I was just thinking about a previous post of the smartest game animal, and wandered what was the toughest like rocky mountain goat, bighorn sheep, mule deer, etc. opinions, experiences

Mourning doves are damn tough. I've thoroughly shot them full of holes, and they just fly away as if nothing happened half the time

H. C.

Sorry, I forgot that doves don't have hooves.

My candidate would have to be the antelope. They can go farther with one leg shot out from under them than a human can on 2 legs. I trailed one antelope that had been shot poorly for about 3 miles before it disappeared. They will literally run themselves into the ground if pushed.

I have found mountain goats to be the toughest and antelope to be the easiest to kill.

ounce for ounce, a dove with hoves is hands down the toughest to kill.

I cast my vote for Mt Goat as the most tenacious. They are not particularly hard to kill, but they will prolong the experience more than any other animal under 400 lbs that I am aware of.

FWIW, Canuck

A ferel Hog I shot one at 50yds. with a barnes X-bullet out of a 300winny,in the neck and it ran 100yds.

Doc

hmmm goood question. It seems to me an Aoudad Ram or feral hog would be high on my list. Feral hogs, if anything, I find like to die standing up. Interesting is that deer in generial (whitetail, mule ect.) can show a remarkable tenacity to life at times, running on their last 8 to 12 seconds of life with massive dammage, but so do many animals, look at coyotes. Most animals around 400-600 lbs or less, generialy have the same capabilities in regards to how much time they have left to do something ... (speed, direction (agressive or passive), or just standing, laying there) after being hit.

Hogs are almost reptilian in their tenacity to life. Along with having a "thick" hide (shoulder gristle plate), this makes them the toughest under-400 lbs game out there.

In my limited experience with pronghorns, they seem tougher than a similarly-sized deer. Any four-legged creature can run indefinately with the function of one leg (or shoulder) destroyed; that's why the "shoulder" shot is only appropriate if it results in damaging the vitals beyond it. You ain't gonna "break down" a buffalo, bear, or even a dik-dik with a shot that only damages the shoulder.

I didn't think anyone would pick my choice, but smallfry did. The aoudad ram is the toughest.

The first one I saw killed was hit broadside in the base of the neck. It dropped him instantly, then he rolled over, stood up and started to dog-trot. Over the next two to three miles, he would stop on occasion, but when he saw us stop, or gain on him, he picked that steady pace up again. We finally caught up to him and finished the job.

The first one I ever killed was similar. He ran off a ways and laid down. When I'd try to get in position for a second shot, he'd move off another 100 yards and lay down behind something. We played this game two or three times.

The way I finished him was to "give up". I marked as best I could where he was, then turned away and walked about two hundred yards down the draw, climbed up the canyon, crossed over the top then doubled back past him. When I topped-out and finally located him, he was still watching the direction that I'd gone. I shot him before he could get back up.

(I think a pronghorn will die when he hears you throw the bolt to chamber a round.)

I read some where that antelope bones were much denser and tougher than a normal ungulates bones. Theory says that their bones take a much harder pounding from the pace they keep up.

I have seen a couple of antelope go for days with broken shoulders. They seem easy to kill with good shots. That said my vote would go to the Mt. Goat.

A bull elk can go a long ways on adrenaline. They get my vote.

How about Nilgai?

Never taken a Barbary Sheep (Aoudad) but I will definitely vote for the Hogs ! I once shot at a hog and, after no reaction from the pork, fired again and dropped him. I butchered the hog and skinned him up to the neck. Kept the head frozen for a few months until I decided I would just clean the skull. Upon skinning the skull out and boiling the meat off, I discovered that my first shot had entered the lower jaw of the animal and lodged in the bone. Now, granted, I was using factory 400 grain 45-70 ammo but DAMN he didn't even flinch or stumble or anything at that first shot!
Moral of the story? Use higher velocity FMJ 45-70 ammo for hogs and . . . hogs are damn tough!

OK, they aren't even close to under 400 pounds but I also fired three rounds of 400 grain .416 Rem Mag into a free roaming Wood Bison with surprisingly little reaction to the first two rounds. At a range of 40 feet my first X-bullet into the boiler room didn't even get a flinch from him! He only seemed to twitch a little at shot #2 into the same area! I raised the point of impact for the third shot and took out the spine thus ending the affair before we wound up butchering him in the thick .

JohnTheGreek

[ 06-13-2002, 01:31: Message edited by: JohnTheGreek ]

Apparently the hardest animal to kill is a whitetail doe that I shot a few years ago. Came walking in, shot through lungs broadside at 35 yards. Knocked her off her feet and down flat. She proceeded to stand back up and walk off, so I shot her again through both lungs from the other side. She now took off running and it took anoother shot through the lungs to stop her. By the way I was shooting 225 grain soft points out of my 338 winchester magnum.

Any type of hooved game that you hit poorly a couple times. For instance, a gut shot deer that gets excited will take more punishment than a non-wounded deer.

