Etiquette: returning to your partner's favourite hunting spot without them

Grouse Man

Grouse Man

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I read this on another forum and wanted to start up the discussion here.

Let's say you take a newbie or somebody hunting with you onto public land, which you have only found after years of scouting, driving, trudging, and scouring for good hunting spots with your money and sweat. You have a great time and part company, thinking you've helped a new shooter get into the sport. Next time you go out there, this same guy is now there with some of HIS buddies.

What does everybody think and feel about this situation? It could happen for any kind of hunting - grouse, duck, deer, etc.
 
It depends. If I told the newbie of the work put in to find the spot and asked that he not share it with others then I'd be furious and the newbie would be short one friend.

But if I hadn't mentioned anything and the location was on public land I might mention my disappointment but not make a big issue of it. I'd be angrier with myself for not bringing it to his attention on the first trip.
 
.... Exactly !

And if you're really concerned about your "private" (non-public spot) ... make them wear a bag over their head till you get them there ! And make sure they don't have a GPS !

Good grouse & woodcock coverts and speckled trout lakes are just too damn hard to come by. Probably why I wouldn't share one with anybody who I already didn't fully trust to respect it already ! (Outdoor magazine writers are some of the worst blabber mouths !) Better still ... get "the buddy" to take you to their favourite spot first .... just to see if it's at least as good as yours ;) If it's not great, don't take them to your best spots ... don't even let them know they exist !!!! :D
 
Guys that I will hunt with, are welcome to know any spot I can show them. Tit for tat, and all that. They have helped me.

I've only stonewalled a couple guys on hunting locations. One that was a lot of fun was a fellow that was pumping me for locations, and spent a lot of time trying to figure out where I was hunting, spent almost as much time driving around looking for my hot spot, as he did hunting, but this came about after a long circular conversation about why he could not show me where he hunted, because the land all belonged to members of his Church. But he was willing to hunt on other folks spots.

Mostly, I share, though. Will provide maps, too, for a suitable bribe of Timmy's!

Most of the guys I am willing to talk to or share with, are not the sort to load up a bus with all the rest of the guys they know, and cart them out, either.

And, in any case, if the place is on Crown land, it's open for all access anyway.
Cheers
Trev
 
It depends.

Some spots I'll take any new hunter to, to give them a break. Other places are jealously guarded.

I've got several good friends that I hunt with or have hunted with. Only one is the guy I hunt blacktails with, and we are either together or in constant contact with each other through November. We are always calling the other to report sightings, big tracks, etc, hoping to put some pieces together. There are a few spots we hunt that we dont' talk about to anyone, not even very good friends. We don't discuss these areas in front of others, we dont' comment to others about it, nothing.

A couple of years ago we had a great spot ruined by some yahoos that followed our trucks around. This was a great area that contained a few good quality bucks and lots of younger "breeding stock." Since this area was mostly ignored, it was possible to take one buck per year from there, and keep the quality up.

These guys went there and shot the #### out of it, killing a number of immature deer with great potential, ruining the area for years to come. Then they went and bragged how they had just followed our trucks around and made note of where we parked and our tracks in the snow.

it's public land and that sorta stuff happens, but it is still annoying. It's one thing for another guy to discover the area on his own, it's somewhat different when they discover it by espionage:p
 
2nd)


I dont think theres anything wrong with having a "secret spot" that you keep only for yourself/
 
The original poster kind of steered the question towards ... "newbie" & "new shooter".

I've got a regular hunting partner & a couple of good friends ... no problems, we're all
on the same page. But I really want to know about a new guy before I'd turn him loose somewhere that took me a lot of time, effort, energy & money to scout & learn.
 
Yeah, guys I've hunted with and sweated through fields and such I have no trouble taking to my regular places - they've done enough of their own scouting and shared their fields tit for tat. They've paid their dues, so to speak.
 
The best coverts are & always will remain secret - I can show you or tell ya about them - sure - but then I'll have to shoot you.;) Good hunting areas/regions are not so secret, can cover hundreds of acres & capable of producing game for several hunting parties. Introducing new hunters to these generalized portals as a courtesy - is not so risky to your game bag & longterm success. I do think one is remiss, in this day & age, if they are not allocating a certain portion of the current season for scouting out tomorrow's new 'hotspot'.
 
