Aside from Africa, what are some memorable guided hunts around the world that rival the experience of an African Safari?

[Ontario Hunter]

Pampered camps, really?

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Hah, hah. Yeah that's roughing it. Pfft. My shower was also an enamel bucket. Filled it 2/3, warm the water on the stove, stuff my head in it, wash hair, rinse, peel off my clothes, and sponge bath the rest of me with what remained of soapy water. No one to do my laundry every day. Douse my dirty duds in the creek behind the tent and hang them inside the tent from the ridge pole to dry in the night (hopefully!). No chef to cook my grub. Nalleys chili or Dinty Moore stew out of a can was the usual one-course evening meal. A couple slices of bread on the side and chocolate dipped granola bar for desert. Spam and eggs for breakfast with spam sandwich for lunch on the track. I remember one night getting back to camp at 11:00 p.m. Trying to speed things up so I could get in the sack, I brought the mini gas BBQ into the tent and sat in front of it as my canned meal cooked. I fell asleep sitting in the lawn chair, head dropped in my lap. At some point I fell over and hit the floor. I was barely able to crawl to the tent flap, dragging my half conscious black Lab. That old tent was surprisingly air tight. Very stupid.

 

[WAB]

Hah, hah. Yeah that's roughing it. Pfft. My shower was also an enamel bucket. Filled it 2/3, warm the water on the stove, stuff my head in it, wash hair, rinse, peel off my clothes, and sponge bath the rest of me with what remained of soapy water. No one to do my laundry every day. Douse my dirty duds in the creek behind the tent and hang them inside the tent from the ridge pole to dry in the night (hopefully!). No chef to cook my grub. Nalleys chili or Dinty Moore stew out of a can was the usual one-course evening meal. A couple slices of bread on the side and chocolate dipped granola bar for desert. Spam and eggs for breakfast with spam sandwich for lunch on the track. I remember one night getting back to camp at 11:00 p.m. Trying to speed things up so I could get in the sack, I brought the mini gas BBQ into the tent and sat in front of it as my canned meal cooked. I fell asleep sitting in the lawn chair, head dropped in my lap. At some point I fell over and hit the floor. I was barely able to crawl to the tent flap, dragging my half conscious black Lab. That old tent was surprisingly air tight. Very stupid.

Sir, your tent is a luxury camp compared to what many of us use on our backpack hunts in Alaska and Northern Canada. And yes I have hunted from DIY wall tent camps when I lived in Wyoming.

You can draw no conclusions on a remote bush camp in DG country from your farmhouse or lodge experience in South Africa. Quite frankly, your willingness to belittle others experiences as compared to your own is insulting.

 

[Mtn_Infantry]

Hah, hah. Yeah that's roughing it. Pfft. My shower was also an enamel bucket. Filled it 2/3, warm the water on the stove, stuff my head in it, wash hair, rinse, peel off my clothes, and sponge bath the rest of me with what remained of soapy water. No one to do my laundry every day. Douse my dirty duds in the creek behind the tent and hang them inside the tent from the ridge pole to dry in the night (hopefully!). No chef to cook my grub. Nalleys chili or Dinty Moore stew out of a can was the usual one-course evening meal. A couple slices of bread on the side and chocolate dipped granola bar for desert. Spam and eggs for breakfast with spam sandwich for lunch on the track. I remember one night getting back to camp at 11:00 p.m. Trying to speed things up so I could get in the sack, I brought the mini gas BBQ into the tent and sat in front of it as my canned meal cooked. I fell asleep sitting in the lawn chair, head dropped in my lap. At some point I fell over and hit the floor. I was barely able to crawl to the tent flap, dragging my half conscious black Lab. That old tent was surprisingly air tight. Very stupid.

Gas Stove in a sealed tent … the flawed logic is strong with this one

 

[LivingTheDream]

Getting back on topic, I could hunt Roe deer in Europe for the rest of my life. I had an amazing experience in UK. Spain I would rank in top 3 hunts of all time. I will probably retire there part time.

It is hard to compare to Africa because Africa is so diverse, I envy the guys who have gone to Cameroon, Uganda and Ethiopia. Tanzania was special for me, my first trip to South Africa changed my life and what/where I wanted to hunt.

I have the strongest desire to make it back to Yukon though it is ridiculous expensive, but that is the cost of being remote. To walk a place where few get to see and fewer get to touch, is a privilege unto itself. I just hope to make it back.

I have plans to hunt Mongolia, Austria and Newfoundland in the next 18 months and will report back.

 

[Red Leg]

Sir, your tent is a luxury camp compared to what many of us use on our backpack hunts in Alaska and Northern Canada. And yes I have hunted from DIY wall tent camps when I lived in Wyoming.

You can draw no conclusions on a remote bush camp in DG country from your farmhouse or lodge experience in South Africa. Quite frankly, your willingness to belittle others experiences as compared to your own is insulting.

