Best Residents Ever

[timberland]

Many times hunter interaction is resident vs. nonresident. Last time in CO within a span of a week we had three occasions where residents told us where to find elk. One gut literally said start at x, go around mountain and drop into y. "There is elk always in there, I haven't got one yet, but they are in there every time." For a Midwesterner, it really impresses me the generosity of many western folk. We stayed in a ranchers house during an antelope hunt in WY. Even helped get the kids ready for the bus! Can this be normal? I get absolutely sick of the competitiveness that runs rampant through the hunting community in the private midwest. Can anybody relate any other experiences from the NR perspective, good or bad?

[Bowhunter]

I have had many residents of Colorado tell me to hunt this or that drainage. I didn't see any elk but they do move alot so the info might have been good. I know what you are talking about when you say midwestern hunters are not so nice. I was looking for a deer on year and carried my gun onto a neighbors property to look for it. I had permission to cross his property to get to my north 40 and I even mowed the edge of his field to stop the spread of willow trees. I also knew that others leased the land to hunt and hunted second season and wouldn't be hunting at this time. I even let them take their weapon on my property to look for wounded deer the year before. Well the hunter who leased the neghbors land drove by and saw me looking for my wounded deer bent over following a blood trail. He called the game officer and charged me with trespassing. I talked to the neighbor who owned the land and he said the hunters can do what they want with it and wouldn't say that I had permission to be on it. It cost me $1000. I have talked to all the bordering neighbors who also hunt and every one of them have told me it is ok to come on their land and persue wounded game even armed. I gave them all permission also. It is much more fun when we can all work together and show respect. I do like the vast areas in the Co. mountains. I very seldom see another hunter when I am off the trails and in the bush.

[Indian Summer]

For sure. I never had a problem with residents at trailheads. I ran into a couple guys setting up a wall tent. They didn't know what they were doing and asked for help because I threw mine up by myself while they watched. Next thing I knew I had 15 years worth of info handed to me. Every morning we'd ask each other "which way ya headed?" and wish each other luck, and mean it. There's a lot of country there and not much pressure so it really didn't matter to them. When I do run into another hunter it's a big deal and I pay attention to every word they say. But it's always a friendly conversation.

[timberland]

There are nice residents all over the midwest. Dad's got a cabin in Buffalo County, WI and everybody waves on the road and is very pleasant. But due to the trophy goal and the cost associated, I see far more people in the midwest that claim"ownership" of wild animals than in the areas I've hunted out west. Had a neighbor come in and buy 240 acres, put up a big "cabin" and a bunch of food plots and a gate. Haven't talked to him twice in the last 3 years he's been there and he don't even wave as I'm mowing the grass. I see a lot of interaction of hunters in Northwest WI and I have never heard of somebody giving up reliable public land info to a Nonresident. Just my experience.

[Kevrod3]

Just depends on what your hunting I guess. In Ohio, WATERFOWLERS ARE HORRIBLE! They won't tell their moms where they're at!


In the Midwest Whitetails rule the hunting world and honestly now that so many people know people will pay big bucks for BIG BUCKS, its ruined almost any chance for a resident to give info for free! I guess there are a couple farmers that will give info out, but they give that same info to 20 other hunters as well.

[Indian Summer]

One time on I-90 coming through Minnesota I creamed this 8 point buck. Had to have my truck towed to a shop and got a hotel room. The next morning I go down and ask the lady at the desk if I could get a taxi or something to go to the shop where my truck was. it was like 9 am. She tossed the keys to her mini van across the counter and said be back by 5 that's when I'm done. I'll never forget that woman. The last thing she said was "Remember wherever you go there are good people in these Midwestern towns" Bless her soul!

I guess it may be different if I ask a deer hunter from Minnesota if I could hunt his spot.

[itsnlkthing]

Last year I came off one part of the mountain to move to another area. I got to my truck and with the 10 degree weather, my battery was toast. I had seen a wall tent up the road when I had been glassing the day before, so I hiked to it. It was the base camp for an outfitter. The outfitter drove me to my truck, jumped it, told me where I could get a new battery, told me where their hunters were and suggested another spot that put me on elk. I offered and they wouldn't let me give them a dime. "There's no charge for helping people"...I wish that were the mentality in Denver, too many transplants now.

[Swede]

Where I hunt there are some very good and helpful fellow hunters and some that resent anyone else being there. What I find interesting Is the correlation between the helpful, successful hunters and the resentful who have no success. It seems that those who are generally successful don't mind helping others, while those who rarely or never get game tend to blame Californians, or those from over in "the valley", a reference to the Willamette Valley and Portland area.

[pointysticks]

Paul, our host put my group on one of his local elk year before last. very generous.

while there, we met a man and wife that also gave us an awesome tip. checked it out and it was elk rich in sign. almost demolished my 4x4 getting to it. the jeep trail in was just that..a JEEP trail..my tacoma was a tad long. i marked it on my map. getting back there, you would never see anyone..but it was steeper than one in my hunting party could handle.

