Hunting partners…Finding new ones, losing old ones.

[Deucebump]

So Ive been thinking about this for a while now. As an Easterner (PA), I was blessed to have been introduced to backcountry hunting by a great mentor about 15yrs ago. He is still one of my very best friends and we have spent many hunts together in the backcountry. But as age and health catches up to all of us, he may never be able to do it again. Over the years I have had several other good hunting partners that have joined me in the West, but none on a consistent basis. I hunt out west every single year and many years multiple states. I have been playing the point/strategy/options game long enough to always have somewhere to go. And while I truly enjoy hunting solo, as I will be again this year, I miss the camaraderie of having a partner sometimes. (And my wife isnt super keen to me doing solo backcountry hunts.) Which brings me to my point of this thread…How have you guys found new hunting partners in the past? Im very picky about who I will spend a week with in the wilderness. I mean lets be honest, they have to be somebody you can literally trust your life with, and not want to kill them after spending every minute with for 7-10 days! They also need to be able to push you rather than hold you back. Being from the east makes it even harder when there is such few guys with experience. Im currently 44yrs old and hope to have another 10-15 yrs of backcountry hunting left in my future. Im starting to think I need to find a younger guy eager to learn and maybe take him under my wing (as my mentor did with me) and gain a friendship for life. Just curious to all of your thoughts on this.

 

[PredatorSlayer]

A good hunting partner is hard to find. I have one that I do most of my hunting with and a few others that occasionally do different hunts with me. I would rather hunt alone than with a lot of guys that are interested in hunting with me. I had a crazy experience a few years ago with a guy I used to hunt with in high school and college. We went elk hunting and it turned into a shit show with him and his brother lobbing lead, asking if they could shoot over me, trying to claim the elk I shot at 430 yards, while they were just unloading their mags, no range finder, no idea how far the elk were etc. Never again…

 

[Nickofthewoods]

Over the years I've mostly just lost old ones, while not finding new ones.

 

[D S 319]

Convince new friends to pick up archery hunting who are as stubborn as yourself.

 

[Deucebump]

I have a ton of bowhunting friends, it is the western backcountry/cost that scares them away. (Although I am mainly a rifle hunter nowadays)

 

[Wvroach]

I'd do fishing local first, if that works a hunt somewhere local for a few nights. If that works then we can talk about 80 hours in a truck together and 10 days in the field.

You have to be selective, takes a certain person to be reliable and enjoyable to be with in those situations.

I have 1 hunting partner that I go consistently west with every year. I have 1 that goes with me somewhere every year, usually south.

I like your idea of taking a younger guy that's wanting to learn.

 

[MallardSX2]

Put an ad on craigslist.

 

[KyleR1985]

I'm pretty sure you're supposed to have kids to solve this labor shortage.

 

[DuckDogDr]

My best friend introduced me into western hunting and he ran with it, even guided some in Alaska when we were younger. He has since become passionate about dog training and bird hunting … where as now I want to go west and chase the big animals, where as when we were in college all I wanted to do was hunt birds
Our roles seem to have reversed. Wish I had paid more attention to skills he could have taught me then.

Just be diligent and selective

 

[flatlanderhuffandpuff]

I'm pretty sure you're supposed to have kids to solve this labor shortage.

The way mine eat, I better get some hunting out of them.

My brother is my hunting partner and I wouldn't trade it for the world. We have similar family and work requirements so neither one of us can hunt more or less than the other which helps. He isn't bugging me to take some expensive trip because he can't make it work either.

Neither of us is the absolute hardest man on the mountain but we also know if we are going hunting we will be tired till it's finished. I think matching personalities is a more important metric than if someone is a really great outdoorsman. I have some friends who would on paper make good hunting partners but in reality we would be hiding each others bodies after the drive across to country.

 

[Deucebump]

Put an ad on craigslist.

 

[Fullfan]

Also bring from Pa, my first idaho elk hunt was in 1983. My father took me w a crew of guys he worked with. Dad is now 83 and most of the guys we elk hunted w have all passed on.

When the old crew stopped going in about 2010, I rounded up 3-4 guys I knew where reliable and dependable. That crew has not turned into 6-10 guys, including my 28 year old son. We hunt at least Idaho, Montana or Colorado every Sept.

Two years ago we killed 8 bulls out of 9 guys. Now the toughest part of the hunt is getting tags.

 

[cnelk]

My 25 year old son on the left, my high school buddy on the right.

I’ve been hunting and fishing with my HS buddy for over 40 years.

This is my core group. Others drift in when they can, others wait their turn.

 

[kpk]

I had a harsh realization to this earlier in the week. Hunting partner and I didn't draw tags anywhere so we planned on doing an OTC archery hunt. Got to the point of having everything sorted out and then his wife told him he wasn't going due to the newborn at home. It's their family decision, I get that.

