Maine

Young William and his first Bear 

Place: Grand Lake Stream, Maine
Location: 45.17° N, 67.77° W
Trophy: Black BearOutfitter: Peter Looney

This is our second trip out to Maine to hunt with Peter Looney in his hometown of Grand Lake Stream. The bear season is a short six-week season that starts at the end of August. The first two weeks of the season are hunting over bait sites only. While the middle two weeks of the season are a combination of both bait and hound hunting, and the final two weeks of the season is strictly hound hunting. Although Peter Looney is know for his hound hunting abilities, during our trip we hunted the first week of the season over bait.

Joe's First Bear 

Getting There:

From the New York area this is an easy trip. With only an eight-hour drive it is easily done in a one-day trip. But if flying was necessary there are airports in both Portland and Bangor ME, which are only 2 and a half hours from the hunting grounds.

The Hunt:

Hunting black bears over bait sites is very similar to hunting deer, in which there is a lot of time spent sitting in the tree stand. Peter Looney and his team of guides work very hard and make sure that all of his bait sites are baited freshly everyday. Hunting here you can choose to hut as hard as you want. If you want to get into the stand early and spend all day there they are willing to accommodate any of your requests.

Usually you are picked up from your cabin around 1:30 PM and into the stand by 2:00PM. After the bait is freshly added it is time to sit and wait until dark where you will be picked up and be brought to camp.

600 Lbs. Bear 

If you have never been bear hunting in your life, it is almost impossible to describe that feeling in your chest when you get your first glimpse of an apex predator at such a close distance.

Weather:

Varies. I have been sitting in the stand in a t-shirt sweating with bugs flying everywhere. But I have also been sitting in the rain for hours and have never been so cold in my life. So just come prepared for all types of weather.

Essential Gear:

Therma-cell (Mosquito Repellent)

Rain Gear 

3 bears in one night 

South Africa

Blue Wildebeest 

Place:  Limpopo, South AfricaLocation: 24.00° S, 29.50° E
Trophy: Plains Animals 

Outfitter: Limpopo Outfitters

A journey to the African wilderness is the pinnacle of any hunter’s story. With enough different types of plains game to fill almost any trophy room the only advice I can give is bring enough ammo.

Getting There:

Kudu

This is a long one. With Johannesburg only a short 16-hour flight from Newark, NJ make sure to plan accordingly. Once arriving the guide will pick you up from the airport and take you to his camp on the Limpopo River, which is the border between South Africa and Botswana. After arriving let the hunt begin.

 The Hunt:

Finally in the wild bush of the Limpopo River you have to decide how hard you want to hunt. You can decide to get into a blind and sit watching over a watering hole where you can see of warthogs, impala, kudu, wildebeest, and many others. You can also drive around in the Safari trucks and try to spot and stalk the game on foot. And depending on if you ever need to sleep there is night hunting. The night hunt involves driving around and spotting game with a spotlight.

The African plains game includes: 

Greater kudu                                                              

Red-flanked duiker

Impala 

Yellow-backed duiker

Common hippopotamus

Impala

Roan antelope

Common hartebeest

Sable antelope

Waterbuck

Addra gazelle

Kob

Dorcas gazelle

Red-fronted gazelle

Collared peccary

Banteng

White-lipped peccary

African buffalo

Grey ox

Beira antelope

Blesbuck

Gaur

Klipspringer

Asian buffalo

Giraffe

Sharpe's grysbok

Southern reedbuck

Bohar reedbuck

Oribi

Tsessebe

Bongo

Peter's duiker

Marshbuck

Bay duiker

Black duiker

Nyala

Waterbuck 

Weather:

The African bush is classic desert weather. During the winter it is very hot during the middle of the day while at night getting below freezing. During the summer it is above 100 degrees Fahrenheit all day while only cooling down a little during the night.

 Essential Gear:

Warm cloths for the night hunt

Deep pockets (everything has a price)

Warthog 

TEXAS

Place: Laredo, TexasLocation: 27.5061° N, 99.5072° WTrophy: WhitetailOutfitter: Abe Lincoln Ranch

The South Texas brush has always been known as one of the meccas for large trophy whitetail bucks. The Lincoln ranch is no exception with large bucks being taken every year.

Getting there:

Laredo International airport has many flights to and from Dallas every day. Once in Laredo the ranch is short 2-hour drive away. A 4-wheel drive truck is a must because half the drive is on dirt roads.

The Hunt:

This is not a high fence ranch and all of the game on this ranch is fair chase.

The hunt starts with strategically picking a couple of spots on your designated pastures on the ranch. Once your spots are chosen you have to camouflage the ground blinds to the best of your ability. Now that the blinds are in position the hunt is on. In Texas you are allowed to bait the deer with corn and other feed type products. With a couple of scoops of corn and a lot of time in the blind you will see plenty of animals. On an average morning hunt I would see 2-3 bucks and 2-3 does all coming to eat some of the corn and then continue on.

