If money were no object, where would you hunt and why

[375Fox]

I think a 21 day full bag hunt in Zambia with Johnny DuPlooy.

I’m surprised more people don’t say full bag hunt in Zambia over Tanzania. Zambia is more interesting to me. Equally good dangerous game but better sitatunga, sable, and roan then 3 lechwes to take.

 

[meigsbucks]

One hunt: Tanzania for buffalo (at least two), lesser kudu, Grants and Thompson’s gazelle and maybe a lion.
Add others: Work west to Uganda and hunt with Ade Langley again. Then to Zimbabwe to hunt the Save and then to Namibia to do some hunts with Jofie Lamprecht, Jamy Traut (again) and Hunter’s Namibia.
Throw in a moose hunt in Newfoundland and a baited black bear hunt with an elderly friend of mine who wants to get a nice bear before he dies.

 

[Russ16]

Scotland, driven grouse on the glorious 12th
Botswana, tracking hunt for wild lion
Cameroon, tracking hunt for LDE

A week at Sandringham would be on my list. Or Balmoral.

 

[Mtn_Infantry]

If money were no object I’d hunt/fish pretty much daily until I died with the goal of successfully hunting something in every country and introducing someone new to hunting on each trip. I’d really focus on fellow Veterans and their kids.

First up for me personally, I’d want to retrace Roosevelt’s year and a half long African Adventure, including all 11.5k animals he collected/hunted in some form). Like him I’d leave in early spring and return the following fall. If I couldn’t bribe the crap out of Kenya to start there, I’d start over the border Tanzania.. I’d add in looping into the Congo, Gabon, Cameroon and CAR following the DRC leg before heading to Sudan and Uganda. I’d want to finish in Ethiopia for their unique bushbuck and other spiral species. This should let me take all the buffalo, and spiral species beyond the South African popularized slam. If starting in Tanzania, I’d also want to curve down into Mozambique and across Zim/Zambia to get into the DRC

Getting back in the fall I’d jump right into North American season. Start a Stone Sheep/Mtn Caribou in early August in Canada, drop into the PACNW for some of their early season hunts, move to Alaska in early September for a Dall/Moose/Caribou/Griz. Late Sept would have me chasing Elk in one of the prime areas. Early October I’d move onto a Shiras Moose and Rocky Mtn Bighorn tag. Spend a little time bird hunting the west, maybe shoot out east for grouse and woodcock in Maine or a Moose there, before trying to catch the whitetail rut in Iowa/Kansas/Wisconsin/Illinois. Little S. Texas rattling action, some southern quail. First snows would have me heading back east for some classic whitetail tracking in the snow and big woods. Jan would have me south of the border chasing rutting desert mule deer and a Desert Bighorn Ram + some coues if I’m lucky. Late Jan/Feb zip to Alabama for the whitetail rut in the Blackbelt, some more late season southern quail to hold me over for March kicking off Turkeys.

I’d repeatable some form of this yearly alternating continents until I’d have successfully hunted every continent. Taxidermy wise, I’d open a large museum separating everything by continent and country highlighting how the dollars went to conservation with examples of specific projects unique to each country and area. It’d be free for the public with donations supporting youth/new Hunter programs.

 

[MS 9x56]

Yukon, moose, stone sheep and grizzly from horseback.

 

[DLSJR]

A week at Sandringham would be on my list. Or Balmoral.

I hunted right next to Balmoral in 1985, on Airlie. We were eating lunch on a ridge top when a Range Rover pulled up onto a hill over on Balmoral, about 400 yards away. Out climbed Queen Elizabeth and Prince Charles, along with a game keeper. I asked my game keeper what they were doing. He told me “the same thing as us. The Queen is an avid deer stalker”.

 

[Russ16]

I hunted right next to Balmoral in 1985, on Airlie. We were eating lunch on a ridge top when a Range Rover pulled up onto a hill over on Balmoral, about 400 yards away. Out climbed Queen Elizabeth and Prince Charles, along with a game keeper. I asked my game keeper what they were doing. He told me “the same thing as us. The Queen is an avid deer stalker”.

