Favorite Hunt

I have been hunting for years and got to thinking about what was my favorite hunt - I enjoy all my hunts but some stand out above others. My favorite hunt that I remember was a hunt in Colorado in 1972 - I was sitting home one evening and my good friend called me. He wanted to know if I would go with him in the morning to help track down a bull elk he shot that evening. He did not immediately kill the elk and had tracked it until dark. We Loaded up the horses the next morning before daylight and went to the trailhead. He was hunting in the San Isabel National Forest and with a good snow on the ground there was a blood trail we could follow. Unfortunately we tracked the blood trail until it gave out. We spend the day looking for the bull but finally gave up. On the way back to the trailhead, I located a beautiful old timber buck, the ones that spend there life in the backcountry. As I had a buck tag, I decided to take the him. He was not a booner but had those dark horns you find in the old timber bucks. There have been many hunts and several bucks since that day but this hunt stands out to me because it represented the way I loved to hunt. We were on horse back, in the back country, snow on the ground and with your best friend. Not happy about not finding his elk but we gave it our best effort.

I have a number of Favorites.
1998 Solo Elk hunt in the Gila Natl Wilderness. Setup on a treestand with my bow, a beautiful 6x6 325" bull comes to the wallow, stands broadside at 50 yards. Having practiced all summer, I'm 100% confident in my shot. Hit exactly where I aimed, bull doesn't flinch, yet I see the blood oozing from the Lung shot. I'm thinking, shoot again, no I wait patiently, and after a minute or more, he takes one step out of the wallow and falls over. 4 miles from the trailhead it takes 5 trips, including camp to get him out, working non-stop.That is what you call a Hunter's Marathon!

2011 Unimak Brown Bear hunt.
First time applying for this coveted Alaska tag and drew it (<3% chance). Became an Alaska Resident at the time of the hunt, so no Guide needed. Had gun partner backup, caught a nice one with my Bow 40 yards out. Wet hide was 11x13', tanned 10x10', Skull at 30". Once in a lifetime hunt for sure. Getting back to town was a nightmare, caught the Alaska Ferry to Dutch Harbor, then back up to Cold Bay, the Alaska Airline to Anchorage. Bear Hide made it perfectly with 50# of salt on him.

2016 Alaska Mountain Goat Hunt---THE toughest hunt I have ever been on. Had a Guide who knows the area like the back of his hand. First day, setup base camp, still tired from an Alaska Moose hunt three weeks prior.
Second Day, setup spike camp, through the downpour rain, simply miserable!
Third day, still raining, went out, but saw nothing and got soaking wet.
Fourth-6th Days, cleared skies, but no Goats. Saw some 4 miles away. 7th Day, going after those far away Goats, had help from another hunter, who had a Bear tag. Got Goat at 2pm, back in camp 2 hours after sunset...not fun packing Goat and walking in the dark. Totally exhausted.
Day 8, My Day to leave, have to hike from Spike to Base Camp, to Float Plane, in another downpour. I'm still totally exhausted, as the trail, of sorts is through a high mountain stream. I slide down the mountain for the most part. Got to Float Plane, all is loaded for me, my chest bibs are full of water. I get back to Kodiak and it must have been 10 gallons of water gushed the floor removing the Bibs, changed quickly and caught the Alaska Airlines flight 1 hour later. I feel really sick and beyond exhaustion, can't eat, can drink some, just want to sleep.....
Recovered...
Have a treasure trove of fine critters, have maybe 2 hunts left in me as I'm fighting a winning battle with Stage 3 Lung cancer (I don't smoke, nor around anyone who is...We think it's from the bad Valsartan I had been taking---FDA recalled it because of the imprurities in the Med causing cancer....)
WY Moose and Antelope will most like be it......Best!

Good luck AKbowhunter, hope you get a few nice hunts yet!

My favorite hunt was 2017 high country buck hunt in the wilderness. Previous year i helped a newbie hunter in exchange for him letting me hunt his private land... we rode atv s around and i did not see a buck to shoot. I vowed this would never happen again, i was gonna make sure i had the experience i wanted. So i cashed in 6 points for a high country early rifle hunt.

Scouted three, 3 day trips to about 11k ft elevations and hadnt seen a buck worth packing out, started to get scared. Only had one more day scouting left on 3rd trip but booked out and drove around to far side of unit and slept at trailhead. Headed out 8 miles next day in dark, set up camp and decided to go one more mile to a bowl area for dusk glassing session.