[Toby]

A few years back while elk hunting in Idaho, my partner and I parked the truck and headed into a drainage in the morning darkness. We just got in a little ways and ran in to a resident, he had hidden his ATV so we didn't know he was in there. We apologized and started to back out and he said, you guys came all the way from Wisconsin to hunt out here, you guys go ahead, I'll go down the road and jump into a different spot. No matter what we said, he insisted. We became great friends and have shared a few elk camps since then. Amazing generosity.

[Garrett Drach]

We've ran into some very nice resident hunters in CO. While hunting the Flat Tops we camped next to two guys from Denver that provided lots of information about the area. They were set on hunting a specific herd bull, (we could care less what we shot) so as long as we didn't interfere with what they wanted to do, they gave use lots of locations to try. It actually became a daily ritual to stop at their camp and discuss the events of the day. They even told us we could use their Satelite phone to call their friend who would pack out an elk with his horses if we shot one. We knew their names, Mike and Kyle, and Mike said he was a detective for the Denver PD. But when got back home and looked up their info to send them a thank you, there was no record of them.

There are also some great people in Idaho, now if they would just close down 90% of their ATV trails that state would be darn near perfect.

[jmez]

Had a bad experience with an outfitter in WY. Went into a Wilderness area with a group of residents. We were glassing elk across the mountain so decided to hunt over there. There was only one trail you could go up on. A large outfitter set his camp up directly on and around the trail. In order to get up there you literally had to ride right through the middle of his camp. He didn't like it and let you know when riding through. Guy was an ass.

Only bad experience I've had with another hunter. Everyone else I've run into has always been helpful and nice.

[six]

2 years ago we had a guy stop by our camp every day. We've kept in touch ever since. He was from Denver and had been hunting the area for a few years. We still talk about once a month just haven't been able to hunt together since. Real nice to be able to call him up and get scouting, weather, fire, reports. He knows things about the general area such as packers, butchers, horse rental, hunting pressure, etc things it would take years to learn on your own. Great friend. The first time he stopped around 1pm and we were almost late to go hunting that night we talked so long.

I asked him about snow fall. He told us boys there'll be 8 feet of snow right here where your sitting in about 3 months.

[Trophyhill]

I have the utmost respect for CO residents. They've treated me with great hospitality. I've made permanent friendships with a handful of Coloradans that I'm very thankful for and proud to know.

[easeup]

yes sir that is pretty much the case with every elk hunter I have ever met.
great folks.

now I must be in the wrong places since it seems they are all NR.

[JJ Overkill]

Just depends on what your hunting I guess. In Ohio, WATERFOWLERS ARE HORRIBLE! They won't tell their moms where they're at!

this sounds like me when I was duck hunting in MN. I still have people calling me up and asking me where I hunted in certain areas. im not givin any info out to anyone. brother included!

[Glacier Country]

Funny story, My buddy and I had been hunting elk and decided to go antelope hunting for a day . So we are bow hunting for antelope and we see this pickup with California License plates,looking for antelope as well. We were getting ready to go after the antelope,we had spotted, so after awhile he just sorta waves and drives off.Long story short a couple days later we are parked at a gated road getting our packs ready and wouldn't you know it here comes that same Dude from California.We are like 70 miles from the antelope spot. Anyhow, he pulls over and asks if we are going to go up that gaited road. We kinda say yea we are goin to head up in there. We kinda get to talking and he is telling us go up the road. At the edge of the clear cut look for some flagging. Set up right there... six muley bucks should be walking out right there to feed in the clear cut. One is a 32 incher. Great info but we are not sure we really believe him. So we both kinda ask, why are you telling us right where to go ? He said,O I got mine already, opening day, I shot the 6th one, I thought he was the biggest but, it turns out that 32 incher was lagging behind a little bit. He Sees that we are still a little skeptical, so he says, Come on by the camper later, I will show you guys the video. I am like so you think one is a 32 incher ?? He says, yea I got one on the wall about like that, and I bet this one is close. He is a lot bigger than that one ,pointing to a buck on the edge of the timber up the hill behind us looking down the hill right at us 200 yards away. OK , Now I am sold... maybe this old guy knows what he is talking about. So we head off down the road and see the flagging at the clear cut, We are trying to decide just where to setup, When we hear an elk bugle above and behind us so we turn toward the elk ,now and start digging for a mouth call to bugle back, as I start to bugle, a buck Snorts and we turn back around, just as the 6 bucks see us and split. All we ended up with was a good story. My buddy had to head back that night but I did stop by and saw the video of those nice big bucks. It Turns out that the Dude from California, would come up to Montana to hunt and fish when he drew tags and visit friends who had moved to MT. They had done that for many years for like7 weeks of vacation at a time.I ended up hunting with Jeff for years and years after that. Man what great people Jeff and his wife turned out to be. An unbelievable fisherman, and super all around sportsman. He earned my respect and admiration! Man can that guy tell a joke. I am glad to call him a friend.