Famously so. One thing I always liked about her was her love for the outdoors.

 

[Mekaniks]

Everywhere.....

 

[Dublinpiper90]

I would say to take a Leopard or really anyone of the Big Five with John Sharp

 

[Pablo]

I want to hunt with @mdwest and his itinerary!
I’m not as worldly as most of you, but like most of you, I’ve always plotted the “what if” when I won the Powerball.
Starting off here in Texas, a really big typical whitetail with maybe a droptine or two. The ones that look like their antlers sprouted from a potato don’t do anything for me. A desert bighorn at Elephant Mountain in the Big Bend. I’d go to Arizona in the Kaibab Forest when it was awesome for a muley. The Mescalero Apache reservation in NM for elk. Antelope Island in Utah for bison. Kodiak Island for brown bear. Barren Ground caribou way up north.
Dove hunting in Córdoba and Oscellated turkey in the Yucatán.
New Zealand for Red stag, tahr and chamois with Gary Herbert. Northern Territory for bigass water buffalo.
So, so many choices in Africa.
Cameroon for Lord Derby eland, roan and bongo with Thierry Labat.
Namibia with Jamy Traut for leopard and pay out the hiney for a black rhino.
Uganda for East African impala and sitatunga.
The rest is a mixed bag. I’d like to go hunt where specific species live. Tsessebe, Niassa wildebeest, lesser kudu, Roosevelt’s sable, Nile lechwe, springbok slam, and for some twisted reason, porcupine and honey badger.
Last but not least, lots and lots of buffalo. Wide ones, scrum caps, old ones, mean ones, loan sharks. All of them!

 

[Mtn_Infantry]

I want to hunt with @mdwest and his itinerary!
I’m not as worldly as most of you, but like most of you, I’ve always plotted the “what if” when I won the Powerball.
Starting off here in Texas, a really big typical whitetail with maybe a droptine or two. The ones that look like their antlers sprouted from a potato don’t do anything for me. A desert bighorn at Elephant Mountain in the Big Bend. I’d go to Arizona in the Kaibab Forest when it was awesome for a muley. The Mescalero Apache reservation in NM for elk. Antelope Island in Utah for bison. Kodiak Island for brown bear. Barren Ground caribou way up north.
Dove hunting in Córdoba and Oscellated turkey in the Yucatán.
New Zealand for Red stag, tahr and chamois with Gary Herbert. Northern Territory for bigass water buffalo.
So, so many choices in Africa.
Cameroon for Lord Derby eland, roan and bongo with Thierry Labat.
Namibia with Jamy Traut for leopard and pay out the hiney for a black rhino.
Uganda for East African impala and sitatunga.
The rest is a mixed bag. I’d like to go hunt where specific species live. Tsessebe, Niassa wildebeest, lesser kudu, Roosevelt’s sable, Nile lechwe, springbok slam, and for some twisted reason, porcupine and honey badger.
Last but not least, lots and lots of buffalo. Wide ones, scrum caps, old ones, mean ones, loan sharks. All of them!

Gary kills some great Stag, Tahr and Chamois in New Zealand. He’s also got that hundred pounder on the wall in the lodge.
He’s at the top of my short list for a New Zealand hunt.

 

[Jay Kelley]

If money were no object, I'd take a couple of younger guys I hunt with on a dream hunt to Africa.

If money were no object and my knees and back were 20 years younger, I'd go after Cape Buffalo and elephant, followed up by Australian buffalo and red ox.

 

[1:66 twiste@d]

Cape Buffalo, some of the plains game, Mule deer, Audad, Mouflon sheep, muskox.

 

[Ontario Hunter]

Nothing would mean more to me than hunting another season with my dogs in Montana. That would be priceless. Just today while driving home from shooting skeet with my grandson I was telling him about each hunting dog I've owned and realized the first one died fifty years ago this summer. Seems like yesterday. The blink of an eye. Ellie, my current and doubtless last Lab just turned eleven. Little French Brittany "Puppy" will be fifteen in a few days. I have always hunted public or publicly accessible land where the dogs and I can roam free of expense, obligation, or inhibition. Free to bond with God's creation without artificial filtering.

