When to give info

[5MilesBack]

I remember one year I was archery elk hunting and shot my biggest OTC bull to date. There were a couple of guys from Missouri camped just a little ways above me off the road. Two buddies were there that helped me pack it out. One of the guys from MO walks down and says "Hey, have you seen anything yet this season?" I replied "Not much, you?" And I hear one of my buddies whisper to my other buddy "Do you think he knows that the guy can see the game bags hanging on the meat pole?" My other buddy says "Don't matter.......he won't tell him a thing". I didn't lie to the guy, I hadn't seen much. I just shot the first bull I had a good shot at, and it happened to be a good one.

Since 2010 I've had five ML hunters shoot good bulls that I was working or called in, and I never knew any of them were even in the area until they shot. I figure that's enough help for a lifetime.

 

[.204smokechaser]

Unless it’s a moose tag or goat tag and the tag holders ask first, I’m not giving a lick of information out for elk and deer in the unit I primarily hunt and work in here in Idaho. My personal cell phone number somehow was mistaken thinking it was a work cell last winter and co workers gave it to complete strangers whom I never met. I was more than pissed. That and when people stop in asking where the deer and elk are opening week are the two things that piss me off the most and I decline to answer truthfully.

Giving information to strangers changes for spring bear on the other hand. It’s May and usually I’m in a good mood to see folks in the spring time when the weather is getting nicer and the days are longer. When folks from the mid west or south stop in and ask questions, they’re usually prepared and are very friendly. I know talking to those folks will possibly benefit me one of these years in getting to hunt for white tail or hog hunt somewhere cool.

 

[EastHumboldt]

No quarter asked or given. I’m so secretive… Easthumboldt isn’t even my real name.
I will not lie to people tho. If asked my answer is “Yes I did see some animals, but I’m not in the habit of sharing that information”

 

[intunegp]

I don't mind helping when it isn't going to impact my hunt or plans in any way. I tend to err on the side of giving as little info as possible while not being rude or disingenuous. If I'm asked if I'm seeing anything I typically reply "not much" or "nothing worth shooting" which both could be true to a seasoned hunter even if I have quarters hanging at camp. If I get asked where I'm hunting I tend to give a cardinal direction and maybe an ambiguous distance..."oh just a bit north of here".

I always think back to several years ago, myself and my dad were in the nearest general store picking up who knows what that we had forgotten. Dad is a talker and naturally gets to chatting with a guy about our hunt and tells him "we're out off highway XX, a little past XX draw on road XX...hunting right by some private owned by a guy named Johnson". Anyone familiar with the area probably could have driven to our camp with the level of detail my dad was needlessly giving a stranger. The guy immediately went from a friendly smile to almost rolling his eyes and looking bothered.

That guy was Johnson and my dad had just told him we were hunting and camping right by his private property. He sells guided hunts on that property and though I had never met him, I had heard many stories over the years of him and his guides harassing people who were getting too close to his boundary, even if they were on the BLM side.

I promptly jumped in and told ol' Johnson that my dad was from out of state, had only been in the area once before, and "XX draw" and "Johnson's property" were just two of the common landmarks I'd reference when planning or showing him things on a map. I did my best to assure him that we were in no way encroaching on his property or even at risk of shooting something and having it run across onto his land. I couldn't end that conversation and get out of there fast enough.

In reality we never got closer than half a mile or so from his property line and our camp was over a mile away on BLM, and I couldn't care less what he thinks about it because I know we didn't do anything wrong, but that one interaction always sours my thoughts of how things can go when you overshare and don't know who you're talking to.

 

[RS_Non-Res]

I've got two general responses:
1) "I'm a shitty hunter so I can only tell you where not to go." or
2) "Would you believe me if I told you where I saw a lot of elk or a trophy bull?"

There's a lot of grace to be earned by being charitable and a lot of grief too.
The trick is maximizing the grace and minimizing the grief.

 

[WRO]

I hunt 2-3 states a year, I trade information all of the time with people. I have made a pile of good friends over the years doing this. I'm subjective on information I share and the more valuable it is, the smaller the group it gets shared with.

 

[yfarm]

A year ago my son drew a big horn ewe tag, we scoured the internet for information on the unit, I spent a week in August scouting the unit, had a game plan. Got to the trailhead, packed in to 10.5k elevation, hunted three days and didn’t see any animals. Switched to a different drainage, packed in a very difficult trail, on the way in met a muzzie mulie hunter packing out, told my son where to camp and where he had seen sheep. His two friends were still hunting. Son set up camp, found the group of sheep, shot a ewe at 300 yds, rolling down the slope and off a cliff into a creek bed. Unknown to him he was being watched by the two friends the entire time from a distance. He got to the sheep, gutted and quartered and the two friends appeared and helped him pack out to his camp. Became friends as a result of the first hunter.
This year he draws a mulie tag in a wilderness area different state where we had previously elk hunted, he hunted solo, met a couple camped next to him who were from the area, ended up hunting the week with them. Individual was a lifelong local he guided a different unit but hunted personally that unit. Without being asked provided invaluable information about elk and mulie patterns in this unit.
Two different states, two years running, new friends, keep your self open to new relationships, you never know when it will happen. I read alot about antiNR experiences in the west, have never experienced it.
Last weekend we had draw tags for a NWR Nilgai hunt in S Tx, the day before the orientation a friend of my son offered to let us hunt a ranch that hadnt been hunted in 20 yrs. We went to the required orientation at the NWR knowing we werent going to hunt but wanted to check in. Leaving the orientation I met a couple of guys who had never hunted there before. Gave them information about how and where. Last time I hunted there 5 hunters out of 40 shot 80% of the total kill. Its a different hunt than most Tx hunters do.