ToySoldier
Forum Supporter
I've enjoyed hunting with others. I've enjoyed seeing what they can find on places I've hunted already but still have potential, and I enjoy taking somebody to a place I've never hunted and wouldn't have ever been able to cover every inch of dirt myself anyway. I enjoy getting to go somewhere I wouldn't have been able to go.
I also enjoy hunting solo. It's totally fine to not hunt every place together. Not every place is even appropriate for more than one person, or you simply want to hunt it yourself and no explanation is necessary.
You have to get over the idea that a hunting buddy is your spouse or boyfriend/girlfriend or business partner. You don't have to go everywhere together. Your hunting buddy can send you photos of things they find on their private permissions and you can do the same. Cheer them on and be glad for them.
The trick, of course, when you rely more on private permissions than public land, is maintaining some reasonable level of reciprocity. Not in what ultimately gets found, but reciprocity in the potential of the places. On the other hand, you're not friends or even buddies if you are keeping exact score from hunt to hunt. For a true friend or buddy, it could take years for it to even out.
Heck, if you're good enough buddies you might be getting something out of hunting together beyond the finds and you don't care one bit that one person finds all of the permissions and the other person brings the humor and sandwiches.
It's fine to be neither friends nor buddies, too. There are hunting 'partners' who use the strategy to increase the variety of each other's hunting, but in that case there has to be some clear guidelines discussed to make sure both people are benefitting.
Going to a good spot behind the back of the person who found it is obviously unacceptable, especially if it's private property. I've never had that happen and would never do it to somebody else.
I also enjoy hunting solo. It's totally fine to not hunt every place together. Not every place is even appropriate for more than one person, or you simply want to hunt it yourself and no explanation is necessary.
You have to get over the idea that a hunting buddy is your spouse or boyfriend/girlfriend or business partner. You don't have to go everywhere together. Your hunting buddy can send you photos of things they find on their private permissions and you can do the same. Cheer them on and be glad for them.
The trick, of course, when you rely more on private permissions than public land, is maintaining some reasonable level of reciprocity. Not in what ultimately gets found, but reciprocity in the potential of the places. On the other hand, you're not friends or even buddies if you are keeping exact score from hunt to hunt. For a true friend or buddy, it could take years for it to even out.
Heck, if you're good enough buddies you might be getting something out of hunting together beyond the finds and you don't care one bit that one person finds all of the permissions and the other person brings the humor and sandwiches.
It's fine to be neither friends nor buddies, too. There are hunting 'partners' who use the strategy to increase the variety of each other's hunting, but in that case there has to be some clear guidelines discussed to make sure both people are benefitting.
Going to a good spot behind the back of the person who found it is obviously unacceptable, especially if it's private property. I've never had that happen and would never do it to somebody else.