Had a pistol and headlamp and convinced myself that i wouldn't be scared hiking back in dark through a bunch of headhigh willows! Glassing bench area at last light i saw a 26" 4x4 and slightly bigger 3x4. I was superpumped on hike back to camp and brought my breakfast back in dark next am to eat while glassing. Turned up tall buck with numerous extra points at 350 yards next am!! Watched him for a couple hours before having to leave.

Got back 4 days before opener and had the fortune to watch 5 bucks for days- formulating plans and enjoying watching these bucks before the pressure of tag in my pocket set in.

Opening morning i saw all bucks but the biggest in an area up the bench where my approach would be hidden by a large boulder the size of a small cabin. Decided he must be there and went for it as last buck bedded down at 9 am. Took me an hour to get up there and peeked over top of boulder at 2nd biggest buck sleeping at 100 yds! Stood there in ready position for a few minutes til wind shifted and i heard clatter of hooves on rock. Biggest buck had been bedded about 15 yds from me near boulder i was atop of. I went backwards and to left to creat an angle as he ran straight away from me. He veered a little bit at 75 yds just before disappering over ridge and i made the offhand shot with my 30.06.

Very memorable hunt as it was my first high country hunt and everything came together just like you read in the books! Pretty early winter grey cape and cool buck with the long tines and extras.

LAST EDITED ON Nov-28-18 AT 02:44PM (MST)[p]Little different.

My oldest pasted hunters safety at 9yrs old 4 years ago. Found a 21", 20ga Mossberg for him.

Scouted for swans for couple weeks, and one day I checked him out of school, ran out and he pounded a real mature bird.

What a day, and EVERY dude we passed stopped him to congratulate him and chat him up.

He killed his first bull(6point, Utah any bull)this year at 12, and while awesome, that day hunting swans was by far my favorite.




From the party of HUNTIN, FISHIN, PUBLIC LAND.

Very cool stories akbowhntr. Thanks, although the goat hunt didnt sound remotely fun and for myself I wouldn't ever want to hunt for days in the rain. I spent a summer in Alaska and it was gorgeous and barely rained. I guess I was lucky.

>Very cool stories akbowhntr. Thanks, although
>


X2!

A few of them critters I mentioned and more....
Goat:

Brown Bear:

Elk:

Some Sheep:


Caribou:

Beautiful animals, I am envious. Looks like you get to travel to some awesome places -

I was just a youngster. Dad and I found a spot that looked great from a distant ridge. We packed in about 2 miles. The night before the opener, we bumped into a fantastic 4-point and we were so excited! The next couple days found us searching for that big boy, but with no luck in finding him.
Day 3, I didn't want to get out of bed, but dad pushed me to get up. He had seen big tracks about 3/4 of a mile above camp that were really big. He believed there was a big one up there somewhere.
After some hiking and spotting and seeing a few deer, we hit a ridge where we sat down to glass. I just had to check the backside of the ridge, so I split off from dad and snuck over the ridge.
As I looked down the backside of the ridge, there stood a big buck (I had no idea how big) just 80 yards away. I quickly shot and he dropped. Dad was there in an instant asking what I shot. I called it a 24 incher, and I was sure wrong.
After some excitement as we approached the downed buck and after a few more shots, we were left standing there in amazement of what we were looking at. Man, what a high! Incredible day and incredible hunt.
This was the one that got me hooked on chasing big bucks.




Brian Latturner
MonsterMuleys.com
@mm_founder on Instagram
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LAST EDITED ON Nov-30-18 AT 02:27PM (MST)[p]LAST EDITED ON Nov-30-18 AT 02:24?PM (MST)

My favorite hunt might be the one we just returned from last week.I got to see my son take his first Mule Deer, although he has taken a Blacktail every year since he was 12, and my best friend take a beautiful Whitetail.I never fired a shot on this trip but it ranks right at the top of all my hhttp://www.monstermuleys.info/photos/user_photos_2018/28179southdakota2018129.jpgunts.

Founders buck right there was the beginning of Monster Muleys!

Great stories everyone! Thanks for getting a GOOD thread going AK!

Sorry, Ace got it started, thanks!

LAST EDITED ON Dec-06-18 AT 04:29AM (MST)[p]2015, southern Colorado. My wife had a heart attack in January and was not in good shape to the point where she had a Glasgow coma score of 3, the lowest. We pulled the plug. But she began recovering, very slowly.

By August her cardiologist and neurologist gave thumbs up for her to go hunting. We got skunked but this trip remains my favorite.


Fall of 96 I left camp early because my BIL had truck problems. We got his truck towed to the farm next morning and decided to take a late morning to try one more time.

