Most Dangerous Hunt in America?

Kodiak bear? Inland grizzlies? Big, angry, rutting bull moose?

My choice, hands down, is mountain goats! No, you're not too likely to get mauled by a mountain goat, but there's no doubt in my mind that overall you're more likely to get hurt or killed on a mountain goat hunt than any other type of hunt in North America.

Depending on how you're getting to the 'jump-off' point, you'll probably travel by boat or airplane. There's often several crossings of waist-deep ice-cold rivers involved. There's the risk of hypothermia due to the wet and cold. There's falling rocks, and falling goats. There's as many bears (at least in the lower areas) as on there are on some bear hunts. There's snowy, rainy, slippery, steep, cliffy country. One false step, and you can fall to your death or be seriously injured with rescue hours or days away. Danger isn't just a possibility on a goat hunt, it's standard fare.

Anyone have any close calls on a hunt?

Buck Nelson Alaska Hunting Adventure: 700 Miles Alone by Backpack and Raft

Kodiak bear? Inland grizzlies? Big, angry, rutting bull moose?

My choice, hands down, is mountain goats! No, you're not too likely to get mauled by a mountain goat, but there's no doubt in my mind that overall you're more likely to get hurt or killed on a mountain goat hunt than any other type of hunt in North America.

Depending on how you're getting to the 'jump-off' point, you'll probably travel by boat or airplane. There's often several crossings of waist-deep ice-cold rivers involved. There's the risk of hypothermia due to the wet and cold. There's falling rocks, and falling goats. There's as many bears (at least in the lower areas) as on there are on some bear hunts. There's snowy, rainy, slippery, steep, cliffy country. One false step, and you can fall to your death or be seriously injured with rescue hours or days away. Danger isn't just a possibility on a goat hunt, it's standard fare.

Anyone have any close calls on a hunt?>>>>>>>>>>>

I agree totaly with you. I have not been in a area with lots of grizz bears but I have hunted for years in black bear and couger country and have never had a problem with either of those critters. I have not hunted goats but I have spent a lot of time looking for them and getting photos.

A few years a go two friends and I heard about a new population of goats here in Utah and decided to try and find them. We found them but on the way out we tried a new way down and got seriously ledged on a cliff. We where ready to spend the night but we found a narrow shute to slide down wiyth the help of some ropes and we made it down just after dark. I thought we where a gonner a number of times on that trip.

I am nervous around moose too. I know of three people that has been charged by moose while hunting. The moose never connected but it was a close thing. One guy had a cow moose chase him back up in his tree stand and keep him up there for a couple hours.

This is not Danger! But it sounds like fun!

I think dangers in North America have much more to do with nature than with dangerous game. Any wild animal is probably capable of doing some harm, but our native animals are not aggressive unless trapped. If we really want to list dangerous animals, the polar bear is the only one that stands out. I have met wolverines (two), wolves (two), black bears (lots), deer, elk, coyotes, fox, feral dogs (very scary; perhaps the most dangerous), and mountain goats in the wild. All respect man and only one mountain goat stood his ground. (In fact, he insisted that I leave 'his' ledge. I was not hunting but mountain climbing. Rather than battle a goat with an ice axe, I retreated.)

Duck hunting might be the most dangerous form of hunting we do in the lower 48. There is some danger of falling in and drowning.

You should have been drinking a 'Moutain Dew'.

Duck hunting might be the most dangerous form of hunting we do in the lower 48. There is some danger of falling in and drowning.>>>>>>>>

Thinking about it the most dangerous animal to hunt might be the whitetail deer. I here a lot more about people falling and hurting themselves from a tree stands while deer hunting than I do hunters getting attacked by wolves, bears, or cougers.

goats dont kill people.....the mountain does.........karl

Or at least packing one: http://www.birdman.org/products/DoTheDew.htm

(and yes, boys and girls, it's a joke page .

'Bruce L. Nelson' asked

The meanest animal to hunt is the crocogator.

What's a crocogator?

It'a an animal that has the head of an alligator on one end and the head of a crocodile on the other end.

If he has a head on both ends, how does he 'relieve' himself? you ask.

He can't. That's what makes him so mean.

The most danger hunting that I have come across, is running into another hunter that has been drinking, and shooting at anything that moves. To all Hunters, beer and hunting don't mix.

Thanks Lena,

I appreciated the chuckle.