Like kidoggy posted, "well there are so many, how to choose one?" So instead of picking just one animal or hunt, I'll try to give an overview of my hunting life...
I'm a fourth generation Coloradoan, but my Dad didn't hunt, so I wasn't exposed to hunting until I was in college in Ft Collins. My sophomore year I had a couple of roommates from Craig, CO. The dad of one of them had a hunting camp in the mountains there, and they invited me to go mule deer hunting with them. He lent me a 94 Winchester in .32 Win Spl, and I killed my first deer-- a spike buck.
The next year, he invited me back and I bought both a deer and an elk tags. I borrowed a sporterized .30-40 Krag from my Uncle, and I killed my first elk, a 5 point bull. I was then hooked on hunting.
Back then I had a summer job with the Forest Service in Steamboat Springs and two of my bosses were local guys who grew up hunting and they got their deer and elk every year. I decided that I needed my own rifle for hunting, so I asked my bosses what I should get. They suggested either a .270 Win or a .30-06. They said only the city dudes from Denver would hunt with big rifles like a .300 Win.
So I ordered a .30-06 barreled action and a semi-inleted stock from Herter's, and that summer I put together my first centerfire rifle. That rifle served me very well, and kept my freezer full of deer, elk, and other big game animals for over 30 years.
The following year, I got drafted into the Army. The day that I left Vietnam, I ordered my first shotgun, a Miroku 12 gauge over and under. After I got it I became hopelessly addicted to shotgun shooting and I have since reloaded and shot over ¼ million shotgun shells. On Christmas Eve 1970, I got out of the Army and returned to Colorado to finish college and to hunt, fish, and ski.
After two more years of college, I finally graduated and moved to Steamboat Springs where I lived for another 3 years. During that time I killed a deer and elk every year, and enjoyed grouse, duck, and goose hunting with new shotgun. Also during that period, I met several other hunters who opened me to other forms of hunting. I learned that we could extend our hunting season and hunt earlier with archery and muzzle loading seasons.
So I bought a recurve bow from Herter's, and on the opening day of the 1973 Colorado archery season I still hunted to within 10 yards of a 5 point bull elk, and killed my first elk with an arrow.
I had another friend that was into black powder shooting, and when Colorado FWP announced that they were opening an early black powder deer season, I ordered a .45 caliber Kentucky percussion rifle kit from CVA and put together my first black powder rifle. That fall, I bought a muzzle loader deer tag, and killed my largest antlered ever mule deer -- a 30" non-typical.
By then, the hunting bug had hit me hard, so every year I would buy tags for every animal that I could. I was then able to kill my first pronghorn antelope and my first black bear.
By 1975 I was married with two little boys, and it got harder and harder to support my family while living in a resort town and working seasonal jobs. So when a permanent job in my field opened in northwest Montana, I applied and got it. The Ranger Station that we lived and worked at was next to a lake that was full of a variety of fish from trout to bass, plenty of ducks were there in the fall, and the forest around us had ample populations of Ruffed, Spruce, and Blue grouse.
That area of Montana had both white tail and mule deer. I killed my first white tail deer there. In the 3 years that we lived there I was able to kill a buck deer and bull elk every year, including my largest antlered ever bull -- a 6x6 that was 48" wide and had 60" long main beams. When I took him to a taxidermist in Kalispell, he told me that if I had killed that elk with a bow, he would have ranked high in the top 10 archery elk killed in Montana.
While living there, we were also able to draw antelope tags in eastern Montana so we would go there every fall to hunt antelope, sharptail and sage grouse, and pheasants.
In 1978 we moved to the Bozeman area of southwestern Montana. Back then it was not as difficult as it is now to draw special tags, like sheep, moose, and mountain goats. There were also a number of Game Units that had Unlimited Bighorn ram tags that we could buy every year. I was able kill a Mountain goat, 3 Bighorn rams, and 2 Bull Moose.
Shortly after moving here, several of my friends planned a DIY caribou hunt in Alaska and asked me to join them. We drove to Seattle, flew to Anchorage, flew to King Salmon, then took a float plane to a small lake somewhere out in the tundra where we each killed an Alaskan Barren Ground Caribou bull.
