I've known a friend of mine for over 15 yrs. I am not lying when I say in them 15 yrs he has only been on time maybe 2x ever. He has been late so many times for morning hunts that I don't plan morning hunts with him anymore. I've asked him to be at my property at 5:30am to have him show up at 6:30 or even 7am. In the 3 yrs I've allowed him to hunt my property he has Fell asleep in his stand and snored so loud that at over 100 yrds away I could hear him. He has gotten out of his tree and pissed at the bottom of his tree. (I didn't see deer in the area for over a week after that). He has smoked in his tree stand after I have asked him not to. He wears his hunting clothes on the drive to my hunting land and smokes while he is driving. He has done so many stupid things that I feel I have to tell him what he can and can't do step by step. Well surprise he has never shot a deer with his bow (wonder why right?) Well passed week I let him sit my ladder stand where I have been baiting for 2 months to get him his 1st kill with his bow. While I sat my other stand I don't like to go into until rut. Well about 30 mins before dark I see a small yearling doe run behind me with an arrow and a nockturnal nock sticking out of it. The shot was far back and high. I mean real far back. (just in front of the rear leg) I told him it was a bad shot and we should let her sit over night and because he had to work the next morning he wanted to search anyways. Well I talked him into waiting at least an hour. We went to search for blood and only found like 1 or 2 drops every 20 ft. We tracked it for about 100yrds and it took over an hour just to trail it that far because of the lack of blood. I finally talked him into waiting to search for her when we got out of work the next day. Well I had some things hold me over at work and I couldnt make it home at the time we planned. He decided to wait until I got out and played some pool at my house while he waited. Finally he called and asked if he could go track it with his friend without me. Well I wasn't comfortable with that because he has made so many mistakes in the passed. I figured he would be out there smoking or walk into the bedding area etc. So I told him no he has to wait for me. At this point he said he was pissed that he has to wait for me. I told him that in the 15 yrs I've known him. That you have only been on time 2x and that I am never late. That when I want him to be somewhere I tell him to be there 1 hour before I really want him there so he will be his normal hour late and be on time and said if you can't wait then "GO HOME!". He told me to "**** Off!" and hung up on me. Well about 20 mins later I got a txt from him saying "That he wanted to get his stand off my land because he is not going to hunt with me anymore because of to many Bull **** Stipulations." I told him I would pull his stand and it would be in the barn for him to pick up after work. He thinks that me not letting him smoke in his stand and piss on his tree and not hunting bad wind is BS Stipulations. So my question for you is. I feel bad that we had these words and that I basically lost a friend over it. But I have been looking for a way to not have to hunt with him anymore. What would you do? Let it go and be able to hunt alone and not have to worry about all his mistakes or apologize to him for blowing up at him and hope that he gets better and stops doing so many stupid things?
depends on if you value him as a friend without the hunting part. if not then hey let it go no worries you'll be hunting alone and no worries about him asking. if you do value it I might apologize and tell him why smoking and marking the stand isn't cool and part the reason he has not had luck. and your trying to help him be a successful bow hunter. try telling him that things like that might be ok if your taking down a deer at 200 yards with a 308. if after the talk he wants to be a jerk and think that they are still bs stipulations tell him im sorry maybe bow hunting isn't for you sell your bow and buy a gun or start listening. you were kind enough to let him hunt on your property. the least you could do is respect the request and your hunting domain. and go on your way ive kinda have experienced a similar situation. only I was the one making the mistakes but I didn't repeat them I learned from them. my friend I feel got so aggravated that we don't hunt together but still talk . its sad bc he was one I learned so much from but a bad hunt ruined a good friendship I feel.
If its your land then your rules should apply. He has been using your friendship to do whatever he wants. Sucks that you may lose a friend but if he is acting like that than its not your fault. Everyone hunts differently so don't look down on him for that. I'd say after 15 years you aren't going to change his ways. Hopefully you 2 can still be friends outside of hunting.
2 wrongs never make a right . You should have been firm with your rules on your property and uninvited him in the beginning if he wasn't willing to follow those rules . I am kind of OCD about what should or shouldn't be done on my properties and the few people that I share with understand that they need to hunt my property my way or they are free to hunt somewhere else . I have never lost a friend over hunting and believe that I have had an impact for the better on the ways that they hunt elsewhere . With that said though , you should never let anyone hunt your property if your not willing to allow them to look for a deer when time allows them to do so . Good luck and I hope you find a way to mend the friendship!!
See if he calls back after he calms down. It's your place you can be as picky as you want. Best of luck to you on this. I could give you lots of "what ifs" but there is no right answer without being there. It is my bed time and the Royals just tied the series! It's a good evening.
