No one likes to hunt alone. It's nice to have someone in the woods with you for help if you get one and to compare notes at the end of the day. I've been bow hunting for 5 yrs now. Well last yr I introduced my best friend to bow hunting. I have extra bows, stands, arrows, broadheads etc. All he needed was tags and camo. I took him out and he liked it. He wanted to go again and again. Well I know he was new to it but some of the things he did you would think shouldn't take explaining. He has fell asleep in his stand and was snoring so loud I could hear him over 100 yrds away. He has smoked in his stand. If I ask him to be at my hunting land at 5am so we can be in stand by 6am he don't show up till 6 or 6:30am. Last yr during gun season I was about 100 yrs away from him and I had 3 does walking from my left to my right less than 20 yrds in front of me. With a buck following them. He doe-can called them and spooked them so they walked away on an angle and so did the buck. Turning my 20 yrd shot into over a 60 yrd shot. So I didn't take it. (he cost me a buck). This year during spring turkey hunting he was sitting in his ground blind about 200 yrds away from me. He had his 9 yr old son with him that day. I kept hearing Tic, Tic, Tic... or Poof, Poof, Poof... I was wondering what the hell it was. Well I had to work that early afternoon and as I walked out of the woods the sounds got louder and louder. I walked up to his blind and he was letting his son take pop shots with his BB Gun at little birds. I said "Are you done hunting?" he said "No, I was just letting him shot a few times" I said. I could hear that over 200 yrds away and you don't think it will keep turkeys away? He said... "Oh ya I didn't think about that" Fast Forward to this yrs deer season. Same thing he shows up late for morning and afternoon hunts. He'll forget his descent spray or his bow rope. Then about 2 weeks ago when we were getting down from a night hunt I walked up to his tree and he was taking a leak right at the base of his tree. Witch happens to be right in the middle of my property. I didn't see a deer for about 7 or 8 days. I'm getting to the point where I feel like before every hunt I have to tell him what to do and what NOT to do. Or just not let him come hunting with me anymore. What would you do?
Offer to continue to help him hunt, but not on your land. It doesn't sound like it's worth your time to hunt with him here. PS: Don't get too worked up about the peeing in the woods thing. I use my own urine for making mock scrapes.
I have some mates like that, learning to hunt is a long process, but showing up late is just rude I think. If I haven't got a call to say they're late I wait twenty odd minutes and then go. It works for me. Sent from my HTC_PN071 using Tapatalk
And you explained why I hunt alone. Oh, I forgot, you asked what would I do. I would quit hunting with him. It sounds like hunting with him is no fun and hunting is supposed to be fun. I can count the number of people I hunt with on one hand, and that's waterfowl hunting. I don't deer hunt with anyone but my son.
I hunt with one other buddy on my land that is as dedicated, knowledgeable and "into it" as I am. I have way too much time and money invested into my passion to have to deal with stuff like that. The season is short and valuable enough. Like someone else said, politely offer to guide him along the way on his own property to hunt. Sounds like he may or may not want to pursue it seriously (and have fun). It's just tough when you're on two different pages with your approaches to hunting on the same piece of property.
On top of being inexperienced he sounds a little disrespectful! Showing up an hour and a half late is a bit rude plus you have gone out of your way to teach and loan your personal stuff to him the very least he could do is show up on time to hunt " your property"!! I would make a pros and cons list and sit down with him and talk about it!! If you let it go it will probably affect your friendship at some point!!! Good luck!
Take him and one of your stands to a piece of public land, find a good spot and hang it for him. Let him know that anytime he wants to hunt his way he's more than welcome to sit in it, if he wants to hunt with you then things need to change. He should get the point, if not then you'll have to either deal with it or hunt alone until you can introduce someone wanting to take it seriously. Has he seen deer while on stand? He might just need to have that first encounter to fully understand the rush of it all.
Really? I prefer to hunt that way. As for your friend, I echo many of the sentiments shared by other posters. Let him know your way of hunting and if he doesn't like it there is plenty of public land out there for him to explore.
He would have been my "ex-hunting" partner a long time ago! Your story is the EXACT reason I prefer to hunt alone. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
everything you explained are the reasons I enjoy hunting alone. Now, recovering a deer alone isn't fun, so that is understandable, but not worth it in this relationship.
I would say you need to quit being a weenie and tell your friend how you feel about his hunting antics. If he is truely a best friend he will understand and right the things he's been doing to hack you off. If he is only a user his true colors will shine through and your problem will be solved anyway.
You have to have a talk with your friend as your levels of dedication are not equal. That makes for bad hunting partners. I hunted with my neighbor for 4-5 years and it got to the point he walked over in the morning reeking of cigars and stale beer, expected me to have stand sites picked out for him, and when he didn't see a deer he would make jabs like it was my fault. Guess what? We no longer hunt together but we still get along fine. Don't ruin your friendship over it, but explain it's not working out. That he either needs to be more respectful or start hunting his own property.
I couldn't hunt with a dude like that... Makes me more thankful for the guys I hunt with even more after reading this thread!!! Personally I think you should let him know if he doesn't change his ways that you 2 will have to part ways when it comes to Hunting....that's way too much to have to deal with out in the woods <+>< Ps 46: 1 ><+>
I hunt with a few other guys but I don't hunt "with" them. By that I mean we all hang stands together, discuss strategies, help recover deer and so forth....but on different properties! It works out great because we all are invested in each others success but not "competing" against each other for the same deer. Everyone has their own style and bowhunting by its very nature is a solitary endeavor but there are still ways to share it with friends.
Thanks to all.. I see I'm not the only one that was thinking about just not hunting with him no more. I just thought "Friends don't do that and I'm evil for even thinking it." The problem seemed to of fixed itself. We went hunting tonight and once again I went over the list's of do's and don'ts. We sat for 4 hours in 28 degree weather and when we got done he told me it's too cold for him and he is done for the season. So I think next season when he wants to go out hunting I will make up excuse's why we need to go to public land. He don't have his own land to mess up on.
Sounds like he's not very interested in actually hunting and being successful at it anyway. I don't mind hunting with others tha tare just ignorant and want to better themselves by learning but that guy sounds like a problem that can't really be fixed outside of his own commitment. The only way I would continue to take him is : 1. hunt different sides of a property 2. in the same blind where I could keep him on focus 3. different properties Personally I don't have any friends that I'm commited to enough to tolerate that sort of behavior.
