Nightmare trip

[Gunnersdad49]

How many of you have hunted with someone you thought you knew, only to find out they are not the type of person you want to be around?

I had a rough trip this year, and learned a couple of lessons I thought I would toss out there in case anyone can learn from my experience.

Lesson 1, be self sufficient. If I had not brought a capable pack, emergency food, communications, and water treatment, I would have been in a bad spot. I ended up making an unplanned foot based exfil from about 7.5 miles in (had packed in on horses).

Lesson 2, Go with your gut. I had a bad feeling about this trip very early on, but allowed it to ride out and come to a head. If I had been more confident, I would have cut this trip short earlier and still hunted another location.

Lesson 3, Better to hunt solo than with someone that makes it difficult for you to enjoy your hunt.

Lesson 4, Stick with your morals. If someone does something you think is immoral or unethical, call them out on it, even if it causes you some grief.

Initially, this was going to be a rant with my experience, and half way through, it just looked like whining, so I deleted the story, and am leaving the lessons learned. Anything positive that you have taken from trips that went bad that you want to share, drop it below.

 

[wyosteve]

If the costs of a trip are going to be shared, get all to contribute to a 'pot' before the trip begins!

 

[geebee]

All good points. Can you expound on 2 and 4 which seem to have led to issues with 1 and 3?

 

[Coach529]

You can't leave us hanging......

 

[Gunnersdad49]

All good points. Can you expound on 2 and 4 which seem to have led to issues with 1 and 3?

#2-This person was dishonest with the plan, which was the big clue I should have considered one of the multiple deal breakers. We rode horses in, and it wasn't until we were over 7 miles in that I was made aware I would have to change my schedule (we had agreed upon my hunt schedule a month earlier) or walk out. I naively believed I would be able to talk some sense into my hunting buddy over the week, and got myself deeper in than if I would have bailed early.

#4-This dude claimed to have shot a deer before I arrived, walked up on it, and decided it was too small, so he left it lay. He wouldn't give me enough detail to find the body, or I would have turned him in. He could have been full of it, but I have a feeling he was telling the truth. Later in the week, while we were into a herd of elk, he stuck a cow. I had a cow tag, he had an either sex tag. We had seperated by a few hundred yards, alternating calling based on what the elk were doing. When we met up, the herd had moved off, and he told me that he stuck a cow. He wanted to follow the herd, and I said, "let's go get your cow." He said, "I don't give a f*ck about that cow, I was just filling your tag. I want that bull!"
I insisted, and he half heartedly followed me and his son as we tracked his cow, which he admitted he bumped as he charged past her to follow the bull. After about 4 hours of tracking, and about a mile and a half, we lost the trail. Blood indicated that she wasn't hit really well. We never found the cow.

Later in the week, he refused to help his son (19 years old) follow up on an animal he (the son) had put an arrow into because bulls were bugling. I helped his son collect, gut, and pack out his first archery buck, while the dad chased bugles on his own.

 

[jsb]

Sounds like a real peach. I've had experiences like that with "friends" who turned out to be completely unethical and unsafe hunters. All you can do is never hunt with them again. You can talk ethics till you are blue in the face but they will never get it. Hopefully some of what you were advocating for rubbed off on the son..

 

[AdamW]

Man sorry to hear all of that. How well do you know this person? Family member, coworker?

 

[Muley Buck]

Hard lessons learned right there. I've been there before, it sucks! Only thing good about it is that it can only get better from here.

 

[rustneversleeps]

I cant tell you how many times I've said to myself "I'm never hunting with them again..."

 

[Kevin Dill]

Snoring, cheating, lying, farting, selfish, lazy, unhealthy, egotistical, unethical, immoral, rude, whiney, angry and smelly guys don't get to hunt with me. If they pass this first round, we'll talk. I generally have to know a guy very well and for several years of hunting before we'll do a trip. I've made exceptions and had great experiences, but if I have even a sniff of bad character I'll ditch the deal somehow.

 

[weatherbow21]

Hunting with someone for a week is a good way to stress test a friendship.

 

[Azone]

Wow.....that guy sounds like a a complete self centered A hole. Definitely never ever agree to hunt with him again no matter how much he says he has "changed". Your not alone though, I have been on a couple hunts that took a lot of self restraint not to strangle some people in camp. Whether it be over crappy ethics or just being a whine bag or lazy piece of......um yeah. Live and learn though, that guy deserves a swift kick in the ass and no hunting for that stunt with the cow though. He is not a hunter, he is a greedy jerk if he is just wasting game animals like that.

 

[tdhanses]

I would still turn him in, let the game warden sort it out, that’s BS on the deer and cow!!

 

[rockcrawler]

That's why I'm going solo from here on out experienced a lot of negative thing last year in the frank church with a partner who was ill prepared.

 

[Molon Labe]

Finding a good hunting partner is more difficult than finding a good spouse.
This is statistically backed up by the way...

When you do...you need to propose.
Instead of a vows you will need to both exchange your most secret honey holes.
And there is typically no such thing as divorce amongst hunting partners...til death do you part!

 

[Gunnersdad49]

Agreed with all of you above. This wasn't a sympathy post, and I waited a couple of weeks to put it out, mainly to allow myself to calm down. The things listed above are only the tip of the iceberg. This trip ended up with the "buddy" stripping his son's backpack off of him and sending him down the trail with me. He sent his son out with no food, coat, water, or pack. Just the clothes on his back, and a couple of pairs of shoes tied to a stick like a hobo's bindle.

The "never again" mentioned above is a given.

To answer Adam's question, I've known him for about 10 years, and have hunted and fished with him off and on through those years. He is a smooth talker, and I'm a dummy when it comes to second chances.

Back to the positives and lessons learned, two guys can use up a lot of water, so a steripen, allowing us to drink our fill at creek crossings was great. I keep a tarp in my pack all the time, and that gave me peace of mind as we headed off toward the trailhead, in case we needed to stop and spike out for the night. We were sharing meals, but I also had a couple of mountain house and some snacks in my pack that I didn't have to go into the "group food" to get, and it was plenty to get the two of us to the trailhead.

 

[davsco]

wow that sounds just absolutely horrible. playing a round of golf with someone, or even a hunting day or weekend trip is one thing and you can generally wing it and make do, but doing a multi-day or multi-week trip you (we) really have to feel each other out, and have a detailed written plan including a lot of what-if scenarios.

 

[geebee]

Thanks for adding the details and sorry you had to experience that! Tough enough to hunt and get on elk, let alone dealing with those things. Sounds like you did the right things and maybe had a positive impact on the kid. It's guys like that, that ruin it for the rest of the good folk out there.

 

[dtrkyman]

Never had anything that bad, did have a horrible snorer once and an ex marine who was scared to hunt more than 250 yds from camp!

I hunt solo a lot because most guys will not commit to a hunt!

 

[Billinsd]

Just because the guy is your college drinking buddy and you get along perfectly when drinking, objectifying, and oogling women doesn't mean you will get along in the field. I've learned the hard way, I generally prefer to hunt alone. Most of my issues were related to how and where to hunt. I'm eager to follow those more experienced and better hunting than me, but not the opposite. I've ruined and severely damaged what I thought were good/great friendships on hunting/camping trips. Afterward, though I realized they were not that great friends. I've heard it say and believe it's harder to find a good hunting buddy, than a wife. Bill