Hard luck hunts
 

I think everyone has a big game animal with which they have good luck, and everyone has one with which they have bad luck. After my first two fruitless hunts (educational experiences) my good luck game has always been elk. I can not really explain it but I simply end up at the same place and time as do the elk. I have long ago lost count but at least three dozen elk have volunteered to fill my freezer. From big tough stinky bulls to delicious cows it is just my good luck game.

For me it is bushbuck. Never could put it together when it came to bushbuck. I got everything else that I went to Africa for but not a bushbuck. For my father it was warthog. He went there 4 times before he passed but he never got a warthog. Crazy since I stumbled over them all the time.

For me, a good mule deer has been my nemesis. Over the years I made 6 hunts and the best I could come up with was just so, so (a light 4X5 with maybe a 17 to 18 inch spread). Then last October I ended my curse in southern Alberta. Took a typical that scored 193 B&C gross with a 30 inch outside spread.

Sounds like your bad luck with mule deer is over. I have done well with them but I think it is harder to bag a real honest to goodness trophy mule deer than most game species.

Well, Craig Boddington agrees with you. A number of years ago he wrote a series of monographs on all of the major North American big game animals for the B&C magazine that were later published in book form. He claimed that a really big trophy mule deer, but not necessarily a B&C head, was the toughest trophy to take in North America.

I'm just the opposite. I was lucky enough to kill a Limpopo bushbuck on my first trip to South Africa, then on my second trip to Africa I got a Chobe bushbuck on the last day of my Zimbabwe hunt, and on my third trip to Africa I got a Cape bushbuck while hunting in the Eastern Cape of South Africa.

However, I didn't kill a warthog until my fourth trip to Africa. I saw plenty of warthogs on every trip, and even saw some monsters, but just couldn't get a good shot.

Here at home a mountain lion and a grizzly bear have been my hard luck hunts. I had tags for both for many years, and have seen both in the woods, but either not while hunting or as for grizzly bears, after they quit selling tags. Those are also very difficult animals for DIY hunts.

Warthogs are fun and usually a "target of opportunity" in my experience. They just seem to appear when you are following an eland track, glassing gemsbok, or just eating lunch. I am not quite sure how you would deliberately hunt one.

I have two animals on that list.

1. Eastern wild turkey. I've hunted them 7 times, (almost 20 days in total- DIY and guided hunts). Missed a silent bird in MO, and saw toms 2 other times while hunting. Sitting in deer stands...seen plenty of 'em. And close too.

2. White-tail buck. I passed on a very long tined 6pt waiting for a big 8 and a big 10 that were on camera. That 6 is the biggest WT buck I've seen on a deer hunt, where I could've shot him if I wanted.

I am always lucky enough to hunt specklebelly goose and also snow goose hunting.