quote:

Out of state Elk hunts are a different story - I have changed groups 3 times now based on not helping, wanting a share of the meat but not being willing to help in the work unless they had filled their tag.

I've certainly seen this on deer leases. Guys who are happy to help you if and only if they've gotten everything done they want to get done on their stands and feeders. And gosh they are just about out of time then.......

LWD

Here in WI, if someone is invited to hunt with a 'group or party', and kills a deer I think it is generally understood he keeps the deer he shoots! Now on the flip side, on our western hunts for elk/mule deer it is an unwritten rule that the meat gets split evenly between everyone. When I owned my own land and invited people to hunt on my land I paid for, I would have never imagined asking them for a portion of the game they shot. If they killed an animal, I was happy for them and helped them drag it out of the woods and even cut it up, but it went in their freezer. I'd say if you are worried about keeping the venison in your custody, don't invite others over to hunt and kill it yourself.

I drew my first pronghorn tag this year. I hadn't killed a big game animal in 30 years. I told a good friend of mine, whom I work with about the tag. He said he would go with me.

My wife set aside a budget for the scouting trip and the hunt. On the scouting trip I ended upt buying 2 new tires for my ATV trailer.OUCH. Fixed budget. I told my friend that since it was my tag that I would buy his fuel. OK. Fuel bill was 60$. No problem.

Time to go hunting. His question to me: Trophy of fill the freezer? Me: Fill the freezer. Him: That is what I wanted to hear. I headed out the day before and he followed later that day after work.

The next day, we get into the blind at sun up. About noon I shot my pronghorn. He showed me haw to field dress and skin the animal and care for it. Went home the next day and processed it in his kitchen and in the freezer. I asked him how much and what he wanted of it and told me" Its your kill". I couldn't give him any of it. He did finally end up with the liver. I learned so much from him in those few days. I owe this man my utmost respect.

I would have given him the whole animal just for the education I got. Except for the horns. I'm keeping those.
He said he had pronghorn stiil in the freezer from a previous hunt.

I'm here to tell you a person doesn't come acroos a friend like that very often. I'd do anything for him. He has been real good to me in the last six years Iv'e known him. He and his wife are really standup people.


Tony

Well, a year has passed and it turns out a new solution has been revealed.

If a non family member shoots a deer, As land owner I get one hind quarter and the pelt. The shooter gets the rest. If the shooter wants to share beyond that, that's his problem.

If you are fortuneate enough to get an open stand on my land, and you don't actually shoot a deer, don't expect any meat.

My so-called 'subpermittee' broke for home on the 88th hour or so of our 2006 NH moose hunt. I killed the bull in the 90th hour, give or take, of the grueling and magical hunt. My buddy wasn't physically there for the final show, but was there with me and my wife in spirit, I figured. I split the meat the meat bewteen our families.

In fer a fookin' penny, in fer a fookin' pound.

quote:

Originally posted by 45otto:
Well, a year has passed and it turns out a new solution has been revealed.

If a non family member shoots a deer, As land owner I get one hind quarter and the pelt. The shooter gets the rest. If the shooter wants to share beyond that, that's his problem.

If you are fortuneate enough to get an open stand on my land, and you don't actually shoot a deer, don't expect any meat.

That sounds more than fair. I would love for a landowner to offer me such a deal around here.

7 stands on 60 acres?? Isn't that kinda crowed?

I've been on a weekend hunt with 3 other guys for the last 5 years or so. Many times we take all the does we want. Last year, it was very poor hunting and only 3 of us took one deer. One guy didn't shoot one. I split my deer with him. I asked another guy if he wanted to contribute some meet to the guy that didn't shoot one and he flat out refused. I don't believe I will hunt with that fella again.

quote:

Originally posted by Slatts:
I've been on a weekend hunt with 3 other guys for the last 5 years or so. Many times we take all the does we want. Last year, it was very poor hunting and only 3 of us took one deer. One guy didn't shoot one. I split my deer with him. I asked another guy if he wanted to contribute some meet to the guy that didn't shoot one and he flat out refused. I don't believe I will hunt with that fella again.

Wow, I guess some people have different ideas....


Here in California everyone I know splits the meat up evenly. I have hunted with a bunch of different people over the years and there has never been any question, the meat was always split up evenly.

I'm pretty shocked that this is not the case everywhere. After all, group hunting is a group effort. How many times have you lost half of a hunting day because you helped a partner get his deer out of the woods?

