Why you dont hunt with some people anymore

[Fatcamp]

Tinnitus in my left ear..... Dumbshit. Friend of a friend deal.

I hunt with my wife. She isn't the world's greatest hunter but loves wild places and is always excited to go. Very ambitious about doing her share as well and often has all of our stuff packed before I get home. I also taught her how to handle firearms so she does things my way, which I like.

 

[loggerchas]

Equipment Is Only Half The Battle - Rokslide

 

[30338]

I just hunt with my son, daughter, wife and dogs for many of the reasons in this thread. Life has been great after doing that.

 

[FLAK]

Hunted once with a Cousins husband on his "Grandads land".
Killed a couple hogs and while i'm soaking it all in I noticed he's kind of in a hurry. Well, I look across this pasture and I notice someone is watching us from their truck with binos.
I asked "Cousins husband" if we were still on Grandads land?
He said "I Dunno, lets get outta here".
Went back to Grandads house and I had to clean 4 hogs cause he had no clue. Got everything in coolers and on the way off the ranch guess who's driving up that county road? Game Warden!!!! Why we didnt get stopped I'll never know.
At least a week off my life.
Last time I hunted with that guy.

 

[Glory]

I will cease hunting with someone when I start getting the feeling I am doing more guiding than hunting. I don’t mind letting a buddy pull the trigger on animals in my spots, but when they start expecting it and always killing animals and I am packing them out, I call another buddy or go solo.

 

[Txbushninja]

People that don't carry their part of the hunt......basically if your dividing responsibilities of a big hunt amongst a group, and those that consistently don't follow through on their end.....be done with em. Same thing with fishing, they want you to be their guide, food provider, beer provider, gas, bait and the whole works with no contributions. I just refuse to hunt/fish with people like that. spoils the whole trip

 

[Dos Perros]

One time I went fishing with this guy. He slept for 23 hours in a 24 hour period one time.

 

[CorbLand]

Worked with a kid that convinced me to go archery hunting with him. First year wasn't terrible. The only thing that annoyed me was he would set limits on himself then complain when he didn't meet them. He would always say 4 points only for opening weekend, not shoot anything all season then complain he didn't kill one. I am not talking "complain" in the sense of "Man, I really should have shot that 3 point opening morning, that was dumb of me" that we all do with a grin. It was legitimate complaining. It was annoying but not unbearable.

Second year. He got a job after applying for hunts and had to move about 1.5 hours away. Not a big deal, I did most of the scouting. Found some new areas that had better deer so we hunted there. I killed my deer the Monday after opening day. I packed it out with another buddy that was with us and we met him at camp. I get to camp and he calls me on the radio and asks me to pick him up at the bottom so he doesn't have to hike up the road. I go get him, he throws his bow on the coolers in the bed of my pickup, slams his backpack on his bow, which vaults it out of my pickup and onto the ground. He picks his bow up and spikes it in between two coolers. Slams my pickup door shut and says exactly 0 words to me driving back to camp. We get back to camp and I am putting my stuff away so I can take the deer back down to the valley to get it processed. He never once asked about the story or to see the deer. Just mopped around and all I got was "cool" when I put the deer head in before I left.

Fast forward to Saturday and my other buddy that helped me pack out my deer kills one. I am helping him pack it out and he is using my backpack because its better than his. In Utah, you have to have your concealed weapons permit to carry a side arm while archery hunting and my handgun was on the belt. We get about 1/3 mile from the pickup and I tell my buddy that I am going to run and get it and drive up the road to save some walking. I took my handgun so if he got stopped there wouldn't be an issue and took off jogging. I get to the pickup and the other kid (one that wasn't happy for me) is already there. I am running down the road and he asks where the other kid is and why I have my handgun? I say he shot a deer and is packing it out and I took my gun so he doesn't get a ticket. We hop in the pickup and the entire 5 minute drive all the kid does is tell me that I am stupid because "Utah doesn't care if you have a handgun and no concealed" and "that I was stupid and could have left it on the pack and been fine." To me, it was easier to not destroy the high of killing a deer with a stupid ticket.

