OntarioHunter
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- Joined
- Sep 11, 2020
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I would have thought this should have come up before, but it didn't turn up when I looked (but maybe I didn't search properly?) So ... let's see what happens.
This is about animals you HAVE hunted, not bucket list hopefuls. I have always found whitetails challenging for spot and/or stalk. Treestand stuff or baiting them just isn't for me. Elk I never found particularly challenging. Their socialization is their Achilles heel. In this country moose are exceedingly challenging to stalk. They are solitary animals chased around by wolves. Unlike elk, they rarely will hang around if they hear something coming on their track. Moose are okay too eat (sometimes not so much) but the racks take up a helluva lot of space. Today I'm finishing a 61" cap mount for a client. He is wondering where to put it and thinking over the bed headboard. So I am using a lot of extra reinforcement and, though it will have my own design superduty hanger, I have advised him to screw it to a stud. Besides being ten times more awkward to hang, I find moose shoulder mounts to be almost repulsive ugly. So, though quite challenging to hunt (unless called in), one bull moose is more than enough (and I have three). Though pronghorn are the most attractive North American shoulder mount, the meat does not turn my crank. Neither does taking potshots at them in the next township. So I shot one fifty years ago and one was enough. Have never had an interest in shooting bears or cats or the methods usually employed to harvest them. Lots of opportunities but never shot one. Cape buffalo and kudu are at the top. Typically very challenging to hunt (spot and stalk). The trophies are magnificent. A shoulder mount cape buffalo ranks up there with moose for unattractive but a buff euro mount is both impressive (if hung at 45 degrees ... flat against the wall they look goofy) but not overwhelming. A really big cape buffalo bull would be just over 40" wide while my smaller elk rack is 49" inside spread and 53" tall. That elk rack extends 27" into the room (big one "33). In comparison, my SCI buffalo bull's skull is only 12.5" into the room on 45 deg angle and 24" tall. Takes up less than half the space ... but what space it does use is filled to the brim with bone and horn. Hard country to hunt (unless you like sharp rocks, thick brush, and lots of thorns), very spooky, very smart, very hard to knock down, and very mean. In the end, if you do get a nice one without being killed or maimed, you've got an impressive trophy that won't overwhelm everything else. Kudu, of course, ranks second. Equally hard country to hunt and equally as wary as buffalo. Obviously not as hard to knock down as a buffalo weighing a thousand pounds more. The trophy is not as compact but a kudu euro actually hangs surprisingly close to the wall. I have a nice bull kudu and a gemsbuck cow euros that fit on adjacent walls next to each other in a very small corner of the trophy room. A shoulder/pedestal kudu makes one of the most spectacular mounts of any animal in the world. Though they use up a lot of space, the result is definitely worth it.
Actually, when you get right down to it, I prefer hunting birds to big game. Watching the dogs work is priceless. Shooting moving targets is head and shoulders above squeezing off a round at a standing animal through a high power scope. For birds, the species is a toss up. Goose hunting typically provides abundant targets and the birds are sharp eyed and smart. They are also tough to bring down. Pheasants are better eating, beautiful to behold, electrifying when they flush (especially when they squawk), and they know how to use cover. Pheasants typically involve a lot more legwork which I prefer to standing around waiting for something to happen.
So my list is:
1. Ringneck pheasant
2. Cape buffalo
3. Kudu
4. Canada goose
Sorry, moose and whitetail just missed the podium. Elk, mule deer and pronghorn didn't make the quarterfinals. Bears and cats weren't in the same game.
This is about animals you HAVE hunted, not bucket list hopefuls. I have always found whitetails challenging for spot and/or stalk. Treestand stuff or baiting them just isn't for me. Elk I never found particularly challenging. Their socialization is their Achilles heel. In this country moose are exceedingly challenging to stalk. They are solitary animals chased around by wolves. Unlike elk, they rarely will hang around if they hear something coming on their track. Moose are okay too eat (sometimes not so much) but the racks take up a helluva lot of space. Today I'm finishing a 61" cap mount for a client. He is wondering where to put it and thinking over the bed headboard. So I am using a lot of extra reinforcement and, though it will have my own design superduty hanger, I have advised him to screw it to a stud. Besides being ten times more awkward to hang, I find moose shoulder mounts to be almost repulsive ugly. So, though quite challenging to hunt (unless called in), one bull moose is more than enough (and I have three). Though pronghorn are the most attractive North American shoulder mount, the meat does not turn my crank. Neither does taking potshots at them in the next township. So I shot one fifty years ago and one was enough. Have never had an interest in shooting bears or cats or the methods usually employed to harvest them. Lots of opportunities but never shot one. Cape buffalo and kudu are at the top. Typically very challenging to hunt (spot and stalk). The trophies are magnificent. A shoulder mount cape buffalo ranks up there with moose for unattractive but a buff euro mount is both impressive (if hung at 45 degrees ... flat against the wall they look goofy) but not overwhelming. A really big cape buffalo bull would be just over 40" wide while my smaller elk rack is 49" inside spread and 53" tall. That elk rack extends 27" into the room (big one "33). In comparison, my SCI buffalo bull's skull is only 12.5" into the room on 45 deg angle and 24" tall. Takes up less than half the space ... but what space it does use is filled to the brim with bone and horn. Hard country to hunt (unless you like sharp rocks, thick brush, and lots of thorns), very spooky, very smart, very hard to knock down, and very mean. In the end, if you do get a nice one without being killed or maimed, you've got an impressive trophy that won't overwhelm everything else. Kudu, of course, ranks second. Equally hard country to hunt and equally as wary as buffalo. Obviously not as hard to knock down as a buffalo weighing a thousand pounds more. The trophy is not as compact but a kudu euro actually hangs surprisingly close to the wall. I have a nice bull kudu and a gemsbuck cow euros that fit on adjacent walls next to each other in a very small corner of the trophy room. A shoulder/pedestal kudu makes one of the most spectacular mounts of any animal in the world. Though they use up a lot of space, the result is definitely worth it.
Actually, when you get right down to it, I prefer hunting birds to big game. Watching the dogs work is priceless. Shooting moving targets is head and shoulders above squeezing off a round at a standing animal through a high power scope. For birds, the species is a toss up. Goose hunting typically provides abundant targets and the birds are sharp eyed and smart. They are also tough to bring down. Pheasants are better eating, beautiful to behold, electrifying when they flush (especially when they squawk), and they know how to use cover. Pheasants typically involve a lot more legwork which I prefer to standing around waiting for something to happen.
So my list is:
1. Ringneck pheasant
2. Cape buffalo
3. Kudu
4. Canada goose
Sorry, moose and whitetail just missed the podium. Elk, mule deer and pronghorn didn't make the quarterfinals. Bears and cats weren't in the same game.
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Or watching my hounds work a cat track, and having them rig a bear as you ease down a mountain road
