Elk Partners, Does the Left Know What the Right is Doing?

trophyhill

New member
Aug 20, 2013
46
One reason I am apprehensive when asked to hunt with someone else is I don\'t want to blow an opportunity for someone else. There are very few that I could hunt with. Guys I know are on the same page with me. One friend, a guy I\'ve called for a couple times with only 3 hunts under his belt and me with only 6, are on the same page. It\'s almost like we know just by looking at each other what we are both thinking and don\'t have to stop and discuss what to do next. I\'ll give you a quick example.

Last season after my first hunt in CO I made a quick trip to central NM to call for a friend. We spotted a monster bull on the ridge about 4-500 yards above at 4 in the afternoon. We looked at each other and immediately started toward the bull. I fell back about 40-50 yards behind him and started cow calling when I was about 150 yards from the top of the ridge. As we were moving forward the lead cow pins me down with curiosity as I stepped behind a pi?on pine. My buddy looks back at me as if to say with his eyes \"why are you stopping\"? I just pointed toward the cow and he kept moving forward.

And I knew what he was thinking \"well he\'s pinned down but I\'m not so why stop\"? (Great move on his part) After another minute or 3 of a few well placed cow calls a small bull came running in and Harold killed him. It wasn\'t the bull we were going after but Harold is a meat hunter:) I\'ve hunted deer with Harold for many years so we have that hunting bond mentally and know each other and our tendencies very well.

The following 3 days I called for 2 other friends that were on their first elk hunt. Though I know them fairly well I had never hunted with them. I called each of the brothers in big bulls but we were never in sync and we had to stop a lot and talk over our next moves. Neither one of those guys capitalized on there opportunities whereas I have no doubt Harold would have.

So my question to the guys that hunt with partners most of the time is spawned from all the different threads on different forums regarding any topic about hunting with a partner.

What can guys do to get on and stay on the same page as elk hunting partners? And what should you know about a potential new partner before saying yay or nay to an elk partnership?
 
Great topic ...

I hunt alone, and it\'s probably in part because I\'m a bit picky. But I\'d rather have the problems of being alone then the problems of trying to communicate to someone who isn\'t \"on the same page.\"

I know WW (and others) will flame me for saying this, but having a set of \"plays\" that one can \"audible\" to may not be a bad idea.

Even when I\'m alone, I know I have found that I have to \"call a play\" ... Once the \"ball is snapped\", all kinds of things can happen, but a base idea of how I\'m approaching a situation helps.

So, after I have made contact with the elk (one way or the other) and said, in my head, \"Game on!\", I decide what \"play\" I will run. It might be that I will run a \"BigDan\" to the right, or a \"Corey Jacobsen\" to the left, or ... dare I say ... a \"threat\" up the middle.

The trouble is, with 1 or 2 other hunters involved, we would all have to \"huddle\" like a football team, or have some other \"audible\" at the line of scrimmage ... and that kind of teamwork doesn\'t come easily. As Corey Jacobsen has said, if you have team-mates who are worried about THEIR OWN success rather than the team\'s success, you\'re not going to do well.

So, it seems to me that the individual players all have to \"know the plays\" and that takes pre-season communication.

I\'ve often thought that if and when I get a hunting partner, it\'ll be off of this site ... someone who understands what a \"Corey Jacobsen\" to the left is, because he\'s discussed it over the winter/spring/summer dull months!

Like I said ... great topic ... I\'ll be watching.
 
I elk hunt alone, never been with a partner. I have a cousin that shares camp with me once n awhile, but even then we don\'t hunt together. however, I have taken a ton of guys turkey hunting back in mo. I have had more turkeys blown with them moving at the wrong time, wanting to quit, etc etc than I have ever found the one partner I like to hunt with. heck my son even challenges me to have patience an not blow up with the extra noise, movement, desire, etc. I would love to hunt with a proven elk killer just to learn,but other than that im good to go on my own.
 
Good post \"Tick\"! And don\'t worry, I sure won\'t flame you. I hunt alone all the time! Guess I\'m too picky, but I have never found a partner that is on the same page as me. They way I look at it, \"I can mess things up bad enough all by myself. I don\'t need any help\"! ;)

It erks me to no end if I have someone tagging along with me that breaks a twig or has something noisy in his pack. Example: I was guiding for a guy and we were making the move on a vocal bull. This guy was full of questions. He just couldn\'t keep quiet. I was constantly trying to get him to shut up or at least whisper. He never did catch on to the (quiet) stuff. As a matter of fact, he should have been a radio announcer. He had such a booming voice that carried far.

My son in law is another good example. He is a good elk hunter but our styles are different. When he hears the term, (run and gun), he takes the run part seriously. If we try to team up, it\'s like the tortoise and the hare. So when the truck door opens, he goes his way and I go mine.
 
I know this situation well..... my hunting buddy of 10 years unfortunately is not on the same page when it comes to elk hunting. its taken two years of it to get that figured out. we like each other better when we don\'t have to hunt elk together.
 

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