Your Top 5 Animals from North America

I've been fortunate to hunt most animals in North America and the ones I haven't ate now to expensive. Even if drew sheep or goats in Colorado I'd now need to pay someone to get me there. And at the cost of that I'd rather go hunt somewhere else in the world for the same price.
But I've been fortunate to have hunted and taken
Moose, mule deer, elk, whitetail deer, black bear, pronghorn, aoudad, javelina, mountain lion, wolves, muskox and caribou.

I love hunting mule deer
I've actually been unsuccessful on axis deer twice now so that's still on the list.
If money was no option then sheep goats and the big bears would still be on the list also.

I don't and won't do any draw. For me it's
Large Mule Deer
Elk
Mountain Lion
Black Bear
Alligator

Grizzly, Moose, Wolf, Mountain Lion & Wolverine - All guided rifle hunts.

Wing Shooting - Ocellated Turkey, Giant Canada Goose, Greater Sage Grouse, Willow Ptarmigan & Montezuma Quail - All guided shotgun hunts.

OTC, Outfitter, Landowner Tags.

etsonaut said:

lol- Got some cool dark colored ones on my place. View attachment 757233View attachment 757234

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I love fox squirrels, I shot quite a few years ago but they’re so freakin stupid my conscious finally got to me. We still a have a lot around in the pecan trees and when the corn is drying they love to take ears up in the trees to eat it. We have a lot of color phase fox squirrels and they are very unique.

At one time I had access to a farm in central Alabama for deer, Turkey and small game. That was a great place for fox squirrels and you could see 10 Fox squirrels for every grey squirrel. It was amazing.

If I ever shoot another it will be one of the black ones we have, that most likely won’t happen.

I have been fortunate to hunt some cool animals in some great places.
Unfortunately, non-resident tags to hunt a decent representative (not trophy) of a species have risen to stupid levels.
That being said, my list hasn't changed in over 15 years.

Rocky Mt. bighorn
BIG mule deer
Newfoundland woodland caribou
Saskatchewan whitetail
nilgai

The only plus if you're from North America, you get to fill your freezer.

Bull Elk
Large Muley
Moose
Black Bear
Pronghorn

Sabre said:

I'd like to offer a tiny bit of unsolicited advice, if not interested, disregard.

Book this hunt this year and go. It's an underrated hunt in my opinion. It can be booked same year with a lot of outfitters. You can shoot 2 of them in Texas. If you like traveling with buddies to hunt, the per person price with 2+ people is usually quite cheap in Texas. Even if you are by yourself it is one of the cheaper hunts you can go on. It can be done in the "off season" for most people's local hunting. The dates are fairly flexible.

They make a very cool Euro mount. I wasn't planning on shoulder mounting. But I ended up getting two very large ones and saw a well done shoulder mount of some. Previously all the mounts I saw of them looked like smooth haired small pigs. That combined with once I got them I noticed how cool and unique the texture of their hair is. For those reasons I decided to shoulder mount. I picked them up recently and they are an ugly, cool, unique mount when done right.

But even if you didn't want to pay for a shoulder mount, the skulls are so cool looking they make an awesome Euro mount which again makes the hunt cheaper.

I had wanted to go hunt them for some time, but kept putting them on the back burner. After doing it I wish I wouldn't have put it off so long.

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Can you reccomend an outfitter, Sir? This is a bucket lister for me. Thank you!

etsonaut said:

lol- Got some cool dark colored ones on my place. View attachment 757233View attachment 757234

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That's amazing!

Hedge774 said:

Can you reccomend an outfitter, Sir? This is a bucket lister for me. Thank you!

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Yes, I will DM you.

Gee very hard to pick only 5.

I have shot a few of them already in Alaska self guided with a rifle but would need to be guided on a few of these.

Polar Bear 9+ft
Brown Bear 9+ft - Kodiak or Peninsula
Wood Bison
Barren Ground-Mainland Muskox
Walrus

Mt Lion & Arctic Wolf had to add !

I have thought about sheep quite a bit, and I have applied for sheep quite a bit through draws and I have points, but not to the point that I will ever draw. Our family situation with our in-laws and my parents is not favoring moving back to Alaska, so I think that is out at least for the time being and then I will be in my 60's so Alaska on the "cheaper" is not a thing right now.

You could say the same thing about grizzly bears, goats, moose, and caribou.

