Hunt alone. Get a beer after and just say hey we are still bros but I take my hunting really seriously and I just think we shouldn't hunt together anymore.
Points being, there are nice guys and there are DB. You keeping thinking the DB are going to get better but their DB. Focus your energy on your own hunt and finding a better quality of friends. No good deed ever goes unpunished. Kilboars Hunt Club
Without any way of being offensive: I think you honestly brought a lot of his imperfections on yourself. People usually "walk" on other people who allow it, you've allowed it to go on for 15 years. As far as not being able to respect what you say, well again, if you haven't demanded respect via your pressence, or the way you allow him to speak to you, then it isn't going to change over night. Maybe he'll see you as a more respectful person now that you've finally told him how you feel, and if he's not a bad person on the inside, then he'll come around. I'm not saying wait on him to appologize or whatever, people like that don't generally have the insteninal fortitude to be the first to admit they were wrong. If you value him as a friend then you may have to be the bigger man, but set your foot down. The way I see it, you've already lost him as a friend whether he comes around or not, if you want him to continue to not be a friend, which I think you do value him as a person otherwise you wouldn't have come to a message board looking for advince. All you have now is to gain your friend back by coming to him first and seeing if he's willing to accept your rules. If not, so be it, you don't need him plagueing not just your land, but your sanity and relaxation as well. Anyway, if I'm completely wrong then just ignore me, just my two cents.
The problem as I see it is that you want him to be passionate about something and make it a priority. He wants it to simply be a hobby. If you cant handle wanting it to happen more than he does, then just be friends outside of hunting. I also have to mention that taking a leak at the base of the tree would have zero impact on deer movement. I let it go out of the stand all the time and have never once had deer react in a negative manner. Quite the opposite in fact.
Wait... so you don't have to pee in your pants? My grandfather told me that when I was young and have been doing it ever since. I guess it's true, you're not a sniper until you crap in yourself.
I guess the one thing that gets me with this post is referring to your 'friend' as a DB....15 years worth of friendship and he's a DB. I guess if you have an endless supply of friends to replace him with then you shouldn't lose any sleep over him then.
Thanks for all your responses.. Ya, the reason I said he was a DB is because I have asked him before not to smoke while hunting my land. I know it seems silly to some people but if the wind is just 7 mph smoke can travel far. I can sometimes smell him smoking when I am 100 yrds away and I know if I can smell it then the deer can. Well last yr he said he wouldn't smoke while hunting anymore. Well this season his stand is in a new tree and it has a little dead hollow tree to the right where he hangs his bow off of. Well the hollow part of the tree is filled with cigarette butts. So he has been smoking this season when he told me last season he wouldn't anymore. So ya to me that's a DB. Again thx for your replies and the majority of you seem to agree with me. Just forget about him....
Please allow me to apologize in advance, but why would you care ? If he had been my " friend " , he would now be a dim memory.
cut your losses while u can ... doesn't sound like a friend to me and definitely not someone I would want to hunt with ..... better off hunting by your self ....
Wow, sounds like it's going to work out for the both of you. Good friends are hard to find, great friends are priceless. Unless they smoke of course LOL.
that /\ his loss, not yours. we put way too much time, effort and $ into this sport to be ruined by idiots like him. and put him at top of the list to receive the first text pic of your kills...forever !
"What we've got here is ... failure to communicate." (from Cool Hand Luke) "When you don't communicate that you do care... you do communicate that you don't."--- Me.
imho try to save the friendship at all costs, but I wouldn't allow him to ever hunt your property again.....his chance to hunt with you should have been taken away from him years ago if what you stated about him is true. Life is too short, friendships can be eternal in my eyes, but to be honest I doubt things can be resolved if words like that from him were spoken to you...personally if I had land and gave a friend 15yrs to hunt on it and he told me to **** off, he'd never step foot on my property again, even after making up.
Do you believe a deer associates the smell of smoke with humans? If so, then they must know the difference between smoke from a chimney and a hunter's cigarette? I'm not condoning smoking while hunting, but I believe it's the movements associated with smoking and not the smoke itself that spooks deer. jmo
I think I will test this late season. Behind my house is always loaded with deer when it snows, so the first snow we get I will set in the stand and a smoke a few just to see what happens. I don't smoke but am still curious how they will react.
Doesn't sound like much of a friend. You have no reason to feel bad, it sucks but he is in the wrong big time. I would personally tell him to hit the road.
We all go though so much to remain scent free. At least I do. I Shower in scent free soap. I use Scent free Deodorant. I use Scent free Laundry Detergent and as a non-smoker have you ever stood next to someone at a bar or at work that just smoked. They smell like an ashtray. Why go though all that prep to stay scent free then put smoke on your hunting clothes. Or in my case a friend putting smoke scent in the air... When I can smell him smoking and I am 100 yrds away I know the deer can smell it. Even if they don't know that its from someone smoking or from someone burning leaves it puts them on alert. Deer on alert don't come into the area or jump strings. That's how I've always looked at it.
I dont' think it should have any bearing on your friendship. I do believe you shouldn't hunt together due to possible (obvious) friendship consequences. It's obvious there are differences in the way you two desire to go about hunting the land. That's ok. You just need to hunt different pieces and sustain friendship outside hunting. I've been there numerous times and still friends with the people that just have a different outlook and don't want to do it like I do. Matter of fact over the years there is only one other dude that hunts with me to this day. He's as nuts as I am and sees it the way I do (or more). It's just not for everybody. There's nothing wrong with him doing it the way he does for fun and casual. Just not on the same land.
