Any hunts you wouldn’t do again?

[Ontario Hunter]

I was hunting auodad couple weeks ago and the lodge cook told me he and others tried every recipe known to man and it did not work.
He said he even wouldn't allow anyone bring aoudad meat in his kitchen now let alone cook it.
These are guys killing dozens of aoudad every year.

Dad once told me if left for a couple of days in the right marinade and cooked on the BBQ, dog turds would taste good. Needless to say, thereafter I carefully scrutinized anything that came off his grill!

Auodad sounds like a challenge he would have enjoyed. I think maybe I can understand why folks living on the same land as hundreds of walking prime rib might find auodad distasteful.

 

[Nyati]

I have to agree with @Ontario Hunter , never tried Aoudad, but have eaten very old wild boar.

First it has to be hung in an industrial freezer for some time, then marinated, and cooked. It will surprise you how tender that meat will be.

 

[Hookboy88]

A Bad Day of Hunting is better than a Good Day of Work. I’ve got 1 hunt I wouldn’t repeat (recent RSA hunt) if paying full price. On a REALLY great deal or as a guest of another hunter I would do it again since it’s better than being at work, and is still hunting.

If you’re in sales you’ve likely heard “there’s no such thing as bad product, just a bad price”. For me, that applies to hunts. I’d repeat every one of them, but some might have to be for less than that charge or what I paid.

What did you dislike about the hunt in RSA?

 

[Jondnov]

Any hunts that are pay by inch or any hunt that you targeting just one particular animal.

 

[Hunt anything]

Any hunts that are pay by inch or any hunt that you targeting just one particular animal.

I’m with you on the pay by the inch but I would do a hunt for Lord Derby eland or bongo only and only shoot other animals if the LDE or bongo was taken. At least that would be my plan until something else desirable walks out.

 

[revturbo9967]

I’m with you on the pay by the inch but I would do a hunt for Lord Derby eland or bongo only and only shoot other animals if the LDE or bongo was taken. At least that would be my plan until something else desirable walks out.

I think he meant targeting a specific animal in an enclosed area. A particular buff or sable perhaps.

 

[Jondnov]

Yes exactly what revturbo said. Seen it to much in Texas where outfitter wants you to shoot a deer that they see everyday

 

[Ontario Hunter]

I think he meant targeting a specific animal in an enclosed area. A particular buff or sable perhaps.

Actually, this can be a challenge. I was tasked with targeting a specific cow in a herd of buffalo. Not easy! Try to get a clear shot at her in heavy cover before they run off. Then once I had her down the herd bull came after us ... 3 times! Nothing wrong with that hunting experience, the price was dirt cheap, and she was a respectable trophy.

 

[revturbo9967]

Actually, this can be a challenge. I was tasked with targeting a specific cow in a herd of buffalo. Not easy! Try to get a clear shot at her in heavy cover before they run off. Then once I had her down the herd bull came after us ... 3 times! Nothing wrong with that hunting experience, the price was dirt cheap, and she was a respectable trophy.
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I'm glad you were happy with the hunt. Taking an old cow is one thing, but taking a huge breeding bull that was dropped off to a small property and being the only animal there is what most of us are against. Regardless of how hard the hunt is, it is put and take and it does nothing for conservation efforts.

 

[fourfive8]

I'm glad you were happy with the hunt. Taking an old cow is one thing, but taking a huge breeding bull that was dropped off to a small property and being the only animal there is what most of us are against. Regardless of how hard the hunt is, it is put and take and it does nothing for conservation efforts.

True. I remember having different hunters offering me advice about cape buffalo a long time ago when I first considered hunting a buffalo in Africa. They had "contacts" and "inside info" on "exclusive" private ranches in RSA... right! After a lot of investigation and digging deeper and deeper into why I had noticed the wide skew of trophy fees for buffalo among all the choices and different countries I found the answer. My digging discovered quite a network, some of it well camouflaged, of the buffalo trade and put-take hunting business. It was probably just the tip of the iceberg of similar hunting operations for various glamour species like lion, sable, etc. A light bulb switched on at that moment.... ding! The pitch would go something like, "We offer such and such hunts for cape buffalo with reasonable daily rates, first class accommodations, experienced PHs, transportation to and from JNB, guaranteed availability of 40-45 buffalo and so on and so forth, buffalo trophy fee- $25,000". No thanks

 

[Ontario Hunter]

I'm glad you were happy with the hunt. Taking an old cow is one thing, but taking a huge breeding bull that was dropped off to a small property and being the only animal there is what most of us are against. Regardless of how hard the hunt is, it is put and take and it does nothing for conservation efforts.

