Most difficult and/or dangerous hunts in the world

[IdahoCTD]

I always thought a Polar bear hunt using yourself for bait would be pretty exciting :shock: . Put yourself in a big cage in a popular bear hang out like Barrow Alaska and get their attention.... Kind of like those Eco-tourists do when they go out out in a really tall ski-bus. I wouldn't do that unless I had a .375 under my arm!
Scott

That some crazy imagination Scott but I'm going to add to it. How about your sitting in the cage with a camp stove cooking up some bacon and eggs for breakfast, bear sausages for lunch (just to antagonize them a little), and steaks for dinner (if it took that long for them to rattle your cage). :mrgreen:

 

[CatskillCrawler]

I would imagine a coastal brown bear hunt using predator calls could get fairly exciting. I watched an episode, I believe it was a Browning production, which featured a very large brownie crashing through the alder whippets to get to the caller. I was clutching my pillow yelling "SHOOT!!!" when I watched it. :shock:

Personally, the worst scenario I ever got in was having my friend shoot a Canada goose which came down on my shoulder in the flip-top blind as I was swinging on another bird. :? Ouch.

 

[alaska100]

I would imagine a coastal brown bear hunt using predator calls could get fairly exciting. I watched an episode, I believe it was a Browning production, which featured a very large brownie crashing through the alder whippets to get to the caller. I was clutching my pillow yelling "SHOOT!!!" when I watched it. :shock:

Personally, the worst scenario I ever got in was having my friend shoot a Canada goose which came down on my shoulder in the flip-top blind as I was swinging on another bird. :? Ouch.

LOL I bet that got your attention.

Muleman. I thought those guys in the shark cages were crazy LOL You would need a bigger gage for polar bear, so they could not reach you when they reached through the bars, or god forbid if you had a bear on each side, you would need a BIG cage LOL

Aleena, my wish is to be in a position to decide which hunt is the most dangerous, I envy all of you guys and gals that have hunted Africa.

Guy, great pictures, thank you

Dr. Mike and others, I also hate being around unsafe or careless hunters. Makes it very difficult to concentrate on the task at hand. Dr. Mike, do you have spring brown bear season there and is it an open season or draw

 

[DrMike]

There is spring grizzly and fall grizzly hunts. All grizzly hunts are limited entry hunts. If a person is willing to go up north, either flying in or going in by jet boat, the odds of drawing a spring grizzly are about 0.5 to 1.0--you will get drawn. It is the type of hunt, however, that you have to be prepared to go in and stay for awhile.

 

[tddeangelo]

Dangerous hunts and PA don't mix, except in the example given about my beloved home state a few posts back....

People here don't go for those fancy binocular thingamabobbers, just use yer scope!

A few "incidents" that come to mind:

-My brother had drawn a tag for an area normally closed to hunting. This was during flintlock season. My grandfather and I (I was probably 18 or so at the time) decided to go sit the open entry areas around the limited entry zone. Well, so did everyone else. We got in early, and as it got light, I saw so many hunters I would not have had a safe shot in ANY direction, and neither would a single one of them! I quickly packed my gear, collected up my grandfather, and said, "we need to get outta here before some fool deer runs through here!"

-On another similar hunt, the local watershed was allowing archers into the closed areas for management purposes, but flintlock hunters could be in the open-access areas next door. A buddy of mine, his dad, and I all walked in maybe a mile or so and set up. I had a guy sitting at the bottom of the tree next to the one I was in with my climber. Literally. I let him have first chance at a nice doe that came by, but he either didn't see it or didn't know what to do, as he never shot. I shot it, climbed down, and he said, "I was gonna let that one go. I don't shoot little ones!" It was no little one, but I didn't argue it with him.

My buddy had shot a nice doe, too, and we were packing up and heading out with our gear on a landscaping cart we'd hauled in for this purpose.

Halfway back, there was an "S" turn in the road. I see a guy standing just off the road with another guy behind him with what looked to me like a big, studio-quality tv camera. As I'm wondering "what the heck is THAT all about???" I must have made some noise, either scuffed a boot on the gravel, stepped on a twig, who knows....our hunting hero whips in our direction, cocks the flintlock and shoulders it, aiming our way! My buddy and I hit the dirt into the ditches on either side of the lane we were walking. We get up when he lowered the rifle, and then he just slunk off into the bushes without even a word to us.

-This is more funny than dangerous....I was walking through nearly knee-high alfalfa on my way to my stand in bow season. It was dark enough that all the stars were still out. I had no light on, I knew the place well enough to not need it. I put my left foot down and felt the ground "wiggle". After a serious "what the *bleep*???!?!?!?!?" moment, a pheasant came out from under my boot cackling. I wished I could have shot it on principle, lol.

