Once in a lifetime "adventure hunt"

[flathead#2]

Definitely Alaska.

 

[elkliver]

Going to Africa can be done for a very reasonable amount.... Shooting more than a couple of animals and getting them home is where it gets interesting

 

[Mojave]

I am not anywhere near the most far hunted person on this website.

I have hunted in all over the Western USA, Africa, Europe and Australia. Mostly because I was in the military or continued to work for the military after I retired and it was close by.

You need a Tarzan hunt, or a cowboy hunt.
Taxidermy is BS, don't focus on the end result and the cost of taxidermy will prevent you from doing other things.

Somewhere in Africa there is what you are looking for.

Find an outfitter on a big ranch in Botswana or Namibia that is far from town. A cattle ranch that only takes a few guys year. You'll see stuff on.a place like that.

Do some culling, shoot a ton of stuff. put some trail cameras on water holes and enjoy collecting the photos daily.

The longer you can stay there and the more that you can afford to do, the better it will be. Think about a combo of two areas.

Book two combo hunts in two separate areas and enjoy the differences.

Stay away from a Texas style South Africa or Namibia place where they run people through there like it's a Hooters outside a military base at lunch time.

A once off Thorofare hunt for elk will be amazing too. Grew up hunting in Wyoming on elk horse back.

 

[Sandhills]

I'd look at a muley or elk hunt in Nevada or Utah. You can draw some mule deer tags fairly easy, elk tags are harder. There are landowner tags in Nevada that allow you to hunt the whole unit. Utah has CWMU Tags too.

But yould have to figure out the communication issues as a lot of Nevada and Utah are deadzones.

Or you can come out and hunt Kansas and Nebraska. Not what I'd consider once in a lifetime hunts but we do have some big deer.

 

[Speaks]

Personally I really want to hunt elk, but see Africa.

 

[diamond10x]

If its once in a lifetime, from you said and your OP and other posts in the thread, my vote says go to Africa.

Go there and kill everything that your grandpa had ever talked about wanting to hunt, and if you have any of his guns take one to use while there.

 

[BackcountryIdaho]

The adventure is the key. I'd hunt for weeks on end to haul home a calf elk or a fawn muley. The adventure is more important than the animals.

If you're serious by this, then I'd suggest looking at some of the Idaho Outfitters who hunt in the Frank Church Wilderness. Animal densities are lower than they used to be, but the country and adventure getting there is right there with anything in the lower 48.

The classic horse pack-train wall tent hunts still exist there, and there are still mature animals (and the outfitters know better than most where those animals live).

 

[DawnPatrol]

I get what you're saying, but let me relate a short story from last spring to maybe help put into perspective why "on my own" might not be the best option.

I had been wanting to hit up a big chunk of public about an hour away, so I went and did a shed hunt. Hiked a few miles, found a couple sheds. But here's where the problem lies.

I pulled into the parking lot. No cell signal. Not a problem. So I fired a text off figuring the phone would send it when it found a signal. Never did. Couple hours later, I'm back at the truck. Realize the message didn't send. So I scooted to a spot where I did get signal, and my phone didn't stop for like 5 minutes. Message after message on all the different platforms. My wife was losing her shit because she hadn't heard from me.

I called and talked her down off the ledge and she still broke down when I got home and she saw me. So a solo trip a days drive or more from home is going to be a potential problem. We are working on some strategies for her to cope and for me to communicate and I'm trying to wean her off of the need for 'instant hubby' but its a long process.

In talking further about it, she has a point. She knows that, once my boots are on the ground, there's not much that can stop me from getting back to the truck. It's the drive there that worries her, and the longer the drive, the more worry..

I feel your pain. A zoleo/in reach/ bivy stick type device helped my wife a fair amount.

 

[Beendare]

Australia.

They speak English [well kind of- grin] awesome people and very cool hunting.

 

[Mojave]

I feel your pain. A zoleo/in reach/ bivy stick type device helped my wife a fair amount.

Man that is annoying, but kind of nice.

Mine might like me that much, but she is happy to get rid of me for a 3-4 weeks during hunting season.

 

[Mojave]

Australia.

They speak English [well kind of- grin] awesome people and very cool hunting.

You can kind of actually DIY Australia on your own. Totally easy with a bow, moderately difficult with a rifle.

 

[TreeDog]

I'll go a little against the grain and say Alaska/Canada. If adventure is the main driver, those seem like the better options to me. Do a long hunt and either fly in, float, or horseback. Wild country, crazy weather, and remote places. Africa seems cool, and would be a great experience, but doesn't have the same draw to me personally. Sleeping in a lodge vs camped out on the north slope of the Brooks Range? I'm biased because the latter is my dream. I agree with the suggestions of doing Alaska now and Africa down the road.

 

[TaperPin]

If adventure is the primary goal, riding around one time on a horse (or Range Rover) until the guide says, “shoot that one,” isn’t on the top of my list.

There’s more adventure hunkering down during a night long lightning storm 5 miles in on a Colorado mountain side. Or calling a mulie hunt short because a big storm has swollen the creek up to your belly button and if you don’t wade it now, it might be longer than you have food for to get out. Or waking up to a foot of new snow and watching a herd of elk from the tent. 1 mile from the trailhead running into a mother and two cubs on the same trail is pretty cool watching them climb way up there until the mother gives the go ahead to come down.

I keep picturing a safari camp with breakfast and dinner cooked and served from a real kitchen and that’s cool and all, but lighting raw gas on fire to preheat a Whisperlite stove, and dipping water out of a spring fed creek to make dinner has more of a soft spot in my heart.

Adventure is whatever a person sees it as, but until you’ve been on a rough mountain fly fishing for trout with the entire lake to yourself, I wouldn’t discount making more trips on a regular basis that you’ll be able to share with family. If you’ve never done it, just packing 1/4 mile away from the car to spend the night feels like 5 miles.

 

[Mojave]

A big downside of the northern hunts is weather. Imagine paying $35,000 for a sheep hunt, or $25,000 for a caribou hunt and not being able to leave Whitehorse or Smithers because you are socked in with fog. Never happen in Namibia.

You want a wild safari hunt in a conservancy, even if you are not hunting elephant.