A few years back a friend asked four of us to go with him to the Black Hills to go deer hunting.

We packed up and made the trip, got to the location where we were going to be camped and found that a guy our friend had taken there the year before had brought 12 other compound hunters and beat us to it.

We would have had a pretty lousy hunt for the congestion if not for a game warden who came by and saw our equipment. He says "traditional huh" and we said yes.

He then proceeded to give us directions to a different area about 10 miles away that we then went to and had all to ourselves for the week. Even got a couple of deer there.

Moral for me was be very careful of who you take to your hunting spot lest you loose it. I know it happens all the time but it was the first time I saw it first hand.

I had a friend TRY. He mailed letters to the farmers where my family hunted. The farmers all called us and asked us what was up. We nipped that situation in the bud and the bud is no longer a bud.

I know of a similar story that happened to a friend of ours - took a 'friend' to a super-secret spot in Colorado, his 'friend' brought a bunch of guys the next hear with rifles and killed several big deer, basically shot-out the place. My friend was pissed!

If someone tells me about a secret spot, I won't even tell Jesus - follow the CODE, someone shares a secret fishing or hunting spot, do not share that info unless you get express permission from the person that told you. This is basic MAN CODE.

Yep. They're no longer "friends" of mine.

If you find one or two TRUE friends in your lifetime, consider yourself lucky.

I have found if you like your hunting spot, Tell NO ONE!!!! I new a fellow that would invite people to hunt with him all the time and then with in a few years waunderd why so many people knew about it!

I'm reminded every time I get to thinking different, that Jeff Durnell is correct. Sad but, true nonetheless.

I'm blessed. I have a lot of people I'm sure I can call on if need be. But, the fact remains that for everyone of them, there are a 100 that acted the part at one time or another.

The older I get, the less patience I have for Human Nature. I find it increasingly hard not to severely dislike people who lie, who tell you one thing but do another, and take advantage of you.

That's how these "buds" do you. God Bless

I have had it happen. A very good way to find out who is really a good friend.

"If you find one or two TRUE friends in your lifetime, consider yourself lucky."

Yep, sadly you are correct. I would say "blessed, rather than "luxky", but you are dead on.

We to the Compton Rendezvous a couple weeks back and my faith in people was restored. Hope it never leaves me again although I'm sure it will.

Had a cousin visit me in AR years ago while I was a shotgun hunter. I had several tags to fill, and he had an out of state license. I asked him if he wanted several deer if I were to have the opportunity to harvest more than one. I had killed two at a time once before with a shotgun. Yes, Yes, Yes, all you can get, he said. Well, I killed one, and when we started leaving the woods, I assumed he would help me drag it. But, no, his hernia surgery was only a month old and he couldn't drag a deer. Now, where would I have been had I harvested several?

Not exactly but did have a farmer tell me I was the only guy hunting his small farm. There is room for two if you both hunt opposite corners. The day I showed up to hunt, there was another guy, one of his Bud's and his dad. All hunting with crossbows from pop up blinds. I walked away and havent been back.

That hernia story is funny. A week after I had my appendix removed (wasn't supposed to lift more than a pound or two) I went deer hunting (rifle), shot a deer, gutted it, loaded it on the 4 wheeler and away I went. I was a little nervous about tearing stiches but had no issues, although if my buddy would have been there I might have gotten him to gut and load the deer:-)

Dan in Mi, I'd say the bud isn't a bud, and the tree may be missing some bark. Damn the nerve.

My best property was absolutely destroyed for hunting as a result of me letting a "buddy" on...

Oh well, there are a lot of deer and a lot of people...move on

I wouldn't put my own brother on the waiting list of a lease I'm on just because I knew what he would do.

I have one buddy that asked me if he and a friend could fish a bluegill hole that I took him to. and the hole is on a public lake. I couldn't stop him if I wanted to. those are my kind of buddies.

It OK to tell your very best buddy in the whole world where your second-best hunting spot is.

I'm serious!

When someone takes you to their hunting or fishing hotspot, you should treat it as their private oasis regardless of whether it is public or private. Ask for permission before returning. And taking your buds to a place someone else showed to you is a definite no-no unless you are told it is okay.

