What constitutes your hunting area/spot?

[Str8shooter]

I would like to get some feedback on what folks consider to be the spatial extent of a spot or area they hunt. In other words, if you brought a buddy to an area one year, how close to that spot could your buddy return in subsequent years without you while still keeping the sacred oath of not hunting in your spot? I have some friends who say, the entire unit is my spot, some say the trailhead or road access point, some folks say the drainage or drainages you hunted. I think the entire unit is a bit broad to lay claim to "as your spot", but the trailhead or road access point, maybe not, and definitely a specific drainage would constitute my spot...

 

[mvmnts]

Just talk to your friend. If he's the kinda guy who won't let you back to the unit or back to a trailhead then you just need to say "you know what, thanks but no thanks, I'll hunt on my own". You don't need people like that doing you any "favors". Last thing you want is for them to bring you into a great spot and then say "now stay out". I would lay all this out ahead of time with the person so you have an understanding, then you can just avoid things like "my spot is 1000 yard circle around this pocket". If they have a spot they really like, then that's cool, just don't take you there. I also don't have any experience with guides, but I'd probably discuss this very same thing with them. Are you buying the spot, or are you buying the one time experience?

 

[Gorp2007]

Agreed with mvmnts, early and open communication can prevent about 90% of human conflicts. I'm new to turkey hunting and my neighbor has taken me out to several spots and if I'm planning to head out anywhere in the vicinity I always chat with him about it ahead of time. He doesn't care as long as he's not trying to set up in the same place on the same day, but I consider it common courtesy and helps us maintain a good relationship.

That being said, if some guy considers the entire unit as "his," he clearly doesn't understand the concept of public lands.

 

[muddydogs]

I don't take most people to my great spots and don't want to be taken to anyone's great spot. If it's on public land I don't expect them to stay away and its not like others aren't hunting it anyway so this whole my spot deal is pointless. I'm very open with hunting info but there's a few places I keep just for myself and the other 50 or so people that know about it.

 

[CorbLand]

If I dont want anyone to hunt in my spot, I dont take anyone to that spot.

 

[Randle]

Huckleberry and hunting spots are TOP secret.

 

[Beendare]

I think that if you show a guy a spot and tell him not to hunt it it without you...or tell anyone else.....he should honor that.

Unfortunately, I have seen it myself and with friends that few have honor when it comes to that.....sad.

 

[Nick Muche]

What if a guy points to a spot on the map, say 15-20 miles off a road or so and says "try here". You go there, learn the area, have some success. Then the next year you go back in there after a brief conversation with your friend about it that didn't include asking "permission" and because you know the other guy has different plans plus hasn't hunted there for 2-3 seasons. Again, learn some more, branch out from the original location and find success. Third year you intend to go back but that person gets upset cause it's "his" spot even though he didn't take you, didn't tell you not to ever go there without letting him know, in fact encouraged going in there and he hasn't been hunting there in now 3-4 years.

 

[tkaldahl2000]

No place on public land can be your spot. I can't recall ever hunting public land where I did not see signs of previous hunters. I guess I feel like there is plenty to go around, and since I don't see large antlers as anything special I'm not worried about someone else shooting the biggest deer or elk on the mountain. I really enjoy helping others find success, so helping them along their journey as a hunter is rewarding to me. If someone tried to get exclusive permission on private land I showed them, that would be a different story.

 

[ncstewart]

Hunt solo or really trust your partner. It’s like marriage if ya got more than one you wrong cuz!
For real tho I have found you better off sticking to a couple close friends. I got a couple buddies I trust with my go to spots and they trust me with theirs.
You gonna get burned if you showing very many people area without them showing you some. Don’t do all the work for people.


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[thinhorn_AK]

I don’t really consider any spot to be “my spot”.

I have some favorite moose areas that I like to go to because they are farther away than where most people go, I also know of a few sheep areas that don’t seem much traffic that I wouldn’t advertise.

 

[H2PVon]

I only hunt with a very few friends and family. They can be counted on less than one hand and are more than 'hunting buddies'. I don't worry about showing them a spot and vice versa.

 

[MallardSX2]

Thats the best part of hunting with my wife mostly. If anyone ever asks her where she shot something she just says the name of the state. She doesnt know anything else about the area so the conversation ends there lol

 

[N2TRKYS]

Some of the responses here are exactly why I quit taking people hunting.

 

[5MilesBack]

And people wonder why so many are so secretive with where they hunt. My wife doesn't even know where I hunt.

 

[LostArra]

If anyone ever asks her where she shot something she just says the name of the state.l

My daughter's reply to the same question of where she shot her big buck: "Right through the heart"

 

[Str8shooter]

For the folks on here who have a clearly defined idea of what a hunting spot is, give me some numbers or descriptions, how much of the landscape that you're hunting is your spot that someone hunting with you should respect as such? My view is that if I bring someone up into a drainage or we hunt a side of a mountain that I have scouted out, and hunted before, they should not come back in there (or bring anyone else) without checking in or just avoid. But if that person heads to an adjacent drainage or other side of the mountain, in my mind, they're hunting a new area and would be outside of the (admittedly entirely self-constructed and mostly arbitrary) concept of "my hunting spot". This question is targeted to western landscapes. I know eastern folk who think a different tree 20 yds away is a different spot...

 

[ndbuck09]

I personally think a 3 mile radius kind of constitutes a spot when it comes to mountain hunting, or if you are one who likes to claim, oh it's public land it doesn't matter so I'll go 3.2 miles away, well if you had to tromp through that 3 mile radius you went to your friend's spot.

This is about character. If you want to rationalize away encroaching on someone who provided you a know area that gave a shortcut to success, well then you may not end up with a lot of true friends.

The other thing that really gets under my skin is when people try to press you for where you got an animal. People have pressed and pressed on where I shot my sheep last year in Idaho. I have a wife that really wants a sheep tag because she was there all summer scouting beside me and loves the animals. Why would I tell you, a stranger even what unit I shot a sheep in? There's only very few tags given out and that would hurt her odds if even 1 more person puts in for the unit. I actually had people getting pretty antagonistic about it.

 

[Bulldawg]

I’ve never thought about a certain distance being “in my spot”. What I have settled into is telling a few close buds where I’m hunting or take them hunting because they are great friends of mine and I know they will “respect” the area. Meaning they may or may not go back, but if they did they’d likely not take someone and they wouldnt go nuts and hunt the heck out of it and push animals out. And this year I drew a tag in a unit I’ve never hunted before, there is a couple guys I’m going to talk to about it because they have hunted it before, but there are also Gus who I know have hunted it that I probably won’t talk to because it could be taken the wrong way by asking for some advice. You figure out as you go and you find the guys that are real friends and you’d want to stick around. Just like girlfriends, you move through a few of them until you find the one that you work best with, hopefully


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[oldgoat]

If you're talking a draw unit, then yeah he should find his own unit so you aren't competing for the same tag. Otherwise like you said, drainages and areas you showed him unless he's done the same for you.