Party Hunting

Whatever, if it works for you and your buddies who cares. Probably just one off stuff, maybe the cards are just falling in your buddies favor that day and you only got a few spots to walk. You and your friends should be able to police that and make that call no big deal at all with a smile on your face. If you are hunting with guys and it’s happening and you don’t like it no idea why you are hunting with them in the first place.

Same goes for party hunting, deer hunting. You and your group should be able to police themselves and what everyone is happy with and respectful to everyone, If not on the same page probably the wrong group for you.

I don’t worry so much about the management aspect of it if it’s all legal, maybe more so just how shitty an individual is if they are just killing without being considerate or aware of members in your hunting parties wishes.
 
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Back when we had a lot of birds and ground to hunt I looked at it differently. We were confident everyone would get their shots and birds throughout the day. Now days of lower birds and fighting for spots if we have the chance to put some on the tailgate I don't care who gets them, just get them.
 
GetTothePoint said:
Back when we had a lot of birds and ground to hunt I looked at it differently. We were confident everyone would get their shots and birds throughout the day. Now days of lower birds and fighting for spots if we have the chance to put some on the tailgate I don't care who gets them, just get them.
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Spot on
 
I don't hunt with others much, but when I do, it's usually with people who've shot enough pheasants in their lives, & will shoot plenty more, that nobody cares if the light shines more brightly on one or the other's face that day. That said, once someone has shot 3 or 4, they usually start to lay off & try to give the other some chances. If I happen to have someone with me, who doesn't have a dog & most likely doesn't get the opportunities I do, then they get the shots. But in order for it to happen, they have to hunt with me & Ace. Like RIGHT with me, or they don't stand near as good a chance of getting shots. Sometimes they do it. Sometimes not. Not everyone cares. Not all circumstances are equal.
 
An experience with party hunting: It's ten a.m. and time for our first hunt of the day. We split in half for a pincer movement on a big cattail patch. Lots of birds. When the two lines meet, my opposing counterpart handed me a bird saying, "You'll have to carry this one; otherwise I'm over the limit." He kept shooting through the day with no regard for anything other than total birds in the bag for the group.
 
A5 Sweet 16 said:
I don't hunt with others much, but when I do, it's usually with people who've shot enough pheasants in their lives, & will shoot plenty more, that nobody cares if the light shines more brightly on one or the other's face that day. That said, once someone has shot 3 or 4, they usually start to lay off & try to give the other some chances. If I happen to have someone with me, who doesn't have a dog & most likely doesn't get the opportunities I do, then they get the shots. But in order for it to happen, they have to hunt with me & Ace. Like RIGHT with me, or they don't stand near as good a chance of getting shots. Sometimes they do it. Sometimes not. Not everyone cares. Not all circumstances are equal.
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Very true! Only downside. Wish I could get my old man some more shots sometimes. He doesn’t care though, he just likes seeing a springer get up birds.
 
Golden Hour & Sage hunt with me & Ace once or twice a season. He always tries to shoot all 6 roosters. It usually ends up about even, but a couple times I let him shoot 4. It makes me feel real good to let him win once in awhile to keep his confidence up. But he needs an occasional reminder, so sometimes I decide to shoot 4.
 
A5 Sweet 16 said:
I don't hunt with others much, but when I do, it's usually with people who've shot enough pheasants in their lives, & will shoot plenty more, that nobody cares if the light shines more brightly on one or the other's face that day. That said, once someone has shot 3 or 4, they usually start to lay off & try to give the other some chances. If I happen to have someone with me, who doesn't have a dog & most likely doesn't get the opportunities I do, then they get the shots. But in order for it to happen, they have to hunt with me & Ace. Like RIGHT with me, or they don't stand near as good a chance of getting shots. Sometimes they do it. Sometimes not. Not everyone cares. Not all circumstances are equal.
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Brent,

You make great points. If I happen to be hunting with a group, and Whisky and I are having a good day with birds, I will actively seek out a hunter that has not had many shots, etc. and switch with them. As long as the dog is having a good time, I love to watch him work more than anything else.
 
I personally won't shot more than 3 birds a day, and won't hunt with anyone that shoots over their personal limit. I used to hunt with someone that would do this and it left a bad taste in my mouth, plus it's illegal here and not worth losing my license over. I would reconsider if/when I ever hunt a state where party hunting pheasants is legal.
This subject raises an interesting question... at what point does someone become a game hog?
 
