Ever Elk Hunt With A Jerk?

[Swede]

Reading the Waypoints thread I can clearly see a bunch of men who are serious and accomplished hunters. At the same time they have fun hunting. They are confident in their hunting ability without being arrogant. I see a bunch of guys that I would be pleased to have in my camp. Ninety percent and more of the people I have hunted with are that way.
The other ones get two hunts in one. Their first and last. One fellow invited himself to go along with us, then he wanted to control everything about how and where everyone hunted. At one point in the hunt, he asked all of us to wait at a certain spot for him. We reluctantly did, but he never showed. He got us to wait there so he could leave us behind. The odd thing was this hunter wasn't any good and rarely got anything. He just hated it when anyone else, including his friends, got something. Out uninvited cohunter was a constant bragger too.
The other problem hunters I have experienced are either lazy or complainers. "There are no elk here. Boohoo!"
Have you folks had the unfortunate "pleasure" of having a jerk on a hunt with you?

[>>>---WW---->]

I hear you Swede! I gave the guy one of those two hunts in one also. We had rode our bikes into the trailhead and agreed to meet back there at about noon. As the morning went on I looked at my watch and time was getting short so I hurried back to make it for our noon time rendezvous. When I got back to the trailhead his a bike was gone. So I hopped on mine and headed back out towards the main road. Along the way I ran into another hunter and I ask him if he had seen my partner. He said sure, he went riding down the trail a couple of hours ahead of you.

Now I'm the type of guy that when I tell you I'll be at a certain place at a certain time, I'll be there. And I expect my partner to be the same way. Boy did I ever chew his tail end out. For all he knew I could have been laying up there with a broken leg. I guess I must've done a pretty good job on him because he never asked to go hunting with me again.

[Lefty]

My dads best friend was a pain in the rear,.. hardcore trophy whitetail trophy hunter,.. the guy could sit 12 hours in a tree stand ,... the problem was he expected his kids and us(kids at time) to do the same so really not too bad,.

Ive hooked up with others on fields goose hunting, seemed like many of those fellows never had permission to start with.
Guys that are late,.. well they never hunt with me

I was one of the invited guests on a rifle elk hunt in Montana,.. something didnt seem right,.. always worried about the local CO ,.. Found out one family of 5 in camp took turns drawing the tag and they all hunted,..

I archery hunt alone,. my daughter and wife have both spent time in my camp,.. So I havent had problems with others in camp

[cnelk]

I have had guys leave my camp because they werent seeing any elk and I was.

I had had guys leave my camp because they didnt want to help in the camp chores

I have had guys leave my camp as soon as they filled their tag and go home

I have had guys show other hunters the 'honey holes' when I wasnt there

I have had guys in camp blow elk out of an area by busting in not caring about the wind

*******

I truly believe that if you can spend a week + elk hunting with someone you will decide if they are a jerk or not

[buglmin]

My nephew is like this..young, very successful, and now an elk hunting expert. He will argue with you about how to hunt elk. We dont hunt together anymore.
When the hunting gets tough and you aint seeing elk, you start getting frusterated, and peoples personality starts to change. They start getting mad and upset over anything, their attitude changes, they become negetive, and they become jerks. Seen it way to many times.
We hunt every year with a few Mathews pro shooters that are experts in everything. Elk hunting, mule deer hunting, bear hunting...they argue over where to set up, why the bull wouldnt come in. They're never at fault, never wrong. It's tough hunting with them, and you swallow your pride a lot. But once an animal is down, these guys work harder then anybody else, and are really and truly appercative that you helped them kill an animal. Thats what makes the long, tough road bareable.
When elk hunting gets tough, we take a break. We hunt another animal, like mule deer or bear. Or we take a day off and go fishing. Relaxing and having fun again eases the moods, changes the attitudes. Makes things a lil easier around camp. Maybe thats why so many past clients have become such good, good friends.

[otcWill]

*******

I truly believe that if you can spend a week + elk hunting with someone you will decide if they are a jerk or not

Amen to that! I think I'm a pretty good judge of character and I've seen some hard days in the mountains bring out the worste in otherwise good guys. I live by the mantra: "Stay positive and enjoy every second spent in the woods".

[easeup]

of course...that is why so many of us hunt solo. too many firends in the past were not made of the right stuff. Everything posted above has happended to me at least once .
Fortunately, none of them ever asked to go again......good for both of us I guess.

