Most relaxing, enjoyable hunts in North America.

H&Hhunter · Jul 19, 2012

Earlier this week we talked about the most physically challenging hunts in North America.

Lets talk about the most fun, low stress hunts.

To me it's an easy choice for the top three.

1. Dove hunting. I love dove hunting with good friends it's fun it generally involves lots of shooting and it doesn't take much effort to get to a nice spot and sit out the afternoon with friends and family and hunt to your hearts content.

2. Pronghorn Antelope. Pronghorn hunting enjoyable and relatively easy. It's done in September or October for the most part the weather is awesome. Cool evenings not so hot days. the wild sunflowers are up in many parts of the west and the sky is at it's bluest shade of the whole year. You see lots of animals and generally get lots of stalks and shot opportunities. Some of my fondest childhood memories are of hunting Pronghorn in Northern New Mexico. There is nothing in this world quite as stunning as a field of hyper yellow wild sunflowers superposed against a backdrop of an electric blue sky of the west in late summer or early fall. I seldom miss an opportunity to hunt pronghorn.

3. One of my favorites still to this day even after having killed hundreds and hundreds of them over the years is hunting feral hog in North West Texas in the winter and early spring. I had a super nice place at one time that I could hunt that was almost 200,000 acres and had ever kind of country from swamp to dry canyons and the whole place held hogs. I'd cruise for miles on foot with a rifle and sometimes a couple of Jagd Terriers just soaking in some of gods greatest country and shooting hogs along the way. The thing I love about hunting hogs is that you get all kinds of shot opportunitys and you can use any rifle/caliber that suits your fancy which is why there are whole bunch of deceased hogs in that part of Texas who met their end with a .470NE or a .458 Lott or a .45-70 or a .375H&H or a .223 or an original commercial FN Mauser in.30-06 with iron sights or a .358 or a .338 Ultra Mag at stupid long range or a.....well ........you get the point

It just plain fun and it's real hunting with real life game shooting and I've found nothing that sharpens your game shooting skills better than multiple hogs under spot and stalk or jump shooting conditions.

Now my daughters are both addicted to hog hunting too so I'm going to have to find another lease at some point..

Those top the list for low cost, stress free hunts for me. How about you guys and gals?

MrDig · Jul 19, 2012

If you like to eat it, Squirrel hunting is another nice easy afternoon. sit under a tree with a .22lr and shoot one and then wait for his buddies to come see what happened a little while later. Shoot another and do the same. Squirrels are kinda stupid that way.

Flintknapper · Jul 19, 2012

I agree Dove Hunting would have to be on the list somewhere.
^^^^^^^^^^

We also have Javelina in the State where I live (TEXAS), and they make for a leisurely hunt.

They are basically 'fair weather' animals....and don't require you to get up at the "crack of dawn" or stay out really late in order to find them. I appreciate that at my age.

The aren't super wary, nor are they 'push overs'.....just about 'right' in all respects.

wankerjake · Jul 19, 2012

Cow elk, especially when I have 5-7 days to hunt and there is a good population of animals. You know you're going to get one, it's just a matter of time. And it's a big payday of meat when you get one down.

Also squirrel hunting. Nice to spend an afternoon in the woods and get a meal or two out of it.

Pit4Brains · Jul 19, 2012

I vote dove hunting.
Requires little walking, hiking.
Easy on the dog.
Great way to introduce the youth hunter.
Usually close to home, at least here in Az.
Morning or evening,
Camp and hunt in the same area.
Ammo is inexpensive.
More kills per day than any other hunting I know of.
What did I miss?

Larry Ashcraft · Jul 19, 2012

Dove hunting of course. It's more of a social event than anything else here, and H&H knows that all too well.

I'll agree on the pronghorn as well. When my cousin had his ranch, it wasn't uncommon to have most of the hunters filled up by early afternoon. Carcasses were skinned, washed, covered and cooling out, rifles were put away, and beers were passed around. Good times.

MCgunner · Jul 19, 2012

Man I'm with ya on the dove hunting. Shirt sleeves, good friends, shotguns, and action.

I've had a few goose hunts similar, but they were with outfitters and they're the exception. I've had more goose hunts on public and private land that were walking with deeks on my back for a long distance through salt grass prairie, tripping over clumps of salt grass or in muddy cow tracks. So, dove hunting is much, much more relaxing in general and friends can chat without being miserably cold. I've had COLD goose hunts, too.

Hunting hogs is from a stand for me, usually, though I have still hunted them with success on over-run ranches, kickin' the brush much as if rabbit hunting without a dog. That is a buncha fun.

I do love my squirrel hunting, but don't get to do much of it now days. I hope to change that in the future, maybe. East Texas is the place for squirrels in the piney woods.

Gimme an accurate .22 handgun and I'll sit under a tree and wait til dawn. Move to where you hear 'em chattering and running around if they don't come out where you are.

Art Eatman · Jul 19, 2012

Dove hunting is a great social event, for sure.

I guess two of my favorite relaxing hunts were at the old home place outside of Austin, and down at the deer lease near Uvalde. I'd found two good sitting places where deer usually wandered past at some point in the late afternoon. I could go and sit all comfy, leaned back against a tree, and sorta snooze in a "hunter's doze". Sure enough, I'd rouse and there was Bambi!