I mostly hunt solo. About 3 times/season I take one trusted person with. It doesn't even cross my mind.

One thing I wish Minnesota would do is eliminate party hunting for deer. Now that is a bunch of BS. I hate it when someone shoots a buck and then another one and uses his sister-in-laws tag for it. You should only be able to shoot whatever tag you have, and if you've filled it, seasons over.

I often hear a lot of deer hunters complaining about the lack of quality bucks but they are the first person to fill their tag with a spike or fork. Elimination of party hunting would make a lot of those hunters think twice about shooting the first small buck that comes walking along. There'd be an immediate effect with more sizable bucks on the landscape.
 
gimruis said:
I mostly hunt solo. About 3 times/season I take one trusted person with. It doesn't even cross my mind.

One thing I wish Minnesota would do is eliminate party hunting for deer. Now that is a bunch of BS. I hate it when someone shoots a buck and then another one and uses his sister-in-laws tag for it. You should only be able to shoot whatever tag you have, and if you've filled it, seasons over.

I often hear a lot of deer hunters complaining about the lack of quality bucks but they are the first person to fill their tag with a spike or fork. Elimination of party hunting would make a lot of those hunters think twice about shooting the first small buck that comes walking along. There'd be an immediate effect with more sizable bucks on the landscape.
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Most Deer camps who are party hunting literally shoot anything that walks. You see a deer you shoot it. There is no quality management going on. Pretty hard to grow nice deer if you are shooting them at one. And chances are no one is being to sneaky or putting in large amounts of effort. If that’s what your group does I don’t care.I don’t have a problem with party hunting if it’s legal. But there is always guys who have their wife’s buy tags and so on and kill 5 deer a year.

Where I deer hunt, us and most of the surrounding land owners are all on the same page to only shoot bucks that racks are “ outside of the ears” general rule of thumb. We kill very quality deer. It’s not all about the rack.. but damn if it isn’t hell of a lot more exciting. We also just use our own tags.

Some areas and situations that’s just not an option to do that( every place I hunted before this camp) and by all means just go get a deer and have fun. I actually miss that a little bit.
 
Springer22 said:
I don’t have a problem with party hunting if it’s legal. But there is always guys who have their wife’s buy tags and so on and kill 5 deer a year.
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There are some zones where the bag limit is actually 5. One person could tag 5 deer of their own. Some people must really like eating venison. I don't. One deer is enough for me.

Filling a bonus mgmt tag with someone else's antlerless tag is one thing. There are a number of zones, particularly in the southern half of the state here, where the herd needs to be thinned. Filling multiple buck tags is where I draw the line. That's where the party hunting rule should be changed. I understand some people are in it for the meat, some are in it for the antlers/trophy. That's fine.

I used to hunt in a group of 8-10 people for about 25 years. We always only filled our own tags on the first 2 days. By day 3, we had discussed who else still had a tag and who wanted a deer to take home. I filled other's tags when we hunted like that, but never with a buck. It was always an antlerless deer.

I think most slightly educated deer hunters would agree that the key to quality deer management lies with harvest of antlerless deer. Just like pheasants, the females are the ones that keep the population going. Let small bucks walk, harvest antlerless deer, and the amount of trophy bucks will increase. That model is the one used to increase buck size. Not filling tags with spikes over and over, and then complaining about not seeing any big bucks. That's the ironic model.

If you keep a 12 inch crappie or a 20 inch walleye, it never gets any bigger. If you release it, there's a chance it can reach trophy status. Same concept in the deer hunting realm.
 
I hunt with 3 other folks for up to a week at a time. During a day we might hunt 3-4 different spots, three or more species of birds, out of 2 vehicles. Once the birds reach the truck they are put in a communal pile. At the end of every day that pile is cleaned and bagged in communal bags. We do that for a week and at the end of the trip we separate those bags into three and we each take a third of the birds home. I guess that I never have considered whether I killed a limit or not, other than at the end of the day we are at or below limit on each species and at the end of the trip, it is quite possible that I got a more than my limit of chukar, quail or pheasant, based on the random distributing of bags.

In a very confusing and distorted way, I might be party hunting.....Maybe, but I am not sure. I would appreciate someone else's opinion on our approach.
 
gimruis said:
There are some zones where the bag limit is actually 5. One person could tag 5 deer of their own. Some people must really like eating venison. I don't. One deer is enough for me.

