Home Forums Hunting & Shooting General Big Game Guides, booze, success

Do they go together?

Have they ever been detrimental to your success?

Have you hunted with someone whom you wouldn't book with again due to booze control issues?

Not here. Only been on half dozen or so guided hunts to date but all were (I think) well researched prior and all had "dry" operations until after the hunting part of the trip was done.

My experience is nearly identical. Never a problem but big parties have occured at the end of the hunt.

I fly fished for salmon on the Miramachi River in N.B.and the guide was a drunk and owned the lodge. I'd bet his coffee thermos was half full of wiskey. But he managed to do a decent job during the day....at night it was a different story. He had a delightful personality and was happy all the time. I think he'd just pass out somewhere out of sight at night. The rest of the staff took it all in stride and I had a good time. His wife really ran the show or so it seemed. They'd been in business for so long everything was pretty straight forward.

I heard later he died when he fell out of a canoe in the early spring fishing season. The following year I went moose hunting and met an Indian who was parked on the side of a gravel road with a sign, "Guide for Hire". We hired him and he really knew his stuff and was one tough sonofabitch. He had no sleeping bag and we just slept on the ground with a ground cloth and a tarp over us in our sleeping bags. He slept between us with his dog and was fine. In the morning there was ice along the river shore so it was a bit cold. We had two fifths of Canadian Hunter which I still drink to this day in mild quantities around the campfire.

The Indian would have none of it and I got the feeling he didn't like us having booze in camp. His choice was smoking grass and we had no problems with him. He got us to moose everyday but our luck just wasn't with us....no bulls.

So by and large, I've been around other hunters who were a bit smashed every night but it was all amusing to me. Just my 2 cents

Kind of. The outfit I went with had about 7 guides.....2 hunters per guide. My guide was a 'Nam vet and ex-Marine as well and we got along wonderfully. But when we were all in the dining area, many of us heard tell about one of the guides drinking up his 2 hunters booze during the hunt and after hours in their cabin. Not cool....... They definitely were put off about his behavior and told the outfitter as much. It is assumed that he spoke with the guide, but the damage was already done. That relationship (hunters/guide) went downhill fast and their remaining hunting days were pretty bitter. They vowed never to book with that outfit again.

More in a personal vein.....the guy I went with had similar issues, less the mooching part. He left camp in the middle of one of our only 5 alloted hunting days to drive miles into town to procure another fifth of whiskey as he'd downed his first 2 in the first 2 days. Needed to get there before the stores closed. Never shows signs of being too looped, but beyond me how he did it. He was always a mean SOB around lunch time when not within sight of camp or his vehicle.....go figure. I knew going in he had a problem with booze, but it is way worse than I had ever anticipated. We weren't ever "good" friends, more like 2 guys that hooked up over a trip. No attachments other than a few prior varmint trips, otherwise we never socialized except at the range where we met.

Since he drove on this trip and our guide was assigned to accommodate us both, it made it hard on our guide to try to establish a game plan as I wanted to hunt and my "partner" kind of wanted to hunt, but more interested in drinking and therefore hanging around the lodge/camp. Again, not cool......for me anyway.

Live and learn I suppose. I should have known when his wife, who I'd spoken with maybe once before, called my home and asked me about his level/quantity of drinking after returning from a prior varmint hunting trip....he still doesn't know she ever made that call. I didn't give her what she wanted as I didn't believe it was my place to do so, but her call should have been more of an eye opener for me.

That chapter is now behind me and I wish him well, but my life long, much dreamed about trip, wasn't exactly as wonderful (in that regard) as I would have liked.

So yeah - I saw 2 instances where booze definitely impacted the outcome of a hunt.

I bought a "landowner elk tag" from an outfitter in NM a few years back. Upon arrival at the camp, there were 2 young spanish fellows setting by an outdoor fire-pit, chuggin' a bottle of whiskey. At 3AM on opening-day,neither of them could get out the cabin-door, so I hunted on my own, taking a very nice 6x6. I cut it up and drug it to where I could drive my 4x4 to it.

The only "plus" they earned was that one of them could really cook, fine meals. When I left, I gave the "cook" $100 for the meals. Another hunter arrived on the 2nd day and said he had been there in the past and the "guides" were always drinking.

After my arrival home, I got a call from the outfitter asking about the guides. And I told him, they were drinking on the job, and that I had paid for the meals. He sent me a ck. for $100 later. I have not gone there again. Don't have time for it.

I have been on at least 50 guided hunting/fishing trips & never, absolutely never had a guide/outfitter with a drinking problem. I research my trips well & was a booking agent long ago. I have been in camps with other hunters/fisherman(never my companions) that drank to much. Many years ago I was in a hunting camp where the guides arrived early each morning but the hunters were alone at night. Two others got into there cups & at about 1:00 AM were still going strong & being loud & obnoxious. They both thought they were tough guys. I was still in the military reserve & not long back from combat. Lets just say they only thought they were tough. They left camp the next evening. Many outfitters, especially in Africa where sundowners are a tradition, tell me that too many hunters drink to excess.