But, it made me realize that I don't know a single other person that hunts that I'd really want to go on a trip with. I'm fine hunting alone - but the drive is just too far to do solo to get to elk. I can get to antelope in about 8 hours and have done that several times solo (and probably will again this year now). To get to elk takes me about 14 hours, and that's more than I want to do by myself in a day.

 

[hunting1]

Finding a good and reliable hunting buddy is as hard as finding the right spouse. I am lucky to have a few and 1-son that got the hunting bug. Try going to archery shoots, etc and meet people. Finding someone who has the same morals, drive etc is hard.

 

[MallardSX2]

I was just kidding about the craigslist but in all seriousness, the biggest problems with finding a new hunting partner is finding a hunting partner that can:

A- Keep his mouth shut about where you are hunting.
B- Knows how to actually hunt.
C- Is in shape to actually get it done.
D- Can get the PTO to go when you can go.
E- Doesn't complain about every little thing that goes wrong.

Some of these are tall orders actually. Thankfully, my wife hunts with me. She falls under all categories until things get super vertical..... lol

If my wife quit hunting tomorrow, I would hunt alone and figure out a packer in the area. I simply can't risk someone knowing where I hunt and word getting out. Last guy I hunted with took his buddies in the 1 year I couldn't go to our OTC spot and during that trip they became buddies with guys from Denver and now the place is crawling with people.

I cant risk having that happen again. It was like Narnia in there prior to him letting others know where the elk were. The last time I tried to hunt in there his buddies were camped right where the elk lived since the opener of the season. There were no elk around because they apparently felt that they needed to jump out of their tent at full draw to shoot an elk...

Loose lips sink ships and I'm getting too long in the tooth to be dealing with it.

 

[Doc Holliday]

I spent a few years trying to get people I would want to hunt with to buy points when I did, but got tired of trying.

Have been on a couple of elk hunts with friends/family who approached me after seeing/hearing about my hunts, and I won't go on another hunt with any of them again for various reasons. Only exception to that is if we went on some guided 1x1 situation where their attitude, lack of preparation, cheapness, etc. would not affect my experience in any way.

Just turned 44, and I'm not willing to let other people detract from any more of my hunts. Based on what I see on this and other forums, this is not an uncommon sentiment.

 

[ToolMann]

Does your wife have any interest in it? Mine is my best friend and favorite hunting partner. I have only one other hunting partner I'll head in to the back country with. I'll truck/wall tent camp with a bunch of buddies. But when it comes to getting far from the road that list gets real short.

 

[Idaho_Potato]

Put an ad on craigslist.

Missed connections: I saw you at the Sitka rack in Cabelas. You picked up a long sleeve shirt in optifade and looked at the price tag. You laughed and looked up, and then we briefly locked eyes and nodded.

 

[Customweld]

So Ive been thinking about this for a while now. As an Easterner (PA), I was blessed to have been introduced to backcountry hunting by a great mentor about 15yrs ago. He is still one of my very best friends and we have spent many hunts together in the backcountry. But as age and health catches up to all of us, he may never be able to do it again. Over the years I have had several other good hunting partners that have joined me in the West, but none on a consistent basis. I hunt out west every single year and many years multiple states. I have been playing the point/strategy/options game long enough to always have somewhere to go. And while I truly enjoy hunting solo, as I will be again this year, I miss the camaraderie of having a partner sometimes. (And my wife isnt super keen to me doing solo backcountry hunts.) Which brings me to my point of this thread…How have you guys found new hunting partners in the past? Im very picky about who I will spend a week with in the wilderness. I mean lets be honest, they have to be somebody you can literally trust your life with, and not want to kill them after spending every minute with for 7-10 days! They also need to be able to push you rather than hold you back. Being from the east makes it even harder when there is such few guys with experience. Im currently 44yrs old and hope to have another 10-15 yrs of backcountry hunting left in my future. Im starting to think I need to find a younger guy eager to learn and maybe take him under my wing (as my mentor did with me) and gain a friendship for life. Just curious to all of your thoughts on this.

Finding a reliable, likeable hunting partner is a tall order by itself. You are literally looking for the needle in the haystack. To find someone in your area that you don't already know, that is reliable, has the financial means and hunting/backcountry experience is going to be damn near impossible. Hell, I live in Idaho and have a hard time finding a hunting partner that has those attributes.
There are quite a few FB pages (providing you are on FB) that are generally local to where you hunt. Maybe try joining one of them and putting a feeler out for someone local to hunt with. You don't necessarily have to hunt with them, but maybe share a camp with them. I hunt every now and again with a fella and his boys. We don't hunt the same area at all, but it is nice to come back in the evening and share a beer and story with them.