Best hunt you ever been on?

[Bad64chevelle]

For me , it would have to be my 2018 Maine buck . First buck ever . I hunted HARD for a week straight . Tons of miles , snow was deep . It was the Tuesday right before Thanksgiving. . I took a hard fall the night before coming down the mountain , and was over it . I hadn’t seen a deer all week . I decided Monday night that I would sit Tuesday morning , then probably pack up and head home a day early , knowing my trip was pretty much a dud . I was bumped up and hurting from my fall and decided that instead of hiking / glassing  I would sit in a blind  with my cousin since he was tagged out . We took it slow ,  got into the blind barely at legal light . I threw one round into the gun and he slammed me in my chest whispering “ buck buck buck!” I thought he was just being an ass and laughed . He then said pick your gun up and shoot this thing . I quickly realized he wasn’t joking and there indeed was a buck standing in front of us . I put the crosshairs on it and squeezed one off , and of course as it goes , that buck leaped about 6 feet off the ground and over the ledge straight down the mountain . It was a blood trail Stevie wonder could have followed in that snow , but two minutes into legal light I was finally tagged out on a Maine buck . It was by no means a big mature buck , but it will probably always Be one of my favorite hunts ! It also concluded the epic season in Maine that I had after harvesting my first black bear with my cousin , just a few months earlier . 

[gobblergetter]

Most epic would be Caribou , all 3 times was a blast. Float plane, crystal clear lake water, Arctic fox, ptarmigan, northern lights, even saw three musk ox.

Filled both tags each time.

Most satisfying hunts were in New Mexico Elk with black powder. DIY hunts on national forest and blm with wall tent camps in Sept.

Then there was the 160" eight point with the bow on a DIY hunt in Illinois, first time on the property....

 

Edited June 6, 2020 by gobblergetter

[DV1]

Had a lot of great deer hunts but most epic by experience, probably the years we drove to Colorado, backpacked for 2 weeks into public land and bow hunted elk. Only killed one year, but the experience, and the mountains were great. 

Most epic by animal was probably this buck, but only for his sheer size. the hunt was cool, deep woods Maine and all, but it's not like I targeted him and worked on that buck only. 

 

[JHbowhunter]

13 hours ago, Tarhunt said:

I got nothing. 

what's the biggest cockroach you ever killed?  Post pics..

 

[JHbowhunter]

5 hours ago, gobblergetter said:

 

Then there was the 160" eight point with the bow on a DIY hunt in Illinois, first time on the property....

 

 

 

 

 

that buck is a freaking beast!   160 as an 8pt is just massive and rare.        

[electric10162]

On 6/6/2020 at 9:08 AM, Nomad said:

I flew out to Denver alone, rented a Lincoln Town car and camped on public land in the Rockies for 10 days.  Called and shot this at 7 yards, on the last day with my longbow.  Packed it out 2.5  miles by myself.  Quite an adventure. One of my favorite hunts.

Now that's a story!

[Jerzguy2]

On 6/5/2020 at 10:08 PM, JHbowhunter said:

my greatest hunt has to be my last buck hunt...  How could it not be? To watch an absolute giant buck that didn't seem to belong in NJ, of which I had no clue existed, watch him work every doe from 3 fields out and over 600 yards away for an hour, gradually working its way toward my with time running out, then to have the last and only does he didn't check out walk right  by me at very last light and have him come in on a string  (no calling, just be prepared to shoot and try to keep it together).   Still in shock!     It could never happen that way in any other situation - I know my father brought me that buck from heaven and hunting will be different from now on for me... 

With that story, that buck is far more impressive than before and deserving of that tremendous mount.  Well done! Best hunt so far.

Edited June 7, 2020 by Jerzguy2

[gobblergetter]

16 hours ago, JHbowhunter said:

that buck is a freaking beast!   160 as an 8pt is just massive and rare.        

Best part is .   my buddy saw a bigger buck , that evening and was very quiet at dinner that night, he had that distant stare. Buck must of been huge because Jim has shot plenty of big deer. We never saw it again.

[mazzgolf]

I really need to go on one of these out-of-state trips. Never went, I started this whole hunting thing late. I'm getting older, and I am afraid my window might be closing. I am in no-way-shape-or-form in any kind of "sheep-shape." But I would love to go out somewhere for a week or two camping in the wilderness. I wouldn't even care if I harvested anything - just as long as I see things I've never seen before. Problem now with the wife being sick as she is, I don't think I'll have the time or money anytime soon.

[Russ 11]

Has to be my sons giant NJ bear he took with a crossbow back in 2017.

[BHC]

I can't believe I didn't add this....

My first hunt, 1980 I was 10 years old...sitting next to my dad,and a few friends with their fathers.

I had my 20ga Ithaca, my father had the 12ga Ithaca Deerslayer.

At just after sunrise I see a bear, yes I was scared !!!!  My father is sleeping, I'm wide eyed !!!  I see a herd of 12 deer standing maybe 30 yards, my father is still sleeping....and remembered him saying to me the night before wait for the buck when the does come. The does walk off, and I see another deer coming, Holy F*CK , it's a buck, basket 8 pt.....He's standing broadside at 30 yards and looking at the does I assume looking back.....BOOM!!!!! deer takes off and as fast the deer ran my father jumps up, he yells out and remember it like it was yesterday "WHAT THE F*CK !!!" Dad I shot a deer!!!! We exit the blow down, and my father looks towards the direction I said the deer ran, and he saw the white under belly, he ran no more then 30 yards !!!! my father didn't get heads mounted and something I didn't even think of as a kid....Pictures and antlers got thrown out by my sister's back in 1997 while on a bear hunt in canada, basement got flooded

[mazzgolf]

1 hour ago, Russ 11 said:

Has to be my sons giant NJ bear he took with a crossbow back in 2017.

You know the first thing I thought when I saw this picture? Your boy has the picture-perfect smile, excitement and joy radiating from his face.... you have this look on your face like, "I can't believe he did it... this bear is huge, how are we going to drag this thing out of here?"  

[Russ 11]

17 minutes ago, mazzgolf said:

You know the first thing I thought when I saw this picture? Your boy has the picture-perfect smile, excitement and joy radiating from his face.... you have this look on your face like, "I can't believe he did it... this bear is huge, how are we going to drag this thing out of here?"  

Your 100% right on .  Thank God we had a tractor . Rolled him in the bucket and into the back of the truck . Then the work started .  It’s was just flat out awesome .

[3Blade]

5 hours ago, Russ 11 said:

Has to be my sons giant NJ bear he took with a crossbow back in 2017.

Hey Russ, what did you have done with that beast? Rug, full mount?

[Russ 11]

Mike , just had the skull done .  Didn’t have the coin nor the room for either a rug or a full mount . I could only imagine what a full mount would have cost .