When it comes to trophies, there is always "the one" that is the most special. I'm curious which one is yours? For me it is a trophy that I personally didn't take. My grandfather was a Baptist missionary in China shortly before WWII broke out in that part of the world by Japan invading in the mid 1930s. While he was there he did some hunting and took this cat:



From he story my grandfather told us before he passed, at the age of 92, the cat had been taking livestock and the villagers asked for help. I don't have any idea what he shot it with but he said the kill shot ruined the face which is why it isn't on the skin. Even with the missing head it is about 9 foot long and over 5 feet across the paws. There is a little age wear on it and a few missing claws but it is still a head turner when people see it. I went through about a 2 year process with the USF&WS to get the proper permit to possess it legally and it will remain in my collection until the day I also pass and then will go to one of my nephews.

So that is "the one" for me. What is yours? Share your story and remember you didn't have to take it yourself, you just have to own it.

Don’t have time to tell the whole story but to make it short I shot at this guy twice in 3 years and had been shot at by numerous other people. Hunted him for weeks after I missed him the 2nd time before he came in and I got him at 30 yards. He looked like an Irish elk comming in with the sun rising behind him. He ranks very high in SCI for archery kills

Mine are all special, with their own special memory.

I’m not going to say all mine are as special as the others, but there are enough special ones each for their own reasons that it’s impossible to pick just one.

If I had a gun to my head though I would probably pick my first mountain sheep back in 2006. He was the fulfillment of a lifelong dream and at the time I had no idea I would ever hunt sheep again. The doe I killed with my bow when I was 15 is right there. On another day I might put her first.

Here’s the ram. Sadly, no one even thought to make a photo of the doe back in 1979.

Mine would have to be my public land B&C whitetail I took at Fort Campbell (TN side of the post) on Veterans Day weekend in 2004. #13 all-time in the Tennessee record book (typical, all weapon). The game warden met me on the side of the road and was actually the official B&C scorer. The buck took Best of Show in the 2005 Tennessee Deer & Turkey Expo and Buckmasters published an article about the hunt in their November 2005 magazine. I was in Iraq at the time and didn't know an article had been published, but they also included my email address. I started getting an incredible amount of email out of the blue, over 500 total. Sometimes lightning strikes.

I had to think about this for a minute. This Quebec Labrador Caribou was my first adventure traveling someplace exotic and new to go hunting. It was a semi guided hunt with Jack Hume that ruined me for life. This was in 1991, I was 25 years old, and I went by myself because nobody that I knew at that time thought that doing something like this was possible. Only rich people did hunts like this. I spent a year saving up, writing letters to outfitters in the backs of magazines for brochures, I went to a couple hunting Shows, and called and talked to references before deciding on who to go with. A travel agent helped me with what I needed to do to travel with my rifle, and I went through every page in the Cabela's catalog over and over again.

The hunt was better then I had hoped for. I saw dozens of caribou every day, got to watch them from a distance, and then decide on the one that I wanted to fill my first tag. He was across a low area with a group of about a dozen, and feeding towards the ridge that I was sitting on. As they came closer, I adjusted my position to be in front of them, but never had a clear shot until they passed me. I was laying flat on the ground and they almost walked right over me, almost stepping on me. It was surreal!!!! I could have easily touched one of the cows if I had tried. As they went past me, I turned around and had an easy 20 yard shot on my third day.

I had a second tag, so I was more picky on trying to find a larger bull. I did see a few that where bigger, but never where I could get to them. They walk very fast and if you are not in front of them, there is no chance of catching up with them. I just waited for the next group to show up. On the last day of the hunt, I took a cow to fill my tag. There where four other guys in camp and we all filed out our tags. One guy shot a bull with his bow that was over six feet wide, but didn't have any tops at all, just super wide. The other guys all shot something similar to mine.

Once I got home from this trip, I started planning other trips, and then figuring out ways to make more money to go on them. Overtime at my job, and then doing jobs for neighbors that led to other jobs with people that I didn't know, and eventually to owning my own remodeling company that I do full time. That drive to be able to travel and hunt new places all started with this hunt to Quebec.

Dreamed all my life of hunting a leopard, and also my first kudu in this picture.

Great taxidermy work on your leopard.

"The one" hasn't happened yet for me. I shot my first deer in 2015. I didn't scout or set up a stand or any of that, just went out every saturday morning from the crack of dawn until around 10 or 11 AM jntil I found a decent buck. He weighed 146 pounds and had not one single scrap of fat anywhere on his body. Small 8 point rack, I kept the antlers so I might use them to rattle in a buck one day but I didn't keep the tag, so I can't have em out in the woods with me.

I still haven't had a chance to get another. Three years passed before I got another chance to go after a deer. I saw a few but nothing that would top this. I spent most of my time off this season hunting squirrels with the youngest boy. That was alot more fun anyway

Here's a couple pictures of that deer for anybody curious.

