CalHunter

I hunt private land because a buddy caretakes a cattle ranch and I'm it behind a locked gate. If I did not have that property to hunt, I would be out on public land (forest, BLM). I almost always hunt alone so I do my own field dressing and game removal. I still have a butcher process my deer and bear but am in the process of switching over to butchering my own (at least for deer). Flags (another member on here) uses a gutless method that is intriguing and will likely become my go to method. For turkeys, I do it all and create my own turkey tail mounts. There's something to be said for "rolling your own" so to speak and a sense of satisfaction in doing DIY hunts.

I am not opposed to hunting with a buddy but they don't always have the same time flexibility, drive for hunting or sometimes even interested in the same game. I am not opposed to using a guide for hunting but prefer to save that money for when I could really use a guide, such as a horse-pack elk hunt in the NF or hound hunting for lions (both on my bucket list). Both of those would be in other states for me and a guide would have the horses or dogs that I don't and access into some scouted area (preferably on public land). I'm not opposed to private land but it usually has an extra cost and limits you in how much ground you have to hunt, such as horse-packing several miles into a forest. As always, YMMV.