So always rifle! Drawn and self guided or Canada or whatever. Not sure it really matters as challenging as it is to get a tag.

Saying that:

Moose is interesting, as I think here are some deals to be had in Saskatchewan on fly outs or Alberta.

Elk are always interesting. I have been hunting elk intermittently since I was 12. I apply in 5 states every year.

Pronghorns are my favorite. Also apply in 5 states.

Blackbears in a good area like Alberta or SK.

Mt lions are available in my back yard, never seen one in the wild. Always buy a tag. Would like to chase them with hounds, but at $3500 they were great, not sure I would pay $7000 or more for one.

Africa is an easy button.

For me living in Europe, this place is an easy button.

When I move back to America I am sure I will change my mind, but for now.

Muskox, why wouldn’t you do a DIY Alaska moose with a flight service.

Altitude sickness said:

Muskox, why wouldn’t you do a DIY Alaska moose with a flight service.

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Probably too much of a pussy to manage it alone. You take 2 or 3 other guys and generally only one guy gets a moose.

I can road hunt on the two military reservations in Alaska as a retiree if drawn for moose. And only shoot one half a mile from the truck if I want. Sleep in the Army Lodge, use my CPAP, eat a steak int he diner. I am good.

I've been fortunate enough to have taken the GSCO Super 10 North American big game animals plus 9 more. I took 7 of my Super 10 animals here in Montana on DIY solo hunts that each only cost me a $25 resident tag and a tank of gas for my pickup.

I've literally turned my house into a wildlife museum with 80 mounts of animals that I've taken on hunts around the world. I have very little available wall space for any more critters on my "list".

Like most other hunters, not all of my hunts resulted in taking home a trophy animal.

My hunt in Newfoundland resulted in me only bringing home tag soup. We didn't see any Woodland Caribou, and the Moose that we saw were considerably smaller than my 2 Montana Shiras moose so I chose not to shoot them.

1. So a Woodland Caribou is still on my wish list.

My last Alaskan hunt was for Brown bear and Moose. First day out we saw a beautiful "Toklat" representative Brown bear that I shot and we didn't see any Moose.

2. & 3. I still would like to get an 8 1/2' plus Brown Bear and an Alaskan Moose.

4. Last year in Hawaii I shot an Axis deer, but he wasn't the trophy quality that I want, so I'm looking at a Texas hunt for a trophy Axis Deer and maybe a Mouflan ram and a Javelina.

5. Every sheep hunter dreams of taking the Grand Slam of Norht American sheep. I've taken 3 Bighorn rams in Montana's Unlimited tag bighorn sheep units and a full curl Dall ram in Canada, but I still dream of getting a full curl Stone ram and a Desert ram, but I can't justify paying more than I paid for my house just for one of those hunts. Maybe I'll just have to settle for a big Texas or southern Canada Whitetail buck.

The top 5 big game animals on my North American wish list are

-bull moose-booked for this fall
-mountain lion-booked for next year
-bull elk-booked for 2029
-coastal brown bear-TBD
-pronghorn Antelope- DIY fit in.

An honorable mention would be to complete the North American Turkey Grand Slam.

Just for fun, some of my favorite hunts that were very good value for money were black bear over bait in Canada, Nilgai in south Texas, public land Alligator hunting with harpoon in Florida, and sandhill cranes in west Texas.

1. Mountain Lion
2. Polar Bear
3. Walrus
4. Wolverine
5. Musk Ox (another)

After 25 years in Alaska, my North America is short and diverse.

Where can you hunt mule deer without going thru the drawing hassle?

'68boy said:

Where can you hunt mule deer without going thru the drawing hassle?

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Texas panhandle and west Texas.

Hunt anything said:

Texas panhandle and west Texas.

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Dang! You beat me to it!

'68boy said:

Where can you hunt mule deer without going thru the drawing hassle?

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British Columbia Alberta, you can buy landowner tags in Colorado Utah I think Nevada for sure, Idaho, of course New Mexico. Most of the time the landowner validations are purchased directly from the landowner and you don’t have to do any weird mumbo-jumbo. These are getting expensive for good ones and of course the guided ones are going to be more expensive. Really good ones on private land in North Central New Mexico and in Colorado near Gunnison are going to be 10 or $15,000 for the tag alone. I would say that a land owner validation guided hunt on an average too good area is probably somewhere between 7000 and 15,000.