Awesome story and pic!

To date, it is the 5 X 6 bull elk I got on a DIY hunt on Colorado public land. He's no giant, but it was a ton of work to get him. I hope to top him one day.

Hunting and the outdoors has provided many, many years of happiness. I've been addicted to mule deer hunting since my dad first took me in 1971. I've chased them every single year since. I had always dreamed of someday hunting the desert in Sonora, MX, and in Dec 2006 it finally came true.

I stumbled into this 214" typical the first day I was there. The net 204 6/8" buck is the buck of 10 lifetimes, and was once in the top 100 all time. Right place at the right time for sure.

Thank you, sir! Lots of great stories here.

That is awesome!

That's my dream!!!

Absolutely.....bet those emails were a shocker and awesome surprise.....

that leopard would be in my top 3, for good looks

I have had several memorable hunts that come to mind...my first deer in DeWitt County in the late 60's, my first 160+ class native buck in the Hill Country in the mid 90's, my best LF archery buck from La Salle County in the late 90's, my typical 7x7 native whitetail from Bandera County in 2003, my best Mule Deer that scored in the low 190's from Alberta in 2007, my New Zealand trip for Red Stag in 2008, my best Desert Mule that scored in the low 180's from Pecos County in 2010, my best LF whitetail I killed on a large ranch in SE part of the Panhandle this past season..but even with all of those, this hunt with my Dad will always be my favorite hunt of all time. The photos are no longer there so I will add one of the buck that was taken about a few days before.
https://texashuntingforum.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/3897490/1

Yes, sir! And that buck continues to bless me to this very day.

I remember you posting about this buck several years ago. Had to be memorable for sure.

he made a mistake looking out of his hole to see what was going on . His little head came into my Nightforce

It was an amazing experience. But it was also a very tough day. A little more to the story: I had to drag him 600 yards back to the truck through flooded timber (you can see the standing water in the first pic) because it had been raining for about 36 hours straight. I had a game cart but it still took me about three hours to get to the truck. I had to cross a couple of creeks and every time I bumped a tree root, the top-heavy cart would flip over (the buck dressed 165 lbs). The cart must have flipped over a dozen times. Dump. Flip back over. Tighten straps. Pull. Lather-rinse-repeat. It's hard to tell in the first pic but in the one below, you can see I'm soaked from the waist down. The buck was actually totally submerged for a few minutes. Thankfully, an older fella was driving by and saw me struggling to get the deer and cart up out of the creek beside the road and stopped to help. He pulled the cart up while I was down in the water pushing up towards the road.

Right as I dropped the tailgate on the truck, the GW drove by and stopped QUICK. He gets out and starts walking my way. I said, "You probably wanna make sure this is all legal, huh?" and I started throwing all my paperwork down on the tailgate. He nodded as he was walking but didn't even look at any of my documents. He just grabbed antler. After a couple seconds, he says, "Wait right here" and gets back in his truck and takes off. Five minutes later, he comes back with a camera. Back then, I hadn't been hunting long and I didn't really know what I had shot. But the way the GW acted, I was starting to get a clue. I said, "What do you think, 140s?" He looked at me like I had something growing out of my forehead and said, "Dude, this thing's 160 at least."

Then another truck stopped. A couple of guys get out and started gawking. They help take pictures with the GW (like the first pic) and they help me load the buck into the truck. The GW and I exchange contact info and he tells me he wants to officially score it after the 60-day drying period. The rest is history, as they say.

It was 45 degrees. I was freezing and exhausted, but I didn't feel a thing. And didn't sleep much that night either.

I had only been hunting a couple of years when lightning struck. I was very fortunate to get drawn for an early season rifle hunt for bull elk in Arizona's Unit 10. At the time the average wait to get drawn for Arizona residents was 19 years. I was drawn in year 2. I called around to various outfitters and hit it off very well with one. The hunt wound up being very special. The hunt occurred during a super moon, blood moon, lunar eclipse and was my birthday week. The outfitter and guide were absolutely awesome. A friend of the outfitter tagged along to provide assistance. And to further add to the excitement, the hunt was filmed for a nationally syndicated hunting show. I was so freaking overwhelmed. I'd love to redo this hunt again; probably will be another 15 years before I get drawn again due to point creep.

While I did harvest a 370 class bull, that was not what made this hunt the "one". What makes it the "one" for me was forming deep friendships and having doors opened that I would never have imagined. Since then it has been off to the races as far as hunting adventures go.

That's awesome! I'll have to agree about the lasting friendships. I've made some great ones, and I mean blood-and-guts friends who won't hesitate to go to the mattresses with you. Actually, THF has a lot of fellas just like that and I'm proud to be here.

Congrats!

Thanks for sharing, stx. I've only shared a couple of hunts with my dad, but I wish I had many more. He's an old broken down man now with some type of "Parkinson-ism", and he hasn't been a good father, but I wish so much that I was able to have a solid, personal relationship with him.