DAP90 · Jul 19, 2012

I hate to just parrot everyone else – but doves. As said, it’s social, not physically demanding, there’s lots of shooting and the shots are tough enough to make it interesting. We always hit them in the evening as they come to water. I have a spot under a tree where I can hang out in the shade and watch them come flying down a canyon. It’s Nebraska, so having a tree is noteworthy.

I also really enjoy pheasant hunting with my FIL. He takes his time, plans the way he hunts a pocket or field and doesn’t mind stopping for awhile after hunting an area to just enjoy it for a second. He’s not much for enjoying it with quite reflection, he’s a talker, but I can live with that.

My BIL’s – not so much. They speed walk through a pocket and then race off for the next one. They can’t be bothered to tell you how they want to hunt an area and then grumble when you don’t do it right. I gave up hunting with them and just go back weekends when they’re not around.

2ndAmFan · Jul 19, 2012

I've shot several deer from the front porch on the land my family owns in TX. Really, how much more relaxing and enjoyable does it get than sitting on the porch with a steaming cup of coffee first thing in the morning and getting a deer? A friend of mine got one too when he came over early one day. Another friend came over and got two in about 2-3 minutes, although he wasn't on the porch. He was hunkered down behind a stump by the driveway. Don't know why he went to all that trouble.

irondavy · Jul 19, 2012

I hunt hogs mostly and have a great time doing it. I get to my stand in the mesquite and oak between 4 and 5 PM and hunker down. read a few chapters out of a book, thumb through a magazine, or watch the wildlife, its all fun and games until a nice piglet gets shot, cleaned and put in the cooler. Then and only then is it awesome!

all kidding aside I think the best part of hunting is the time outside, away from the crazy of the big city, the pressure of parenting, and multitasking for the man. Doing one thing (hunting) slowly and simply, clears my mind and is good for the soul. And it is only better with someone there to share the experience.

ID

JEB · Jul 20, 2012

squirrel by far. head out in the early fall at about 8AM with a .22 mag and a pack of smokes, park it at the base of a tree and wait. it just dosent get any better than that!

Tim the student · Jul 20, 2012

Squirrel hunting. Nice enough weather, and I get some great naps in.

MARKMALL · Jul 20, 2012

I find that squirrel hunting is by far the most relaxing hunting I do.

oneounceload · Jul 20, 2012

Walking up some nice quail is not only fun, but some of the best eating as well
Strolling through some milo for pheasant is pretty close

Both assuming there is a good dog involved

ACP230 · Jul 23, 2012

Grouse hunting consists of walking around in beautiful country with a light shotgun,
firing a shot every now and then.
If you have a hunting partner conversation is OK while walking too.
What's not to like?

Art Eatman · Jul 23, 2012

I guess most any hunt where you're not fighting harsh terrain or bad weather is a good, relaxing deal. You get back to hunt camp or to home and sit back with a contented smile.

H&Hhunter · Jul 23, 2012

Coyote calling can be a lot of fun too. I used to spend a lot of time calling coyotes.

Patocazador · Jul 23, 2012

A good dove shoot with a cooler full of cold drinks (not alcoholic), headphones with the college football game on the radio, good friends and my Boykin to go pick up the doves is #1.

IF you can afford it, a Southern quail hunt on a preserve with a mule-drawn wagon and teams of pointers finding birds can't be beat .. but you have to have deep pockets.

Crazy Carl · Jul 23, 2012

Squirrel hunting. Nothing like a day, wanderin' the woods with a .22 for .410, gathering the fixin's for some tasty fried tree rat.

Bird hunting, on the other hand, is NO way, shape or form relaxing. I'm right-handed, left eye dominant & absolutely can not shoot lefty. That said, bird hunting entails a lot of shooting holes in the air & a stream of swear words finely honed by 20yrs in the Army.

Love me some pheasant & quail. Just can't seem to shoot 'em worth a darn.

T.R. · Jul 24, 2012

One of the most relaxing hunts for me took place in Spain when I was with USAF. We hunted fallow deer within the foothills of steep mountains with a Spanish guide who looked a lot like Erroyl Flynn. I used a rented rifle in 7.9mm that appeared to be a Mauser design. Scope was European 4X.

We hunted from comfortable ground blinds. Local children and teens "beat the brush" to drive animals toward us. Yet the deer were not dashing through the forest at all. They mostly walked or trotted a bit. I took an exceptionallly nice stag on 4th day of the hunt after passing on many smaller ones.

Food and lodging were great; we stayed at a hunting lodge decorated with red stags and fallow deer mounts. Cost in 1977 was $700.

TR

jmorris · Jul 24, 2012

#1 would be plinking turtles at the swimming hole

#2 would be dove

Certaindeaf · Jul 24, 2012

Poking along on horseback in the wilderness and potting fool hens for the pot with a handgun.

HarcyPervin · Jul 24, 2012

We have an early Goose season that fits the bill for this. Hunts can't be over water, so recently harvested fields are usually the trick. Setting decoys is simple and a blind built into a fence-line or a lay-out blind let you hunt in a t-shirt and jeans in comfort. We used to go before football practice/school.

wankerjake · Jul 25, 2012

After my excursion today, I'd add prairie dogs to the list.

Most relaxing, enjoyable hunts in North America.

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