Most of my big game spots cannot be accessed except by jet boat, and some of those only be very good rivermen.
These are known to many.
My upland spots are free- for -alls, the birds are there one day, not the next. I have no problem showing people how to hunt them, either.
My waterfowl spots, well, they are on farmland, down south....
Cat
 
I have had both good and bad experiences when sharing my hunting lands with others. Most guys respect the effort that goes into gaining permission, scouting the land, setting stands, making food plots, and so on and so forth. But there has been more than one bad apple ruin the pie for me. Now I am extremely picky about who I hunt with, I get very little time in the field compared to the amount of time I spending working, doing chores and other non hunting related stuff that I am not going to risk it for some joker.
 
You know it only takes about 30 seconds to pick up the phone. The guy should be greatful you shared a spot with him and the least he could do, out of courtisy, is see how you felt about him taking "his" friends to your spot.

btw there is nothing worse than finding a friend of a friend of a friend in your stand at 4:30 in the morning.....

My two cents worth
 
Right here ladies and gents is the reason our hunting heriteage isn't being past down to the next generations, greedy old farts afraid of change, soooooooooo what if your buddy brings his friends, would you rather he didn't and you had the place all to yourself and then in 20 years it became a walmart?

I say the more the better, we already lost enough lands, it's hard enough finding a farmer that will let you use his land, now we have greedy old men afraid of sharing their crown land finds.

Anyone interested in locations to all the crown lands in Ontario send me a PM of where you want to hunt and I will gladly send you all the spots in that area. I acctually conisdered making a downloadeable map with all the Ontario locations marked, then selling it but havn't got around to it yet, this right here is enough reason that something like that is needed in order for us newbies to get our slice of the pie.
 
You just don't do that .....go to someones spot with your buddies.... We all work too hard and long finding and securing spots to hunt .If he is really interested he'll see what you are doing right and follow your lead in finding his own sweet spot. Perhaps go together to find a new good spot. If however he's spineless and to lazy to find his own spot then strangulation comes to mind .......


Goosechsr
 
Maybe I' m just an a-hole, but I no longer help newbies find hunting spots. I have been burned too many times as a result of doing this. As a kid , me and my hunting buddy didn't have any family to take us out and show us around. All of my good spots, and most of my hunting knowledge came as a result of hard work, and years of learning. The new generation of hunters want instant sucess without working for it. I have had guys come up with a topo map, and want me to mark exactly where I have my stands, and which waterholes hold the elk. I too have had guys who scout for my trucks instead of for the game.

As far as I'm concerned, till someone proves they can get off their lazy butt, and work to find their own areas, they're not welcome in mine!!!!!

( Can you tell this is a bit of a sore spot with me!!!!!)
 
I hunt large tracts of private land and some cases know the land better than the land owners do. We have 10-12 guys that hunt there, but really only 3 of us hunt seriously, the rest of them go where we tell them to.

It's not cool if you have a spot and the guy claims it as his own. Most of my good spots are too far into the swamp for most non-hardcore guys to venture into. I carry a compass and a GPS and most guys are know would be too afraid of getting lost in the swamp.

One year I shot a buck and a doe in the swamp during a heavy snowfall. I followed the tracks for a few miles (in a near circle) before I caught up to the deer. When the boys followed my tracks to help drag out the deer, one guy was damned near panicked that we would not find our way out because the snow had covered our tracks... The other guy and I looked at the compass and decided that if we walked about 500 yards in that direction, we would come out to the field we started in. We came out 100 yards from the truck. The guy who was panicked was the only one without a compass around his neck. Woodsmanship is a dying skill...
 
A few years ago I was hunting with my brothers and a friend, a buddy who had a camp just down the road was hunting with his 4 work buddys. About 2 weeks into the moose season, he came over for a drink, and we got around to talking about the moose hunts. His group had been hunting some swampy areas and were getting no sign. My group were getting TONS of calf and cow sign daily around some clear cuts. Next day my little brother was followed by a fella from the other group to where we were hunting, they actually surrounded the area we were hunting for the rest of the season, riding around in pickups and ATVs. I talked to him about it, his responce was basicly oh well it's crown land. Friendship over.

I try to give other hunters as much respect, and space as possible, and I expect the same in return.
 
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