Helping Your Partner

[Swede]

After six fruitless days on a ten-day hunt, I tell you in camp to shoot my elk if you get a chance. I will do the same for you, if I get the opportunity. What is your response and how do you justify your position on this?
I think I know how everyone will respond but be prepared. I am going to try to get you to see it differently, just for fun.

[Jhg]

I have had this exact scenario presented to me. I suppose it makes sense from a efficiency standpoint. As long as you are not taking into account the game laws that specifically state you cannot engage in this sort of thing.

When I look into the mirror I want to feel good about the person looking back at me. I don't want to lie to myself or to others about much of anything, let alone the elk I am claiming was my harvest. I have failings enough without adding dishonesty to the pile.

I will share some of the meat from my elk if we hunted together. I hope you would do the same. But I won't shoot an elk for you and don't ever presume its ok to shoot one for me.

[Swede]

But friend we have hunted together for years. This hunt has taken up two weeks of my 3-week allowance and has cost me over $1,500 already. My wife is not going to kill me if I come back without an elk. There are plenty of elk out there and I just need one. If it will help you to feel better, I will put an arow/bullet in it as soon as we get close enough.

[saddlesore]

I won't shoot some one else's elk, but I have taken more than a few that they didn't want. In Colorado you can put your tag on an elk that had already been tagged and it voids both tag. So if two hunters were hunting together and one kills an elk, it is perfectly legal for both to put their tag on it. In years when I had two elk tags, I usually gave the 2nd tagged elk to hunting buddy that didn't score. Personally I see nothing wrong with it, morally and ethically. It is illegal in CO,so I don't do it. I think one of the eastern states permits two hunters to hunt one moose.

[7mmfan]

I've been here. I can remember a few years when our group drew antlerless tags on WA that the discussion was had. I was young and trigger happy. It never came to fruition and as I've aged I now see why Dad wasn't enthusiastic about it. I wouldn't want to shoot for anyone and I certainly won't have anyone shoot for me.

[Tigger]

We have party hunting here for deer.

I would never shoot another person's elk and want nobody to shoot mine.

But how about this situation. Your son, daughter, granddaughter, or grandson filled his/her tag with a boring hunt on a little cow. An epic hunt on a giant bull was taking place and the little one had a chance at the herd bull. Would you let him/her fill your tag with the herd bull?

[saddlesore]

[quote="Tigger"]We have party hunting here for deer.

I would never shoot another person's elk and want nobody to shoot mine.

But how about this situation. Your son, daughter, granddaughter, or grandson filled his/her tag with a boring hunt on a little cow. An epic hunt on a giant bull was taking place and the little one had a chance at the herd bull. Would you let him/her fill your tag with the herd bull?[/quote

I would not. They need to learn once they pull the trigger on one,the hunt is over. They will remember that lesson longer than the bull they shot

[Swede]

Here is my take on the subject:
Hunting is a sport. Getting your own deer or elk is the essence of success. We should not expect to succeed every time we go out hunting or playing any challenging sport. You are not successful if someone illegally kills your elk. You are a cheat. Anyone that takes two weeks off work and pays $1,000 or more to go on a hunt is a fool if they think that is an economical way to fill their freezer. If you need the food that bad, don't go hunting.
Yesterday, I was reading on another thread here about a hunter that started being successful elk hunting in Montana after the second year out. I assume he hunts hard in a very good area. It took me a lot longer to be successful on any regular basis. My hat is off to anyone that can do that, especially without a mentor/guide. I suspect I am coming into a time of life when it is going to be more challenging for me to continue to succeed at getting elk. This whole elk hunting thing is a challenging sport. At age 75 now I still hope to go on hunting for another 30+ years, but if I run a little short, I will remember it was fun and there is a time to leave it to my son and grandchildren.
I also want to stay on the forum here to aggravate you jerks.

[saddlesore]

My take of it is if you have to try to find a legal bull and it takes a week+ to do it, that is hunting. If you have a late season migration hunt here in Colorado where you find 200-300 elk out in a field along a road and shoot one, that is killing to fill the freezer. I have done both. In fact, one late hunt, I shot two as I had two tags.

[Lefty]

After six fruitless days on a ten-day hunt, I tell you in camp to shoot my elk if you get a chance. I will do the same for you, if I get the opportunity. What is your response and how do you justify your position on this?
I think I know how everyone will respond but be prepared. I am going to try to get you to see it differently, just for fun.