Sounds like the friendship is worth saving...especially since you've put 15 years of your life into it. Have a big boy talk with him over a beer and let him know you value his friendship. Then discuss why it is not in the best interest of the friendship to hunt together. Good luck.
Pretty much agree with everyone else's opinions. It's your land he's hunting on so he should abide by the rules. Hunting on someone's land is a privilege not right. Good luck. Hopefully in a few days everything cools down and maybe he can come to terms.
We set rules in place to be followed and if people always keep breaking them then they must be held accountable, this may have been a blessing to you. I'd surely say i'm sorry to him but i wouldnt offer to take him back hunting. Things do happen for reason and i just see this reason as being you put up with it long enough tried to help him many times and he still disrespects you? We are to forgive people for there stupidness this is true but we dont have to bend over backwards or support them. Being the Big man here is simply saying your sorry and wanting to be friends again but stand firm in not offering your land back to him to hunt.
If this guy was truly a friend, he wouldn't act like he does, treat you the way he has, or talk to you like he did. Personally, I would just let him go and forget the friendship ever existed. Life is too short man.
Sounds like he's a real Dix head and doesn't really appreciate your Friendship. I'd let him earn your friendship back but on your own or with someone new. Kilboars Hunt Club
similar situation happened to me recently where I had to pull a buddys cam and sticks from my property. An argument started about a hunting weekend we had planned, and it ended in no one hunting because I unexpectedly had to work late on a friday. Turns out that translates to no ones hunting my land ever! at least to my buddy it did. I look at it as a privilege to hunt someones land, and if that isn't understood then you're not allowed out. I would make your buddy earn his way back on your land and I wouldn't allow him out until he apologizes. my 2 cents
I'd say good riddance. He was relying on your hospitality and friendship to hunt your property. From the description I'd not call it hunting so much as ruining your property. I'd have told him to piss off a long time ago.
Just to play devil's advocate here....the majority of this is your fault, and I'll explain why. 1. People who are chronically late, are late for everything, not just hunting. At some point in time, you've dealt with this before with him, but you still invited him to hunt. 2. He didn't just start smoking yesterday. There's a rumor going around that cigarettes are addictive. The odds of a smoker not smoking while hunting are slim. Cigarettes are more addictive than Heroin, smokers are gonna smoke. 3. You knew all this, but you still invited him to your property. I'm much older than you, and I've got plenty of good friends like this....You'll learn over time that you have friends that you truly care about, but would never consider doing certain things with. The problem is, you let all of that stuff build up inside you, and you blew up. You wanted your Zebra to be a racehorse. Your Zebra is a Zebra, he'll never be a racehorse. But Zebras are pretty cool too. (in certain circumstances) In the end, call him up, apologize for blowing up at him, take his stand down, wrap it up nicely, and leave it in the barn for him.
If your land...your rules. If both on a lease together than this should have been discussed prior....either way I think you did all you could for a long time before boil over finally happened. Next time, try communicating frustrations quicker if you didn't (you could have just left that out for length of post).
See ya later! That doesn't sound like a friendship at all to me. It sounds like a guy that thinks he's entitled to something that isn't his. Don't waste your time with him any longer.
Your in the right for kicking him off but I think you are REALLY BS'ing us if you think him pissing on a tree is going to keep deer out of the area for a week. So you cant blame that on him. When I sit dark to dark I be 5 or 6 times during the day right out of the stand. I still see deer on high pressure public land. All pee turns to ammonia within a short period of time and thus smells the same. Thats why some guys have good luck taking a leak in a scrape. Deer have no idea its human pee.
Hmm, where do I begin?! Yes it's your land and yes it sounds like you take your hunting pretty serious. It sounds like he is more of the type who just enjoys being outdoors and not hunting hard/seriously. You have expectations for your seasons and it sounds like his expectations for his season are not the same as yours. With that said it sounds to me that you should have had a talk with him years ago on what you expect out of him. I'll be honest, urinating at the bottom of a tree seems silly to complain about when you can find just about any mock scrape thread where people, myself included, urinate in scrapes. Smoking...well I used to complain about my dad smoking for years, yet he often was the one person who brought deer home out of our camp and many many times those deer were downwind of him while he had a cigarette lit. As far as being timely, well you also had 15 years to figure that one out as well. Snoring in stand, hey sometimes that's the best part of hunting...being able to completely relax and enjoy yourself. Oh and I don't snore...even though my wife says I do!! I hope you don't take any of this the wrong way but you see, some people enjoy hunting for different reasons and some people see things differently than you. His reasons for hunting may be just to tag along with you, be your friend and be in the outdoors.
