Guided hunts

Can understand that. I rode a river boat from Manaus, to Leticia Colombia in a hammock on deck, cost a couple hundred bucks for food and travel in one. Fished and night hunted caiman with some locals in a dugout, the whole trip came in well under your budget and ran a month.

It was one of my more memorable trips, money goes a long ways there long as you’re willing to tolerate discomfort. That was ~2004/5, hostels ranged from seedy to dirt floored. Bring Imodium.
 
Can understand that. I rode a river boat from Manaus, to Leticia Colombia in a hammock on deck, cost a couple hundred bucks for food and travel in one. Fished and night hunted caiman with some locals in a dugout, the whole trip came in well under your budget and ran a month.

It was one of my more memorable trips, money goes a long ways there long as you’re willing to tolerate discomfort. That was ~2004/5, hostels ranged from seedy to dirt floored. Bring Imodium.

we have always to learn from the experiences of others good or bad ...
 
Say you had 6-7 grand you wanted to spend on a guided hunt, ~8,500 with flight.

If you're talking CDN$ all in, I'd have to say your options are somewhat limited. Africa is an awesome place, but there are many hidden costs, not the least of which is trophy prep and shipping. BC is out, unless you want to hunt black bear. Yukon & Alaska moose is fetching close to $40K US now,same for the "cheap" Dall's sheep. You could still find mule deer or antelope hunts in the US for the money you're looking at spending, possibly elk in some states. Guided hunts are getting crazy expensive, like everything else lately. South America is also notorious for added costs, gun rental, ammo usage, etc.
 
Yeah I’m starting to think this money would go a whole lot further elsewhere. That is enough for a hell of a vacation, a very nice canoe or 12 savage axis.

I might even be too much of a cheap ass to ever do a guided hunt. The higher the numbers get the crazier it seems to me. The only ones that really keep me up at night are Northern Territory Buffalo and Polar bears. I’d like to have a (successful) mountain or barrens grizzly hunt too, but I may have that opportunity as a resident in the coming years if things go according to plan

Ardent has a good point. I’ve been lucky to fish for salmon on the Island, hunt elk, moose, sheep and bears in Northern BC, waterfowl in SK and deer in Southern AB. People spend a lot of cash to do that.
 
Yeah I’m starting to think this money would go a whole lot further elsewhere. That is enough for a hell of a vacation, a very nice canoe or 12 savage axis.

I might even be too much of a cheap ass to ever do a guided hunt. The higher the numbers get the crazier it seems to me. The only ones that really keep me up at night are Northern Territory Buffalo and Polar bears. I’d like to have a (successful) mountain or barrens grizzly hunt too, but I may have that opportunity as a resident in the coming years if things go according to plan

Ardent has a good point. I’ve been lucky to fish for salmon on the Island, hunt elk, moose, sheep and bears in Northern BC, waterfowl in SK and deer in Southern AB. People spend a lot of cash to do that.

then muskox as a resident will be easier like bum mentionned. we have a lot of hunters from nwt going throughout the yukon via north canol road to hunt moose, dall, caribou and the once in a lifetime grizzly permit for the mckenzie.
i still do not know if bison are still open in nwt but some people i know got issues with them coming to the village a while ago.

it is true that many are paying a lot to hunt or fish what we can do on daily basis when we have free time.

you re still young you will find a way that will work for you and find out what you want to do,.
 
In hunting as in guns, better to have a couple good ones than a bed full of Savages. That extends to other things.

There are good deals but they’re generally at best a 50% success on the killing side, not a concern if you’re primarily after the adventure. But they take time they’re never a quick turn, or logistically completely sorted. Most happen through serving time somewhere like AR and making international friends, worth the effort.
 
As far as canoes go Conor, I went with a Hellman Solitude and its been an awesome canoe. Lite enough lay up for one person to handle, carries a good load and works in varied water conditions. The canoe comes with me on most hunts.
Have fun.
 
fishing the amazon....... that's where I'd be headed.
I "really" hate to admit this openly on this forum but ...... I have to agree 100% with ardent's post above..... except for the dove hunting.... meh.
 
Fishing and hunting can be arranged in South America for probably 30 - 40% the North American advertised price once there. But you're looking at a minimum 24hrs in planes and airports.