The primary objective is always ringneck pheasants, the king of uplands.

But I usually give the dogs a day or two rest while I fill my deer tag.

Hopefully just one more season with the three of us sleeping together in my 19' 1988 Terry camper trailer. Soon enough we will all be sleeping for good. I would pay any price for one more season. But it seems Time cannot be bribed.

 

[mark-hunter]

In case money is no object I would proceed like this:
1. Collecting big 5 and DG7.
2. Collecting all spiral horns
3. Collecting all tiny ten.
4. Massai species

Then:
Markhor in Pakistan
Euroasian Ibex
Tahr in new Zealand
Moose
North American deer species
American bison - with black powder rifle
Arctic species: polar bear, caribou, musk ox, etc
Water buffalo

 

[Wishfulthinker580]

I’d like to say I’d hunt worldwide if money were no object but honestly I think whatever time I wasn’t with family I would be in Africa. Having never done it I’ll hesitantly say I would primarily focus on elephant. After elephant I’d focus on endemic species in every huntable country. I’d focus on getting the big ones out of the way first just in case life happened and I couldn’t hunt anymore for whatever reason. By big ones I mean black rhino, 100 lb elephant, LDE, bongo, mountain nyala, lesser kudu, sitatunga, lechwe, lion etc.. Since money would be no object I’m thinking at least several months of hunting per year and nothing less than 14 days and probably more like 21+ days per hunt.

After I had taken every huntable endemic species in every huntable country I would hunt elephant all the time and only take something else after I had my elephant.

 

[zephyr]

Elephant in Botswana with a Bespoke double
Driven Grouse England or Scotland a pair of Bespoke SxS
Follow the Woodcock migration from the Nova Scotia to Louisiana with my Setter

 

[Green Chile]

I think of the answer a little differently...first in terms of 4 seasons of the year (relative to where I live) and then fill in the blanks. I follow this basic formula now but it would be more of this to answer the original question.


Spring: red stag roar, turkeys, spring bear rut (all times of higher breeding activity for each species)

Summer: Africa for 3 main goals...tiny 10, dangerous game (primarily ele and buff) and more of the bushbuck slam, Australia for buff and banteng (winter season for Africa and Australia....less snakes)

Fall - deer in America and Europe (from small roe deer to large moose)

Winter - Coues deer, waterfowl and fur bearers (wolf, lynx, bobcat, etc)

 

[IvW]

First of a pair of double rifles one in custom caliber I would name 500 NE No.2 3 1/2" firing a .510 600gr bullet at 2150 to 2250 fps and a 375 Flanged mag.
Botswana big thick tusked elephant and black maned lion on foot not bait. Scrum cap buffalo and eland Johan Calitz safaris and Ronnie as PH.

South eastern Zim with York Mare for big long tusked elephant and as many scrum cap old broken horn buffalo as he can find and eland.

Botswana 60 inch kudu closest I came with client 59 3/4 wet personal best 57" dry....and old eland bulls....

 

[Safari Dave]

1. Black Rhino in Namibia - Because most African counties have left this magnificent animal go to near extension, because of poor management
2. Elephant in Zimbabwe - Because Zimbabwe apparently, knows how to manage for elephant
3. Lion in a wild place - I would only want a mature, full-maned specimen.
4. Leopard in a wild place - a big male. I spent 2 nights in an elevated blind in Mozambique. This was grueling for me. Maybe dogs, IDK
5. Sheep - any of them, I'm 61, the clock is ticking
6. Coastal Brown Bear - Alaska has gotten stupid expensive. Russia???
7. Polar Bear - If I can import the trophy, and it's not crazy expensive.
8. High-Altitude Animals - I'm 61 - I may have only 10 more years.
9. Moose - I'd like to take a big Yukon, but I'd probably take a good deal on 2 for my son and I.
10. Caribou - Large antlers would be my preference, but I'd probably take a good deal on 2 for my son and I.