We pick the other kid up and drive 20 minutes back to camp. Once again, the kid never asked about the story or looked at the animal. We get back to camp and I tell the kid that killed his deer to pack up and take his deer out and to go enjoy the next day with his wife before heading back to work. He worked like 80 hour weeks, so I was 100% ok with him not being there for the next day to help. I tell the bitchy friend that I can stay and hunt with him Sunday but needed to be back to school on Monday. He sits in his chair like a 4 year old that got his candy taken away for about 20 minutes. I said **** it, and started taking my camp down. He looked at me was like, "I thought you were staying?" I told him, I wasn't going to stay if he was going to act like that and that he wasn't happy for me or the other kid killing deer so why would I stay to help him? He gave me some sob story about how he hasn't killed a deer in 4 years and deserves one and that he is just frustrated and that he lost his GPS and how he couldn't afford a new one...something something. I told him that is the way it goes and that he should just be happy for other people. He told me " I could go **** myself" and that was that.

Never hunted with the kid again. He has issues and is still friends with the other kid but nobody can stand him. Honestly, I feel bad for him more than anything but I have enough shit in my life, I dont need his.

I thought I had a good partner a couple years ago but then his wife started telling him he had to be home by 8PM which is pretty hard when you are 3 miles deep and legal shooting light ends at 745. So that season was spent hiking out early everyday so he could be home by 8 with a 45 minute drive one way. My god you should have heard her the time we were checking cameras and got stuck in the canyon due to road construction so he didn't get home until 845.

After that most of my hunting partners have gone separate ways for various reason but mostly I cant find someone that is dedicated enough and I am not that dedicated. They all get married and then "have to check with the wife" and she says "No" or some bullshit.

 

[cmankingsley]

Couple guys with out of control, terrible bird dogs that act like they have the best dogs in the world.


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[WCB]

Couple guys with out of control, terrible bird dogs that act like they have the best dogs in the world.


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OH...guess I forgot that one on my list. You mean the guy that is always yelling at his dog or blowing his whistle? Or the one who's dog is 300 yards ahead of everyone chasing butterflies or eating deer SH!t.

 

[Newtosavage]

Took an old college buddy on his 1st elk hunt ever. Hadn't seen him in 25 years but I thought it would be a good time. I knew he was in good shape, so that was a plus. And he took me on my first duck hunt so I figured I'd repay the favor.

I should have known within the first hour of driving how the hunt would go. He had turned into such a negative, bitter know-it-all in those 25 years. He complained the whole way to Colorado and when he wasn't complaining, he was bragging. Come to find out, he thought we were competing or something? And any time I shared a story with him about something that had happened in the past 25 years, he had a "bigger better" story. 7 days of that gets real damn old.

Finally, on opening day I had spotted a group of bulls for the guy about 2 miles away and sent him after them since I only had a cow tag. Despite having to buy a scope literally on the way to the hunt, he got lucky and spined a 6x6 bull, that I ended up quartering and packing most of off the mountain.

He bragged for about 2 days about what a great hunter he was until the taxidermist finally set him straight and told him how incredibly lucky he was to get a 6x6 on his first day of elk hunting ever. That quieted him down a bit, but the drive home was almost unbearable. I couldn't wait to kick this guy out at his house with his even more negative know-it-all wife.

We're still friends, and I wish him the best, but I'll never hunt with that guy again so long as I live.

Been going solo ever since, and I realize now I should have started solo trips years ago. LOL

 

[stumpknocker]

To me, the best way to find a good hunting partner is while hunting where you like to hunt, in the style that you like to hunt. If they are where you are when you are, they tend to have a similar mentality as you.

Why don't I hunt with some people anymore? When I'm trying to hunt, I want to be in control of the hunt. Adding others to the equation limits that. So I guess I don't hunt with some people when I'm most passionate about a tag. If I'm ok not filling a tag, then I'll hunt with others and consciously put their success over mine. If the tag's about me, then I can't expect others to support that. So when hunting with others, make it about them and be ok fully supporting them. After all, their success is your success at that point, so it doesn't matter who pulls the trigger. If you "have to have" a hunting partner, then make it about their success.

I like that first part. I take pride in getting out there for whitetails. When I run into another whitetail hunter up high on the ridge tops down here in the southern Apps, its always been amicable and a moment of mutual respect.

What bothers me is a hunting partner that feels ownership to their (or even, MY) public hunting spots, and gets pissed at any sign of other hunters. Anger has never solved a problem for me, but patience and perseverance has every time. Instead of ruining the mood with self-pity, my favorite partner is a person that sees pressure as just another variable in the formula of killing deer.

While hunting alone has generally been more effective for me, the few times I've been successful with a partner have been more memorable than the many times I've been succesful alone. I agree with making it about the partner at first, if they're a good fit it will come back around.