Filling a bonus mgmt tag with someone else's antlerless tag is one thing. There are a number of zones, particularly in the southern half of the state here, where the herd needs to be thinned. Filling multiple buck tags is where I draw the line. That's where the party hunting rule should be changed. I understand some people are in it for the meat, some are in it for the antlers/trophy. That's fine.

I used to hunt in a group of 8-10 people for about 25 years. We always only filled our own tags on the first 2 days. By day 3, we had discussed who else still had a tag and who wanted a deer to take home. I filled other's tags when we hunted like that, but never with a buck. It was always an antlerless deer.

I think most slightly educated deer hunters would agree that the key to quality deer management lies with harvest of antlerless deer. Just like pheasants, the females are the ones that keep the population going. Let small bucks walk, harvest antlerless deer, and the amount of trophy bucks will increase. That model is the one used to increase buck size. Not filling tags with spikes over and over, and then complaining about not seeing any big bucks. That's the ironic model.

If you keep a 12 inch crappie or a 20 inch walleye, it never gets any bigger. If you release it, there's a chance it can reach trophy status. Same concept in the deer hunting realm.
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Yeah spot on. I agree. I always buy a management take in case I see a nice doe and want to take it.

I know they are zones you can kill buttloads of deer. My family can barely eat one. I imagine lots just sit in the freezer and then are rotated out but who knows.

I’m the only one who even thinks about shooting a doe. We should kill more for management sake, but we don’t.
 
Drew said:
I hunt with 3 other folks for up to a week at a time. During a day we might hunt 3-4 different spots, three or more species of birds, out of 2 vehicles. Once the birds reach the truck they are put in a communal pile. At the end of every day that pile is cleaned and bagged in communal bags. We do that for a week and at the end of the trip we separate those bags into three and we each take a third of the birds home. I guess that I never have considered whether I killed a limit or not, other than at the end of the day we are at or below limit on each species and at the end of the trip, it is quite possible that I got a more than my limit of chukar, quail or pheasant, based on the random distributing of bags.

In a very confusing and distorted way, I might be party hunting.....Maybe, but I am not sure. I would appreciate someone else's opinion on our approach.
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If you hit the group limit, unless you just luckily each shot exactly the same amount of birds, you are party hunting. Morally I think your approach is fine. Everyone seems happy to share that way. If you are in an area where party hunting is illegal, you could still get in trouble for having the communal pile. It would be better to each have their own pile even if they all add up to a single limit.
 
Try hunting the MN wolf zone. Between winter and wolves ... seeing a deer let alone shooting one becomes a victory. I still enjoy the time out there, I just do not spend as much time out deer hunting anymore.

Trail cams are a great tool in understanding what you have on a piece of private property. Deer, wolves, bear, birds, and varmints ... all make regular appearances. Neighbor had a wolf with fawn in mouth late last spring. All this about halfway between the cities and Duluth.

Huge difference from the ag - river bottom areas I grew up deer hunting on in ND.
 
BRITTMAN said:
Try hunting the MN wolf zone. Between winter and wolves ... seeing a deer let alone shooting one becomes a victory. I still enjoy the time out there, I just do not spend as much time out deer hunting anymore.

Trail cams are a great tool in understanding what you have on a piece of private property. Deer, wolves, bear, birds, and varmints ... all make regular appearances. Neighbor had a wolf with fawn in mouth late last spring. All this about halfway between the cities and Duluth.

Huge difference from the ag - river bottom areas I grew up deer hunting on in ND.
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That’s what saying. I’m Fortunate where I hunt. Any deer is a very much a victory in other areas and situations
 
A5 Sweet 16 said:
Golden Hour & Sage hunt with me & Ace once or twice a season. He always tries to shoot all 6 roosters. It usually ends up about even, but a couple times I let him shoot 4. It makes me feel real good to let him win once in awhile to keep his confidence up. But he needs an occasional reminder, so sometimes I decide to shoot 4.
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A5 and Ace hunt with me and Sage once or twice a season. He always tries to shoot all 6 roosters. It usually ends up about even, but a couple times I let him shoot 4. It makes me feel real good to let him win once in awhile to keep his confidence up. But he needs an occasional reminder, so sometimes I shoot 4.

I had this debate with a guy on YouTube a year or two back and I'll stand by what I said then. Every situation is different and as long as the participants of the party hunt are fine with the way they do things, then it doesn't matter too much what I think.
 
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