He dropped me off about noon and I started walking down the hill. Soon after it started snowing, then more snow. I created a hill about 2 miles from the pickup zone and saw nothing but elk bodies moving through the trees.

About a mile from the truck, with about an hour left in the season, I settled on the biggest 5x5 I had ever seen. I gutted him then began dragging him to the road, at times just letting him slide by. BIL later said there were about 200 head in that herd.


?Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful people with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. "

Wow, it's tough beating some of the great hunts mentioned above!

I have trouble putting my finger on just one hunt. Top on my list would be sheep and mtn goat hunts in the high alpine. Bugling bulls when the aspens are turning, the gobble and flared tail-feathers of tom turkeys during the spring, wading through hundreds of rutting pronghorn bucks chasing does and other bucks on the prairie. It's always exciting sharing these experiences with friends and family!

I just wanted to update everyone who may have followed....
Got a repeat PET Scan, clear, meaning Cancer is dead! Doc prescribed Tagrisso, a Chemo drug designed to eradicate EGFR genetic Cancer mutation. My body is still weak, so it will be another 6-12 month before I back to "normal", but thank you for your prayers!!!

>I just wanted to update everyone
>who may have followed....
>Got a repeat PET Scan, clear,
>meaning Cancer is dead! Doc
>prescribed Tagrisso, a Chemo drug
>designed to eradicate EGFR genetic
>Cancer mutation. My body is
>still weak, so it will
>be another 6-12 month before
>I back to "normal", but
>thank you for your prayers!!!
>


That's the best hunting story in this thread! Keep up the fight, hope you recover quickly!!!

A couple of my more recent memorable hunts... So many to choose from, but white sheep have me transfixed.

My wife and I went on a fly out sheep hunt here in Alaska, it was our 3rd sheep hunt. Going into it we were pretty cocky, having both taken a smoker ram, back to back the years before. Both were on draw tags here in AK. This was our first OTC hunt.

Long story, with many ups and downs. Including being charged by a sow with cubs, no rifle in hand... dislocating my shoulder 2x, having a wolverine steal meat out of our camp, sleeping on the mountain sans any sort of gear at a kill site, and packing out two really nice double broomed rams... about 8 miles from the strip, 3 of it involving a glacier crossing. We'll just say our cockyness hasn't waned. haha




A few yeas ago I drew a sheep tag for an area near my house. I hadn't drawn a sheep tag in a long time, and had gone on many successful OTC sheep hunts in between. The area the tag was for is a land of giants, but the herd numbers were down from years past. I had high hopes, but knew reality could set in if I held out for a true giant ram. The tag was a bit easier to draw, but would also be the hardest of the 3 "seasons" to hunt due to prior pressure and weather. A buddy and I hiked in the day before the season started. we made it to our first check point , and were consequently fogged in for 3 days. Not good on an 8 day hunt. The following 4 days included a lot of highs and lows, passing on rams, and watching the largest ram I've ever seen walk away at 600 yards through a cliff pass.

We left at the end of the week, heads hanging low, but with some sense of accomplishment. Having passed on rams that many would have taken, and just seeing the giant was almost enough for me to accept reality that I'd have my first un-punched sheep tag. The season was open for another 6 days, but a really bad storm was blowing in and it was a long ways back to where the rams live. I went back to work for two days and finally gave into my temptation of giving it a go again, the weather was breaking, and things were looking up. On short notice (and during the work week) I couldn't find anyone who could tag along. The wife dropped me off at the trailhead, and off I went by myself.

The next morning I was 16 miles from the trailhead watching a ram we'd seen the week prior living on a 1500' high cliff face. He was now in a very good spot. I waited him out all day until he came down out of of the cliffs and put a bullet in him... He was a true giant. My buddy came up that next day and helped pack him and camp out the following.



I would say that just about every sheep hunt I've been on was very memorable. Something about white sheep and the misery that goes with them that forges unforgettable memories.

This^^^

Zeke

#livelikezac

Lately it's been hunting with my Grandson the last three years. At 10, a cow elk, at 11, a 5x6 bull,and this year at 12, his first Muley 4x4 buck. Hopefully next year his first Antelope. Great times with him and my son in law..

Been on quite a few good hunts in several states but I would have to say my favorite hunt occurred about 400 yards from my house. I had been after this buck for about two months and I walked back to check my gamecam and he was the last picture that was taken. I looked at the time and it was 4 minutes earlier. I went back to the house got my bow and walked back to the stand at 12 noon. I sat in the pouring rain until 220 when I saw him at 200 yards heading back in the direction he came from earlier. A couple grunts and the rest is history. 25 inch wide 8 point 156"