Hah, hah. Yeah that's roughing it. Pfft. My shower was also an enamel bucket. Filled it 2/3, warm the water on the stove, stuff my head in it, wash hair, rinse, peel off my clothes, and sponge bath the rest of me with what remained of soapy water. No one to do my laundry every day. Douse my dirty duds in the creek behind the tent and hang them inside the tent from the ridge pole to dry in the night (hopefully!). No chef to cook my grub. Nalleys chili or Dinty Moore stew out of a can was the usual one-course evening meal. A couple slices of bread on the side and chocolate dipped granola bar for desert. Spam and eggs for breakfast with spam sandwich for lunch on the track. I remember one night getting back to camp at 11:00 p.m. Trying to speed things up so I could get in the sack, I brought the mini gas BBQ into the tent and sat in front of it as my canned meal cooked. I fell asleep sitting in the lawn chair, head dropped in my lap. At some point I fell over and hit the floor. I was barely able to crawl to the tent flap, dragging my half conscious black Lab. That old tent was surprisingly air tight. Very stupid.

It is the arrogant hubris that is so off putting. I like many others here have had the great privilege to hunt a really large array of environments on multiple continents over several decades. Some were DIY hunts where the bed of a pickup was a dry luxury, others were tented, and still others seasonal huts. Other hunts were based from luxurious chalets or comfortable lodges. They have run the gambit. But whenever I have hunted a new game animal, or with a new outfitter, or a new environment, I have learned something new. I can't imagine the demons that would cause me to belittle adventures with which I have absolutely no previous experience or first person knowledge.

 

[Ontario Hunter]

It is the arrogant hubris that is so off putting. I like many others here have had the great privilege to hunt a really large array of environments on multiple continents over several decades. Some were DIY hunts where the bed of a pickup was a dry luxury, others were tented, and still others seasonal huts. Other hunts were based from luxurious chalets or comfortable lodges. They have run the gambit. But whenever I have hunted a new game animal, or with a new outfitter, or a new environment, I have learned something new. I can't imagine the demons that would cause me to belittle adventures with which I have absolutely no previous experience or first person knowledge.

Well, I'm not sure who's belittling whom. Didn't this all start (again) with the same old line that hunting "game farms" in South Africa just isn't real African hunting. Someone who shoots a bear treed by dogs belittling me for actually stalking game on a mere 5K acre farm. Yeah, okay. Whatever.

I hunt farms because I like the farmers. It's in my background. Bellying up to some $940 sushi bar in NYC is not in my background. Definitely not my crowd. I don't have to go there to figure that out. No belittling. Is what it is ... or isn't.

 

[375Fox]

Well, I'm not sure who's belittling whom. Didn't this all start (again) with the same old line that hunting "game farms" in South Africa just isn't real African hunting. Someone who shoots a bear treed by dogs belittling me for actually stalking game on a mere 5K acre farm. Yeah, okay.

I hunt farms because I like the farmers. It's in my background. Bellying up to some $940 sushi bar in NYC is not in my background. Definitely not my crowd. I don't have to go there to figure that out. No belittling. Is what it is ... or isn't.

It appears to have started with a suggestion you didn’t like. The rest is not written in this thread.

 

[Philip Glass]

Still to this day my Ibex hunt in Kyrgyzstan is one of my greatest adventures. It is still likely the best bang for your buck for an extreme adventure.

 

[Red Leg]

Well, I'm not sure who's belittling whom. Didn't this all start (again) with the same old line that hunting "game farms" in South Africa just isn't real African hunting. Someone who shoots a bear treed by dogs belittling me for actually stalking game on a mere 5K acre farm. Yeah, okay. Whatever.

I hunt farms because I like the farmers. It's in my background. Bellying up to some $940 sushi bar in NYC is not in my background. Definitely not my crowd. I don't have to go there to figure that out. No belittling. Is what it is ... or isn't.

I have never hunted a bear with hounds so I have no basis to judge that experience. Mine have all been taken spot and stalk. Though running one with hounds looks interesting, even exciting. But like you, I wouldn't know.

I also don’t much care for sushi or New York. I have experienced both but neither together. So I am not sure your point.

I didn't say anything about African game farms in this thread other than note that I do suggest people go to a different place in Africa for a second safari. It is a big and rather diverse place.

I base that suggestion on having hunted game farms in South Africa and Namibia, and having also hunted a few of the many other areas one can pursue game on that huge continent. I had very positive and yet very different experiences in all of them. I have even written about my buffalo hunt in the Limpopo in “African Hunting Gazette.“ You should look it up, you might enjoy it. I can offer informed opinions about those places and compare them to other environments I have personally hunted or experienced. At each location, I learned something new - often a lot.