A favorite story to keep the thread flowing, was way back in the 80's, elk hunt in CO. we had 6 in camp and each had his own horse. We had a new guy asked to come and he brought his brother in law with him and did nt tell us. So his BIL had no horse to ride and the poor guy had to basically jog trying to keep up with the mounted riders heading out in the mornings. neither the new guy or the BIL had ever been to the mountains before so we sort of looked after them. the new guy turned out to be a major sour pus, complainer extroadinair. what is worse is he treated his poor BIL like some sort of second hand slave. The rest of us really liked the BIL, he was fun, easy going and loved just being a part of the hunt. Well gentlemen, there is justice in this world.....never seen it before and haven't seen it since; but one one very cold morning (8 F) we were riding out in the morning to hunt. man it was cold on horseback. the first stop was at the creek to water the horses. I got off to break ice and give the poor BIL a chance the catch his breath. and what happens next? the no good new guy must have said something his horse would not tolerate because that horse stopped and laid down and rolled over in the frozen creek with the new guy in the saddle. I know everyone had to be going ...YES! YES! YES!

soaking wet, he went back to his tent; loaded up his stuff and left for home. ( of course he made the BIL do everything for him)
Never called me again to go hunt either.

[planebow]

Me and my hunting partner took one of our co workers with us once after he almost begged to go. We all drive several hours to get to the area and then go in 5 miles with bikes and set up camp, the next morning we all go in different directions to find out were the elk might be. Got back to camp about noon and noticed this guys gear is all gone along with his bike. When we got back to work we asked him what happed, he said he did not see any elk by 10 oclock so he left. Never hunted with him again.

[WapitiTalk1]

Me and my hunting partner took one of our co workers with us once after he almost begged to go. We all drive several hours to get to the area and then go in 5 miles with bikes and set up camp, the next morning we all go in different directions to find out were the elk might be. Got back to camp about noon and noticed this guys gear is all gone along with his bike. When we got back to work we asked him what happed, he said he did not see any elk by 10 oclock so he left. Never hunted with him again.

He was "skeert".

[T/H]

havent hunted with a jerk in the elkwoods yet. now back in my rifle deer days i couldn't escape them. maybe thats why i prefer to hunt alone with my bow?

[easeup]

havent hunted with a jerk in the elkwoods yet. now back in my rifle deer days i couldn't escape them. maybe thats why i prefer to hunt alone with my bow?

this!

[elkmtngear]

Nothing worse than a first time elk hunter that thinks he knows it all.

We hunted once with a guy from New Jersey, who raised his own elk, so he insured us there was no way he would miss if given a shot opportunity, since he practiced drawing his bow on his farm elk all the time. Guy was the biggest blowhard I ever met.

This guy looked like he could definitely skip a meal. He went out bugling with us one morning, and wore some kind of rubber rain pants. We thoroughly enjoyed watching him pant and sweat all day, but it still didn't shut the guy up.

Well, his humbling finally came when we set him on stand one evening. There was a drainage that had three stands in it. I had already killed my bull, so I sat with my camera in the upper stand.

The middle stand was the big producer usually, and my hunting buddy did "Mr Elk" a favor and dropped him off in that stand.

My buddy took the lower stand. After a "no show" evening sit, he went back to pick up the guy from Jersey. He smugly told my buddy "make the call", meaning he should radio up for us to come get the bull he had just shot.

After two hours of searching, we came up with no bull, no blood, nothing! He started to hedge about his perfect shot placement (it was a 15 yard shot), and said he may have possibly hit shoulder blade, blah blah blah. End result, he spent the rest of his time whimpering about how he screwed up.

[>>>---WW---->]

Nothing worse than a first time elk hunter that thinks he knows it all.

We hunted once with a guy from New Jersey, who raised his own elk, so he insured us there was no way he would miss if given a shot opportunity, since he practiced drawing his bow on his farm elk all the time. Guy was the biggest blowhard I ever met.

This guy looked like he could definitely skip a meal. He went out bugling with us one morning, and wore some kind of rubber rain pants. We thoroughly enjoyed watching him pant and sweat all day, but it still didn't shut the guy up.

Well, his humbling finally came when we set him on stand one evening. There was a drainage that had three stands in it. I had already killed my bull, so I sat with my camera in the upper stand.

The middle stand was the big producer usually, and my hunting buddy did "Mr Elk" a favor and dropped him off in that stand.

My buddy took the lower stand. After a "no show" evening sit, he went back to pick up the guy from Jersey. He smugly told my buddy "make the call", meaning he should radio up for us to come get the bull he had just shot.

After two hours of searching, we came up with no bull, no blood, nothing! He started to hedge about his perfect shot placement (it was a 15 yard shot), and said he may have possibly hit shoulder blade, blah blah blah. End result, he spent the rest of his time whimpering about how he screwed up.

Great story Jeff! Reminds me of a time I had all but forgotten about.

I had hired on for my first time as a guide. We had a group of three hunters and decided to go one on one for them. There was the outfitter, myself, and another guide that I knew nothing about. It was a cold frosty morning and believe it or not, this other guide showed up in a pair of those yellow rudderized rain pants . I swear, every step he took sounded like a herd of elephants going thru the brush. And from 1/2 mile away, he shined up like a diamond in a goats a$$!

Thanks for refreshing my memory! LOL!