Hunting partners…Finding new ones, losing old ones.

[Deucebump]

Man, I love the responses to this! When I posted it originally, I had no idea what to expect. Ill try to catch up a few answers to some questions….I do have one son, he actually went with me last season for his first muley hunt. He loved it, but he lives about 12hrs from me and has decided to make a career out of being a US Marine, he is now entering year 10. And with a young fam of his own, he will just never be that partner I need. My wife of 18yrs is amazing and loves hiking and fishing, but has zero interest in hunting and will NOT spend a night in a tent. (Lol, she has been pampered too much)

Many of you are spot on about finding somebody with the finances, PTO, physical drive, ect…

Im not on FB, and rarely do any social media at all, so thats out. Honestly, I'm not looking to force find a new partner, and a firm believer in all things happen for a reason. If I find one great, if not it will all work out the way its meant to. Keep em coming boys, I love the replies.

 

[CorbLand]

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.

Its harder, I found the right girl to marry. Cant seem to find a reliable, dependable hunting partner.

My wife likes to hunt but only if the weather is nice and she doesn't like to got to the places that I do.

 

[Turkeyfreak12]

Since i have relocated for work frequently it was always hard to get people to hunt with unless a few of my buddies come west. Mainly hunted birds with people in places where I dont have my big game group. I am relocating again to Utah in a few weeks so I will have to find new people again to hunt with or I will just go by myself. My wife enjoys coming with when she can but with a 2.5 year old at home it is more difficult.

 

[AKDoc]

This thread topic is obviously very relevant for many of us...trusted, valued, and like-minded hunting partners are not easy to find, and when we do find one, things may/do change over time for endless and valid reasons totally outside our control. In Alaska it is common for people to move here and then leave after various periods of time...I've lived that moment more than once. It's just a reality of life...things change.

I truly do not say this arrogantly, but I can think of no better way to absolutely ruin the experience of a hunt for me than a poorly chosen hunting partner. Over the years I've introduced people (good people) to hunting and have gone hunting with a few people I was getting to know...sometimes it's an unspoken "test drive" for me for future hunts. More often than not it was a polite and respectful "one and done" for me...not always.

Don't give-up. Keep your passion for hunting and the essence of what you seek in outdoor adventures alive. Maintain your values of what a hunting experience means for you, and stay determined to find someone who is likeminded...we humans are such a highly diverse species, which is great. Well matched hunting partners are out there for each of us. I deeply value mine...and I'm especially appreciative of my grown children as hunting partners when they can do it.

 

[CJohnson]

I do t have any definite advice but here’s what I’ve found to be effective:

Make it sound hard and miserable. “Man it snowed 3 feet, we didn’t see anything for a couple days, it was a real physical challenge, etc.”

Get a financial commitment months ahead of time. “Hey man, I’m going to go ahead and reserve a rental, can you send me your part of the rental deposit?”

Try and do some archery/rifle shoots or hard hikes and shakeout trips way ahead of time to gauge their gear and woodsmanship. Offer advice as needed and see how it is taken.

Look for someone who does less than desirable hunts locally. The guy who hunts crowded public for whitetail or waterfowl.

Go on a fishing trip that requires overnight travel to see how they drive and ride.

I’ve been very blessed with hunting partners, but it’s mostly been a luck game.

 

[CanyonHunter]

I know the feeling, I have only lost partners. One got married and has been MIA ever since. The other wanted to hunt everything and after a few years decided he doesn’t like duck hunting, then didn’t like turkey hunting, now puts almost zero effort for big game. Almost impossible to find new ones.

 

[waldo9190]

There are very few friends of mine who I know are on the same page for a hunt in regards to expectations/strategy/effort/etc, and if they're not available or can't make a hunt work I'd rather go by myself then go with someone who may or may not share the same goals. Hunting by myself can helps me wipe the slate clean mentally, but also any mistakes/misjudgments are mine and mine alone.

 

[SoloWilderness]

Make sure your Craigslist post includes:
1. I have a bunch of honey holes
2. Not looking for any honey holes
3. I can shoot 1000 yards sub MOA offhand
4. I watch a ton of YouTube hunting shows, and I'm pretty sure I could do that calling stuff...

But in seriousness, I tried to craft an interested brother in law into a hunting partner. I won't hunt anything but deer from the truck with him anymore after multiple trips where he bailed early, wanted to give up because his fitness or woodsman skills were not up to the task. Had several seasons where I focused on getting him an animal, over getting my own, only to have him admit he hadn't been shooting, hadn't tuned his bow, had only put 3 rounds through his rifle to check zero... I'll go fishing with him all day long, and we have a blast, but he finally admitted backcountry elk hunting was above his pay grade.

My current hunting partner is an old neighbor, who knocked on my door at midnight one night ("I've seen you pull up with elk in your truck, you probably know what you are doing", after killing his first elk with a bow, on his own, and needed help butchering it. We spent the night bullshitting and cutting meat, and he has been a great partner ever since. The decision to actually hunt together came after we both round about started discussing a certain unit, he admitted to a certain drainage after I recognized a mountain in his pictures, and we realized that we were already hunting within 10 miles of each other, and liked to use similar tactics. He is younger than me, stronger than me, and knows how to call. We try to hunt together when it works, but if it doesn't we are still able to help each other pack, prep, etc. Last season we packed into an area to help a friend of his kill his first bull, while we bear hunted, without elk tags.

