Another over looked and critical part of an out of state DIY hunt is who your hunting partner is or partners are. DIY hunts require a lot of research and work both physically and mentally. Everyone involved will be tested in various and important ways during the hunt and how well you hunt together will be very important to the success and overall happiness of the hunt. There’s so much more to an out of state DIY hunt than just harvesting the species you are chasing. Everyone’s definition of a successful hunt will have different meanings, however the time spent together on your pursuit and having someone you can count on and shares a similar level of passion or desire can not be overlooked.
I have limited experience hunting for big game out of state, but I did go on an elk hunt a couple of years ago and the bolded words above are very true IMO. Good advice!!
As for my experience, four of us went and I knew one guy well, another guy a little bit and the fourth guy not too much, he was a friend of a friend. Short version...it turns out that the "fourth guy" and I were not that compatible...in a walled tent in -20 degrees(actual temps), 15 miles in from nowhere in the wilderness, with no showers, etc. I truly cannot recall specifically when I began to consider choking him out, but a few of the "memories" from that trip the led me to that place are:
Laying on my cot in the tent with my eyes closed resting, when I felt water hitting me in the face. I quickly opened my eyes to the sight of the "fourth guy"(FG) washing his naked ball sack with a sloppy wet washcloth about 12" from my face. I asked him to move away a little bit, but he really didn't. (Later in the week I learned that the wash basin he was using was actually for food preparation. He had borrowed it from the camp cook without telling him what it was for. I don't know if there was any correlation...but I was sicker than a dog when I got home from this trip.)
Chopping firewood to use to heat our tent...we needed to split firewood to use at night in the tent and the outfitter made sure that there was plenty of wood available, but we had to split it. No prob...I kind of like doing that anyway. So I am busy impersonating Paul Bunyan, in the dark with very little light, when the FG makes an appearance in the fairly tightly constrained wood chopping area and takes the other axe and starts swinging with little regard to me...just 3 to 5 feet away. I immediately sense that I could lose a limb with this idiot wailing away just a few feet from me and I thought, "Hmmm...I don't think I would like to experience an emergency trip to the nearest ER, at night, in the freezing cold, about 2-3 hours away, with blood gushing out of my body." So I gathered my split wood and took it back to the tent to get away from the FG. He later complained that he thought he brought more wood to the tent than I did.
At meal time the camp cook would prepare big portions of whatever was on the menu and the clients would get first dibs and then the guides and cook would divvy up the remainder for their meal. The FG would almost always go first and then eat like a starving lion while others were still getting their food, etc. More than once, he would go for seconds prior to the guides getting their firsts and one time, he took all but a small part of what was left. Essentially leaving crumbs for the guides to split between them. I reminded him that the guides hadn't eaten yet and he barely huffed an acknowledgement and then put back a little bit...but still kept 80% of the big portion of seconds that he took.
Those are but a few of the MANY examples of him being a self absorbed jerk. The moral of this story...do like Falldreams suggests and consider CAREFULLY who you go on such a trip with. I was so frustrated with this guy after a week of this crap that I came close to decking him on the return trip and I haven't been that angry with anyone in 40+ years.
