarely will hang around if they hear something coming on their track. Moose are okay too eat (sometimes not so much) but the racks take up a helluva lot of space. Today I'm finishing a 61" cap mount for a client. He is wondering where to put it and thinking over the bed headboard. So I am using a lot of extra reinforcement and, though it will have my own design superduty hanger, I have advised him to screw it to a stud. Besides being ten times more awkward to hang, I find moose shoulder mounts to be almost repulsive ugly. So, though quite challenging to hunt (unless called in), one bull moose is more than enough (and I have three). Though pronghorn are the most attractive North American shoulder mount, the meat does not turn my crank. Neither does taking potshots at them in the next township. So I shot one fifty years ago and one was enough. Have never had an interest in shooting bears or cats or the methods usually employed to harvest them. Lots of opportunities but never shot one. Cape buffalo and kudu are at the top. Typically very challenging to hunt (spot and stalk). The trophies are magnificent. A shoulder mount cape buffalo ranks up there with moose for unattractive but a buff euro mount is both impressive (if hung at 45 degrees ... flat against the wall they look goofy) but not overwhelming. A really big cape buffalo bull would be just over 40" wide while my smaller elk rack is 49" inside spread and 53" tall. That elk rack extends 27" into the room (big one "33). In comparison, my SCI buffalo bull's skull is only 12.5" into the room on 45 deg angle and 24" tall. Takes up less than half the space ... but what space it does use is filled to the brim with bone and horn. Hard country to hunt (unless you like sharp rocks, thick brush, and lots of thorns), very spooky, very smart, very hard to knock down, and very mean. In the end, if you do get a nice one without being killed or maimed, you've got an impressive trophy that won't overwhelm everything else. Kudu, of course, ranks second. Equally hard country to hunt and equally as wary as buffalo. Obviously not as hard to knock down as a buffalo weighing a thousand pounds more. The trophy is not as compact but a kudu euro actually hangs surprisingly close to the wall. I have a nice bull kudu and a gemsbuck cow euros that fit on adjacent walls next to each other in a very small corner of the trophy room. A shoulder/pedestal kudu makes one of the most spectacular mounts of any animal in the world. Though they use up a lot of space, the result is definitely worth it.

Actually, when you get right down to it, I prefer hunting birds to big game. Watching the dogs work is priceless. Shooting moving targets is head and shoulders above squeezing off a round at a standing animal through a high power scope. For birds, the species is a toss up. Goose hunting typically provides abundant targets and the birds are sharp eyed and smart. They are also tough to bring down. Pheasants are better eating, beautiful to behold, electrifying when they flush (especially when they squawk), and they know how to use cover. Pheasants typically involve a lot more legwork which I prefer to standing around waiting for something to happen.

So my list is:

1. Ringneck pheasant
2. Cape buffalo
3. Kudu
4. Canada goose

Sorry, moose and whitetail just missed the podium. Elk, mule deer and pronghorn didn't make the quarterfinals. Bears and cats weren't in the same game.Opal 2018.JPG
 
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Turkeys. I love hunting western game, I love hunting whitetails here at home, but I have to hunt turkeys. I know many out west dont understand it but doing battle with a gobbler in the woods down here is an incredible experience.
 
Good one @OntarioHunter ...
So - I would say my favorite big game has been Caribou so far. I've had good success overall and they are just a really cool overall animal. I've been very blessed and had some fun hunts for them - going on a big adventure this year as long as i don't have any more last minute surgeries/hospital visits that should be the best yet.

HOWEVER!

I think there is nothing better, or more fun, then ducks coming into your decoys. I've never been able to field hunt, and waterfowl in Alaska is not 'the best' considering our lower number of birds, but there is nothing more fun than calling at ducks that are flying away from you and watching them - especially Teal and Widgeon - come in doing all their acrobatics and then drop their feet and land exactly where you wanted them too. I've tried to explain it to people who don't waterfowl hunt and they just don't get it, I don't think they can without putting in the time and energy to learn to call, study decoying, look at the waterways, and spend the time in the field - plus shooting!
I do have to admit I took my kids out this last year and here in Fairbanks/North Pole AK the Waterfowl season and Moose season overlap. That has made Waterfowl a back burner last minute hunt option for me but I try to take my 5 kids (13g, 11b, 10b, 8b, 6g) out every year solo or as a group to show them, and i even bought them duck whistles and calls to try to learn and practice so they can call. But last year we had one group of 7-10 Northern Shovelers come in and I missed every shot! I was so upset with myself, but that is what I guess I get for not having shot my shotgun in a year! This year I want to go to the Trap Club or maybe even buy a thrower just to make sure I can get some shooting in. Our next place I want to get more land out of town and buy one of those wobbles launcher to set up a mini trap range..

Edit: I'll add a caveat here as well - I've only been on one Wild Sheep hunt and it was a hard, tough experience but I was planning the next one before my feet quit hurting. I have 3 options I'm working on right now for this August - almost go time!

edit: the photo didn't redownload very well :'( Juneau Wetlands where I learned to hunt and had a ton of success from September to December
1652118996367.png
 
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This is an interesting topic.

One thing I have noticed is people who truly love hunting specific animals find a way to be involved even if they don't have a tag.

Sheep guys are really bad about this. There are folks who love sheep, spend time in sheep country, go when others have tags just to help, hit unlimited units, etc. And there are the guys who just want a pic with a dead sheep for social media, never go into sheep country, would only go if they have a tag, would never go to an unlimited unit, etc...

I grew up hunting birds and can certainly appreciate the dogs, style of hunting, and most importantly eating the quail and pheasants. I would love duck and goose hunting more if I didn't' have to eat them, lol.


As far as favorite animal to hunt that's whitetail in the rut during archery season.
 
Honestly for big game, all western big game! There's to many different aspects with the different species. Like crawling up on a antelope with a bow with only soap weeds to cover you. Watching a bugling bull push his cows in front of you. Glassing up a big muley in Jan and putting a stalk on him. Sheep hunting is so much fun to hunt barbary or bighorn, although I would choose bighorn over barbary if I had the choice😁 Or watching my hounds work a cat track, and having them rig a bear as you ease down a mountain road
 
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Sept = dove & teal, pigeon
October = pronghorn
nov = mule deer and white tail, only in Texas and Mexico
dec & Jan = ducks and speckled belly geese on the farm lakes

elk probably never again due to the wacky drama with F&G , locals , ect
 
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