I have property owner that allows me to rabbit hunt on the property and has for years. I have taken many people with me to rabbit hunt it. They know under no uncertain terms, they are not to go rabbit hunting there unless I ask them to go with me. I have hunted this property for 38 years. I think they are more afraid of me than they are the land owner charging them with Tresspassing, if they did. DANNY

Blindfolds and promised butt whooping works Best >>>----->

I am loosing hunting spots because of all the building going on here. Jawge

Ollie gets it.

I've been to some of my buddys' honey holes and would never go near them again unless I was invited to go WITH them. Call it what ya want, common courtesy, respect, golden rule, man code, sportsmanship, etc. To me, that's just what friendship is about and no hunting spot or kill is worth a losing a friend over. At this point in my life, I don't need folks around that aren't true friends and I'm leery, and weary, of most anyone else.

My dad always said "you'll find more horses asses than horses". We caught a guy running dogs on our property where I had one of my coyote trap lines running through one time. He said someone told him about this place. Turned out to be a coworker of a dad of a high school buddy I used to take up there.

Other than my son, I have 1 TRUE hunting buddy who lives in Wyoming. What's mine is his and vice-versa.

My son has a buddy...good guy and all...but if you take him to a honey hole you can kiss it goodbye.

Agree with the comment about Comptons...renews one's faith in people...somewhat.

Other than that, as far as too many folks go...space is a vacuum because the whole world sucks.

Just an example of how things can get out of hand;

I lived outside Stevenson Al in a place called Eurika, one church and a few houses and that was it.

I lived in an old farm house, my neighbor owned untold hundreds of acres of land, mountain land and bottomland with plenty of game. He lived like an indian, no power or running water and wood stove to cook on and heat his small boxy house. I would take him to town occasionally, he didn't own a car, he let me hunt his land.

On time he let a guy from Birmingham (150 miles away) hunt on his place. About a week later I looked down the road and cars were parked on the shoulder bumper to bumper. Turns out the guy he let hunt told his buddies that a person could hunt on this great piece of land and here they came, all the way from Birmingham. It was a circus, Mr Bean never gave another person permission to hunt after he ran the crowd off.

Yup! Spent 10years and 25k developing OTA (Oregon Traditional Arrows) and Surewood Shafts. As soon as it started making money "friends" I invited to help out took it over. Be careful out there.

doug

I have no secret spots anymore to share. Most are housing tracks now anyway.

You know the old saying - three can keep a secret, if two are dead ;-0

On the flip side, I heard about some guys who went up north, with guns, for a late season hunt on a property that was leased to a group of bowhunters.

After bow season, the property owner had gunners coming in, basically sitting in the bowhunters' spots, and whacking the snot out of the buck population.

The guys with guns were happy but if I were one of the bowhunters I'd be good and PO'd!

Never had such an issue out here but we really don't have a bunch of people vying for hunting space. We did have a local dimwit try to run my father-in-law off his own property. That didn't work out too well for the dimwit, who got a lesson in geography and respect. Seems he was married to the neighboring property owner's daughter and thought he knew more than he did about property lines. Anyway, that marriage thing didn't work out for him either.

Honestly I've never had a place so great that I thought it would be worth losing a friend over.

I must be really lucky, because in 50 years of hunting I've never had anything like this happen to me. When I was a kid my hunting buddies and I had several places to hunt, but they were OUR spots. We'd go as a group (3 of us), or alone but we'd never bring anyone else. That's just how it was.

The land butchers have destroyed hundreds of hunting spots around me. I think they call it progress. It isn't.

This topic makes my blood boil. I showed a 'friend' I trusted my favorite sturgeon hole that I painstakingly discovered by serious effort trial and error. I was proud of sharing it. Then a day or two later I went to it after work and lo and behold, there was this guy and 3 other people he brought with him, fishing there. I have never respected him since. Scum. The next one really bothers me. I had a close bud that I drank with, and fished with. He had the drift boat and we drifted the Klickitat alot. I rowed alot, he fished, an then we switched. Cool, fish are 'renewable'. I would never go tbee without him anyway. So then I took him to my favorite shed honeyhole. A remote and very productive spot, but like all shed hunting spots, finite in its bounty. Well, I asked him to keep it a secret and he did,from everyone but himself. While I was working one week, he helped himself to it. I went on the weekend and saw his boot tracks leading in. No one else EVER went there so I knew it was him. To top it off he for 3 antlers from a deer I was really targeting, one when I took him, and 2 on his own. I would never get a matched set from this particular trophy, but he had them. I didnt talk to him much after that and he was a real dissappointment.

