Quote:
Originally Posted by gloszz
Do any of you ever have problems meeting new people on hunts? I mean a few hour trip shouldn't be a big deal but going out into the wilderness for a week to hunt elk is a tad risky. Lemme know your experiences.
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Going in to the bush with someone I didn't know story.
At work I mentioned I was going to drive to a nearby city (15,000 is a city in some places) a friend I went to school with and an Engineer In Training said it would be great to get out of town and go to a bar. My friend understood that there was no all weather road out of town but construction had started on one and it could be driven when not being worked on, like the coming long weekend.
The EIT had no idea, and I had no idea that he had no idea so I said sure.
Worked on the car all night (another story) and left before dawn. As we drove down a mud trail to get to the road the EIT asked if this was the road. I said no but we'll get to it soon. When we did get to the road it didn't look like a road because that section had kilometers of gravel piles and no real road like sections.
The EIT was sure this couldn't be the road, which should have been my first clue that he really didn't understand what we were about to attempt. After more than an hour of 1st and 2nd gear work we stopped and the engine stopped. Couldn't get it started but I assured the EIT that the battery was good, the engine was fine, we just had to figure out why it wouldn't turn over.
After about an hour we were back on the "road" but the EIT was asking where we were and why we were not seeing anyone else. I don't think I helped when I pointed out it was the holiday weekend so no work on the road and the closest town was 100km away and few would try to travel what may or may not be a passable road.
Then I hit a rough spot and ripped a wheel off the car, not completely but the upper ball joint was no longer a joint.
My friend and I pretended to fix the ball joint while the EIT literally ran around the car yelling stuff I can't remember. It was about an hour before we felt we could tell him we were not going anywhere by car. The news was not well received. He had grown up in the city, hadn't even driven on gravel roads, let alone bush trails and was afraid, of something (not sure what). I really should have explained what we were up to, my bad.
Then we got lucky, a pickup approached from the opposite direction. Very fully loaded with family and furniture they could only offer a ride to one of us. Both my friend and I put our hand on the EIT's back and said great while we pushed him forward.
It was about 12hrs before another vehicle came along, a fellow coworker, but that 12hrs was much easier to endure than the first couple.
I learned to better explain what following through on my crazy ideas might mean. Today I even make a point of saying things could go bad, people could die, still want to go?
As for hunting with strangers, haven't done that too often but once a guy kept a round in the chamber, safety off all day. I didn't find out until the end of the day when he shot the car getting into the passenger seat.
In another case went hunting with someone I had history with. Neither trusted the other and there was a concern (at least on my part) of a hunting "accident". Stayed close, bolts obviously open, and when climbing over stuff we would hold on to our gun even if it made climbing harder. That was a tense day.