Stories of hunting partners that didn’t quit.

[loganwayne]

My best friend the guy that got me into big game hunting at 19. Hes a complete asshole in the best kind of way. We push each other way past our comfort levels just to see what's out there. Finding someone with the same mindset and attitude are a huge factor in how your hunts going to go.

 

[Burnsie]

My brother - About 12-13 years ago we decided we were going to do a full-on back country backpack bow hunt. Go in for nine days and not come out unless we got something. I was 51 he was 49. I wish we would have had a film guy follow us the whole trip - it would have made for one hell of a comedy of two total newbies to backpack hunting fumbling their way through it. I would consider both of us pretty good woodsman, but we had never done anything like that before. Packs were waaaaay too heavy. Anyway, we were less than an hour into our hike in and my brother tried to hop across a small creek in an alder thicket we found ourselves lost in. Turns out it was a deep beaver run that he ended up waist deep in. When he pulled himself up/out of the muck he heard something pop - he had blew out his groin. He grinded it out the whole trip and never complained - and we were going up some wicked steep stuff with our crazy heavy packs. I know he was in some significant pain the whole time.



Soaking Wet

 

[Burnsie]

My Dad - He's 85 and still kick'n ass and taking names. He has some aches and pains and some medical issues, but he won't let it stop him, he just keeps grinding. I'm often embarrassed when he's out working me at my age. He is still in the deer woods, fishing, running his sawmill, running a stump grinding business - he won't stop.

 

[Rich M]

Truly jealous of the guys who have fathers, grand parents, or kids hunting with them. I never had a father or grand father who did it, and hoping ill be able to have a kid who i can hopefully take to make memories. I enjoy reading these.

Find a good girl who will go, or at least let you follow your pasdion and pass it along to your kids - girls or boys.

I have no kids, couple stepgrands - waiting for the stepson to father one so we can swoop in and grab them. The stepdaughter’s kids are no-go for hunting ( but working on the fishing side of things).

 

[Rich M]

My Dad - He's 85 and still kick'n ass and taking names. He has some aches and pains and some medical issues, but he won't let it stop him, he just keeps grinding. I'm often embarrassed when he's out working me at my age. He is still in the deer woods, fishing, running his sawmill, running a stump grinding business - he won't stop.
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You get close the day he stops. Guys like that are a motor - run all out. God Bless him and you.

Love that mess of whitefish! Aersome!

 

[Rich M]

My brother - About 12-13 years ago we decided we were going to do a full-on back country backpack bow hunt. Go in for nine days and not come out unless we got something. I was 51 he was 49. I wish we would have had a film guy follow us the whole trip - it would have made for one hell of a comedy of two total newbies to backpack hunting fumbling their way through it. I would consider both of us pretty good woodsman, but we had never done anything like that before. Packs were waaaaay too heavy. Anyway, we were less than an hour into our hike in and my brother tried to hop across a small creek in an alder thicket we found ourselves lost in. Turns out it was a deep beaver run that he ended up waist deep in. When he pulled himself up/out of the muck he heard something pop - he had blew out his groin. He grinded it out the whole trip and never complained - and we were going up some wicked steep stuff with our crazy heavy packs. I know he was in some significant pain the whole time.

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Soaking Wet
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He’s a trooper! The bruise hurts just looking at it and then to grind for 9 days! That’s a hunting partner!

 

[taskswap]

I met a guy this year (I won't name names) who offered to join me on a muzzleloader hunt here in CO. For those of you that don't know, in CO, muzzleloader happens in the middle of archery season. If you get lucky on timing it's a rut hunt, and calling can be really important, especially if you can have a partner do it while you focus on shot setup. I'm not very good at calling (yet!) and in any event having a partner is always super helpful for elk so I jumped at the chance.

He had COVID. He still showed up. The entire time he mentioned his throat felt like it was full of needles and it was obvious he was miserable. We even backpacked in and he was down for it all. Most people would have bailed, and honestly I wouldn't have blamed them. But he not only showed up, he did a great job calling, too. Imagine bugling with a mouth reed while you can barely breathe.

Big G, I don't know if you'll see this, but if you do, #MadRespect.

 

[Kingofthemountain83]

My Dad... He's 72 and sometimes I have to ask him to slow down so I can keep up... Packed some stuff out of some hell holes... Hope to get him on a blackie during late season... Been hunting together since I was 11... 41 now...