You feel that sickening sense of betrayal when it happens... I took a guy up bear baiting and showed him the ropes, next year he set up in my area. Another I took moose hunting, the following year he took up two of his buddies to the same lake about a mile away and killed a bull and bragged about it. These days I am fortunate to be in with a great group of ethical people who I will join for the Sept moose hunt . Sandy

There are plenty of self-centered people out there waiting to take advantage of any situation. Sad but true!!!

I have been very lucky with my "Trad Friends" in every aspect. I can't say that about other styles of hunting... I laughed when I saw the funeral and hunting busting up friends and family, another sad but true situation.

I have had a great friend for the past 30 years, he is very guarded about where he hunts but will go to a place I hunt if I tell him exactly where it is. He is very competitive in all his pursuits, hunting, archery tournaments, even fishing.

I could call him today and ask how the fishing went yesterday and he could give the the fish total numbers, total weight and the length and weight of every fish he caught even if it was 30 fish.

I couldn't ask for a better friend but I learned early on not to be forthcoming on where I hunt when I am around him.

Equivalent up here besides a deer hunting spot is a good woodcock cover or a brook trout lake or stream. Found out long ago what a real friend is when it comes to respecting this.

Bad enough they go back alone...worse is they bring others.

I found these spots through scouting and map reading and giving them a try...hard work that others do not respect.

Juspassin,

It sounds like that game warden was a better friend than your friend, he actually saved the hunt for you.

I would have gotten his name and invited him to the next hunt that I went on in that area, I always go a little overboard, but your friends from your hunting party could all chip in and take care of the meals and anything else that will be required on that hunt for the Warden. That would be a really nice jester and I guarantee it would pay in the long run...........wing

Eric Krewson, I had a friend like that, if you told him about a good fishing spot, he would fish it until there was nothing left. It was better to go with him to his fishing spots than to tell him anything.

Ah, yes. I took a really good friend to a smoking hot section of a drainage on public land. Hog sign everywhere. He arrowed two pigs that afternoon and that was great. BUT later that week while I was working and he was not he took THREE new people to that very same spot. They all shot pigs. And yeah, when I found out, I protested. And my friend said, "but D, it's public land". Lesson learned. Two years later I bought a farm, it's working out just fine.

Been there, he will never hunt with me again!!!!

On the flip side, I was invited to elk hunt with a group of guys after 3 years of my friend trying to get me "in". I told the old timer on the first trip that he would never have to worry about me telling anyone or ever returning to that area without him. I've been invited back every year :)

There's one guy I share "my" current private land spot with. We text each other when and where we are going ahead of time. This works well. Plenty of room to share.

There are still good courteous folks out there...thankfully my friends fall into this category.

Here in Wisconsin, NOTHING brings out the @hole in people like deer hunting. Especially so in the firearm season...which I hung up years ago.

Friends and family are at each other's throats every year.

Other than my son and Wyoming buddy, I'll hunt with nobody.

My primary character flaw is, I give NOBODY a second chance to screw me over. When my trust is violated..."you" never get it back.

I have to pay the land owner where I hunt now,, so I don't have a problem with anyone wanting to hunt there,,:)

It's always a tough call when you befriend someone and want to help them with a hunt. I have given spots away on public land that I hunt with the caveat that they promise to not abuse it and if I am hunting that day and they know I'm out that they stay away. So far it has not bitten me in the arms, and hope it doesn't.

Ever wonder how fishing hole become famous?

TO MUCH TALK! You tell someone and they tell the world. You take someone there and expect others to follow.

ITS CALLED natural man. NOTHING ELSE.If you can't read the trail on a persons heart when you meet them then how do you read the trail in the bush?