One thing about drinking while hunting from a camp (as opposed to a lodge) is that you never know what is going to happen. How bad would you feel if your hunting partner had a sudden heart attack and died because you were too drunk to help? That's the kind of thought that keeps me from drinking while hunting.

It's not quite the same, but I was considering going with a guide to climb a large peak in S. America that I badly wanted to summit.

The guide was showing some slides of his South American mountaineering trips and some first ascents he claimed in the 48. He seemed to think that in the darked room during the slides no one could see him pulling the pint from his back pocket, but in reality, everyone in the room could see it.

The real show stopper for me was when I got home and looked up those first ascents he had claimed in NM, CO, UT, AZ. Almost all of them were there and done by someone else.

No, but I have gone on hunts with people I never hunted with again due to alcohol abuse.

I don't mind alcohol in camp as long as it is used in moderation and only when the firearms are put away for the day.

Never had a problem except the normal camp stuff we keep in control now that we are older.
One of the times that it just seemed right to get a little "happy" was in Ak last September. The young guide-a MAN that I really came to admire as a person-and I had just came down off the mountain with the gear, goat and no meat because a black bear kept messing with us and stole it at night. We hit the base camp and I was a little beat-he just took a walk. It was raining, clouds dropping a little, chilly and we were not sure if the plane was going to get us that day or not. He asked if I wanted a little celebration drink and I said "Hell Yea!!" We proceeded to put a major dent in that bottle and were telling stories from our lives and it just was the icing on a great trip.
Oh yea, here came the plane flying low under the clouds. Got everything on and just laughed and smiled all the way back. It ain't all bad, just need the experience to know when, when not and how much.

Battue

I quit guiding on a ranch due to alcohol abuse of clients... after watching one drink a big bottle (See how mcuh I know, its more than a fifth with a handle on it) of Vodka each night, and we were forced to take him to a stand each morning. I pitched a fit to the owners, and then quit. Wasn't worth my safety.....

Guess it can go both ways. Now having a nip after a great hunt, thats fine with me. Best friends mother, I went with her to make sure she got a doe and not a nubbin buck.... She shot, and when I got out of the stand she had a small flask in her pack and we each had a shot! That stuff I dont' mind.

HOWEVER, I"ve been on a few hunts where the best high is the natural high.. a caribou hunt with a good friend some years back, no alcohol, and I'll never forget it.

I truly hope I don't ever end up with a drunk guide either. Probably why I'm more of a DIY person.

Jeff

I will not have ANY alcohol in ANY bush camp, no exceptions and I learned this the hard way. Drinkers do not hunt, camp, fish or even hike with me.

That's enough to make me start drinking again.....

LOL

kutenay,

What happened that caused you to make the "no alcohol" policy?

he took a remote job on a mountain where his purpose was to tend a herd of sheep with a friend

have seen all sides of it, including once me being somewhat guilty of it.

we came back late at night after killing a bear, had to drag the boat through the shallow river trying to avoid the rocks, banged up the boat pretty good. Outfitter and I were cussing each other up and down pretty good.

I got soaked from the waist down as I was wearing hippers and he was in chest waders. finally made it to the lake, fired up the boat and headed for camp. We hit a bottle of whiskey I had pretty hard after changing into dry clothes and while making dinner.

I ate, but it didn't take the buzz off, had to go lay down. If the chit had hit the fan I wouldn't have been at the top of my game for an hour or two. I've had plenty of shots and beers at the end of the day in the field, but that was the only time I let it slip up and get away with me. Never again since.

had clients get pizzed cause they got drunk in the early p.m. then the skies cleared and they wanted to go hunting, my policy is once the booze comes out the guns are put away till the next day. They didn't like it, and I hated to turn them down, but I don't want a guy brining up the rear behind me with a high powered rifle that's been drinking.

worked a little with a guy that had an alcohol problem, he was an embarrassment to the outfit. even drank Nyquil when he ran outa booze (sheesh) he only lasted a season or two, but he was a loose cannon on the deck of life. That problem got solved several years back after he'd left our employ, he got killed in a shootout here in town with another outfitter he'd hooked up with over a hunting or woman dispute can't remember which. That was after he'd severely beaten the sweet little gal he'd married and had twin girls with. Too bad, the guy was a good hunter and outdoorsman, could be funny as hell and entertaining to boot just an alcoholic to go along with it.


I like to have a nip at the end of a hard day, but a nip is enough, a guy has to know when to say when, guns and booze are a bad mix ime.

We had to pack out a fella with a broken arm one year, he was racing around with the quad and rolled- he was drunk. Another drunk got lost and we had to look for him for 2 days.
Another hunter cut his leg with a chain saw and we had to pack him out of the bush too.
Another drunk rolled his quad and broke his neck, not in my hunting group but the outfitter had to go to court over it. Never new the outcome but I don't think he's in the business any more. Booze is best drank after dark and the rifles put away, that's for sure and if there's someone in the group who frowns on drinking- then the whole group shouldn't drink.