What is on your hunting bucket list?

I’m 64.
Age and finances being what the are have/are limiting my bucket list.
However,
Bull Elk
Bull moose
Bison
Would love for it to be a pack in (on horses) style stay a week or so type hunt.
We can all dream….
 
Since this thread started I’ve done 2 oryx hunts. Doing another brown bear hunt in May and oryx again late fall. Plus I’m sure I’ll win a desert bighorn hunt at the Sheep Show! LOL.
 
I try not to make bucket lists. Because I naturally already get too attached to all of these worldly things without making a list about it. But if you were to really twist my arm it sure would be fun to do a moose hunt some day.
 
I think I am beyond bucket lists. I focus on hunting every available day in rifle and muzzleloading seasons. Horses extend my capabilities and my pleasure. The challenge is also exploring new and old haunts changed by circumstances like fire.

I only work in the off season to generate money for farming and hunting. My wife would like to travel but the concept of being trapped on a puke boat with thousands terrifies me. I traveled the world during my work years. These last years are mine. Not to be pissed away with the masses.
 
I was blessed to go on my Dream Hunt which was a grizzly bear hunt on the north side of the Brooks Range above the Arctic Circle. I had a fabulous trip which also included me taking a 14 year old 7 1/2 foot grizzly bear with my 280AI. Before my father passed away he told me he had $3000.00 that would be coming my way and he wanted me to do something for me. He mentioned that I talked often about building a custom rifle sometime and that maybe I should do something like that. He made me promise that I would not spend it on bills or the family and just do something special for me. Well I did. I found a used Winchester Model 70 Classic sporter in 270 Win. Had my gunsmith put a match grade 24" barrel he chambered for 280AI on the rifle. I used that special rifle that I finally had built about 3 years after he passed away on my grizzly bear hunt in 2019. I used 140 gr. Nosler Accubonds that I loaded for my rifle. My father taught me to handload when I was 12 years old under his watchful eye and I have shot nothing BUT handloads ever since. My bear was no exception. I got my bear with one shot at 158 yards. I hit him tight behind the right shoulder in the lungs. He spun 180 degrees into the shot, did two somersaults and was dead. He never moved after that. I have to admit after I shot my bear I got pretty emotional and shed a few tears remembering my father and all that he taught me, and also wishing I could tell him all about my hunt. I kind of had the feeling that he was watching the whole thing though.
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More elk hunts, going on 1st horse archery camp hunt in Colorado, then should draw my Wy moose, anything else is gravy. Maybe an Idaho bear?
 
I was blessed to go on my Dream Hunt which was a grizzly bear hunt on the north side of the Brooks Range above the Arctic Circle. I had a fabulous trip which also included me taking a 14 year old 7 1/2 foot grizzly bear with my 280AI. Before my father passed away he told me he had $3000.00 that would be coming my way and he wanted me to do something for me. He mentioned that I talked often about building a custom rifle sometime and that maybe I should do something like that. He made me promise that I would not spend it on bills or the family and just do something special for me. Well I did. I found a used Winchester Model 70 Classic sporter in 270 Win. Had my gunsmith put a match grade 24" barrel he chambered for 280AI on the rifle. I used that special rifle that I finally had built about 3 years after he passed away on my grizzly bear hunt in 2019. I used 140 gr. Nosler Accubonds that I loaded for my rifle. My father taught me to handload when I was 12 years old under his watchful eye and I have shot nothing BUT handloads ever since. My bear was no exception. I got my bear with one shot at 158 yards. I hit him tight behind the right shoulder in the lungs. He spun 180 degrees into the shot, did two somersaults and was dead. He never moved after that. I have to admit after I shot my bear I got pretty emotional and shed a few tears remembering my father and all that he taught me, and also wishing I could tell him all about my hunt. I kind of had the feeling that he was watching the whole thing though.
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Heck of a bear and wonderful story! I hunted caribou up that way in September of 24 with my son. We saw a number of grizzlies!
 
I’ve been blessed that past few years going on some really fun hunts with my boys, both in state and out of state. More planned. I’d be damn honored if I can get a few more years in just with that and not “species” specific for a list.
 
My dream hunts:
1) To teach my granddaughter how to pray before a hunt, the love of the outdoors, the thrill of a kill, the prayers after a hunt, the entitlement of skinning/plucking/etc., and the inner peace that comes being in the wild.
2) To teach my granddaughter how to hunt a big specific buck (this is after she's killed several and has graduated to specifics.
3) Also, teach her how to be a woodsman and truly turkey hunt.
4) To take her duck hunting and the thrill of motoring out, setting up decoys in the dark, drinking some hot chocolate with little marsh mellows while leaned back against the blind (the florescence in the waves lightly lapping to shore, the stars set in the sky by a Creator that loves us, watching for satellites as they pass overhead), seeing the first rays of sun come over the water, seeing ducks with their wings cupped gliding into the dekes, the fire coming out of the end of her great grandads old A5, or an great uncles 1100, maybe even the fire from her own gun, wading out in hip boots to pick up her first duck, because she's still too small for waders, the feeling of a little water lapping over the boots (you can't have it all sunshine and rainbows, hahahaha). Then, seeing her back on shore holding that first duck, lightly making the feathers go back and forth, just nursing it, the joy and heaviness of taking a life coming over her. Eating toasted Spam sandwiches warmed over an old Winchester heater (predecessor to the Little Buddy).

Ahhhh, dream hunts my friends.

Now if I were just greedy and it was all about me, I have one dream hunt for me: 1) To turkey hunt every day of each turkey season for the rest of my life. I don't have to hunt all day, just until I kill one that day.
 
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1. Alaska caribo float hunt
I got inspired by the exo experience project videos
2. Draw a quality tag in eastern Washington and get a good bull with my bow
 
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