Always guard what you say with spots or if you don't care talk away.LOL

I grew up hunting ducks with some of the best callers that probably lived during the mid 1960s and we hunted the timber in the Deep South without decoys. I moved to Oklahoma in the early 1980s and took a pair of oil and gas lawyers hunting with me on a new green tree. They showed up with numerous sacks of decoys and I told them to leave them in their trucks, that they weren't needed.

We got into the flooded timber and they wanted to call so I let them. Ducks flared and flew high when they were "calling" so they started in on me saying that if they had brought the dekes we'd be covered up in birds. I said, ok...let me show you something....put up your calls and don't touch them. I'll call and when I have a flock working don't raise your faces and stare at the birds, just watch them in the water and I'm going to let them land. I'll jump them and we'll shoot when they're above head high.

I took over and in around 15 minutes I put several hundred birds on the water. We jumped them and killed our limits. These goofs were ecstatic and had me teach them how and when to call, etc. I also took them crappie fishing and taught them everything I knew about filling a boat with fish.

After a couple of additional hunts and fishing trips with these two, they started taking all of their other friends....hunting and fishing just as I had taught them....and the only time I ever saw or heard from them again would be at a business function.

I've got a thick skin and my feelings weren't hurt but the character that they exhibited afterward helped me understand that there are givers and there are takers. We have too many of the latter and for that reason I don't invite anyone to join me on those types of outings any longer.

Life is to short to lose friends over hunting spots. I will tell them my opinion but we are still friends, one friend drove across a field to retrieve a deer I told him not to drive on. he doesn't hunt there any more but we are still friends. my other hunting bud was taking his brother and brother in-law with him when I couldn't go. he still hunts with me and on his own there but no one else. and we are still friends. I have lost most my friends to early deaths. and relies it is not worth losing one over hunting or fishing spots.

Learned my lesson, had a spot on public land that boardered a reservoir, loaded with derr, told a friend who was in a spell of bad luck,next thing I knew he told 3 other people,glad those guys really don't want to put in real work for a hunt ,they only want to run to a hot spot that they dint find.

Benjamin Franklin once said, "Three men can keep a secret if two of them are dead."

Wise man, ol' Ben ;^)

I have found through the years that generosity is very often abused but very rarely unrewarded. While in a hunting club years ago I would always let everyone pin out before I would pin out. I would go out of my way to not step on anyone's toes. I was constantly rewarded with venison. I even killed a buck that made the state book. I listened to the whinin' and moanin' from the others in that club. One guy even told me "I can"t believe you killed that buck! You don't do anything right!" My reply,"I hope I never do". I killed 4 racks in the first 6 weeks of that season all from the same stand. Because we pinned where we were hunting everyone knew where I had killed them. The spot went dry and the deer I would see were passing very far out of range. I thought that they were just keen to my location until I saw a monster passing up a draw about 100 yards up the holler. I decided I would get down and go investigate. I took up the trail of that buck and found a corn pile with a stand on it(illegal here in Alabama)maybe 150 yards away from my location. I left that club after that season. I can put up with whinin', pissin' and moanin' but I can't put up with uninvited guests greedily taking what they didn't find.

Brought a friend to one of my spots once a long time ago.

He went back with others and then claimed that he had showed me that spot.

When I asked him how he first found that place, he couldn't recall.

Unfortunately, I see it happen every year here during duck season. Luckily, I learned my lesson on this topic about 30 yrs ago. Speck

sometimes I think ,, consideration to others is forgotten,, or not a priority to some like it used to be,, it is something that has to be practiced even when it might not be in your best interesest,, it was easy for me to be considerate of others for fear my Dad would find out if I was not,,:)

oddly enough this is how I met one of my best hunting partners....when I first got into bow hunting, I asked this guy that I hardly knew to go with me and tell me what I was doing wrong as he was already tagged out and would run a video camera while I hunted.....a few weeks later he told me "man that was a risk taking me to your spot, most people wouldn't dare do that". that was 8 years ago and we have spent tons of time hunting together since then.....when we are in his spot I run my camera and vice versa....here's to good hunting buddies

I've given away more places to hunt than I could possibly recollect. It doesn't bother me in the least; just move along and find the next great hunting location. It's no different with fishing either. There's a real danger in becoming obsessed with a particular tract.