What I find curious, even incomprehensible, is a compulsion to offer critical opinion about any subject about which one has no experience at all. For instance, I have never hunted mountain Nyala in Ethiopia and never will because of cost. I have read and discussed such hunts, but actually know nothing. It certainly would not be relevant to point to other highland hunts I have taken whether the US Rockies, BC, or the Alps and draw any sort of conclusion from them with respect to Ethiopia - particularly for someone else. It is a form of false equivalency.

You should write about some of your North American hunts. I have no doubt many of us would find them of interest. You should continue to do so with respect to your farm hunts in South Africa. I have no doubt that they might represent exactly what other new forum members hope to find on a first African adventure.

 

[LivingTheDream]

$940 sushi bar in NYC

For what it is worth the sushi in San Francisco is better.

 

[WyoBull]

My most memorable guided hunt was an archery black bear hunt in Northern Saskatchewan just below Lake Athabaska.
Baiting black bears that rarely, if ever have seen man, fishing for Walleye, Northern Pike, and Lake Trout when not baiting or in stand made for an action packed experience.
I would do that hunt again, for sure.

 

[mdwest]

For what it is worth the sushi in San Francisco is better.

I had gas station sushi in NYC once… it was about as good as you would imagine… lol

 

[Red Leg]

I had gas station sushi in NYC once… it was about as good as you would imagine… lol

Don't try it in the south in the summer.

 

[WAB]

Don't try it in the south in the summer.

It might be OK, they’d probably have deep fried it!

 

[LivingTheDream]

I had gas station sushi in NYC once… it was about as good as you would imagine… lol

I had an employee get gas station sushi in Columbus Ohio, I begged him not to. He worked from the hotel for the next 3 days, lol.

 

[Rickmt]

Sushi in Bozeman mt is excellent ! Dave’s Sushi is excellent but we have even more choices.

 

[Rickmt]

My most memorable guided hunt was an archery black bear hunt in Northern Saskatchewan just below Lake Athabaska.
Baiting black bears that rarely, if ever have seen man, fishing for Walleye, Northern Pike, and Lake Trout when not baiting or in stand made for an action packed experience.
I would do that hunt again, for sure.

Just got back from Reindeer Lake in northeast Saskatchewan fishing for Pike

 

[Ontario Hunter]

I have never hunted a bear with hounds so I have no basis to judge that experience. Mine have all been taken spot and stalk. Though running one with hounds looks interesting, even exciting. But like you, I wouldn't know.

I also don’t much care for sushi or New York. I have experienced both but neither together. So I am not sure your point.

I didn't say anything about African game farms in this thread other than note that I do suggest people go to a different place in Africa for a second safari. It is a big and rather diverse place.

I base that suggestion on having hunted game farms in South Africa and Namibia, and having also hunted a few of the many other areas one can pursue game on that huge continent. I had very positive and yet very different experiences in all of them. I have even written about my buffalo hunt in the Limpopo in “African Hunting Gazette.“ You should look it up, you might enjoy it. I can offer informed opinions about those places and compare them to other environments I have personally hunted or experienced. At each location, I learned something new - often a lot.

What I find curious, even incomprehensible, is a compulsion to offer critical opinion about any subject about which one has no experience at all. For instance, I have never hunted mountain Nyala in Ethiopia and never will because of cost. I have read and discussed such hunts, but actually know nothing. It certainly would not be relevant to point to other highland hunts I have taken whether the US Rockies, BC, or the Alps and draw any sort of conclusion from them with respect to Ethiopia - particularly for someone else. It is a form of false equivalency.

You should write about some of your North American hunts. I have no doubt many of us would find them of interest. You should continue to do so with respect to your farm hunts in South Africa. I have no doubt that they might represent exactly what other new forum members hope to find on a first African adventure.

That post was not referring to you.

 

[Ontario Hunter]

My most memorable guided hunt was an archery black bear hunt in Northern Saskatchewan just below Lake Athabaska.
Baiting black bears that rarely, if ever have seen man, fishing for Walleye, Northern Pike, and Lake Trout when not baiting or in stand made for an action packed experience.
I would do that hunt again, for sure.

I fished with an outfitter from the town of Winnipegosis, Manitoba about ten years ago. Great guy and a great time. I think his name was John. Not a guided thing, only his guest. He had just finished bear season. Twenty-three clients shot 23 bears. He puts on some great waterfowl hunts too. That country is unbelievable. Beautiful.

 

[R.M.C.]

My most memorable guided hunt was an archery black bear hunt in Northern Saskatchewan just below Lake Athabaska.
Baiting black bears that rarely, if ever have seen man, fishing for Walleye, Northern Pike, and Lake Trout when not baiting or in stand made for an action packed experience.
I would do that hunt again, for sure.

I agree, hunting bears that just look at you with genuine curiosity is awesome. And the fishing in northern Canada is spectacular!