Recommended Big Game hunts for new guys

Don't worry, I knew right away who "that guy" was. Even if your not "that guy" I think its important to learn how to find some degree of success on your own. On the Wabasca river I shared a campfire with a guide and his client. The client had hunted all over the world and seemed to have more invested in firearms than I do in property, but when pressed he had only ever done guided hunts, he seemed to prefer his hunts fenced as well. This guy had probably learned a lot from all the professionals he had hunted with but IMO he lacked the fundamental experience, patience and work ethic to make a hunt happen on his own. Somehow in all the guided hunts, high trophy expectations, and skipping out on a lot of the footwork that makes a great hunt he'd completely missed the whole point as far as I'm concerned... I don't really want to be that guy either.
 
It seemed such a simple question.....

There are lots of great hunters that have never ventured outside their backyard and there are lots of great hunters that have traveled the world. There are inept hunters that have never ventured outside their backyard and there are inept hunters that have traveled the world.

But, never miss an opportunity to bash a group of hunters! I guess the outcome of the question was predictable.
 
It can work the other way. The client has decades of experience and the guide is in his young twenties. He wasn't raised on a trapline by wolves. Elk guides that have never shot an elk. African PH apprentices that didn't even own a rifle until a few months before. Give him a bit of time and he will have clients of his own and someone else's stories. Guides that had never seen the area before. Bear guides that don't know much more than where the baits are. Whitetail guides that are also bear guides and know about the same. The new wrangler that got promoted because the guide quit. And that's just the guides, then there's the outfitters.

There are great guides, and not so great guides. Then there's the con artists and fraudsters. Everyone who has been at it for awhile has a horror story or two.
 
Getting way off topic but not really
You should see some of the guys getting asked to be white tail and moose guides around here, basically anyone that has a few days off from their real job and wants to work for nearly free, hunting experience optional. Just show up with a pick up so you can road hunt be willing to trespass and you are good to go.

We got half dozen Americans up for work right now they all hunt and when they asked me to refer them to a decent guide outfitter I realized that of all the ones I know none of them are something I would recommend to a friend. Sad really.

Moral of the story choose your outfitter wisely.
 
A deer in my back 40 where I have setup two stands will be a real treat. Doubt it will come easy. I've been hunting the last couple of weekends. Plan to do so this Saturday as well. We were in the ground blind last Saturday and called in a buck with a bleating type of call my buddy had. We were 30 yards from the bush and he must have been 20 yards in.

He never came out but he snorted up a storm! Got closer and closer and next thing you know he got further and further away and never came back.

Wasn't a successful hunt but damn! was it ever EXCITING! Trying to figure out what we did wrong. The wind was wrong for sure but I don't have much of a choice where I can hunt. We think he was watching us and saw us as we had the mesh in the ground blind down most of the way as my buddy was using a bow. I have a crossbow so I can shoot through the hole in the mesh.

There is always next weekend. Might try the tree blind next weekend.

Pretty exciting stuff I must say!

I do like to get away somewhere; see different landscape. I can and will hunt on my own in the backyard but I guess it doesn't have to be the only experience I have.

I guess to some of you I will probably look like 'that' guy because I've spent a lot of money on rifles, optics and equipment. More so than most successful hunters with far far more experience than me will spend in many lifetimes. I don't care much about what people think about that; I can afford it. It's not going to make me a better hunter than the guy who has been doing it all his life and has a ton of experience but there is no rule that says you are only allowed a Tasco scope until you hunt lion and then you can get a Swaro. Besides I'm not going to take my money with me when I die. Thats what I tell my wife anyway ;-) I don't think she is quite convinced.
 
Republic of Alberta said:
If you really want to learn how to hunt you should put in a few more years hunting deer and expand to bear and moose by yourself or find/make hunting buddy's to go with. Guided hunts aren't going to give you the same raw experience. Everyone I know that guides says the same thing about most of their clients...."their not hunters" Don't be that guy.
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I can only agree with that to a small extent: Yes, there are no doubt individuals who ever only experience guided hunts. I am very familiar with the local type of hunting, but someday I'd love to hog hunt in Texas, bighorn sheep in Alberta/BC and even species in Africa. Apart from spending several years in each place, I will never have the same skill as I have for local game in regards to locating and taking while the ballistics and shooting techniques remain applicable across the planet. All three of these, particularly the last two would be once in a lifetime opportunities for me and therefore would be guided. Lacking familiarity with the big five in Africa, or mountainous conditions for mountain sheep I could be placed in life threatening conditions. I'm not afraid to admit to being inexperienced about something, and doing so would have someone locally proficient there as I am here, which will ameliorate a great degree of risk that I could ignorantly fall too.

I don't wish to be the dead guy (or empty handed guy) who thought he knew everything everywhere because he was an accomplished hunter in his own small region of the world. All that aside, I comprehend what you are suggesting.
 
Follow the money, the good outfits and guides are seldom to never cheap- at least in this part of the world and my favourite parts of the dark continent. The US is a bit of a different story, so many outfits there. They have good, and terrible deals and experiences to be had at all sorts of prices.
 
The posters above who've hunted with guides on far-flung and varied ground have sound advice for you.

I'll offer something different; I didn't grow up in a hunting family either. The first year I decided to hunt, I made a post on an outdoors forum specific to my area, asking for someone to mentor a complete newbie. Someone did, and I bagged 2 deer that season. I learned an immense amount those few days in the field, and those lessons are not forgotten. The next season I went out with a friend with less experience than I had, and we each bagged a deer. The season after, I got my first buck, all on my own.