Sorry, but unless you own it, there is no reason to gripe period. Especially on public land. Nobody here is that "special" anybody has as much right to use it legally as anybody else.

If you own it, different story. Then you actually have rights that come first.

Yes sir, share the tricks or the hot spots, its everybodys world. You share it, they share it. Takes the fun out of it sometimes. Had one of my buddies and his buddies slide into my favorite ground in IL when i was off in another state. They took over my favorite killing tree since i wasnt there of course. I got lucky and tagged out early on a wide 8 in MO. Went to IL and meet up them, my spot was taken, so picked another area, shot another giant 8 in the first 3 days there in IL. It was a bitter sweet ride home. They went home with a tag sandwich. LoL

I hunt alone or with my son, I use to hunt with my buddies back in the day, but them days are long gone. I found out long ago that if you can keep your mouth shut about your successful hunts and fishing holes you won't have these problems.

It can be awefully hard to judge peoples character.I had similar experiences many years ago.I hunt solo now and have done for years.Hunting areas are now a premium commodity these days and some folk will undermine all your efforts and try every trick in the book to take over.I can't to afford to allow that to happen.I do miss the the commraderie of a good base camp with bow hunter friends but times change.I just keep it secret and enjoy what I can.I am hearing you and know where you are comming from. OSR

Fourty years ago I had a friend take me back in to a beaver pond that supposedly was infested with giant brook trout. Took well over an hour creeping along two tracks and old overgrown logging roads once we left the pavement. Finally reached our destination and it was barren of fish. When we were leaving he told me to take a different way out. Within five minutes we were back on a paved road. Must of figured after we got skunked he had nothing to hide. There was no way I would have found it again the way he took me in :-)

Lol...only time I had someone else take over was when my kids got old enough to hunt.

My 3 boys, then a son in law, all married with family's of their own now.

Sometimes they bring friends, in-laws ect... Some of my hotspots became their hotspots as well.

I look at it a little different I suppose..... I can always hunt somewhere else. I surely have no problem finding game.

And I'm just as happy (maybe more) when they find success in my spots. As if I had myself.

I suppose it would be different if you had limited places to hunt.

I will tell you one, you will not believe. in 1991, 3 of us were going to CO for an elk hunt. I was driving, and my friend, would be flying out there, due to business, and I would drive his stuff out there for him and pick him up at the airport. no problem........ He said, he had a friend, that was coming and he would ride out with me..... at the last minute, his friend told me, he was going to fly, and I should take his stuff out there also......

so I do that. haul everything out, get camp set up, pick them up at the airport, take them into camp, and als0, take care of one pack horse......

2 days later, his friend, shoots a big cow elk. he asked me if I would tag it, he wanted a bull.... I said no, its not legal, you live with your choice. I than find out, he says, he can not dress or skin an animal, he gets sick...... so I take care of the animal, myself, and load it up, half on my back, and the rest on the pack horse, in the paniers, the owner gave me.....

I haul his stuff home, including all of his meat, and we get home, he has the nerve to say to me, you know I think you owe 25.00 yet on the camps grocery bill.........

I shook my head, never hunted with them again,,,,,,, be careful who you hunt with,,,,,,,

Apparently some of you guys either never had dealings with the kind of 'friends' we've had these issues with, or perhaps you ARE the kind of friend we've had issues with.

Before I moved, I kept an ever evolving list of dozens of hunting spots on both private and public land. It took many years of scouting, hunting, pruning, and other work to amass that list. If a stranger moved in on me because they did the work like I did, I usually just went elsewhere, no big deal, it happens. Finding new hunting areas IS hunting. But when a 'user'/'taker' type of 'friend' reveals his true nature by sleazing into spots where we did all the work, takes other folks with him of the same caliber when they know we're working, or tries to get sole hunting permission for himself, convincing the landowner to post the property, and have others removed who were there for decades before him? That tells you what kind of friends you have. It's not even about the hunting spot so much as it is the blatant disrespect and betrayal. Goodbye dear 'friend'.