 

[6mm Remington]

1. Hunted with a guy a few times over in the Missouri Breaks for antelope and deer. One year he for some unknown reason put in for a tag clear over on the north side of the Missouri River. A long drive to get to his area. We get there and are heading to where we think we can hunt because he has never hunted there before or even been in that area. Neither had I. Just turned of the pavement onto a typical Montana Breaks gravel road and had gone about 400 yards when a rock completely punctured one of my tires on my Jeep. It was cold and the wind was blowing about 30 mph. Got the tire changed (brand new tire was ruined) and drove into Malta to get a new or used Goodyear Wrangler tire (I hate those damn things now. Won't use them ever again.). The shop did not have a match. (pre cell phone days, and no service even if we had a damn phone). Went to Malta because it was closest big town and we figured if we got a tire we could still go back to the place where we originally went and still be able to get a hunt in. (Don't want to go anyplace in that country without at least one Spare Tire.).

Drove back across the river and went all the way in to Lewistown. Got a used Wrangler tire with about the same amount of wear on the tread. Went to his area way off the grid from where we were hunting because he just decided he was going to put in for an antelope in this are for some damn reason. Destroyed my tire. He never even offered to pay for half of the tire and he never filled up my gas tank after all of this running around I did for his sorry ass. We never went back to try it again. Told him I was done.

2. Same fellow from the trip above invited a third person to go with us over there to hunt without saying anything to me. Sprang it on me at the last minute. Who does that kind of crap. The person he invited was an idiot who could not shoot worth a darn and when he finally did kill an animal we went to it and he had his knife out and sat there and looked and just stared. He had no idea how to dress a deer even though he spent hours telling us what a great white hunter he was. Never hunted with either one after that.

3. Three of us hunted together for years. Hunted on property I got permission for us to hunt and also hunted on my grandparents place(s). Stayed in my grandmothers house for several years. One year this group member was pretty silent on plans and such. Finally after hearing nothing I catch up with this person and ask him when we are going hunting. (About 2 weeks left before we usually head over to hunt.) He said just give him a call and we'll go any time. I said no when are we going to head over east for deer and antelope. He then finally tells me that he's not going with us. He's going with two of his "best friends" to some spot over near Lewistown like he had no idea where they would end up hunting.

One evening went into he bar to get a burger instead of eating at camp with my real FRIEND, not this clown. Walked in and this guy was in the bar with his two best friends. They were all really drunk and making idiots of themselves in the bar. Found out they were hunting on at least one of the property's that I had gotten us permission to hunt for year after year. One of the places where he had no idea where his buddies and he were going to hunt. Also found out that they had been chasing antelope in a pickup, probably drunk, and with this idiots 10 year old son in the pickup with them. They were racing across the prairie chasing antelope when they came to a ditch they did not see and could not stop in time. They hit the other side of the ditch so hard that his young boy flew out of the seat into he windshield on the pickup hitting it with his head so hard that the windshield shattered. I guess the young man was okay afterwards. Friendship was over even before the idiots left to go over east to hunt, but this only cemented this decision. So pissed I was very tempted to knock him on his ass outside the bar that night.

4. If a person will not just jump up and take care of a chore or something that they see needs attention, that doesn't fly. If a person will not contribute $$$ evenly and put in for food and gas that's a no go also. If they won't respect the properties we are hunting on that's an absolute cancer on that person. If they don't respect the game and take the time to take the best shot possible and not just randomly pull up and start shooting at antelope 500 or 600 yards away. They're done. I don't drink but if a hunting buddy wants to have a couple beers in the bar after we eat and are playing pool, that's no problem. Same as back at camp. Drinking to excess where they are a blubbering idiot doesn't cut it especially in a public place. Must show safe firearms handling. No screwing around when firearms are around and no drinking while hunting period!

 

[rclouse79]

I don't hunt with some people anymore because no matter how hard they try they drag me down. They can't possibly measure up with my elite fitness and hunting skill level.
TRANSLATION: I don't hunt with some people anymore because I am the annoying one!