In 1999 a friend who had moved to Canada called and told me of a cancellation Dall sheep hunt in the Mackenzie Mountains of the Northwest Territories in Canada. Having been bit hard by the sheep hunting bug, I bought the hunt and went on my first guided hunt. I drove to Edmonton, took a commercial jet to Norman Wells, then a float plane to the base camp, then a Super Cub to where we would begin my backpack hunt for a Dall ram.
I was able to kill a beautiful 39"+ ram, and as we were packing my ram and our camp back to the Super Cub pickup point, we spotted a Wolverine. I had a tag for it, and shot him. Later in that hunt, I was able to kill a bull Mountain Caribou. He was in full velvet, and my taxidermist was able to preserve the velvet on the mount.
In 2000, another friend of mine got a great deal at a Safari Club dinner auction. It was a 10 day group hunt for plains game in the Limpopo Province of South Africa that came out to $100/day/hunter plus trophy fees. He asked me to join them, and I made my first African safari. I was able to shoot 9 animals on that hunt that included Kudu, Gemsbok, Waterbuck, Limpopo Bushbuck, Blesbok, Impala, and Blue Wildebeest.
In 2003 I found an outfitter out of Inuvik, Northwest Territories, Canada who did combination Musk Ox and Caribou hunts in the fall before the weather got bitterly cold. There were 3 other hunters in camp, but I was the only one that had a Musk Ox license. We were allowed two caribou each, and we all shot some great Central Canadian Barren Ground Caribou, and I shot a great old bull Musk Ox.
In 2004 I went to the Sportsman’s Expo in Salt Lake, and booked a hunt for Cape Buffalo in Zimbabwe and plains game in South Africa. On that hunt I was able to take a Buffalo and Chobe Bushbuck in Zimbabwe. I then went to South Africa and hunted properties in two Provinces. I first hunted in Kwa-Zulu Natal where I shot a Nyala, Zebra, Common Reedbok, and Grey Duiker. We then drove to the Free State where I shot a Black Wildebeest, Red Hartebeest, Common Springbok, and Mountain Reedbok.
A year or so later, I heard about a meat/cull hunt for American Buffalo at Ted Turner’s Flying D ranch west of Bozeman, MT. I used my .54 caliber Green River Hawken rifle that I built, and for $1,500 I got a great OLD Buffalo bull and a little over 500 lbs of hamburger.
I retired in 2007, and as a retirement present to myself, I went on another South African hunt. This hunt was in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa, and I hunted on 6 different properties or concessions. On this hunt I shot 14 animals including a Cape Eland, Bontebok, Steenbok, Gemsbok, Red Lechwe, Jackal, Tsessebe, Black Springbok, Vaal Rhebok, Cape Eland, Cape Bushbuck, and Cape Grysbok.
In 2009, after 40 years of wanting one, I finally bought a .300 Weatherby in a Vanguard that I restocked in AA Fancy walnut. In January, 2010 I took this rifle on its first hunt. Two friends and I went to West Texas and hunted some Texas exotic animals. I shot an Aoudad, Blackbuck Antelope, and a Scimitar Horned Oryx.
In 2012 I again got the urge to hunt in Africa, so I went on another hunt in the Limpopo Province of South Africa. The primary animal that I wanted on this hunt was a Sable bull, and I also shot a Klipspringer, White Blesbok, Baboon, Warthog, Caracal, and African Civet.
Last year, after many years of wanting to go there, I went on a 3 1/2 week trip to New Zealand. My girlfriend went with me and we spent the first week hunting Red Stag, Tahr, Chamois, Fallow Deer, Arapawa Ram, and Wallabies. We then spent 2 1/2 weeks driving on the wrong side of the road, in the rain, touring the beautiful New Zealand South Island.
During this time in my home state of Montana I continued to hunt deer, elk, and antelope almost every year. For over 20 years I had my own horses that I used to pack my hunting camps into several of the Wilderness areas in southwest Montana, and for packing out the animals that we shot. I really appreciated my horses when I shot one of my moose 5 miles from the nearest road. Like most of my Montana hunts, that was a DIY hunt, and I was hunting by myself.
So there’s kind of what I’ve shot. I’ll be 70 next year, but I work out regularly and try to stay in good shape. I’m looking forward to many more years of big game hunting, however, I’m discovering that every year the mountains are getting higher, and the trails are getting steeper…