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Old July 29, 2011, 04:50 AM   #1
40caljustice
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Most difficult animal you have hunted?

Hunting season starts in a a couple months and I'm getting antsy. I've been heading to my hunting area lately to see what's going on and I can't wait til season starts. My buddies and I sit around and BS and talk about different things involving hunting. Which led me to this question.

What has been the most difficult or most "illusive" animal you have hunted? People across the country hunt different animals in different types of landscape. Do you have a certain hunt you remember that was more difficult than average?

I would love to hunt mountain sheep or antelope but unfortunately my part of the country doesn't allow this. The hardest animal we hunt here is either coyotes or turkeys. Whitetails have become easier for me every year. Granted they're still a tough hunt but I've learned they aren't like coyotes or turkeys.

With a coyote, you have to be almost perfect. They can smell you way before they see you. With a turkey, you can not move. Their eyes are amazing and see everything.

What are yalls thoughts?
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Old July 29, 2011, 05:38 AM   #2
Rembrandt
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Bow hunting Aoudad sheep....they're a herd animal, hard to get close to one when there's 20-30 eyes keeping watch.


...second most difficult is the older wiser trophy whitetail bucks, almost like hunting another species as opposed to their younger counterparts, craftier and much harder to hunt. I've seen them crawling on their knees through creeks to skirt hunters.

Last edited by Rembrandt; July 29, 2011 at 05:45 AM.
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Old July 29, 2011, 07:51 AM   #3
stevelyn
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Turkey for me when I was living in deepest, darkest Appalachia.
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Old July 29, 2011, 08:03 AM   #4
phil mcwilliam
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Red Deer stags in Fjordland region, South Island , New Zealand. Lots of climbing through rainforest jungle.
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Old July 29, 2011, 08:18 AM   #5
Rifleman1776
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Ozarks whitetail deer. I watch TV shows of hunts and laugh. They get in comfortable position, set rifles on bi-pods, look around with binoculars the when they spot a deer talk about it for a while. Then leisurly chamber a round and eventually take a shot. In the Ozarks you have to be quicker than when hunting quail. See-aim-shoot in under a second. Rarely does one have more time.
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Old July 29, 2011, 08:31 AM   #6
Art Eatman
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I still like my father's comment: "It takes a while to work out a ranch to find the biggest buck in the pasture. You have to check out a lot of deer to find the biggest. Now, a really big buck only makes one mistake a season, and if his mistake was the first time you saw him, you have a problem: How to find him again."

No argument from me...
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Old July 29, 2011, 08:56 AM   #7
oneounceload
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Wild chukar in the mountains of northern NV - they know how to run up shale slopes with ease while remaining just out of range. When you finally reach their rim rock hidey-hole, they come zooming downhill at sage brush height and at what seems like 50 mph...................so you go chase them some more
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Old July 29, 2011, 09:18 AM   #8
Saltydog235
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Lately, time is the hardest thing I have to hunt for.
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Old July 29, 2011, 09:54 AM   #9
doofus47
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Red squirrel

Nothing else comes close.
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Old July 29, 2011, 09:56 AM   #10
Microgunner
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Dall sheep in Alaska. Up and down mountains at and above the snow line trying to get close enough for a shot that never happened.
What a fruitless workout.
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Old July 29, 2011, 10:05 AM   #11
meatgrinder42
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Jawas

Otherwise I'd have to throw Bobcat and Coyote into the ring.


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Old July 29, 2011, 10:10 AM   #12
jimbob86
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In terms of hard to hit/# of shots per quarry bagged? Thirteen striped ground squirrel. There's more lead in gramma's yard than dirt......

In terms of difficulty? Whitetail, w/3 lids under 10 in tow.
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Old July 29, 2011, 10:40 AM   #13
mete
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Jackalope and Nauga .Not common and very elusive !
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Old July 29, 2011, 10:51 AM   #14
Microgunner
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Quote:
Originally Posted by mete
Jackalope and Nauga .Not common and very elusive !
Nauga must be farm raised also then because I once owned an entire living room set covered in it and it was pretty cheap too.
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Old July 29, 2011, 11:52 AM   #15
Rembrandt
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Jackalope were too easy......especially if you happen to be going through "Wall Drug", South Dakota. But the metalflake Nauga used on the old kitchen chairs was a thing of beauty.

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Old July 29, 2011, 12:05 PM   #16
Goatwhiskers
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Has to be the elusive bopotamus. They used to have an annual hunt around Star Hill, La.. Nobody ever seemed to bag one altho there are some statues and some photos floating around purportedly of the beast. There was a lot of jambalaya and beer consumed at these functions, of course. Supposed to be some relative of the nauga. Goatwhiskers the Elder
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Old July 29, 2011, 01:10 PM   #17
BIG P
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Really big gators & BIGFOOT everybody has a story & has seen them.But as of yet I've had no luck Myself.Buy big Gators I mean 14' or better.
buy Bigfoot I mean something bigger than uncle Joe 7' 450lbs size 16xxxxx PF,FLYER.BIG SOB!!!
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Old July 29, 2011, 01:26 PM   #18
bullethole1
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the brown recluse spider,thats the only one I had trouble hunting,its not an animal though but its a difficult hunt
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Old July 29, 2011, 01:43 PM   #19
rickyrick
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Coyote,

I am rarely successful.
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Old July 29, 2011, 03:55 PM   #20
603Country
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For me, the big mature whitetail buck is the toughest to find, with coyote in second place. The toughest for me to track was a big wounded Feral Hog. He was bleeding and I was sweating....
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Old July 29, 2011, 04:08 PM   #21
Jason_G
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I guess it'd be skittish post rut white tail bucks.

Jason
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Old July 29, 2011, 04:51 PM   #22
Buzzcook
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Elk in the Olympics. The hardest part was getting all that meat back to the road.
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Old July 29, 2011, 05:41 PM   #23
hooligan1
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Doofus 47 you could relate to my experiences as a adolescence hunter, the red or "fox-squirrel" we called em in the bootheel of Missouri, were troublesome most days but this story is of a turkey that my friend and his family could'nt kill.

There is no name for this bird, as there was nothing but a ghost after fly-down usually. They had'nt come up with one by the time I was invited to hunt this actual farm. My friend told me of this gobbler that had eluded any hunter that had pursued it, like it was a ghost or something, you know "disappear" after fly-down. Well my buddy convinced me to try to hunt this particular bird, he even told me that the bird roosted in a particular Hackberry tree in a fencerow, and that at sunrise he'd for sure be there. Well I took refuge in a brushrow at about 1 hour before sunrise, and just like my friend explained the bird gobbled three or four times on the roost then flew down. My thinking was that if I called maybe once or quietly twice, that maybe he'd try it. Well it worked, I was useing an Ike Ashby slate that I have had for years, and I only gave four yelps and just quit calling.
Setting in this brushrow listening for anything,, I heard something walking in the leaves that had covered the edge of this field I was setting next to, when my eye caught movement it was a big turkey working his way down the edge of this brushrow I was setting in, and when he got within 20 feet I let him have the load of 5's from my 870 SP. He weighed 25 lbs, and had inch and a quarter spurs, 11 inch beard! And the best of it all was the look on my buddy's face when he saw it........ priceless!!!!
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Last edited by hooligan1; July 30, 2011 at 06:25 AM.
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Old July 29, 2011, 06:26 PM   #24
Kreyzhorse
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Turkey has got to be the toughest thing I've hunted. I still haven't killed one and actually got disgusted enough that I stopped hunting them for a few years.
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Old July 29, 2011, 06:48 PM   #25
JACK308
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The short tail WEASEL
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