Okay, it could be a record book Alaskan brown bear or that mangy flea- bitten coyote you dusted at 600yds. Whats your most memorable trophy and why? I'm sure this won't be easy or will it?

No, this ISN'T an easy question!

I won't pick just one, because I can't, so I'll pick three North American hunts that really stand out as memorable.

I have a mule deer on the wall that I took on my own on Steen's Mountain, in Harney Co., Oregon. I took him after ten gut-busting days of hunting. He was bedded and had me spotted, but he lost his nerve, got up and ran, so I shot him with a .270 at about eighty-five yards. He's all-mass, and a near-perfect typical that would net-score 196 B&C.

I also took a fine Dall's sheep in Alaska's Tok Management Area. This was a packpack hunt. The ram I eventually got was with a group of three other rams. We climbed a mountain for the better part of the morning to get to them. As we crept over a rise, these rams spotted us and sauntered off towards a pass. I used a little knoll as a rest and shot the biggest ram with a .300 Winchester from about 200 yards. He was 13 years-old and his horns were broomed back to 38.5". The hard part of this hunt was getting DOWN the mountain!

Last year, I hunted spring grizzly in British Columbia. Considering the current B.C. grizzly fiasco, my timing couldn't have been better. We made a long stalk on a very beautiful silvertip that we spotted some 800 yards away. Once we had the wind right, we made the final stalk and my guide blew an elk calf-call to bring him in. Well come in he did, and he was just about in our laps before I could get a shot at him! I hit him in the front of the chest, right under the chin, with a bullet from my .375 H&H. Instead of going right down, he turned a hard right, so I gave him another one at the base of the tail to finish things. Both bullets (270 gr. Fail-Safe) went clear through; end-to-end. This was one beautiful boar grizzly, and one fantastic hunt from start to finish.

AD

This is actually very easy for me to answer.

My most memerable is without a doubt a big old scarred up Vaal Rhebok Ram from the Karoo Mtns in South Africa. This is probably the most difficult small antelope in southern Africa to bag. I was hunting with a friend of mine that also happens the be a very good PH down there.

The shot was very long and involved a strong cross wind. I made probably the best shot in my life and took him cleanly with 1 round from my old 7mm Rem Mag. The ram was facing quartering away from me and the bullet took him on the point of the left hip and exited in the middle of the chest. I held well over a foot into the wind. We stopped counting paces at 340 and still hadn't reached him. He now is a full body mount in my living room.

Beautiful country, good friend, challenging animal, difficult shot, it has all the ingredients for a memorable experience.

Mac

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When hunting and fishing get in the way of your job, it is time to quit the job!

My top trophy is my first deer a doe I killed with a 30-30 when I couldn't even afford a full box of ammo. Open sights at 60 yards. Since then a 91/5 ft. Brown Bear and a B.C Moose, several Bull Elk, Double Shovel Caribou, and unforgetable hunts all. Good Shooting.

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My most memorable trophy/hunting experience was actually the first Whitetail my wife shot. The abreviated version is that she had suffered many a cold day trying to get one with little success. On the last day, we spotted and stalked a doe together and she made a clean, one-shot kill. The smile on her face and the knowledge that she is hooked for life are much more valuable than what a lifetime's worth of horns mean to me. That's not to say I haven't had some great hunts though!!!

My first whitetail, a kamikaze yearling, that got between her mother and my muzzle. She was about the size of a German Shepard, and I couldn't have been more swollen with pride.

There are 3 hunts that stand out in my mind down to every little detail. Each one has one of my three children harvesting their first whitetail deer,all three were bucks, and all three hunts were fantastic!

This is fresh in my mind as it happened 14 days ago.

A trophy impala ram grazing on a track and standing next to and dwarfed by a Eland bull. The light was starting to go when we spotted it 350 yards away. We closed to 250 yards when the impala put his head up facing us. "Can you get it from here?" asked the PH. Up came the sticks and I, standing, drew a bead. We waited. The ram put his head down to feed and I put a 196 gr pill from my 8x57 through his neck and into his chest. He was dead on the spot. Handshakes all round and big beaming smiles from the game trackers.

I completely missed another at 40 yards the following day!

I have an odd ball that I have always been proud of. Nothing special, a chuck! Except I was playing at the range and nailing targets at just 100, a friend and I matching against one another.

My bud was shooting, when I saw a flash in my scope, it was a chuck at about 210 yards, moving off into the high grass. I was zero'd at 100 with a 222 Rem and I didn't have much time, so I made a quick play on the target, held slightly high and a little forward of my desired POI and fired, when we got there the chuck had done nothing but roll backward down a little slope. I couldn't have pointed my finger at the POI any better if I was standing nexrt to the chuck when I fired. So, a trophy, I don't know, but a good memory for me. I thought is was a real nice shot.

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Live Free! Madison, Jefferson and all the boys paid for it, and so did our very own fathers.

ONE is way too tough.
Back in 98 a friend from the east coast came out to tag along for a few days during big game season. On what was supposed to be a early morning wait for some whitetail bucks to cross a big open field the ranches entire herd of elk crossed to the east of us. All three hundred fifty of them. I ended up taking my best ever 6x6 with my puny .280 Rem at a lasered 388 yds. He went down and to make it even better with a little engineering we were able to load him whole and be gone in fairly short order!

My first decent kudu. Not the biggest kudu ever taken but he made me finally realize that yes I was truly in Africa, a lifelong dream. I will never forget the circumstances, the people involved or how I felt.

Last year took a nice eland bull after a few days of chasing him and the herd around all day long. Took him right at dusk, one shot from a really wierd position. Clean kill with the bull going down seconds later. The sheer size and toughness will never be forgotten.

FN

I can't remember when I started shooting jack rabbits - I was maybe 4 or 5. This was off the window sill of my Dad's truck with a 22.

I remember when I started hunting, though - I think I was eight. I got a running cottontail at about 25 yards. Perfect shoulder/heart shot. My lifelong companion Boots (a border collie) was in hot pursuit at about three feet behind. When the rabbit tumbled under his nose he lost him and started casting with high leaps. I was proud enough to bust a gut!

Don

My most memorable trophy was the grizzly I got while out deer hunting. I didn't see the bear until I was 25 paces from the kill he was laying on. Took me over 5 minutes before I had a clean shot on him. I didn't think a texas heart shot would be wise. Adrenaline rush to the extreme waiting for the better shot. Smokey

Well it was no trophy, but last year my friend and I took his daughter on her first hunt. All we shot that day was two good jerky deer, but to see the look in her eyes was priceless! She thought we where the great white hunters. We got to play tweenty questions all the way home.
We had one heck of a good day that day! We also have a new hunter on our hands in a few years as soon as she is old enough to pass hunters education.
Some times the best trophy is a great memory!

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Freedom wasn't free. Today they want our guns. What will they want tommorow?

My most memorable hunt was last year, the deer was a small fork horn muley. The memorable part was that my 7 year old son was laying in the grass and sage brush with me while we waited for them to feed out of the trees. He helped me dress it and get it back to the pick up.

Good shooting,

Todd