Not my thing either but I fail to see how it hurts conservation efforts. The outfits selling hunts in the "wild" areas seem to have no trouble filling their quotas. Put and take operations aren't hurting the wild safaris' ability to raise "conservation" funds. Put and take MAY be phony hunting but they generally have few if any problems with poaching. I don't see how those operations can contaminate the gene pool with inbreeding if the animals are contained birth to death. Well managed game ranches are actually careful to avoid inbreeding. Don't get me wrong, I'm not defending put and take safaris (neither am I condemning them), I just don't see the connection to them damaging conservation. If anything, the farm raised disease resistant strain of Kruger buffalo most farms are cultivating has helped conservation efforts.

 

[375Fox]

Not my thing either but I fail to see how it hurts conservation efforts. The outfits selling hunts in the "wild" areas seem to have no trouble filling their quotas. Put and take operations aren't hurting the wild safaris' ability to raise "conservation" funds. Put and take MAY be phony hunting but they generally have few if any problems with poaching. I don't see how those operations can contaminate the gene pool with inbreeding if the animals are contained birth to death. Well managed game ranches are actually careful to avoid inbreeding. Don't get me wrong, I'm not defending put and take safaris (neither am I condemning them), I just don't see the connection to them damaging conservation. If anything, the farm raised disease resistant strain of Kruger buffalo most farms are cultivating has helped conservation efforts.

The biggest way it hurts conservation efforts is simply image. Non-hunters make legislation. Put and take isn’t the look we want.
I don’t expect you to agree with this, but you are making a big assumption on wild areas having no issues selling quota. Low prices are good short term for hunters, but bad for conservation efforts in wild areas long term. The last area I hunted in Zimbabwe spent over $100k per year in anti-poaching efforts. The difficulty importing elephants and lions devalued them in wild areas, less money in, less money available for anti-poaching efforts and stopping encroachment. If one hunter that can afford it chooses a put and take buffalo (or put and take CBL lion) over a wild area, it’s one more animal that has to meet a competitive price to sell the quota in a wild area. There are prime areas but many areas in decline and many gone just because they couldn’t make the revenue to stop the encroachment. Primarily though, choosing put and take is simply not a contribution to any conservation efforts. It’s a contribution to the farming economy. Well managed game ranches I’d argue are conservation. Game ranches stocked with bulls from breeding operations are just a farming practice. I also really worry they will breed out aggressive characteristics in buffalo given enough time because they are more difficult to raise and keep.

 

[Lone Star Bluegrass]

Duck on Reelfoot Lake in western Tennessee. Been twice, bagged probably fewer than eight birds combined. Went with two different outfits, the whole time the guides all said “it’s never this slow, you shudda been here last week…”
Not going back.
Every morning going out on the lake is like that scene in “Jaws” when the reward for the shark gets posted and every boat in the state is zig zagging around each other with guns pointed everywhere. We had one boat with a group from the same guide we were using almost collide with us head on while up on plane. It was bad.

 

[revturbo9967]

Not my thing either but I fail to see how it hurts conservation efforts. The outfits selling hunts in the "wild" areas seem to have no trouble filling their quotas. Put and take operations aren't hurting the wild safaris' ability to raise "conservation" funds. Put and take MAY be phony hunting but they generally have few if any problems with poaching. I don't see how those operations can contaminate the gene pool with inbreeding if the animals are contained birth to death. Well managed game ranches are actually careful to avoid inbreeding. Don't get me wrong, I'm not defending put and take safaris (neither am I condemning them), I just don't see the connection to them damaging conservation. If anything, the farm raised disease resistant strain of Kruger buffalo most farms are cultivating has helped conservation efforts.

Outfits in these wild areas actually do have issues selling quota. Where I was in Zim less than a month ago still had plenty of animals available to hunt. Remember there are no guarantees in these areas and some hunters don’t get what they’re going after, because it’s hunting. Anti poaching money comes directly from hunter dollars, nowhere else. Every time someone decides to hunt a fenced farm because it’s cheaper or easier, it directly affects wild areas. It is supporting farming, which is financially supporting the farmer who raised the animal, and the property owner who let it loose to be shot.

There were many areas off limits to hunting where I was in Zim due to regulations put in place by the operators. These animals were left alone forever by hunting and will die of natural causes or by a predator. Fenced areas will always try and sell the animals no matter what. Be it your old cow, or a cull hunt, they want to make their money and sell whatever they can to make money rather than let it die on the farm.