I think some of you are missing the point. This isn't about being greedy or, selfish to the point of not being willing to share these spots and experiences. Or, not wanting others to enjoy success. This is about just the opposite. Not being able to share these things because others WILL abuse your generosity.

God Bless

I hunt a great piece of land with three friends, I have built a bunch of ground blinds in strategic locations for all of us to use. One of my friends will hunt the communal ground blinds if I ask him to, the other wouldn't be caught dead in one because he considers them "my blinds". He won't hunt out of one if I beg him to, strangely I am the same way about hunting out of his blind, I just don't feel right about hunting "his spot".

My point is there are some great hunting partners out there and I happen to have a couple of them.

I had a bow hunting friend who I showed some spots to so "we" could hunt them together go back during shotgun and push the whole piece with his "shotgun" buddies over and over until they decimated the whole herd that was there then they moved on to someone else's spot.

everyone needs to be careful on who is scouting with their ears and smile and really is just fishing around for someone else's spots, I'm an urban hunter but always lie about where you get your deer and be real cautious on who you bring out!

Read WV's last post...true there...

I think this one demonstrates the crux of the topic.

Some years back, a friend's brother...a local teacher...had a great spot on private land in the bluffs east of our home town.

He had a "friend" who was commiserating his woes of not having any good hunting spots...public hunting around here SUCKS by the way...one is indeed fortunate to secure permission to hunt private land.

The teacher "paid" for his hunting by helping the farmer with fencing, baling hay, Christmas gift certificates, what have you...I've done the same.

Anyway, he spoke with the land owner and got the OK to bring the "friend". They had a good year...good hunting, and got along great.

All was well til next summer when he went to help the farmer as usual. The farmer mentioned that the "friend" had offered to lease the propery for the bow season, and he had agreed...and he would need to see his "friend".

Which he did, and...yup...he was no longer alowed to hunt there...which has stood til this day.

I have also learned not share my woodcock spots also, for me to take a guy there, you would have to be a very good friend,,,, amazing how you, in a friendly way, help someone out, and the next week, they are in these spots, with a bunch of guys, buring them out,,,,,,,

This past season, I was taken to a secret spot, on public land, and the duck shooting was phenomenal, and it was shown to me, but I do not go back in there, unless I go with the guy who showed it to me, or he did not care,,,,, called ethics

I never tell anyone but my son where I go hunting. I always tell them pardoe swamp or rattlesnake swamp. Two of the nastiest places in the county. I have three places I've hunted for years and the land owners know I won't take anyone else hunting there. Never leave trash and they're welcomed to use my tree stands whenever they want. I call every year to get permission and share my game. My son is welcomed but he knows he isn't allowed to take anyone else with the penalty of shunning and physical harm.lol

Have an issue brewing right now. Not sure how it's gonna turn out.

A friend and I have been hunting out West for about 5 years now. Over the past few years, we each brought out a friend. My buddy had to pass 3 years ago due to family issues. My friend asked to bring another friend along, to make it an even 4 guys ( 2 trucks).

This year the guys that passed one years wants to go again, but the original friend wants to bring the fill-in. The house we have only sleeps 4.

I'm sure fireworks are on the way :(

Too bad my wife doesn't hunt. At the end of the day, she is the only true and trusted friend I have.

Rick Allison, that is not a character flaw, it is true character.