Unless you are Big Game Fishing; Marlin, Tuna, Surubi, Arapaima, etc. BC has arguably better fishing, several of the rivers I often fish have guides charging almost $1000 per day. And of you read your Edison Marshall, a big Mule Deer is a better hunt than all but the rarest African Antelope.

For the price you say, I'd look at:
Alligator Hunt
Helicopter Hog Hunt
Aoudad Hunt in Texas
Scottish Stag Hunt
Hawaiian Hunting and Fishing.
Riverboat Hunt in BC
Muskox Hunt if it can be done for that price.
Occelated Turkey Hunt in the Yucatan
Auerhahn in Europe
 
One of these days when I finally lose the 25 pounds I've been hanging on to too long and can handle a bit of a hunt, I think I'll sell off some guns and book something like this https://qualityhunts.com/product/hunts/featured/new-zealand-himalayan-tahr/

I've been thinking about tahr in NZ for a long time now. Every other year or so something puts them back on my radar, usually well after I've decided on pursuing something else.
 
Say you had 6-7 grand you wanted to spend on a guided hunt, ~8,500 with flight. Less is more, preferably with some left over for non hunting vacationing or a ~5 day trip. Don’t think you need to fulfill the top end.
I know hunting is hunting but a high success rate wouldn’t hurt. Physically capable of all hunts.

No new gun required (I have a 338 wm and an 8x57JRS in big game rifles, will probably add an 8x57 this summer).

Would have to be between April and August next year

Not really interested in any variety of deer.

What would you do?

Considerations atm:

Package mouflon or chamois hunt in Spain or the Balkans

Battue in Poland, czechia, Slovakia

Hog hunting in the states

A couple or three days water buff in Argentina

Is plains game in SA on the table? Muskox? Cow cape buff is interesting but I would really like to do that “right”.


Any other suggestions? No “if you add x dollars you can” please. Actual experience preferred.

Anywhere to browse besides “book your hunt”?

back to your question i still think you can find a chamois hunt for really not that much with good connections and legally of course in most of mountainous europe.
 
Honestly thinking a canoe, a combo gun and a solo bear hunt next spring is the ticket.

Surprised 45 is responding to both me and ardent; he must be feeling especially magnanimous today.
 
Wouldn’t know, I tend not to agree with socialist bootlicker’s.

been raised with anti communist ideas i can tell you i met more than one that thought socialist or even communist ideas were good and most of them were nice people ... living only with people like minded will not make a huge communauty around you ... the older you get the more you appreciate people for what they are not that when they think ... except of course the centrist cpc bc supporters lol but they will have fun with the new conservative party there and will enjoy more of the ndp ...

btw despite all i heard and read and many may not like it the politicians in canada are not socialists even not the ones from the ndp ...
 
So about those guided hunts eh…


Even thinking of spending 8500 bucks on a few days and a dead animal makes me feel like I’m about to have a panic attack now that it’s written down. At points in my life I would have felt the same about spending 85 dollars, maybe that makes me a socialist :dancingbanana:

Funny how our perceptions change; now that I have rifles worth 2 k I fantasize about ones worth 5, guessing it never stops. The canoe at least would last and could be used on many hunts. I have wanted one for years and bought many guns I never hunted with that could have been spent on one. I think this is the plan…
 
There's a saying. "Only a rich man can afford a cheap hunt". There's a lot of truth is that; but if you can afford to be wrong once in awhile there are many adventures to be had. "Adventure" doesn't mean calm, predictable and fun, and when used in a sentence it would be something like "Great, another friggin' adventure". Adventures usually aren't that much fun when you're having them, being stressful, uncertain, sometimes dangerous. It can be a couple years after an adventure that you find something to laugh about; in what somehow became one of your favorite stories.

Last minute hunts; cancelations, exploratory hunts, hunts with poor equipment, new start ups and outfitters on the verge of insolvency are great ways to have an adventure. Poor planning or even better no planning at all help. Why plan when little goes according to plan anyway? If something or anything went according to plan; you probably aren't even having an adventure. Hunts that haven't even been done before are great. Hunts that end up in a different country than was planned are awesome. "Awesome" doesn't mean awesome; it means adventure. ;)
 
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