Over the 30+ years of hunting I have hunted with a lot of people, some good some not so good. The group of guys I hunted with last year and are going to be hunting with this year are some of the best guys I have hunted with. We have fun, rip on each other and share our opinions while working together for the success of the group. Hunting is supposed to be fun and challenging but with some people they can suck the fun out of anything. It’s almost impossible to avoid these people completely but if you could what would you try to avoid when you choose the people you are going to spend your valuable time in the field with? For me its people that get so jealous over other people’s success you can see they are upset. It’s alright to be jealous of your friend’s success but not to congratulate, offer help to recover, bad mouth or any of that kind of behavior is just unacceptable in my book. These people seem to get mad at others success, like they back stabbed them to get the animal or will give other people bad info to keep them off an animal. What are your pet peeves?
You pretty much hit the nail on the head. They have to have the same goals and values as I do. It should be fun. The feeling when you take someone to your favorite honey hole and drive by later in the week while working and see his truck parked there. Or when you spent the whole pre season knocking on doors, scouting, checking cams, clearing lanes, setting stands etc etc and they reap the rewards and brag about being the best hunter in the world. Hmmm I apparently don't have any good hunting partners.
i dont have any friends that would get jealous, but i will tell you. i hunt alone now because hunting with someone that is out of shape makes me want to hunt there fat *** for making it impossible to see a mulie on one ridge from another and get in position to ambush them. Opening weekend for deer this year. i brought a friend that "had been training for months" to stay at my house and hunt for 3 days. i would have been better off throwing him on my shoulders. I saw 4 shooters on the first 2 days and didnt get a shot on any of them because my buddy could hike the mountain without sucking up enough air to suffocate any living thing around us. and i couldnt leave him because i didnt want him getting lost or injured. im 3 weeks in and havent seen anything sense. Edit: I dont also dislike when my friends will sit on there ***. known im out scouting miles and miles and miles every weekend for months. only to call me and ask if i knew any good spots and if they could tag along. I take them, but sh*t at least buy a trail cam and let me hang it if you dont want to scout.
I agree a good hunting partner should have the same goals and values as you do! They should also be as 'into it'as you. Hard to hunt with someone who doesn't love the sport as much as you. To me that's the hardest thing to find, I can never find someone the has the 'fever' like I do lol. I love seeing my hunting partners kill deer. Shoot I even volunteer to help track, drag and skin!
Most of everyone hit the nail on the head. You have to be able to get along as well as jab each other. I don't want someone that will just set around and do nothing until there is beer to drink. That is the easy part. I need someone who will help get the deer out of the muddy ditch.
Most everyone hit the nail on the head. You have to be able to get along as well as jab each other. I don't want someone that will just set around and do nothing until there is beer to drink. That is the easy part. I need someone who will help get the deer out of the muddy ditch.
This gets me too, I have one guy who would come up for 1 maybe 2 weekends a year which is fine but he would expect to be put in the best stand/stands on the property. He never scouted or put out one trail camera he just depended on me to put him in the best spot. I did for a couple of years but he would still never shoot anything and I couldn't figure out why until one day I slipped into a stand where I could see him and he read a book almost the entire time he was out there. He had a doe within 30 yards of him and never saw it. At that point I stopped putting him in good spots but he still would try and sneak in to my spots, he came out after 3:00 P.M. the first weekend in November and walked right to the stand I was in, he wasn't supposed to be on that side of the property and had 10 other spots he could have went to but figured that would be a his spot. He no longer hunts my property after that one.
I have a couple of very good hunting partners. One is my younger brother. He and I put our heads together to try and help the other kill the deer they are after. Being that I have a good piece of property to hunt that is also somewhat large and unpressured, I leave everything else to him. I have permission everywhere else he does, but I don't hunt those places. Whatever he gets on camera or whatever buck he is after is solely his. I do not hunt a buck that he is after. I don't care if it's a new world record. I will do everything I can to help him figure the buck out and help him after the shot. We also work together to make habitat improvements on the places he hunts, even though I don't hunt them. I also do not tell others of the buck/bucks that he is after. It is not my place to share with others what kind of deer he is hunting. I also have another good friend that hunts a lot of public ground. He works with my brother and I the same way. We would all do anything to help the other, no matter how far in or how rough the terrain. These are the qualities that I always look for when evaluating if somebody would be a good fit to hunt with me or not. If they wouldn't do all the things that I mentioned above then it's a no go for me. I guess that's why I only have a couple good hunting partners.
It is so hard to find a good hunting partner I have to find people to hunt with me all the way from North Carolina.
Someone who actually gets up and goes out with you lol my "hunting partner" / roommate hasn't gotten up or gone out hunting with me all season
It is difficult finding someone who isn't lazy and full of excuses. I pretty much hunt solo. I share a public land camp with a couple guys, but I go my own way most of the time.
We let three other guys hunt our place and they all put in the work needed and if they can't they at least make sure they pony up the funds for things that are needed like tree stands, seed, etc... even though we own the property we try to keep everything equal like stand selection so as long as they don't try to take advantage in my mind they are good hunting partners.
A guy that will use some of his vacation to film your hunt. I don't film but that's the kind of person I want to be hunting with.
A hunting partner is a relationship just like all others. They're are good and bad relationships. You have to be able to put in the time effort and hard work just like any other relationship and make that commitment. It's not easy finding a good hunting partner but when you do it makes the work easier and more fun. It's always good to have another hand for some sort of support and share in success. Oh and my pet peeve is when someone try's to use you for their own agenda or personal gain.
Agree with a lot of the other posts. To me, a hunting partner wants me to score a deer as much as I want them to score a deer. I have given up my best spots on particular hunts just to try to increase their chances and I know they would do the same for me. Same holds true for a fishing partner. I find it easy to be a good hunting partner for close family that share happiness and appreciation. It's hard when you know the other person is not happy for your success, even if they are family or close friends.
Over the last 11 years I have hunted with and around all kinds of hunters due to lease turn over. One thing that jumps out at me over and over is the ones with the big ego's and that are basically lazy hunters are the first to be shown the door. If it was easy anyone could do it! IMO the only good hunting partners are those that you teach to hunt.. they hunt just like you and have the same goals as you once they mature as a hunter.. Other wise hunters are not my partners, but people who share the woods I hunt! Much like a room mate in college that I put up with.
My best hunting buddy was hunting this monster buck for two years. Knowing the deer was probably 6.5 yrs old and he wouldnt be able to hunt him for the rest of the year he told me to go hunt his best stand on one condition. I had to do my best to make a clean kill. Well i had an encounter with a huge 8 that i couldnt get a shot at but never saw his buck. He killed him the next fall. Point is he didnt care who killed it me or him. I would do the same for him and he knew it. Thats a good hunting buddy.
There is no such thing as a good hunting partner. Invariably they oversleep, are late for afternoon hunts, or in countless other ways just annoy me. I don't want to stop for coffee in the morning, or at McDonald's for lunch before heading out, I don't want to take you back home because you forgot to take a dump. I want to hunt. I have a friend who doesn't get out of the woods until at least an hour after dark, sometimes two hours. I don't want to stand in the cold and wait for you, I want to go home, take a hot shower, and have dinner. I have friends, we hunt the same properties, but unless one of us needs help, we don't even see each other.