-Same note, I was getting my gear gathered up after an evening bow hunt. I was standing between my ladder stand and the tree getting my pull rope gathered up and my bow in its sling and on my back when i hear something hauling tail TOWARD me. I stopped and listened, and soon in the dim light saw a doe tearing up the dirt heading my way. I just watched until I realized she was going to run me over! I yelled "Hey!" and put my arms out as she closed in on me, and she passed between me and the ladder, and I was between the ladder and the tree! I heard something following her and saw bushes shaking, but couldn't see anything. Having had quite enough, I grabbed my Surefire from my pocket and my 1911 from its holster, and racked the slide on the 1911 (quite a sound in the dark woods). I waited 10 minutes quietly to see what else would occur. Then I safed the pistol, holstered it, and started the walk back to truck. 10 steps and "SNOOOOOOORT!" from about 15 feet away! That deer had been standing there the whole time!

Aside from all that, I do carry a handgun in bow season when I hunt some areas of my lease. Local kids and others have decided the area is secluded enough to be a great spot for drug use, drinking, and certain activities that I really don't need to see the evidence of, yet they still leave such things behind. I avoid parking there like the plague, and access my stands other ways, but I still take the 1911, just in case. Danger here more than likely comes from people doing things they ought not be doing, not from animals or terrain or weather.

 

[super-7]

I would say that grizzly,kodiak,polar bears in N. america, and obviously the big 5 in africa. would be right up as the most dangerous. Pretty tame here for the most part in Alberta, again it will be weather conditions or terrain that can cause trouble if ones not quite prepared.
Since the tales are flowing I 'll share my 2 hunts where I could have had a much different outcome.The first one was a end of November WT hunt my Uncles owned 5 quarters around a small lake, about a mile long and 1/2 a mile wide. I had hunted this pasture many times and had some sheds from a good buck a year before. Pretty simple strategy one guy walks along the bottom side/shore, the other walks around the ridge at the top hoping to spot or spook deer one way or the other. So as we got to the far side of the lake we hadn't seen anything , we had a coffee and bs a bit . We figured with the wind and the - 25*C temp that anything would be moving so we opted to head back to the truck and go into town for bacon and eggs.
As I surveyed the lake and the truck I made a near fatal decision, I said to my buddy " its been -20 for 3 weeks the Ice has to be a foot thick by now lets cut straight across." He looked across and said are you sure? Oh yeah it'll be fine, and I started across, with him about 20 yrds behind me. Well at about 200 yrds from the shore 300 yrds from the truck, I stepped into a muskrat run where the ice was only 1/2" thick. So with parka, skipants, day pack and rifle slung over shoulder I dropped into about 5' 10" of water . well anyone that has been in cold water the instant response is GET THE HELL OUT. I thru my rifle and pack up onto the Ice and was squirming around trying to get out My buddy was starfished out and wiggling his way to me. I started laughing at him I don't no if it was just the situtation or what, but I said quit doing your walrus impression and get me the hell out of here. The look on his face was pretty much of terror, till I told him I am on my tippy toes and am touching bottom. He grabbed my rifle and slid it over and pulled me out. Well the last 200 yrds was like walking thru a mine field testing every step and with the temps and brutal wind my parka and ski pants had frozen solid into a sheet of ice. I the 20 minutes it took to get to the truck I started turning blue, the hill and the bank was tough to get up and I had to walk like the michilin man throwing one side of the body then the other. It took another 15 minutes to get to my sisters house to find out they were not home. I figured the situtation warranted breaking in, so I broke in thru a basement window striiped down and jumped into a luke warm shower, and gradully increased the heat till I felt like my core had come back up. It was a close one and one I wont forget or take lightly again. The second story will have to wait I am being beckoned.

 

[PJGunner]

DAMN! I'm shivering just reading about it. Good thing that lake wasn't any deeper. Must be Somebody up there likes you.
Paul B.

 

[Oldtrader3]

My dad went through a snow bridge (on snowshoes) in January into a fast moving stream once when he and I were out staking claims in the eastern Townships of (Bellchasse) Quebec. I got him out of the water and got my coat and a space blanket onto him and made a big fire really fast. It was about -10 F! I got him warmed up before hypothermia got to him because his body temperature was falling fast. Fortunately, he never lost consciousness and I got him warm and dry with pretty fast with a big fire and some hot tea with sugar in it. Plus, he had good thermal underwear on which probably saved him. I was about 16 years old at the time and it scared the heck out of me.

The moral is, when it is that cold don't ever work or hunt outside alone!

 

[super-7]

it was chilly all right, hard to believe it was almost 20 years ago, young and yes pretty stupid. shrugged it off, dryed out the clothes , cleaned and lubed my rifle and went out that afternoon.

 

[FOTIS]

+1 Mike. If the hunter is unsafe, he does not hunt with me....
Russ

Amen!