Quickest Hunt

[Nuts]

What is your quickest big game hunt or one you have been apart of. All relevant of course :
Here is mine:

1. Day 1 of a 7 day rut archery hunt in the midwest. 2 hrs in my buddy kills a 170+ Whitetail we had not patterned and only had on camera 1 time
2. 1st day of a 6 day bear hunt I shot one with in 100yds of the truck walking into the woods

 

[Dave N]

Took my youngest daughter out with me for deer season. Set her up on a strap-on seat and climbed up into my stand. Right at shooting hours a buck walked in front of us. Took some back and forth to see the crosshairs in the scope down in the ravine I hunted before I finally shot. Guess that means less than a minute after legal season started?

 

[SaskHunter]

Shot my first bull moose opening morning about 15 years ago. Overslept, rushed (loudly) to make it to my stand, calling as I went. Climbed up the treestand, began hoisting my stuff up and started hearing grunts. This bull made a B-line for me, grunting the hole time coming from behind my treestand. He hung out at the base of my tree for a moment smelling some cow urine I had dangling on a rag. Couldn't shoot as he was directly below me, waited what felt like hours for him to make a couple steps before I could shoot it. I can still picture my arrow sticking straight out the top of its back/ribcage at a 45* angle. I was hunting on top of a small mountain, he ran down hill and died 100 yards next to the two track I drove in from. Probably "hunted" a whole 5 minutes.

This year's antelope was also a quick one, got to my unit a day early and went scouting. Spotted 3 bucks I was interested in. Watched my "#1" until last night, disappearing with the setting sun in a valley with another truck parked nearby likely watching the same valley/herd. Drove out early opening morning and the same truck was out same spot, I drove about a mile away and made my way up a knob to glass. Lo and behold, the buck appeared directly in front of me as the sun crested the horizon. Easiest stalk on a pronghorn I've ever done, with the rising sun directly to my back. Managed to get about 100 yards in front of him and sealed the deal. Shot it probably 30 minutes into the season and had Mr. Green Pants watching me the whole time. He was kind enough to wait for me to finish my photoshoot before he drove up to me to check everything out!

My wife has a horseshoe up her butt, she's shot a 200" mulie and a 37" bull moose within a combined 2hrs worth of hunting, I'll take a tiny bit of credit for those as put her on those animals but she did everything else like a pro! I've also shot my fair share of does by knowing where and when they would be. I'd say I've had quite a few 1-hour hunts where I was out and back home within an hour with a deer hanging in the shed.

 

[Sask hunter]

Been on a lot of moose hunts that were done in under a hour. One year I shot a WT about 2 minutes into legal on opening morning

 

[mdcrossbow]

I woke up late for a 2 hrs drive to hunt in Va. I get to the farm about 8:30 , walk 30 yards across a field to a hedge line. As I'm entering my cut through I spotted a nice big buck 125 yards. Down on one knee ol smoke pole dropped him , maybe 5 minutes.

 

[F250]

I’ve had several whitetail hunts where I alternate looking at a buck and my watch for legal shooting time !

 

[44hunter45]

Shortest season ever?

I was better prepped this year than I have been in a while. I put in the range time and had my loads dialed. Shout out to @El Jason - His field marksmanship challenge really got me stoked. My scores sucked and I went back to the range twice more after that to tune up. I still am not Biathlon...

www.hunttalk.com

 

[Ben Long]

One November Saturday I woke up early to see an owl perched on the power pole next to house, hunting for mice or skunks or housecats I guess. "Good omen," I thought, and got dressed. Drove 30 minutes through thick fog. I hiked a little ways by headlamp and hunkered against the rootwad of a windthrown Douglas fir. Because of the fog, it was still too dark to shoot at legal shooting light. As soon as I could see anything, I gave a rattle with a couple old antlers that I sawed off a moldy shoulder mount that I bought cheap at a pawn shop. Out of the fog stepped a 23-inch 5 x 5 whitetail, maybe 75 yards away. He kept coming to about 35 when I shot. He dropped in his tracks. When I shut the tailgate on him, my morning coffee was still warm in the insulated cup. I was home before my wife was out of bed. "Did you forget something?" she asked. Quick hunt, but on the other hand I'd been after a buck that size for decades.

