Hunting Trip

[foxhunter]

Hi guys first time on this forum. I'm from Ireland and interested in taking a hunting trip to the States. What I hunt hasnt really been decided yet, just wanted to know what was out there and where ? Don't have a huge budget so really the cheaper the better.
Thanks Thomas Fox

[Wapitibill]

Hello and welcome to the Huntamerica fourm.

That's quite a question you're asking! Many books have been written describing the wide variety of hunting oppertunities available in the USA. We have everything from squirrels to moose, doves to geese. Let me answer your question by asking a few of my own. What sort of hunting are you interested in? Are you a rifleman or shotgunner? Do you want to try your hand at bowhunting? Are you interested in seeing a certain part of the US? North, South, East and West - each part of our country has its own distinct hunting culture and opportunities. A whitetailed deer hunt in the eastern US gives you one kind of experience chasing mule deer out west gives you a totally different one. I ask about interest in seeing the US because if it's deer you want to hunt there there are plenty of deer hunting (oops, stalking) opportunities available in the UK. And then there is the issue of budget. How much money and time to you plan on spending? There's a wide variety of game that can be hunted for next to nothing - varmints, predators and hogs. Or you can spend $20,000+ to shoot a trophy elk. You can hunt on your own or go with a guide.

The possibilities are endless.

If you can give us a better idea of what sort of hunt you'd like to do I'm sure somebody here will be able to give you some suggestions and directions.

[foxhunter]

Thanks for the reply. I have plenty of deer stalking her in IRELAND ( we are not in the UK ) I would be more interested in some cheaper varmint huntin. Have plenty of experiance with rifles, unfortrunately our retarded government limits us to nothing bigger than .308/7.62, I use a 6.5x55 myself. I really wanted to see a bit of america and hopefully kill something while Im over there
If someone was willing to help me out with a trip over there id be glad to return the favour here where we have red, fallow, sika stalking, plenty of foxes, and hunting rabbits with lurchers 1
Cheers Thomas

[GF.]

Maybe you should plan a tour around coyotes - you can find people wanting to be rid of them everywhere you find them, so that probably narrows it down to elevations between sea level and 13,000 feet or so within the lower 48 and Alaska. Not that rifles are necessarily permitted everywhere in the US, but even the states with a shotgun mandate for deer hunting will often allow centerfire rifles for varmints....

You'll rarely (if ever) run up against a closed season on them and there are probably as many ways to hunt coyotes as you can imagine; some will call them in; others might use a road-killed deer carcass as an impromptu baiting station; some run them with dogs on foot, others follow the hounds on horseback - whether they're riding 'western' on cow ponies or English style on blue-blooded jumpers, -and still others will use dogs as decoys, using the coyotes' territorial and predatory instincts to reel them in.

If you'll be shooting them, your Swede is close to perfect; I don't think a coyote round gets much better than a light-weight 6.5 bullet pushed a bit past the 3,000 fps mark. And if you can find someone to host you for free, there are probably a good number of guide/outfitting services willing to take clients fairly inexpensively just to provide some income outside of the big game seasons.

Though, come to think of it.... If a coyote hunt isn't what you had in mind, you could always restrict yourself to the southern half of the US and shoot a truckload of feral pigs.

[LeeInSC]

For something quite different than stalking deer in the hills of Ireland, but not expensive....

1. Black bear hunt in Maine, Virginia or North Carolina.
2. Wild turkey hunt in South Carolina or Alabama
3. Wild hog hunt in the cypress swamps or mountains of South Carolina or the hills of middle Tennessee behind dogs.
4. Public land pronghorn hunt in Wyoming or South Dakota. Throw in some prairie dog shooting and some pheasant and chukar wingshooting.

[foxhunter]

Thanks again for the replies.
GF - coyote definitely sounds interseting, friend of mine was in Cheyenne few years back hunting them with dogs, looked like o fun place to be. Also feral pigs sounds just up my street, like I said I wanna see some of america and kill something, after that I'n not fussy

Lee-InSC - How expensive is not expensive....? they all sound like something i'd love to do so please fill me in...?

Thanks again Thomas Fox

[LeeInSC]

I have mostly hunted black bear, pronghorn and turkey without guides, but I do know what a lot of the lodges charge, and I have hunted on or near some of them.

Black bear in Maine is going to be probably $1,600 to $2,000 hunting from a lodge with meals and a guide for 5 or six days.
http://www.maineguides.org/

Hunting in North Carolina could be less expensive, because it is not as well-known. The eastern coastal swamps are usually by dog, and have huge bears. The mountains have lots of bears, also big. $1,000 for 3 days, to $1,600 for 5 days would probably get you a good guide. Bear hunts in the East and South, and Midwest, are in the fall. A bear hunt in Western NC would put you close to some real wild boar hunting in the mountains of NC, SC and Tennessee. The ones in NC and SC have more of the original German boar genetics from the ones stocked there in the 1880s on fenced estates.

Some states in the North and West have a fall turkey season, but in the South, it is a Spring season. $300 a day in South Carolina or Florida, to $450 in Alabama. The key is to get in on the first of the season, where the turkeys are plentiful, and a good guide will call one up the first day. Better to pay $500 or so for that than $1,000 for 3 days, unless you just like the experience. I would recommend South Carolina, South Georgia, and Florida for turkey.

If you are going to do a Spring turkey hunt, you might be able to couple it with a plane ride to the West for a spot and stalk spring bear hunt. If you want more information, I know a lot of people who have hunted with guides for all the above in those states.

You would need an American hunting partner to help you hunt public land for pronghorn antelope, so a reasonable guided hunt in South Dakota or Wyoming is probably a better idea. Some who have hunted out there recently could point you to good areas and guides.