I personally don’t mind the posts, obvious it’s one thing to post advice on an open forum but to ask for it I think is perfectly fine. We all have to start somewhere, I had a dad to teach me how to hunt and steal hunting spots from
Some people don’t have that luxury.
I’ve helped dozens of people on these forums. Most PM me feedback which is great and gives me a little more intel for the future. Honestly you could tell 100 people exactly where a group of elk are during archery season and 99 of them will never even see them because they will blow them out trying to get there. There is so much more to hunting than a spot.
If a person is relying on 1 or 2 good spots to do all of their hunting that sucks for them. So many non hunter related factors can ruin spots. I typically help several hunters each year by sharing info, a lot of times I even share way points. Over the years there have been less than a handful actually put on the work to be successful.
A coupe years ago a guy was on here or maybe another forum asking about filling a cow tag for his kid in a unit i elk hunt. I sent him a couple way points with some options depending on the experience he wanted. He chose the one where I told him if he went to that spot opening day just before dark there would be elk 90% of the time. The first night of the season he sent me a thank you with a picture of his son with his first elk, shot exactly where I told them to go. Last fall I told a couple younger gentlemen who drew a hard to draw rifle deer tag in a spot I archery deer hunt about a couple of good spots. They sent me a summer scouting report as well as some pics of bucks they saw, come season I got some pics of some incredible bucks they killed, both over 170” and big mature bucks. Most hunters in that unit report back on how crappy the unit is and that it’s over rated. Those kids put in a lot of work to find and kill those bucks, I just gave them a good staring point.
In the past I use to really be secretive about my spots and actually almost lost a really good friend and defiantly altered our relationship after chewing him out for taking someone into one of my spots. After that I came to the realization that it’s the hunt I enjoy and those spots aren’t even really that important to me, that spot eventually dried up anyway due to some road closures and logging, so now I am out a spot and have tarnished the relationship with a friend.
Sure there are spots I keep to myself but I have hundreds of spots where I hunt, I’ve killed a lot of deer and elk and have never killed two in the same spot. I like to explore and hunt new areas so I’m always finding new spots. I’m also a pretty selective hunter and won’t shoot a bull unless it is a 6 point or an old mature animal, same with deer, I’ve killed enough I don’t need to shoot a forked horn or young immature deer anymore.
One of my good friends came from a forum post, we were both online looking for info on a hunt in the frank. We ended up exchanging emails a bunch and decided to just hunt that hunt together. We had a great unsuccessful hunt that fall and have become great friends. He’s come out from PA multiple times since to hunt elk with me at home and is coming out again this fall.
I also don’t get mad when I see other hunters in the woods, I hunt one of the most hunted units in OR and am still successful every year. Most of the people I run into tell me how poor the hunting is but I’m in elk almost all day everyday. Same with other states I’ve been, to me elk hunting is elk hunting and it doesn’t matter where it’s at. I’m confident in can go into any unit in the US and find animals but having some feedback on a unit is nice. I sit at a desk most of the year and these forums and conversations are a great way to gather intel and kill time.
I think if a person doesn’t want to help then they can just keep scrolling but if a person wants to throw a person a bone than good on them. Just because someone is asking for some advice doesn’t mean they are lazy or not willing to put in the work.