Pick something you can hunt at home; in Ontario, I'm assuming moose, black bear, birds, obviously deer, and...?

Find a local mentor or three, and go to town. Don't forget to thank your teacher; share some meat, a bottle of whatever they drink... you get the idea.

Then do some hunting on your own in the subsequent seasons, or with another hunter of similar - or lesser - experience. You'll continue to learn like you wouldn't believe.

Keep on with the guided hunts in different territories if you like, there's nothing wrong and a lot great about that too.
 
sheephunter said:
It seemed such a simple question.....

There are lots of great hunters that have never ventured outside their backyard and there are lots of great hunters that have traveled the world. There are inept hunters that have never ventured outside their backyard and there are inept hunters that have traveled the world.

But, never miss an opportunity to bash a group of hunters! I guess the outcome of the question was predictable.
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LOL, never miss a chance to bash the hunting community in general when they don't all agree with you either.
 
Silverado said:
The posters above who've hunted with guides on far-flung and varied ground have sound advice for you.

I'll offer something different; I didn't grow up in a hunting family either. The first year I decided to hunt, I made a post on an outdoors forum specific to my area, asking for someone to mentor a complete newbie. Someone did, and I bagged 2 deer that season. I learned an immense amount those few days in the field, and those lessons are not forgotten. The next season I went out with a friend with less experience than I had, and we each bagged a deer. The season after, I got my first buck, all on my own.

Pick something you can hunt at home; in Ontario, I'm assuming moose, black bear, birds, obviously deer, and...?

Find a local mentor or three, and go to town. Don't forget to thank your teacher; share some meat, a bottle of whatever they drink... you get the idea.

Then do some hunting on your own in the subsequent seasons, or with another hunter of similar - or lesser - experience. You'll continue to learn like you wouldn't believe.

Keep on with the guided hunts in different territories if you like, there's nothing wrong and a lot great about that too.
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I like this guy's advice the best, especially the multiple mentorship advice. My hunting background was much like Silverado's, early on in my hunting career I hunted with two guys in particular, one was a lifelong truck hunter that loaned me a rifle, taught me some bad habits, and got me filling the freezer. The other was an older fellow who would only still hunt big timber, and wouldn't shoot a deer he didn't feel he'd earned. I must admit that the instant gratification of being able to hang a tag on something despite my pitiful hunting skills was appealing at first, but a respect for the old guys skill and ethics gave me a goal I'll work at every season of my life. In the cold November silence, walking as slow as I could stand with my face to the wind, trying in vane to see the deer before they saw me and ran off I felt it... that feeling of not observing the forest, intruding it, or taking from it... but being a part of it. And IMO that's what its all about, more than horns and meat and garages full of gear you use for a weeks worth of days every fall.
 
exophysical said:
LOL, never miss a chance to bash the hunting community in general when they don't all agree with you either.
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I could care less if people agree with me or do things the same way I do....I just don't like to see hunters bashing other hunters because they do things differently. There's lots of facets of hunting that aren't for me but I don't call legal hunters down that partake in them. That practice will be the end of our great heritage.
 
canoetrpr said:
Those Australian sambars sure look great!
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Yeah mate!

The hardest part about the Sambar is it is not like a Bugling Elk, Roaring Red or croaking Fallow, even in the Rut they are dead quite... I kind of Dabble in guiding so to speak and its real hunting to get onto a Trophy Sambar. Theres no guarantees on a Stag the only guarantee is there is good numbers of Deer in the areas I hunt, the more often you are out there the better your chances..


Luck is of course Luck, but say someone from CGN wanted a mature model Sambar stag... We will not get one without hunting reasonably hard, in several areas over several days, morning middays an arvos!


Im not a Spotlighter, although there new regs in Aus permit deer to be spotlighted on private property so if it was your once in a lifetime dream Hunt to visit Downunder an hunt Sambar and you were unsuccessful on 4 days of solid hunting and didn't take any Deer then depending on ONES ETHICS, im sure I can arrange Private property written permission to Lamp one..
but as I say its not my Jam.. I prefer the Hunt an the Adventure an the unsure of whats around the next corner..

any Sambar is a trophy in its own right, the bigger the antlers the better though.



this actually gives me ideas

Cheers

WL
 
I spent a couple hundred bucks on a guided turkey hunt for my first real hunt. Came home with a great story, a nice jake and more than a couple hundred bucks worth of experience and information. It's what you make of it. If you go with a respected guide and ask questions, you should have a good hunt and learn lots. Good luck.
 
What do you guys think about Hawaii?

Was just there and really wish I had taken a gun with me and planned to take a day off from family stuff to go hunting. Lots of goats and sheep. Prices seem pretty reasonable for guided big game hunts. Really not sure if they are good eating but one guide told me that the sheep and boars are (although I don't eat pork). Also not sure about the logistics involved in bringing meat back.

Seems bringing a rifle there is a hassle as you have to register it with the police (shocked me!.. is this America?).

Not many places you can hunt sheep for about $1200 though.

Thoughts?
 
Anytime you bring a gun into the states for hunting you are required to get a permit from the ATF guys. It takes a couple of months so you should plan accordingly. Please tell me that you have set these wheels in motion for your Wyoming hunt!

That Hawaii hunt sounds like a great add-on to an island vacation trip. I'll bet those hunts are only a couple of days long. I'd have to question the practicality of bringing any meat home.
 
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