Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting Guests on your hunting lease

If you invite a guest to hunt on your lease and you explain what the rules are, what do you do when the guest violates the rules?

Uninvite them?

This exact thing is the reason I will never again invite anyone to elk camp. Some people are totally different when you get them out away from home.

Yes. Unfriend them.

After several seasons of pleading, we had a spot in our party and invited a coworker to one of our public land deer spots. Next season we pulled in and he was at our campsite with about 4 buddies. Thankfully the country was too rough for the cohort, and they made no subsequent returns.

That is what I was thinking about doing, but didn't want to come off as being an over-reacting dick.

Might be better to be a dick than your lease uninviting you.

Escort them to the gate and explain why they are no longer welcome.

That’s why I never invite anyone. They will foul up somehow.

Send them back to Indiana.

Good point!

There is a reason we have a no guest oolicy, unless it's a junior hunter

We actually had a member get caught hunting with his boss. We approached them. Immediately removed him from the club roster and had his boss arrested for trespassing

Wow! This is about the harshest thread I’ve ever read. Value friendships much?

All of the "friends" or "co-workers" that I bring on my place understand my rules and they will pay the same fines as our member hunters.

My two buds and I were going on a deer trip when a guy we hardly knew invited himself. He saw two does and a female.

Hunting brings out the nucklehead in people

People who value your friendship will go the extra mile to fit in and to follow the rules, especially if they know anything about hunting. If they don't, then they're not your friends.


Okie John

I had the same thing happen to me with a so called friend. After years of figuring out the habits/routes the elk used during hunting season on public land, the "Friend" shot his first elk. We swore him to secrecy. And of course the next year he was there with 3-4 buddies. The year after that the Friend's buddies were there some of their buddies. That sweet spot was destroyed. I never hunted with him again. I hate getting stabbed in the back. I like my hunting too much to waste spending time with a proven liar. These particular non-residents were from Minnesota, not Indiana.

I don't hunt on a lease, but there's no way I'd jeopardize my membership on a lease for a "friend".

My hunting spots are all public, and the folks I've invited to hunt with us in the past never abused the chance we gave them.

I don't think the OP described the guest as a friend. I can think of a number of situations where I might invite an acquaintance who was not what I would consider a friend. It would also depend upon the rule that was violated. I would be much more tolerant of an honest mistake than blatant disregard. If it were a friendship, if it were a true friendship, the friend suffering consequences as a result of disregard for the rules shouldn't end the friendship.