One more 'friend' story. I had a close buddy that I steelhead fished with and started taking hunting because he seems to have a hard time scoring antlered game. He and I spent a lot of time doing this stuff, and I knew him and his wife (and then kids) for years. We hunted elk and butchered them together and shared the meat. One year we got two nice blacktails, freak story, but then that same year we went out elk hunting opening day. We ran into two nice bulls traveling together, and I dumped one, a 5x6, and there stood the other 5x5, whole next to me stood my buddy not firing! (these were gun hunts). He had those flip-up scope covers on his scope, and previously, I had told him he was going to lose an animal because of them someday. This was the day, although it was not for almost a year that he told me why he didn't shoot that day. I had always wondered why he did not take a shot that morning up until then. Well this happened on a mountain above where I lived in WA. Next year I moved to a couple drainages to the west. I had shown him the ropes and educated him to the Timberhead area, and he had yet to score there. I figured he's keep this to himself or go with me the next year. NOT! He recruited another buddy of his and took HIM to Timberhead, and basically used the knowledge I had given up and used it with this other guys, who I also knew and was actually renting a house from his father. I was not hunting in the drainage where this new guy grew up hunting. So he goes to my old haunt now with my former hunting buddy and they score two 5x5s, and I get a cow in my new area (that I had to scout on my own, no help from new guy). But the real kicker is when old hunting buddy sends me a text with photos of 2 bulls, with the label 'Timberhead bulls', and then the two of them proceed to bring their two bull skulls to new guys father's house which is right next to my rental, and strategically places both heads on a fence in plain view of my kitchen window for purposes of gloating and 'rubbing it in' that they'd scored in my old honey hole without my assistance. Now this situation is not as bad as the previous two where guys just plain honed in to my spots, since I had moved and hunted a new area anyway, but it was the fat that they had to totally rub it in, and place those heads there like that. It was not a 'friends ribbing you' situation either, because original buddy basically stopped hanging out with this old guy (me) now that he had his new younger buddy to tromp around with. Funny thing is, I had shot a huge cow a couple years prior on my own, and taken it to his place, offered him half of it if he wanted, but had to help butcher and package it. He was a lazy person basically, and said YES, so that was IMO an honorable trade, even in excess if you ask me, but I am that kind of person. I am generous with game since it was 'given' to me anyway. But to have this happen, this taunting and basically abandoned by a friend for years, was not a 'true friend' thing to do. I have not spoken to nor heard from him in 13 years now.

I agree, when someone ask me, hey where did you get them trout, I now say "nevermind creek"

I have some Acquaintance's I only have 3 good friends. I guess when you take someone to your hunting spot you need to ask yourself "Would I give them my credit card to keep for me and the keys to my house?", if the answer is no, that answers the question. The 3 friends I have I would and NEVER worry about it if I did. DANNY

That was supposed to say "I was NOW hunting in the drainage where this new guy grew up hunting."

Had roughly 1,050 acres of private land to myself for a few decades. Occasionally one other guy would hunt the back corner with a gun. He knew I hunted there as well and would leave me a note on the gate post letting me know he was hunting that day. Yep...made the mistake of inviting a friend and his step-son. Step-son was in the N.G. at the time and was being deployed to Afghanistan. Could he hunt there? I got permission from the land owner for both to hunt. Within three hours step-son killed a doe. He leaves so dad and me continue hunting. Step-son never got deployed. So was this an excuse to play on my generosity? Yep! I didn't get back down there for about three weeks. Parked in my spot,went in to my spot,and as the sun came up I could see a red pick-up across the pasture. Not good. When I leave the owner is standing by my Bronco. He is not happy. Asks me if I invited dad back,told him no. Found out not only had dad and step-son been coming to hunt,dad's two daughters and their boyfriends had been there to hunt. Dad got confronted but ignored the warnings to not come back. He did anyway and eventually got locked out of the three gates he went thru (wasn't supposed to go thru any gates). Dad tore the last gate up leaving after being able to leave. I apologized profusely for causing a problem. Owner had no problem as he knew I never invited anyone except mythree kids and my wife. Five years the owner died leaving the house (built in 1826) to his great niece and the land (which was originally a cotton plantation with slaves,either 5,000 or 6,000 acres) to his great nephew. Niece told me she would let me know if I could still hunt given the special permission I had. To this day I haven't heard from her.

I took friends to my good spots, and they took me to there's. We never considered going in another's spot without invitation.

That being said, it did happen once. I was letting a spot rest and found out a buddy had been hunting it daily. We talked about it and soon all was forgiven and forgotten.

Had a friend put a treestand up for his son, only a couple hundred yds from a spot I had shot several deer from. When I asked him why, he said his sons stand was nowhere near my stand. Since it was public land, and the kid made a lot of noise,I moved. 2yrs later I showed my soninlaw this spot, and he hunted there a few times. Then my friend tells me, " you know, you put your son in law just over the hill from where my son hunts." MP

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