Most Challenging: AK Moose in the AK Range. Hunted same bull for 8 days, multiple multi-mile stalks over tundra, willow swamps, etc. Hours spent in snow, fog and rain, and cold. Tent camp with lots of really cold temps. In general, miserable conditions and physically and mentally draining hunt.



Most exciting: Tuskless hunt in Dande with Buzz. Approached over 125 elephants before we took an old tuskless in the jesse. Still the most fun hunt of my life. Also was able to shoot a buff an leopard on the trip.

Most challenging: Leopard, two long hunts--one in the lowveld and one at Dande. Finally got that done.

Most exciting: Tuskless cow with CMS. The loudest sound I have ever heard was the trumpeting of a cow when she first smelled us.

Well, it appears we have both Africa and elsewhere - when considering the question asked?

Africa:
Most Challenging - LDE
Most Exciting - Tracking Lion in Botswana

Elsewhere:
Most Challenging - Sheep hunting in the north, both Dall/Stone
Most Exciting - Polar Bear (I have always said this was the single greatest adventure I have ever been on, ever!)

Interesting to read these opinions.

Joyce and I do most everything together (except mountain hunts, she doesn't use the word hunt and backpack in the same sentence)

So hardest I will bow to her. One year almost to the day after finishing chemo she was tracking Elephants with me, Buzz and the team in Dande Safari Area. For someone that doesn't do mountain hunts she was a beast!!

Most dangerous is likely a tie between Ele in the thick Jess of April and Lion on foot face to face in Zambia with on foot follow-up.

Mountain hunting Sheep in Alaska is tough but the memory of the misery fades fast.

Cheers
Jim

Hunts are challenging for different reasons. Some are physically challenging. I'm getting too old for those at this point. Others are mentally challenging.

Last year's leopard comes to mind. We had a big tom on bait when I got there. We saw him early on and he was a very nice cat. Extremely light-complected, so he was identifiable. We had all sorts of near misses, some caused by hyenas, some by lions, some by darkness. We ended up sitting on that cat eight times, some evenings, some mornings, before we took him. We got in exceedingly early and stayed exceedingly late, to keep from spooking him and he kept coming back. It became exhausting sitting hours on end in a blind.

Finally, the night before we took that cat, we ended up sleeping in the field a few kilometers from the bait just to get some sleep. True to form, he came in the next morning before daylight and left. The hyenas came and somehow didn't detect us. Finally, the leopard came back to protect his meat from the vultures. It seems he'd been careless and left a fresh kongoni quarter on top of the limb where the birds could get to it. I shot him on the ground after watching him for over a half hour lying under the tree, rolling on his back with his feet in the air, etc.

A very satisfying hunt. We took him on day 13, but if I'd have had to sit another hour in a blind ...