I can't believe I didn't respond to this question long ago.
It didnt matter the game or fish, we were raised you only take and tag your own game.
My dad was a guide when he was a kid, and shot lots of clients/ dudes game. There is too much story to repeat. But his boys weren't going to do that.

My FIL grew up "poor" his uncles gave him shells and he brought home food for other relatives. He never grew out of that mentality. He has shot well over 200 mule deer and many he brought back to town to give to others.
He also hunted with the local game Warden who was very much aware of what some men in town did,,


The first time I hunted elk ever with my father in law He made that statement. I tell you in camp to shoot my elk if you get a chance. I will do the same for you, if I get the opportunity.
I let everyone know I only killed my own game and put my own tags on it.

My only exception was hunting geese with a LEO, I mean , who knows who shot that bird I am not sure if it was every goose hunt but he always killed his limit before me He was a rabid claimer. The first few imes he hunted with my daughters and I My girls were done with his claiming. I told him if it was a daddy-daughter hunt ,,, he didn't get to hunt with us.

[Indian Summer]

No go! I will do everything I can to help you get your own elk. But you have to get out of bed, get up the mountain, and kill it yourself. Likewise I will get my own. I’d never hang a tag on something I didn’t kill myself. I don’t understand party hunting. It defeats the whole purpose for me.

[Lefty]

. But you have to get out of bed,

get up the mountain,
.

That sounds like past experiences, Just hope they were clients you were babysitting!

[Lefty]

Here is my take on the subject:
Hunting is a sport. Getting your own deer or elk is the essence of success. We should not expect to succeed every time we go out hunting or playing any challenging sport. You are not successful if someone illegally kills your elk. You are a cheat. Anyone that takes two weeks off work and pays $1,000 or more to go on a hunt is a fool if they think that is an economical way to fill their freezer. If you need the food that bad, don't go hunting.
Yesterday, I was reading on another thread here about a hunter that started being successful elk hunting in Montana after the second year out. I assume he hunts hard in a very good area. It took me a lot longer to be successful on any regular basis. My hat is off to anyone that can do that, especially without a mentor/guide. I suspect I am coming into a time of life when it is going to be more challenging for me to continue to succeed at getting elk. This whole elk hunting thing is a challenging sport. At age 75 now I still hope to go on hunting for another 30+ years, but if I run a little short, I will remember it was fun and there is a time to leave it to my son and grandchildren.
I also want to stay on the forum here to aggravate you jerks.

Here is my take on the subject:

1. Hunting is now my entertainment.
2. There are many parts that make a hunt a success,
3. I have never had a failed hunt
4. You are a purposeful lawbreaker/ poacher if you kill game and don't use your tag
5. If you need the food that bad, ask someone who hunts and doesn't eat the meat,,, there are plenty of people out there that eat little of what they kill. (Especially mule deer and ducks )
6. Every hunt experience is successful.


1. I also want to stay on the forum here to aggravate you jerks The ultimate success for Swede

[saddlesore]

In Colorado it is legal to share your game with your partner, in the field, if both have tags, but both tags must filled out, signed and attached.Who ever did not shoot it can still get 1/2 of the deer, elk, or ? . I don't kill elk to save money. I kill them becasue I like the meat better than beef and it is healthier. As I mentioned previously, these late season elk hunts are freezer fillers. I have tagged elk that someone have shot and that they didn't know they had shot two rather than let it go to waste. I have taken meat from someone who only wanted the head.

As a young lad, we took deer all year, figured they fed on our crops. They were darn site better eating than some 15 year old milk cow not producing anymore. Especially when all we had to eat was young field corn.

There is hunting and there is killing. Let's not get the two mixed up. There are still families out thee with 3-5 kids barely making it and the cost of the hunt is the tag and a tank of gas.

When hunting, I use muzzle loader now. When filling the freezer, I use a 30-06 and have hunted migration hunts. If I am unsuccessful in the ML hunt and some one wants to give me an elk, I will sure as heck take it and won' tell folks I shot it. One year, a rancher about 6 miles from me was taking fenced raised, cull elk to Denver to slaughter.. A good friend called me and asked if I wanted one. I went over, shot one, he winched onto my truck, I paid him him his money and filled the freezer. It tasted like any other elk I shot. Did the same with a buffalo a few years ago , but I let the rancher shoot it.