PEAX Equipment

What's yer total?

Why would there be shame in any game animal legally harvested? I know guys with harvest counts that are ridiculous. All legally taken mostly to feed their large extended families. You can really stack up the critters when you go after and fill every legal tag
They were all legal that I know of. I didn't ask for proof though. And yes, there can be shame. Good thing is, I suppose, that I didn't feed them to my family. This was mostly before I had kids.
 
Back about when I started hunting I built a wooden box out of plywood scraps from a bench I was making. I use it to keep my collection of too many knives. On the outside of the box I have a running list of animals/sex/location/dates taken by myself and my kids. Was looking at it before this last season and was surprised at my list since I didn't take a big game animal until 2010 (40 years old). It is a good reminder of the good times in the field.
 
I keep the brass from deer I’ve shot and put a little sticker on it with a date and buck/doe. I’ve saved a few other casings from other things like my first turkey or when I killed two hogs with one shot from a 9mm. I’ve killed about 29 deer now, hundreds of hogs but I never kept track. Sometimes I’d kill up to ten a day and hunted them 3-4 days a week for five to six years.

I killed birds, squirrels and turtles without remorse when I was a kid which I now kind of regret.
 
I keep a hunting log, it covers every succesful hunts and memorable moments. I include location, date/times, weather, how much game I saw, what worked/sucked, etc. It also has a tally for each species. I don't have it around right npw but I'm always surprised with how many critters I've shot. I'll edit this later with numbers because why not?!
 
Here's my genuine attempt, but frankly, I have some "lost years". I really didn't start taking pictures until I got my first iphone in 2011, and from 2003 until my children were born in 2009, my brain rarely fired on all cylinders. I started hunting in 96, so 26 years of hunting.

Species Method (Gun/Archery)

Whitetail bucks - 3 (2/1)
Whitetail does - 10ish (5/5)
Mule deer bucks - 20ish (18/2)
Mule deer does - 10ish (all)
Pronghorn bucks - 5 (all)
Pronghorn does - 11ish (all)
Bull Elk - 5 (4/1)
Cow Elk - 13 (11/2)
Bull moose - 1 (1)
Bear sow- 1 (1)

Not long ago, there was a lot more doe pronghorn and mule deer opportunity in the places I hunted, and I didn't I think much of it and took advantage of it when I was younger. 3 over the counter pronghorn doe tags here, 2 whitetail doe tags there. When I was a kid, basically every year you could draw a mule deer doe tag where I lived. If I recall correctly, @Randy11 once said in his family, you only shot bucks and bulls. Seems others also hold to that. I was not raised with that ethos, but admire many things about it.
 
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I gave up keeping detailed records a long time ago. I should go back through and write it all down, pull all the stories I wrote and archive it somewhere for my kids. I don't have many pics to about 2005, but hunted a lot between 1990 and then.

I've shot 10 sheep, 25 elk (my biggest bull was #20 bull, only way I can remember), and maybe 12-15 antelope back when MT gave them away like candy, a guy could get 3x a year. No idea on deer, I'd guess maybe 70+ bucks/does. I've filled every MT tag I ever had with a buck, so like 18 there, shot a few in AK, CO and a truckload in MD when I lived there for a few years. Maybe 9-10 bou, don't remember anymore, a bunch of trips over the years I know I've helped pack out 24-5 of them from our spots, plus the ones I shot. I've packed 9 moose now, and shot 5, a brown, and a couple black bears, a bunch of African stuff (10-12 animals). Easily been in on 2-3x as many other hunts/kills.

I'm to the point that I enjoy the adventure as much or more than shooting something, even though we usually kill something.

Not to detract too much from the original post, but it would be pretty neat to hear your favorite two or three hunts.

For myself, I have taken a dozen elk with half of them bulls, close to the same number of deer and bucks, and one bison. Been on a 30 day Alaska hunt helping my dad (one moose, one grizz, one caribou), packed out a Utah moose that was brutal, and been on a mountain goat hunt that made me question my sanity. Only missed one animal and it still haunts me.
 
Rabbits, pheasants and squirrels, countless. I’ve been doing this since 1957. Whitetail deer started in 1964 and I ”think” somewhere around 33. More doe than bucks.
 
I've shot a handful WT and antelope does. Only 1 MD doe (Bridger range/archery) with my 3 year old along.

In 2011 I arrowed a muley doe in eastern MT while antelope hunting. Accidentally shot her right in the belly, right before dark. Couldn't find her. Listened to piles of coyotes all that night. That was my 2nd and very last doe mule deer of my life.

I've kept all my hunting licenses, (did e-tag year). Likely going paper next year, as I like keeping them. Could figure out exactly how many I've notched, but that sounds like a pain in the ass.
 
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