Like mentioned there are areas where you could argue good conservation efforts in fenced areas, but not as many as some want to believe.

 

[Denvir Tire]

I won't shoot anything over bait ... or water hole. I question the ethics. For bears, I accept that it's about the only way to manage populations effectively. But it's just not for me, especially the sitting on my butt for hours ... or days.

It can get slow sometimes waiting for birds to start flying again, but then I'll usually leave the decoys and walk the dogs to some sloughs or ditches for possible jump shooting. If there was more jump shooting available, my decoys would be in the bin at the Salvation Army Store. For me, hunting is about seek and destroy, not sit in ambush.

You question the ethics? Are decoys not "bait"? Is a duck call not "enticing"?
Done much jump shooting for leopard, coyotes, jackals, bear, hyenas?
Done much duck hunting in a Wal Mart parking lot? This way, you're not hunting over a water hole, aka slough.

Hunting is "Seek and Destroy"????
"Movement to Contact" is seek and destroy, hunting is an ancient art, often conducted using methods that apparently you disapprove of.

I no longer "Seek and Destroy", my time with that has passed. I am however, a principled, ethical, hunter who has spent countless hours overlooking bait and water holes.

 

[Green Chile]

One hunt I do not enjoy anymore are the group hunts for ducks or snow geese...everyone shooting at the same handful of waterfowl...I hit it, no I hit it...or all of you hit it! I've done a good amount of it but the last time I did it (last season), I decided this isn't fun anymore. Plus I don't drink and that's part of the show.

 

[Doug3006]

One hunt I do not enjoy anymore are the group hunts for ducks or snow geese...everyone shooting at the same handful of waterfowl...I hit it, no I hit it...or all of you hit it! I've done a good amount of it but the last time I did it (last season), I decided this isn't fun anymore. Plus I don't drink and that's part of the show.

Hi Green Chile! None of that sounds like fun to me either. Your last comment tells me you’re hunting with the wrong group of guys! I hunt ducks with several old friends and our hunts are nothing like that!

 

[Ontario Hunter]

You question the ethics? Are decoys not "bait"? Is a duck call not "enticing"?
Done much jump shooting for leopard, coyotes, jackals, bear, hyenas?
Done much duck hunting in a Wal Mart parking lot? This way, you're not hunting over a water hole, aka slough.

Hunting is "Seek and Destroy"????
"Movement to Contact" is seek and destroy, hunting is an ancient art, often conducted using methods that apparently you disapprove of.

I no longer "Seek and Destroy", my time with that has passed. I am however, a principled, ethical, hunter who has spent countless hours overlooking bait and water holes.

I've said it so many times: if all the jump shooting areas weren't covered up with McMansions and mini-malls, I'd drop my decoys off in the Salvation Army bin. I've also said that I recognize the need to use decoys, bait, etc to manage some species (like geese ... the numbers are so out of control up here that the possession limit is now as many as I can stuff in a warehouse). But I don't consider it "hunting." It's shooting live targets.

I'll be 71 tomorrow and still CHASING game. Last fall I climbed up to the spot where I shot a spike elk in 1981. Took two days to get it out of there with my horses.

I can still do that stuff because I took care of myself. But I know at some point I won't be able to any longer (if it doesn't kill me first). Then I'll take up something else. Building rifles comes to mind. Or shooting clay targets competitively. I'm already making the transition. I'll not be shooting big game over bait.

Everyone wants to see the view from Mt Everest but it wouldn't be the same if an elevator was installed.

 

[Hunt anything]

One hunt I do not enjoy anymore are the group hunts for ducks or snow geese...everyone shooting at the same handful of waterfowl...I hit it, no I hit it...or all of you hit it! I've done a good amount of it but the last time I did it (last season), I decided this isn't fun anymore. Plus I don't drink and that's part of the show.

I’m in the same boat, the guys I waterfowl hunt with now are all like minded. We shoot our own birds and no party shooting. We hunt a max of 5 people and we seem to enjoy everyones company. I was in a duck clu in the early 2,000’s and we had a guy that would shoot at any bird, he would say WE have x number of birds for a limit and I would tell him I was going to shoot MY 6 birds and I would tell the game warden if he shot more than his limit. He didn’t last too long thank goodness.

 

[Green Chile]

Hi Green Chile! None of that sounds like fun to me either. Your last comment tells me you’re hunting with the wrong group of guys! I hunt ducks with several old friends and our hunts are nothing like that!

I have not had good luck finding the right group of guys to hunt/travel with. The search continues or I will just keep chasing DG on my own!