Here's another complication -- guest wounds a very nice buck and the deer runs off and a few minutes later a single shot is heard. The guest follows the blood trail and finds another hunter standing over the buch he shot with a knife starting to remove the entrails. The deer was mortally wounded and maybe would have made another 200 or 300 yards but the hunter cleaning the buck didn't notice the wound until he started cleaning it.

I suspect most states have laws that cover this but the interpretation might be a bit different in the woods.

How would your camp handle this? Now suppose the 1st shooter was a 16-year old and his 1st time hunting. What about is the 2nd one who shot was the 16 year instead? Last thought suppose it was the biggest buck shot on the property?

Our family camp back in Pennsy was started by my dad along with my grand-father -- they bought the property and built the camp with dad's 2 younger (but adult) brother's + one brother-in-law helping out with labor and equipment. I was a member but away most years but the other members were my cousin's. We had a very few rules --- #1 My dad's decision's were final and covered everything from who would hunt where, when canp day's were held (don't show up and you don't hunt that year). #2) You could bring a guest after you had filled your own tag but not before and the guest could only hunt one day a year during the 2nd week of the season. #3 No women in camp -- ho wive's and no girl-friends - during the buck season. Wive's could hunt does. #4 Dad oversaw the distribution of meat but the one who tagged it got at least half (right or left) + the rack and hide.

There were also a series of fines --- not cleaning up your gut-pile, smoking in the woods, littering. seeing something that needed to fixed and not doing it, etc etc. And there was always a chance of getting a fine becasuse you did something funny or because you had a fancy piece of gear. I even got fined one time for making a farily long sot on a running deer -- one shot and rolled him like a rabbit -- the fine was for making dad look bad because he missed the same deer walking at less than half the distance -- can't make the boss look bad.

They're all gone now -- just me and a couple of cousins are left --- and I moved to California. I still own the land but the road is pretty bad and you need to walk in. There was a fire some years ago and the cabin is just a shell but every time I go back to visit I make it a point to walk in and visit "old friends" and remember the way it used to be when I was the youngest in the camp -- I almost forget. No cussin' and no alchol either.

If there are four of you I would split it four ways. Simple as that.

I have split meat a couple different ways before. One time a friend of an in-law took the two of us out. I gave the host a hind quarter of the moose I got just for a thank you.

One time my best friend and I helped some not so friendly newbys clean and pack a moose 2 miles and then drive them all in my truck to thier house. My friend and I did nearly everything. When all the meat was dropped off I kept what I carried and my friend and I split that. Being 17 a front and hind leg of a moose in my pack seemed fair . I carried a front and hind in my pack as did my friend and the other 3 people carried all the trimmings (neck, ribs ect..which was about 100# split 3 ways).

In my experience the whole thing depends on how many deer your place has. Why? Because if it's like my area, there are so many that EVERYONE who even half way tries is going to get something and so this question never comes up. If anything, it's honestly just the opposite. We have people trying to give away deer meat, first to fellow hunters, then to family, then to neighbors, and then to charity.

But if you aren't going to be shooting many to start with, then I guess how to divide it would be a problem.

I would probably handle it like we used to with waterfowl at the duck hunting club, which was in a spirit of generosity. If you have a close buddy you regularly hunt with, it's 50-50, but as a practical matter you just ask "how many would you like?". With deer, that means each gets half or at least the offer is made, "would you like some?".

If it's people you don't know, each keeps what he shoots unless you just want to offer some. But, it's not expected.

On group pheasant hunts in Kansas and Iowa the deal is usually share and share alike...community cleaning after the hunt and all divided equally. Afterall, how else to do it when a bird has three different sizes of shot in it.

So it depends on the supply of game, the relationships, and what kind of guys you are..

I have hunted in 5 camps in the last 30 years. We always divide the meat in equal shares. Everyone put in the hours to hunt and work so sharing the meat is a fair deal.

quote:

In my experience the whole thing depends on how many deer your place has. Why? Because if it's like my area, there are so many that EVERYONE who even half way tries is going to get something and so this question never comes up.

That's a good point. In most parts of Texas, we've got more deer than you can shake a stick at. If you can make a 100 yard shot, you'll get a deer if you sit in a blind a couple of times.

LWD

All I want from the guys that hunt my land is the backstraps,tenderloins,a bottle of Jack and to get me a good hooker!!!!

Geez, I'd settle for 2 of the 4!

LWD

the guy who did the killin gets hide and horns. all meat is divided equally among those that hunted.

