hardest animal to harvest?

[maninthemaze]

My hunting experience is very limited. But I do know that trying to draw my bow on a turkey while sitting in my treestand is **** near impossible.

 

[old_heli_logger]

My hunting experience is very limited. But I do know that trying to draw my bow on a turkey while sitting in my treestand is **** near impossible.

I heard that with my bad ear! Turkeys see in the UVA range, so you look like you're glowing blue to them. Try a good Sport Wash type detergent that eliminates UVA...no phosphates.
Good luck!
Steve

 

[Greyfox]

Fred Bear once said that a mature whitetail buck was in his opinion the most difficult game animal to hunt. He claimed that if you were to put a whitetail in the same habitat as any of the sheep, mountain goat, and other game animals that had the reputation of difficulty the whitetail would present a much greater challenge.

 

[Wedgy]

I think the most difficult is the one you aren't prepared for, so I would say which animal takes the most preparation.
Of the ones on the list I would say goat just because most people don't live and hike in goat territory. If you don't shoot big angles, at altitude, from loose ground, and in bad weather you may have a disappointing season.
It took me 3 seasons to get a chukar with my bow. I wanted to mount it but it was so mangled for the snaro tip there wasn't much left. I thought about trying for a ptarmigan but I have only seen one in the last 3 years rock climbing and backpacking. These were around 10,000 feet in the Sierras on a rock outing.

 

[trueblue]

I would say the ringneck pheasant, because here in Iowa we don't have them anymore

 

[toddc]

For me coyote. String jumping little suckers. Never had a bow quiet enough for them not to jump.

 

[Antonio m]

Definitely a old Bighorn Ram, around here they have to be full curl.A miserable old loner Ram has the greatest vision of any game animal,lives in extremely rough country-remote country.Worldwide - a Marco Polo Ram ,70+" is the greatest trophy imo

 

[WRO]

Ibex in the florida mountains.

 

[mtwarych]

After thousands of arrows fired in anger, I have yet to kill a duck with my bow.

I have killed geese on the ground with a bow.

 

[Pdvdh]

Fred Bear once said that a mature whitetail buck was in his opinion the most difficult game animal to hunt. He claimed that if you were to put a whitetail in the same habitat as any of the sheep, mountain goat, and other game animals that had the reputation of difficulty the whitetail would present a much greater challenge.

That's because when Fred Bear hunted Michigan whitetails, bait and tree stands where not allowed. Bear hunted Michigan whitetails on the Boyer hunting club property east of Rose City, Michigan. It was his favorite location for hunting whitetails.

I was hunting the adjacent State lands at the same time Fred was hunting on the Boyer club lands. Pre compound bow days. Ground blinds. No baiting of deer. 48 years later, I largely agree with Fred, simply based on the alertness and awareness of the Michigan whitetail, under those hunting constraints.

As soon as it became legal to hunt from a tree stand, it became 2 to 4 times easier to kill those same Michigan whitetails. And then when bait became legal, another 2-3 times simpler. And then when compounds became available, and sights, even easier. I only hunted with recurve bows and no sights. And a whitetail in those days was a very challenging animal to harvest - under those restrictions, and in that terrain.

Understand that the public hunting pressure in Michigan was intense during rifle season. The common description was an "army" of deer hunters heading afield. An apt description! The only other animal I hunted in Michigan as wary as the whitetail was the Michigan red fox.