The rules of the ranch are:

1. Bow hunters only

2. You are allowed to shoot one trophy buck (Minimum 130B&C gross score)

3. If below 130 B&C it is a $2000 fine

4. You are also allowed to shoot one doe and one cull buck.

5. You can take as many hogs as you want.

Weather:

Laredo is classic South Texas desert weather with cold nights and mornings with warm weather in the heat of the sun. In the middle of the day it gets hot enough to be wearing a t-shirt in the blind while at 6:30 AM having my jacket zipped up to stay warm.

Essential Gear:

Leather chaps (everything has thorns)

Comfortable Chair

At least 2 blinds to set up multiple spots 

MAINE

Trophy Cat

Place: Jackman Maine
Location: 45.623° N, 70.255° W
Trophy: BobcatOutfitter: Peter Looney

Bobcat hunting in the north woods of Maine is no easy task and requires only the most experienced of guides to lead you on your journey through the thick forest. Pete is one of the best and most respected hound hunters in all of Maine. His dogs are always in tiptop shape and will run cats all day if necessary.

Getting there:

The Hound Dogs

From the New York area this is an easy trip. With only an eight-hour drive it is easily done in one day. But if flying was necessary there are airports in both Portland and Bangor ME, which are only four hours from the hunting grounds.

 The Hunt:

Bobcats are known as the hardest trophies to harvest in Maine because of their solidarity and region in which they live. Because of this bobcats can only be hunted in the dead of winter while using hound dogs to track them in the deep snow. Hunting in the historic north woods of Maine is no easy task and requires an experienced outfitter.

The Hunt starts early in the morning before the rising sun while the brisk northern air is at its coldest. Much of the day is spent driving through the old logging roads looking for fresh bobcat tracks. If you find one that is fresh enough for the dogs to pick up a scent the hunt is on. The dogs are biting at the bit and know why the truck has stopped. Once the tracking collars are put on, the dogs are released.

Now it becomes a game of cat and mouse. As we follow them on the gps we try to predict their next moves and cut them off on a logging road in order to shoot the cat crossing the road or in an open patch of woods. With bad snow conditions or an old track it can be hours before the dogs catch up to the cat. After watching the dogs circle the same place for a long period of time we decided that that had the cat had been "treed". 

The cat was "treed" one mile from the nearest road and required us to take a snowmobile as far as we could. Unfortunately it could only get us half way and we were forced to hoof it. This was no easy hike, there were open areas of thigh deep snow that demanded snow shoes to even move and dense pine tree pockets which can only be navigated by crawling on your hands and knees. Once we reached the dogs we could see that the cat was in the tree and once the dogs were in a safe position I shot it with a 22 cal. pistol, and the trophy was taken.

Weather:

COLD. Snow is a good thing, and is welcomed with open arms to make the tracking much easier.  

Post Kill

Pre-Kill

Essential Gear:

Warm cloths

Good waterproof boots

Snow Shoes (Depended on Snowfall)

ALASKA

Place: Kotzebue Alaska
Location: 66.898°N,162.585° W Trophy: Caribou
Outfitter: Artic Safari’s

 Alaska, just the word itself sends shivers down the spine of any avid hunter. Hunting 20 miles north of the artic circle is no joke and takes a lot of preparation.

Getting there:

Artic Circle from the Plane

Traveling to such a remote location takes time. After the 10-hour flight from New York to Anchorage it is another 1 1/2 hour flight into Kotzebue. Once there it is back into a small floatplane where you are flown into the middle of the artic tundra with 2 tents a small grill and your own gear that has to be less than 70 lbs. in order to get on the plane.

The Hunt:

Camp 

Once camp is all set up and ready to go its time to start glassing. The guide gave us a general direction from which the Caribou would be coming from and told us to keep our eyes peeled and be ready to go. On the first day we saw only one small cow with a fawn and that was it. But on the second day it was a different story. We woke up with the sun and saw another small cow walking across the mountaintops with the sun as a backdrop. The rest of the day was spent glassing the mountains with no luck. As we thought the day was over and decided to make dinner 4 caribou bulls come walking down the far mountaintop and the hunt was on. We grabbed our guns and ran to the far side of the mountain to cut them off. We got into position waited for them to get into range and shot them one-by-one at 430 yards.

Carrying the Trophy's 

Now the work began. Unfortunately we shot them about 1 mile from camp and we needed to carry all of the meat out. We set up in teams of twos with two people butchering and two people carrying meat back and forth from camp. The next day we were flown out because there was a snowstorm coming in and we would have been trapped for 2 days.

Weather:

Can change at any minute so you have to come prepared with warm cloths and rain gear. When the wind is not blowing the bugs are VERY bad so be prepared. 

Essential Gear:

Straight Shooting Gun (May have to take long range shots)

Rain Gear

Bug Spray/ Head Net 

After the kill 

Best Memory:

Camp from a far 

While we were being flown out the pilot suddenly, without warning, dips the plane and starts diving towards the mountain side. Scared that we were going to crash I braced myself for the worst and looked out the window to see the most majestic thing I have ever seen in my life. The pilot was flying low to get a better look at a huge Grizzly Bear. As we got close enough it started running at top speed across the top of the mountain. This will be a memory that I will have forever and if you ever get the oppurtunity it is something that you need to see.