Well I don't allow anybody to hunt on my land any more. For two many years it became just a given and not so much as a thank you! Or even a steak when I didn't fill a tag. I understand were you are coming from, and well if it was up to me, every body goes home with some meat. Seems to me that hunting in groups is more of a social thing than anything else. As for that guy in Alaska, gee what a guy! I shot a few moose in my time living in Alaska and I can tell you, I had trouble just eating a 1/4 of what I ended up with. I always saw to it that the people where I lived gotten some, and not just burger meat. That guy is just plain rude.

If hunting is all about the meat, save your money....go to a feedlot and buy a steer at about 1100 pounds....shoot it and drag it home and then have several shots of single malt!

You'll save a lot of money, have a lot more meat, spend less time away from the wife , and probably have better eating meat. If you go to a feedlot that has longhorns, you can get a fairly good mount for the wall as well.

If this alternative isn't for you....ask your friends and landowner how much of the meat they would like.....it's the ethical way!

Not for nuthin, sounds like a lot of people looking for free meat.

Sounds more like a business transaction than a hunt.......but if everything is understood by all involved parties before hand, then there should be no problems whatsoever......not terribly complicated.

I have given away so many deer I can't count them. But I live in a state where shooting 3 or 4 a year is fairly common times 4 hunters 12 or 13 a year. I need to give them away.

I don't under stand some people I have had several people complain that they couldn't use all the moose/elk meat they have in the freezer. But try and get a package from them is like pulling teeth.

I have given away all kinds of wild game and still have plenty for my self. People want meat I give them some some times more then they want.

Where I hunt in SE Oklahoma, the one who kills the deer gets the meat. If they wish to share some of the meat with others, that is up to them, but they aren't expected to. If you let someone hunt on your land and they kill a deer, the meat is theirs (whether you charged them to hunt or allowed them to hunt for free).

Our elk camp has never really "shared" anything, outside of a few limited occasions. And no one expects it either. Maybe its just a regional thing, but if someone put their hand out asking for a part of an animal I killed, I cleaned, and I paid for with my tag, I doubt id ever hunt with them again. What just because I have a 6 pack of beer, I HAVE to give you 3?

Part of it might be most of our camps contain out of state hunters who pay a LOT more for their tags, plus, doesn't make much sense to ship 100lbs of elk from Denver to Houston.

Also, Colorado has taken some of this guessing game work out of our hands, pre-processing, you can legally only give someone so much meat, depending on their tag being filled or not I think after its processed its another story, but I want to say donation limits are around 20lbs. That's not a lot of elk lol.

The 1 time I shared, was when I shot my cow at the last minute, but as me and my cousin and his cousin in law were busting ass to get this thing out (it literally died in a bowl that was uphill in every direction, with blow down timber and 2ft of snow lol) my ride back to town decided we needed to hit the road early due to a blizzard on its way. So, after it was processed we did split the game, but my cousin also split the COST of processing as well.

I guess it would be different if we were shooting a handful of 100lbs dressed animals every year, but that just ain't the case. Heck even my dad has never offered or expected when me or my bro don't fill a tag or we do and he doesn't. Anything gifted is that, a gift.

quote:

Originally posted by 45otto:

If the camp kills one deer. We split the meat 50/50.
If camp kills more than one but kevin kills none. He gets 1/2 of largest deer.
If camp kills more than one deer and kevin kills one. He gets deer he killed.
If kevin kills more than one deer he gets to choose which one he tags and we get rest.

In any case, deer are killed, Kevin gets venison.

However, If kevin is not in camp when deer are killed, He has no claim to any venison.

So if Kevin kills 3 deer. he gets 1 and you get 2. If you kill 3, Kevin only gets half a deer. You are not a very good friend. It sounds like you just want someone to split the labor, hunt the deer, then give you most of the meat. Pretty selfish from this perspective.

If Kevin shoots a deer, he should get it. If he shoots 2 or more, then he gets the first deer and then half of the other deer that he shoots. That sounds more fair and reasonable.

quote:

Originally posted by The Shottist:

So if Kevin kills 3 deer. he gets 1 and you get 2. If you kill 3, Kevin only gets half a deer. You are not a very good friend. It sounds like you just want someone to split the labor, hunt the deer, then give you most of the meat. Pretty selfish from this perspective.

We all have our opinions, but this deal sounds fine to me.

If a landowner in within driving distance made the same offer to me I would jump on it.