 

[amassi]

Took my buddy to Colorado for his first elk hunt, second big game hunt ever. On the trip from CA to Colorado a cold sets in on him and by Utah he’s sick as a dog. We stop and go to Walmart for meds and a library to print off Mapquest directions to hospitals along our route. He carved out a little coffin in the back of my 89 bronco and went to sleep.
Get to CO and set up camp, I’m legitimately worried and want to take him back to town to at the very least get a hotel but more likely be near medical assistance. He flatly refuses and we make dinner and watch a storm roll in. It was 70 and sunny while we made camp, that night it rained then snowed about 6” on top. Everything froze solid, get up on the opener and drive to our hunting spot. He decides, probably smartly, to stay in my bronco and “glass” I take off for my glassing spot and get settled in. Shooting starts popping off and a small herd runs into the bowl I’m watching, they take the draw leading up to me and I kill a nice bull. It’s only about 400 yards from the truck, tag and gut the bull and walk back to the truck. Tell him I have a bull down and he immediately lights up, he basically ran back to the bull and took his time just being in awe of how big a bull elk is. We snap some film photos and record on his vhs camcorder some scenes of the processing. It takes a bunch of trips getting the meat out on a Milsurp pack and a pack frame he borrowed. It was the longest 400 yards ever, the snow was over the top of frozen rain so there was a layer of ice under the snow. We must have fallen 20 times. He never wavered or let on how bad he was hurting. It was around 2 when we made our last trip and we were sitting on my tailgate game planning how to fill his cow tag when we heard some shooting on the private property below us.
I see 12-15 elk running this canyon and I have a fair idea where they’re heading. We haul azz up this road and I pull off the road and we jog about 15 yards to overlook this draw I think they’ll use and sure enough they are jamming right up this draw. They start filtering through a stand of quakies and a spike pops out and pauses, a small cow runs right into him and pushes him up, earlier I hadn’t seen any bulls so I say if the next one’s a cow and she stops in that clearing take her. A huge cow, still the largest life ever seen, runs the clearing and he smacks her on the run about 175 yards. She runs about 70 yards and dies in the middle of the 2 track road. We drove right to her and processed her right from the ground to the back of my bronco. Smiles for miles, despite the pneumonia he ended up coming down with. I lost those photos and video about 20 years ago and lost him a few years ago to a drunk driver.


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[eddielasvegas]

What a good idea for a thread @Customweld

Some good stories in here and it just confirmed there are good people out there in spite of what we see on the news.


Eddie

 

[ewade07]

My older brother has no quit in him. He has been my go to hunting partner for as long as i can remember. I definitely would not shoot as many and the caliber of animals i do if it were not for him. More importantly, hes a stand up guy and pushes me in all aspects of my life as well.

 

[Scoot]

My buddies Jon and Gabe. Both badasses who are way tougher than me. I'm lucky to call them friends and hunting buddies. Neither will quit.

 

[ewade07]

My buddies Jon and Gabe. Both badasses who are way tougher than me. I'm lucky to call them friends and hunting buddies. Neither will quit.

i bet it was fun gettin that cow out of that muck hole!

 

[Scoot]

i bet it was fun gettin that cow out of that muck hole!

Holy moly that was an adventure. Just as we were finishing taking pictures we heard a rush of water coming. It was like a dam had burst! Within thirty seconds the water rose and almost completely covered the elk. We had scramble up the bank and get away from the fast moving water. After half an hour the water receded and went back to the same level it had been. Then the fun started!!! It was a mess but we got it done.

 

[Cornhusker]

When I was a lot younger and with little money I wanted to lease a field on the Platte River to hunt geese which was really expensive with my limited funds. I couldn't afford the lease but one day at a hunting retriever trial I met a 90 year old guy, Jody that had a connection. Together he and I leased this field it was owned by a guy also 90 who had been a close friend since they went to Catholic elementary school together. We leased the field for 5 years $200.00 a year a fraction of what it was worth. We put pits in the field with me doing all the work I rented a back hoe and put 2 pits in and we were in business.