Back to being serious. I once took my neighbor out on his first big game hunt in some rough country south of Tucson with another buddy I still hunt with. Right when we hit the trail in the dark he turns on his headlamp and started talking in his LOUD voice. He was met with "SHHHHHHHH!" from both of us. Once we got to the first glassing point I heard a loud PSSSST! I looked over and saw he was enjoying a bud light michelada. To each his own. We glassed up a coues deer across the big canyon and we decide to head over that way. A short time later I hear my neighbor start to cuss as he takes his pack off. A can of Pepsi had exploded in his pack and was running down his pants.
When we start heading up the other side my neighbor is noticeably laboring. He tells us to head up the ridge an he will bird dog up the draw to see if he can scare some deer out. We get up to the top and look back down to see him cussing and swatting at his pants. Apparently the fire ants were attracted to the dried Pepsi stuck to his legs. If I have laughed harder in my life I can't remember when. After we get to the top of the ridge we glass for a while and down turn anything up. It was hot so we decided on a siesta under a mesquite tree. I was almost about to fall asleep when I heard my neighbor say "Hey guys, and these bugs bothering you?" Must have been the Pepsi.
We hiked up higher to a cliff I like to glass for the evening. We put in a few hours without turning anything up. I decided to put away my 15's and tripod to glass with my chest binos for the rest of the evening. Upon seeing me put my binos away my neighbor made a big production of packing up all of his gear. He had a confused and hurt look on his face as we continued to glass for the next hour.
On the way down he discovered his headlamp didn't work and had to navigate back with the flashlight on his cellphone while bumping into every sharp and poky thing on the mountain. We got back to camp and started up a campfire. He cracked open a beer and announced "Well boys, I am staying at camp tomorrow". My other friend and I went out the next day and both shot deer. To my neighbors credit he was still there when we got back that evening sitting around a camp fire half drunk. He even went out and looked for some deer in the flats close to camp.
In hind sight, I should have taken him out on an easier hunt for his first time. I know he ended up hunting with someone else after I left Tucson. Even if we were not compatible in terms of what we wanted out of a hunting trip, we still are good friends.

 

[Geewhiz]

I hunt with my dad. He is the only person I know that wants it as bad as I do and that I can trust. I know a lot of people that love to hunt, but nobody that I really feel that I can trust any further than I could throw them, besides him. Good hunting buddies are hard to find, that's the truth.

Its interesting to find out how many people will not hesitate to stab you in the back when it involved 6pt bulls in archery season.

 

[6mm Remington]

This is something that I observed over the years. You can know a person for years but never really KNOW that person until you have gone hunting with them!! You see in just a few days if they are self centered, lazy, cheap, jealous, disrespectful, and more that you might not ever know about that person even after years of knowing them and spending time with them than you can in the field.

 

[ewade07]

They all get married and then "have to check with the wife" and she says "No" or some bullshit.

I got a buddy like that. We used to go bird hunting and do stuff together. He was never the most reliable but he would usually show up and we would have a good time. Well, he started dating this girl and I kept asking him to do stuff and everytime he would have some sort of excuse. I finally quit asking. Flash forward a few months from then and he tells me he knocked this chick up. That relationship is a whole nother story. I feel like his days are over.

 

[Moserkr]

This is something that I observed over the years. You can know a person for years but never really KNOW that person until you have gone hunting with them!! You see in just a few days if they are self centered, lazy, cheap, jealous, disrespectful, and more that you might not ever know about that person even after years of knowing them and spending time with them than you can in the field.

Amen to that!! You learn a lot about yourself too.

 

[Gunnersdad49]

One guy shot a hen pheasant and then asked another dude to take the ticket for him.

I nicknamed a guy "bumper dumper" after I calmed down one morning in the elk woods. We had driven to a spot to start a hike, and elk were bugling their heads off the second we parked the truck. He said "wait here, I have to poop". He came back 10 minutes later, and I walked to the back of the truck to grab my pack. I turned on my headlamp because of the stench, and my boot was about an inch from his steaming pile of dung. He had walked around to the back of my truck and leaned against it while he took a dump.

I had a guy invite me on a horseback hunt several miles into a wilderness hunt. Once we were in, he told me that I had to hike out because he decided to stay a week longer than I could.

Had a guy pretend to shoot himself when his son and I left camp early after he and the son got into an argument.

Had a guy arrow a cow elk and then want to leave her to chase a screaming bull. I tried to convince him to track down his cow and bring the meat home, but he said "I'll just put your tag on it. I want that bull". Party hunting is illegal in my state.

Oh, these were all the same guy by the way. The first two instances were on 2 trips, then the rest were all on the last and final trip with him. I need to get better at cutting people out of my life.

 

[Jaker_cc]

One guy was lazy and out of shape, hiked half way in the day before opener and quit on the trail before opening day because hiking sucked he said. He left me in the woods and spent the week in town staying in a hotel going to the bar every night and wouldn’t help me pack out my bull 5 days later. Don’t even talk to him anymore

Another guy shot at a bird with me in the spread and I’ve still got 6 steel shot BBs in my face because of it. Not friends anymore at all