Sounds like your making up some excuses.

I'd hate to be a kid of yours.

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Guess I was different, at 23 I still had some growing up to do and still had something to learn from guys who had done it longer. And, he is the one who refers to him in his thread title as a kid.

And he didn't actually pack up camp until the "man" spooked HIS 7x7. I am sure the "man" was watching the 7x7 and not the calf and moved at the wrong time. Certainly something that I have never done: move at the wrong time and spooked game........

Not saying he doesn't have a beef on that point (wounded game), just that the reaction was IMO an overreaction. I have found that if I agree to take a young person hunting, I pretty much have to give up my hunting during that time.

FYI, I take kids hunting every year (from 12 to 23+). Just about every year we have a kid that takes his/her first animal. My daughter (who is 18 now and had never hunted) took a turkey last spring. Pretty awesome experience.

I also know a person who, if his son didn't shoot quick enough, would shoot the animal himself. Funny, cause his son doesn't hunt any more.

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For me, just getting to experience a very close encounter with a 7x7 would be enough to keep on going and enjoying life. Life's too short to "blame" someone else for not getting to kill an animal. Along with the fact that it wasn't you're only chance to be in the woods hunting. SO, this trip didn't end with a kill, but dang man, you can't tell me that the experience of having a 7x7 bull elk at a mere feet from you isn't going to be something you talk about for years to come, isn't enough to put a smile on your face. It would mine!! You have no idea IF things would've turned out differently IF the "kid" didn't get caught moving? Blaming someone else is always easier then to think about what might've, could've or would've happend! IF your gregular hunting partner screws up a chance at a big bull, are ya going to blame him and not hunt with him again?

Look folks, this is a 23 year old man, not a kid in the kid sense. I call him a kid because he went to High School with our oldest, so to me he is a kid. For the record, I hunted with him after he spooked away the 7x7 for another day. I don't know how to explain this. When you call in a bull, and somebody wounds it, you feel as responsible for wounding it as the shooter, well at least I do. It ruined the hunt, and I really didn't feel like calling in an elk for somebody I know can't make an 18 yard shot. It knawed on me thru camp. I also had to make sure he wasn't in position to do it again, all the while pretending to be trying to get an elk in front of him. Anyway, I have had the comforts of home and the trail dust washed off and I feel better. I am going back in with my regular partner on thursday, but I know I had some opportunities that will probably not come again. For the clowns who think my anger is about not getting a shot at the 7x7, you are nuts. You know nothing about me and this hunt has nothing to do with getting a shot at this bull or that bull. I have paid my dues, via trial and error for many seasons in the elk woods. I learned about elk, back pack hunting, meat preservation, calling etc on my own in the woods. I would have killed to have the chance to go on a hunt like this at age 23. This kid had a chance to by-pass 20 years of learning and skip right into advanced elk hunting, I think he should have taken it more seriously. Finally, I will be 40 in a few weeks, how many more years will I be able to do this? I would like to pass this on to him, and hopefully when our oldest gets back from Iraq, he can join us and eventually it can be their spot and their hunt. I havn't completely given up on this kid, I just want him to understand that wounding elk is a worse case scenerio that sours a hunt.
I leave this on a positive note: This was, without a doubt, one of the most incredible hunts I have been a part of. I saw several elk and several big bulls all roaming about the mountain and receptive to calling. Having that big boy standing next to me was the single greatest thrill of my life on the mountain, it was intense. I could hear him breathing, and chirping to that little calf. What a trio, a 7x7, a forked horn, and a calf.:)

You have my sympathies. I'm with others who say that sounds like a 23 year old. I'm going to plead guilty that at that age I could have made the same mistakes that kid made . . . and maybe not appreciate at all what had been done for me.

My hat is off to you muley for taking him in the first place. Those 20 years of hard work do mean experience and that in itself is a great lesson. Blowing the shot is bad enough and ruining your chance is worse. I would have a long talk with him about wounding the animal though. That lesson should last a lifetime if done right. Whats with all the moving posts around SWT? Sit back have some fun and don't work so hard. Then again you are a Marine.:rock:

Thanks CI, my wife made an interesting observation this morn that got me thinking. She said at least he didn't sit on the road bugling, he went in there with you. You know she has a point, just the fact that he is willing to go in there on a back pack hunt makes him a more of a go-gitter than 1/2 the men his age. Maybe I have been to hard on him I don't know. In retrospect I wish my regular partner could have gone in with us, he would have been better off watching two of us work togather to get camp up, and how we hunt etc. Lessons learned by all I suppose.