I could only hunt weekends at the time as I was working. I would drive to his trailer park as he didn't have much money and take him with me to the pits. We had a system of getting him down into the pit which wasn't easy but every Saturday and Sunday I'd pick him up and we'd go hunt geese. In the 5 years we had the lease he took a shotgun but never loaded it in that time. In that time I and guests killed between 73-162 geese every year. Jody never shot he just cooked fantastic breakfast in the blind and always watched the geese decoy in, never fired a shot or took a goose. January 19th, 2004 I went to pick him up as the season was getting near the end and he didn't answer the door, I knew where he kept a hidden key. I walked in and he had died in the night in his recliner. He was 95 years old, within a month his friend and the field owner died. His kids inherited the field upped the rent to $10,000 a year and it's now hunted by several law firms from Denver. Jody is still an inspiration to me as a hunter. I hope to be upright at that age and if I am I hope to have that hunting attitude and the spirit of that man. I remember walking with a 90 year old man who used a cane and then a walker when it was dark -20 and -31 to the blind and thinking this is crazy for a 90 year old to be doing this but he never give up.

 

[Customweld]

When I was a lot younger and with little money I wanted to lease a field on the Platte River to hunt geese which was really expensive with my limited funds. I couldn't afford the lease but one day at a hunting retriever trial I met a 90 year old guy, Jody that had a connection. Together he and I leased this field it was owned by a guy also 90 who had been a close friend since they went to Catholic elementary school together. We leased the field for 5 years $200.00 a year a fraction of what it was worth. We put pits in the field with me doing all the work I rented a back hoe and put 2 pits in and we were in business.

I could only hunt weekends at the time as I was working. I would drive to his trailer park as he didn't have much money and take him with me to the pits. We had a system of getting him down into the pit which wasn't easy but every Saturday and Sunday I'd pick him up and we'd go hunt geese. In the 5 years we had the lease he took a shotgun but never loaded it in that time. In that time I and guests killed between 73-162 geese every year. Jody never shot he just cooked fantastic breakfast in the blind and always watched the geese decoy in, never fired a shot or took a goose. January 19th, 2004 I went to pick him up as the season was getting near the end and he didn't answer the door, I knew where he kept a hidden key. I walked in and he had died in the night in his recliner. He was 95 years old, within a month his friend and the field owner died. His kids inherited the field upped the rent to $10,000 a year and it's now hunted by several law firms from Denver. Jody is still an inspiration to me as a hunter. I hope to be upright at that age and if I am I hope to have that hunting attitude and the spirit of that man. I remember walking with a 90 year old man who used a cane and then a walker when it was dark -20 and -31 to the blind and thinking this is crazy for a 90 year old to be doing this but he never give up.

That ole codger was happy just being there with you. Sure makes you reflect back and appreciate those times.

 

[grfox92]

Truly jealous of the guys who have fathers, grand parents, or kids hunting with them. I never had a father or grand father who did it, and hoping ill be able to have a kid who i can hopefully take to make memories. I enjoy reading these.

My father died when I was 16 and didn't hunt anyway. I had my uncles to get me started at least.

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[minas stiris]

I have never been into the merry band method of hunting. Never been much for planning things to death either. Late August I arrived at my Africa lodge: "Well, Pat, what do you want to shoot this trip." Me: "Whatever needs to be shot. Surprise me." Some farmer had a fabulous bull waterbuck that wasn't breeding but tough enough to keep the other guys from doing anything. Shoot him if you can. Great price. Never saw the bugger but I did take a fine impala and springbuck on the property. Whatever.

 

[3gunyotehtr]

My oldest daughter has been on some interesting hunts with me, and has never thrown in the towel. She shot an elk when she was 15, it was a 5 mile pack out one way, but she packed her share. We've been bear hunting, with a river crossing that was probably not a good idea, deer hunting, she was always up for it. Now she's in college and doesn't get to hunt as much, but the memories are forever.

 

[Tater86]

I'm in the same boat with a lot of you all and that person that never showed quit was my father. Sadly we passed away 4 hunting seasons ago but his memory stays with our entire hunting group. He is the only person in this world I know of that would never quit hunting and would always be that one that would push you that extra mile. Even at 64 in his last hunting season we all had to push further to keep up with him. He was always the one we looked at when we ran out of ideas because he always had an idea and for some odd reason it is usually what worked for us I miss that man more than anything in this world and would give anything to have one more hunt with him.