 

[TheTone]

I’ve had three different deer seasons where I shot one the first day I hunted. Last years was about a ten minute walk from the truck before shooting.

 

[Treeshark]

I had a few years in a row where I shot a buck within 5 minutes of opening of the season here. Kind of bittersweet when that happens. I think the guys on the private land next to the public spot I hunt push them to me on their way in to their stands, it never seems to happen during bow season (they only gun hunt).

My all-time shortest individual hunt was this past bow season- I shot my buck as I was just a little more than halfway up my tree with my climber. I still can’t believe I was able to get pull my bow up and dig my release out in time.

 

[Bulldog0156]

I've spent an hour and a half elk hunting the past two years and have two elk to show for it. One opening day of archery and the other opening day of rifle season. Unfortunately the streak is pretty likely to end next year as I don't intend to elk hunt because of other hunt plans.

 

[cgasner1]

I shot my bull in Montana this year inside of 5 min of daylight he was creaming and I was waiting got see my pins. 6-7 years ago I left to go elk hunting for the weekend 2 hour drive and I was only gone like 5.5 hours and came home with my first bull over 300” with my bow

 

[Bighorner]

When I first started dating my wife, we planned to go sit in an antelope bind for a few hours one morning. She had never been hunting, but was up for the experience. The whole way out I warned it might get terribly boring and we might no see a single thing the whole time. We drove a couple miles down a two track when we saw pretty soild mule deer right off the road walk up a small ridge, give a little look and just walk out over the ridge. I stopped the truck, grabbed my bow and said I was just going to peak over the ridge about 100 yards away. Sure enough 20 yards below me feed the buck that would end up being my best buck with a bow. When we got the deer back to truck the coffee was still steaming. The whole way back to town I told her it never works out that easy.

 

[gouch]

I have had several deer hunts end on opening day. My first elk was less than an hour into a four-day hunt. After I shot it, it rolled down into a nasty hell hole, so it was a miserable pack out. For some reason my hunting partner complained the rest of the hunt, saying it was hard to hunt because of how sore he was from packing my elk. I told him that I didn't know what his problem was because I felt just fine sitting around the campfire all day.

 

[2rocky]

Biggest Wyoming bull was right outside of camp on opening morning. We had spent two days packing in camp and stayed another 5 days while other guys hunted and filled some tags.
Utah bull was the first shot of the season in the unit
My first antelope was first evening in Wyoming. "well do you like..."...BOOM!...."I think he liked him"

 

[Stocker]

I was in the panhandle of Nebraska scouting deer for a friend. Kept seeing nice antelope bucks, went back to town for lunch. Stopped and bought an OTC archery antelope tag, the 2nd antelope I stalked walked right to me, shot him at 15 yards, maybe spent an hour with the tag in my pocket. I really thought spot and stalk archery antelope was easy after that. Turns out……..

 

[Mallardsx2]

I shot my bull in Montana this year inside of 5 min of daylight he was creaming and I was waiting got see my pins.

Sounds like he was really excited! Lol

 

[appmtnhntr]

My first muley this year.
Saw a big buck in a meadow two days before season.

Walked in there opening morning of an 8 day season and killed him 7 minutes into shooting light at 210 yards with the same group of does from two days before.

Spent the next 8 days keeping up camp, shooting grouse, catching and eating trout, and prepping meat and euros.

It was glorious.

 

[TN2shot07]

I drove 18 hours last year to hunt the sand hills in NE. I saw the buck I ended up shooting 15-20 before legal, he popped back out right at daylight. Spent more time processing than hunting.

Also realized that day I still probably have some maturing to do as a hunter. I may never end up with one of those monsters that some guys get, I still don’t like to pass on a good one that comes along first…

 

[Addicting]

First day of my CO cow moose hunt we set camp and decided to explore the roads. We found her in the first 2 miles and shot her at the first 15 min. It took longer to dig out the gun as we were just exploring roads.