I have people ask me to introduce them to hunting all the time, and I will gladly take them on a doe hunt on a B tag, because it gives me an opportunity to test the waters, but I haven't ever taken any of them past this. A 2 day truck hunt in sage brush is a low risk tester.

 

[SuperDUECE22]

If you're an elk hunter from PA one would assume you're an RMEF member, correct?

Events

Have a good time for a great cause at RMEF Big Game Banquets and other fundraising events.

www.rmef.org

The attached link is a list of upcoming RMEF events in PA. Great place to network with like-minded folks while also contributing to conservation. Better yet volunteer on some local projects because as Mr. James Doolittle once said "There's nothing stronger than the heart of a volunteer".

 

[*zap*]

Finding a decent person that you can be friends with is not easy and if you add to that a person that hunts it becomes much harder.

 

[wind gypsy]

I've got a number of people I'd be happy to hunt with but few are in the same point situation as me. If one really wants to go on hunts with others it frequently needs to be easy to draw hunts, someone shares points (like in WY), or you just rotate who actually has the tag an go on trips knowing you're not killing something.

Going alone is the most common route for me these days.

 

[MallardSX2]

^^^^ On that, I'm friends with people who I would never hunt with. We may talk about hunting, but I would never hunt with them. lol


I knew a guy at work for 5 years and he found out I was a hunter and wanted to be my best friend and go hunting with me and I told him that I could be friends with him but I couldn't hunt with him and it hurt his feelings and he never talked to me again. Completely ghosts me when he walks by me at work. lol

 

[*zap*]

Often local guys want to be 'friends' with the successful public land hunter because they cannot find places to hunt on their own.

 

[william schmaltz]

Finding friends as an adult is basically impossible outside a person's home town. The word for the probability of finding a friend that can do a 7-10 day hunt and you can actually get along with escapes me. I'm a big time introvert and a stubborn pick that's stuck in my ways so that complicates things. It's all on a spectrum. As others stated, I have plenty of hunting friends I just won't ever hunt with. Plenty of great hunting partners that I love to bird hunt with but would never be on a trip with them where they even had to stay in a tent. If it's just a trip like moose where there is a base camp and not really any work to it, I make it sound 4x more miserable than it will be before they ever agree to come. I have a pretty wide net for guys that I'll take on a trip like that once the ground rules are set and I haven't had a bad trip yet.

There are maybe 4 people in my current group of friends I would go on a sheep hunt with. One is my brother and one is my wife. I have a handful of people I know are plenty capable, but know that our personalities wouldn't work in that particular situation. Other guys with the right personality, but not that kind of drive. I find a good way to weed people out is to start on a 2-4 day backpack mountain bear trip staying in a dry public use cabin. Then the next trip do a similar trip 2-4 days out of a tent. And just keep progressing.

To be fair, there are a pile of guys on here and that I know that would leave my chunky ass in a cloud of dust at the trail head! In some cases, I've hunted with guys that want to go too hard (harder than I think is necessary) and it wasn't a fit for me or them that way.

As far as meeting people, I feel like at this stage in life it starts with a common ground with our kids and works out from there. Most of the friends I've made in the last few years were made through kids activities or daycare.

 

[wapiti1983]

The best one I've found so far sas scheduling/dedication problems. We were friends for years before we started hunting together and he was really into it the first year. But it seems like his motivation to practice and scout have really dropped, and he called off a time or two and I wounded up hunting alone. Being alone is fine, depending on the situation, but having another person to bounce idea off of and to hear their ideas is very helpful. I'm still very much new to hunting, having only really gotten into it in since 2018. So I'm wiling to tolerate the boneheaded mistakes of another and hope they extend the same courtesy. But if someone isn't as dedicated as me, or isn't willing to , it kills my desire to invest time and effort in them even if they are a master at it, or better than me, or whatever. I'm not gonna misappropriate my time and effort for another person who won't reciprocate.

 

[11boo]

I have sure gone thru some in the past. Good friends too, they just didn’t have the passion to grind. Taking a day off a short hunt to watch the Broncos game is not something I do. Others let themselves get in such bad shape they couldnt make it up easy climbs.
I’ve been hunting with a guy from Iowa last few years that is rock solid. Also met another local who is the same.

Good luck and a great season to all.

 

[Deucebump]

The physically fit aspect of this is very understated, especially when it comes to eastern hunters!

 

[Hnthrdr]

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 quite tomorrow, I would hunt alone and figure out a packer in the area. I simply cant 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.

I don’t think untouched places exist in Co anymore… but loose lips will definitely sink ships

 

[Hnthrdr]

Finding a like minded like ability hunting partner is tough! I have one and thank God for it. He got me into archery hunting and got me up to speed and we have been hell on the elk in Co ever since, it helps that he was a pro hockey player and is tough as nails, and that I’m an idiot former infantry man who is too stupid to know when to turn around, good luck in your quest, but I think I heard a quote somewhere that if you can spend a week in the woods and not want to kill the guy you are with that’s a pretty special relationship

 

[Brooks]

I had a great hunting partner for a lot of years. We hunted, scouted and rode horses all over the wilderness. Seemed like every year one of us had some tags, archery, muzz or rifle or we’d go hunt coyotes.

A few years ago he had a accident up in the mountains and died up there. Hunting partners like him don’t come around very offended. A lot of guys have to run it by their wife to see if they can go, this guy only needed enough time to load his horses and grab some gear and we were on our way. His wife knew better than to tell him no. He lived for the hunt and adventure and died doing what he loved. R.I.P.