I agree Jeremy, Never have I seen more resilience from a Mule deer than from a poorly placed shot. If its well placed they go down good but when wounded the adrenaline kicks in and then theyre twice as hard to drop.

If birds had hooves Id throw the Canadian Honkers in the hat.

Ive never had the pleasure of hunting them but I would guess that a desert bighorn would have to be pretty tenacious to endure in such an environment.

[ 06-14-2002, 05:11: Message edited by: Wstrnhuntr ]

I vote for the hogs, after all i am a razorback baby, just imagine if the wild hogs were naturally the size of a cape buffalo, first, their intelligent as dogs, second tough as nails, and third meaner shit. I know there are big hogs but im talking about just your average hog the size of one.

my wife

I'll vote for a 350 pound Russian & Razorback cross. Now that is some kind a double tuff HOG.

I guess the "hooves" thing cuts out turkeys -- a 25-pound bird for which one uses much heavier shotshell loads than one would ever consider for 150-lb. deer!

Of course, some use rifles like my friend who shot one 5 times in the heart & lungs with a .243 before it went down. This turkey was part buffalo!

John

I have found the white wing dove to be much tougher than the Morning dove, what do you guys think????

On the serious side, the Nilgai antelope though not indigenous to the USA, it has made its place in the US hunting scene. It may be as tough as a full grown Rhino or cape buffalo....or nearly...

I think my vote is going to the gray squirrel. I have seen them soak up as many as 6 hits with 22 and still keep going. I have had "dead" squirrels pull a Lazarus in my game bag on me a couple times, and man I gotta tell you, if they were as big as deer, I wouldn't go in the woods!!

Lop off a Prarie Chickens Dome and they are "still going"! Doesnt get much tougher than that.

Sure you have more species than us Europeans , but on this side of the pond the toughest is the pig! And I am sure American wild boars are die hard as well...

I was hog hunting a couple of years ago in east Texas, with my son-in-law and his dad, and a couple of friends. we were walking out to a water hole where we hoped to ambush some hogs later in the morning. Walking through the brush, we ran a cross three pigs, one of which came straight at us. The guy in front was carrying a 12ga with slugs, and put him down with a head shot from the front, a few minutes later, as we were congratulating the guy, the hog got up and ran off. When we finally put him down for good, we discovered the 1oz slug had just deflected off his sloped skull, just left a crease. That's tough.

[ 06-19-2002, 20:38: Message edited by: 375hnh ]

I think that ounce or ounce the lowly squirrel is a big contender. Especially the big reds. I have shot them things to pieces and still had them run on me. Finnaly I just went to a scoped 22lr and only do head shots on them.

I use to whack them while I was hunting pheasant with my dog in the AMs. With a 20ga, mod choke, and high brass #6's, I actually had a few escape after I clobbered them good.

I screwed up once and belly shot a Big Red right outside her hole. She ran into her hole and figured she'd outwait me. I sat for over an hour not makeing a sound until she finnaly came out with her guts dripping. I then ended thankfully her pain.

I love squirreling. They have my respect and they are tougher then 12 morning doves tied together................J

On the larger end of the scale, I'd have to say the Mountain Goat. On the small end, the squirrel has it hands down. If I ever put as much lead into a deer as I have a squirrel on a proportioned size basis, the deer would be dragged down by the weight of lead alone!

I will have to go with the person who mentioned that elk are the toughest. A close second is the whitetail buck who can keep running while dragging its guts from a poorly placed shot.

My ex wife. toughest ,meanest critter on the face of the earth.

I'd have to rank Nilgai and Axis right under Waxman's X-wife
I've had both go in excess of 300-500yds with a 2 1/4" broadhead hole thru both lungs while leaving a blood trail that looked like it was poured from a bucket. Those rascals are put together like a tank.

[ 06-19-2002, 07:40: Message edited by: Nutoy ]

Waxman
It has to be less than 400 pounds!

Here in Wisconsin we CAN'T kill Doves. I asked why we can't kill doves and they said because we don't have a season on them. I asked how in the hell can you get the seasoning on them before you kill them? I got that blank stare that tells me they don't know either. Dove's are the toughest here in Wis., you can't kill'em!

Actually the meanest animal in the world is the Del Carmen Cattywhumpus, he lives in the Big Bend of Texas and Northern Mexico in the Del Carmen Mts.....His legs on the left side are a foot shorter than the right legs and that enables him to run sideways on very steep terrain and around the high points in those vast mountains, but he can only run one direction..his skin is like that of a Rhino and he is seldom seen in daylight. Texas A&M is doing a study on him now and claim they will give him a proper name at some point...Aggies! he is extremely agressive when cornered or with young.

Johnny B. She still makes the weight limit. Last I heard, she just moved to your neck of the woods.BE CAREFULL!!!!

Ray,

Do you know any good outfitters for Jackalope?

DGK

One more vote for the Aoudad.

My vote goes for the badger. Toughest animal this side of hell and bad attitude to boot. But then if I spent my whole life dragging my nuts over cactus I'd be tough and have a bad attitude too.

Mac