solo hunting

I hunt solo most of the time now too. I used to hunt more with my now deceased Grandfather, my Uncle, and/or a few trusted friends. They either don't hunt birds anymore or they're doing hard time at the family prisons.

I can be quieter by myself which is an advantage later in the season. Plus I can hunt on my own schedule instead of trying to coordinate when someone else can go with.

I have zero interest in hunting in a larger group.
 
Hunting with other people involves way more focus.I almost always hunt solo.The other people i hunt with are not great hunters.
 
Wind River said:
We all want each other to be safe
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I don't associate with unsafe individuals who own firearms. That's just not my crowd. If you can't safely operate a shotgun, you aren't hunting with me. I also don't hunt with people who shoot hens.

I used to hunt with a few other "friends" years ago but their dogs were so misbehaved that it damn near ruined the hunt, so that was the end of that.
 
The bigger the group the bigger the pain. We have a big family hunt this weekend. We’ll probably get skunked but It’ll be fun , it’s worth it to get together with the handful of guys I really like.
 
95% of my hunting is solo. I would definitely prefer to hunt with other folks more often. 1-3 other people is super fun. More than that and it can end up being a raccoon party, but there is a time and place for most things. My BIL enjoys hunting, but he has two small kids. We get out together a few times a year. My wife enjoys upland hunting, but it is not her priority like it is mine. I have a buddy who I try to hunt with a couple of times a year but it is hard to mesh schedules. My dad has pretty much hung it up, but I still ask him to go with me (unsuccessfully.) I regularly take day trips 2.5-3hrs from home to hunt, and have a blast. But it is lonely sometimes. Nobody to share those cool stories with. Thankfully my wife appreciates my passion and she listens to all of the stories of cool stuff I saw, the good and bad dog work, missed shots and impressive shots I've made etc. But it doesn't replace sharing it with someone in the field.
 
I prefer to hunt solo but the older I get the more I realize that probably isn't smart. As I close in on 70 it has become apparent that the old body doesn't withstand the rigors spending hours in the field as well as it once did. So the wife tags along or I take my son and 2 grandsons. Never was a fan of large groups and kept the size to no more than 4 of us all of which were either relatives or friends I had known for years.
 
Part of it may be that I am a bit of a homebody, and didn't finish college so don't have a group of friends from that age like many do, but I know only a couple of people my age that hunt (late 20's). Sure, in MN you can find a ton of people that deer hunt with family for a week every year, but anyone I see at any given WMA on a weekend is twice my age. Seems like upland hunting isn't something many folks take time to do on their own. I could be wrong though. Hard to find much of a hunting community in Minneapolis.
 
MNMEAD said:
Sure, in MN you can find a ton of people that deer hunt with family for a week every year
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I know lots of people that deer hunt. Easily 20-30, or more. I literally know of one other person that pheasant hunts, personally.
 
I generally hunt alone or with my son and a few close friends. When I guide for grouse and woodcock i limit it to 2 hunters. Only concern as i get older is something happening to me and not being found in time of an emergency.
 
when i first started hunting, we used to hunt SD in the line birgrades, as I grow older, the more I enjoy hunting solo with the dogs or with my growing kids or my father.
When I hunt with friends, they just dont stay quiet, I cringe anytime they slam the doors or start yelling/talking in the fields
 
I prefer groups of 4 or less. 2-3 is about perfect, and that's what I seem to do most of the time. Saturday will be a group of two, unless the other guy brings his kid.

Opening weekend is a bigger group, and it can be a pain. No one reads my dogs like I do and they don't know how to work as team with them. The same can be said about me reading/working with other people's dogs.

Solo isn't my favorite, but I do it a couple times a year. Sometimes my normal hunting companions have other plans.
 
jmnhunter said:
When I hunt with friends, they just dont stay quiet, I cringe anytime they slam the doors or start yelling/talking in the fields
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That's one of the major advantages of going solo, at least for me. No noise whatsoever. Stealth mode.

One of the biggest peeves of mine in the field is when someone yells "hen" and tips off the entire covey that we're there.
 
I grew up learning and hunting with my father. Upland was his passion. He enjoyed chasing pheasants, woodcock, and grouse. We typically had at least 1 dog around the house, lab, springer, or brittany.
He passed away too soon, age of 58 from cancer. I was 24 and just finishing college, ready to get put in to the world and enjoy alot more time with him.
I got my first lab 2 years later to honor him and start building on what he taught me. Subsequently, my sister and her husband bought a pup from the same litter, so we had brothers. I had experience and exposure to training dogs, began working with my lab. My BIL had no experience with this at all. We began spending alot of time together with the dogs. It was amazing to see how the 2 brothers interacted, learned, and grew together hunting. And it became a activity that my BIL and I spend alot of time together doing. We are now on our 2nd set of labs that are brothers. They will be 8 this summer. They knock it out of the park......on their own each is a force.....together it is just a site to watch them work. Their bond as brothers just gels into their knowledge and experience in the field. They are around each other alot.
So I am either hunting solo mostly with my lab or the 2 labs. Or it is my BIL and I with our 2 labs. That is probably 95% of the time.
I thoroughly enjoy just time afield with my dog on our own. We have a great time.
I do wish my Dad was still around, as he would have enjoyed hunting with us.
Cherish your hunting partners and your hunting dogs.
 
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