What is your best ever "Trophy" animal?

[schmalts]

Here is my real favorite... My first deer. I was hunting a power line clearing and made a awsome shot at a true 200 yards with an 1890's era Savage 30-30. (i raised just above its back) I remember getting down from the tree stand and looked for blood and didnt find any. My uncle came out of the woods and helped a while and told me i missed. I went back in the stand and sat for 30 minutes replaying the whole situation and clearly remembered it react to the shot by running with stiff front legs. I then realized i didnt look out far enough and got back down and walked out further in the snow to find blood. When it got in the woods it was a gusher and i literally ran after the trail to find this buck. it will always be my favorite until my son is old enough to hunt with me. I was 12 years old here

<FONT COLOR="#800080" SIZE="1">[ 01-21-2004 06:12: Message edited by: schmalts ]</font>

 

[1_pointer]

Mine would be my first whitetail buck. I had shot at and missed a doe with three shots at 30yds on opening day. The next day I crawled into the stand that I killed my first deer from the year before. About 5mins after first light I shot a 16" wide 9 pointer. The look on my dad's face was the biggest trophy I could probably ever get!

 

[Nut]

Any animal I take will never compare to the joys I experience while hunting and watching my boys take their first critter of a species.

How can anything I do beat something like this?

 

[JB]

that's really sumthin!.....i was thinking that there would be a picture of a freak or lobster goat picture thrown in here somewhere!.....but it was the doe kill with a two year old at your side being your favorite....its not offen that a father and a son get to enjoy hunting with a two year old.

 

[BuzzH]

Great topic, and some good stories.

Its kind of hard to pin down the best trophy ever, but I'd have to say my goat in Montana.

I applied for a goat tag for 18 years and finally drew one in 1998. I called my wife as I was working out of town to see if I drew any permits. She said I drew a goat tag, I couldnt believe it. I wanted a goat tag in Montana more than any other permit, including sheep.

I made a few scouting trips and saw lots of goats. I hunted the first 10 days of the season and saw over 20 different goats. I found one really good billy bedded under a cliff a long way off on day 5 of that trip. I worked in close to him and set up for a shot. Thankfully, I waited to get a look at both horns before shooting, he was missing all but a 2 inch broken stub on one side. The first thing that I wondered was how he broke it? He was a great goat, but I wanted one with both sides. I could have killed many goats on that trip, but never did.

I hunted a four day weekend next and again saw lots of goats and passed on some smaller ones. I tracked a wolverine for over a mile on a spiny knife-edged ridge before he dropped into a steep basin.

The next trip I made for goats was in early November. My buddy Doug and I went down there, it was great to be hunting with a partner. We located some goats the first day, and attempted to get at them. We got close enough to see that one was a shooter. We hiked up to where we saw them (3 hours or so) and couldnt locate them. We glassed a big basin, and right above timber line we found 3 good six point bulls bedded, one was really good. We contemplated killing a couple of them as we both had MT elk tags. We decided to pass them, and keep looking for the goats. We finally located them right at dark working a spiny ridge to the West of us. We spiked out and the next morning we went to where we last saw them, again they'd moved another mile or so further to the West. We edged up and found them. We approached to 60 yards or so and most of them were bedded, including the largest billy. I asked my buddy Doug if he looked good, he said, "shoot that wooly bastard!" I shot him bedded through both shoulders and the spine. He tried to stand but couldnt and rolled a couple hundred yards down hill. I'll never forget walking up to him, I couldnt believe that after 18 years of applying and close to 20 days of goat hunting I finally connected. The pack out was pretty rough, and I was one whipped pup by the time I got back. My buddy Doug worked his ass off too, but I was a nice guy and gave him half the goat meat

Heres a shot of some of the country:

Heres some of the goats I saw:

Doug and I with my goat:

And one last picture packing the goat to the truck:

 

[smalls]

schmalts

In order to be a trophy in North Dakota, they have to be at least 3 bucks. I must say I "stuffed" a few but I shouldn't speak to much of them (poached them in the middle of the night...funny how you never get sick of that look in their eyes).

Really though, for me it is the whitie I stalked across a harvested sunflower field back in 2000. Layed in the mud at 45 yards for an hour and half until he stood up. Ended up sticking him at 35 yards. Only scored 120", but still a picture perfect hunt.

smalls