To me, that's what hunting is all about. It's about the memories, relationships, and friendships. Taking in as much of God's Country as you can- no amount of antler can surpass that.

Don’t really have a ‘The One’, anything I hunt is a trophy for me. Most times it is a trophy for the freezer. Have a few animals I have never taken that would be nice: elk, red deer, water buffalo. Doesn’t really matter if male or female.

Actually I have two "The One"s. One was got and one got away.

The first "The One" was 25 years ago in Leon County outside of Marquez. 140ish 9 point walks out of the Yaupons at about 250 yards. Even though I was shooting a brutally accurate Remington 700VS .308 with a 4.5-14 Leupold Vari-X III, I did not feel comfortable taking the shot due to a less than perfect shot would drive him back into the thick stuff. I was in a two man blind with a good friend's brother, and he started grunting on a grunt call. I saw the rack poke up over the Yaupons, and the buck, looking for a fight, ran straight towards us. Fearing for my life and the life of my hunting partner, I put a 150 Grain Nosler Ballistic Tip through the white patch on his neck at 75 yards, DRT.

The other "The One" was 20 years ago in beautiful Nolan County southwest of Roscoe. Hunting on a 1600 acre cotton farm one afternoon, I was sitting on a five gallon bucket behind a cedar bush about 100 yards from the back fence. It is about 4:30pm or so and nothing was moving, so I started grunting on a grunt call, and a deer answered me. Just on the other side of the back fence was a heavy racked, tall tined, chocolate colored brute of an 8 point, that perfectly symmetrical 8 point you see mostly in magazine photos. I went prone, armed with the same Remington 700VS .308 as mentioned above. The buck looked at me while I was thinking, "Jump the fence dude, nobody is gonna shoot you". He turned around and casually walked into the mesquites.

Just my .02,
LeonCarr

They are all trophies and great memories to me. I think we all progress down our hunting experience path. Early down that path I probably had the one; too many now to choose which is a good problem to have.........

I bought my place in mid 2015. This guy showed up that season. He disappeared during hunting season. He showed back up after the season. I fed him all summer to have him disappear again during the 2016 season. I was obsessed with him and judge every other deer by him. Needless to say I haven't taken many bucks after comparing them to him. I never saw him again after that year. He was the one for me. For the future my goal is to take a 150" + deer off of my place.

That big 8 is still haunting me my friend.

Some great heads!

He was a stud for sure.

That dude's collecting Social Security. Great buck!

How did I miss this one??? I even checked your past posts and didn't find anything...

I was thinking the same thing. I guess he didn't share?

A 6 x 6 elk, sits in the Elks Lodge in Tucumcari, NM that I was able to take back in the last century.....

He hasn’t posted it yet. It’s an unbelievable typical. I’m thinking maybe it’s gonna be on a magazine cover so that’s why he hasn’t posted yet, just a guess on my part......

What's cool (other than him shooting a monster, that is) is that I'm in the SE Panhandle.

My "one" is not mine...

My dad brought my brother and I up to love the outdoors - fishing, hunting, golf, just being outdoors... He was lucky enough to have shot a lot of nice deer through his lifetime, yet the true monster had eluded him. In 2011, my parents house burned down taking all of his best deer/mounts with it. Dad was devastated. Though we were most thankful that no one was hurt, the pain of loosing the "things" that can't be replaced weighed heavy on Dad.

A couple of years later, Mom bought Dad a hunt on the Pitchfork. My brother and I got to experience the hunt of a lifetime right by his side. It simply was a hunt that could not be topped - in every way imaginable. To ice the cake, Dad got his dream buck - hardly repayment for all he did for us, but a good start...

Great pic, congrats to your Dad. The ranch is special. I'm happy to hear James took care of ya'll. He's a great guide and I am proud to call him my friend.

Gold medal Kudu I got 10 years ago in South Africa. Had always wanted one, and getting one this nice was more than I had hoped for.



Another "one" from a few years back on our ranch. This guy was only 4.5 in these pic's. I actually gave all our hunters that year a rebate for not shooting him because we wanted one more year of his genes in our herd. The following spring we got hit by wild fires and lost nearly half the mule deer herd. Never saw him again. I'm sure he would have been 200+ as a 5 year old. Still glad I made the decision to let him walk that year.

My best is still out there, I had one quick shot and that was not enough. But every deer I have taken was a trophy in it's on way. Two real good 8's and two nice 10's on the wall.

I was obsessed for you on this one. I eagerly checked the Photos section every Monday that season hoping for some LDPs. I bet his offspring are still around...

James is a great guy and friend. He has taught [tried to teach] me to be ultra-observant to all things wildlife through the years. His eyesight and awareness level to nature is still mind boggling to me...

Great pics and stories, fellas. Keep it up.