How much Elk? . . .to a friend?
 

How much Elk should I or would you give your huntin' buddy for helping you get it out?
After all, I turned him on to my honey holes . . . he was in elk several times . . . he should have had his own . . . I let him use my extra ATV . . . but still, he was there to help me field dress and recooup MY elk. Just want to be fair.
(Oh yeah, he got a whole tenderloin while it hung at his place)

A few steaks? A 1/4 of the total? 1/2 the total weight? None?

All he carried ,if he wanted.If it was the other way around what would you like to get. If you got a packer treat him will.

I would help without expecting anything in return. Really. I've done it many times to even strangers. Elk, Moose, etc.
But I'm all about fair and am a loss here 'cause I have always hunted by myself the past few years and did it all myself.

My buddy and I always split it down the middle. If he gets one, I get half. If I get one, he gets half. If we both get one, we are in hog heaven. We also each pay half of the processing. We are best friends though. Go with your gut. Only you know the whole situation.

I hunt with one partner and we share the expenses and work. If one of us shoots an elk, we both do equal work to get it out. With an elk on the ground, the only thing one did more then the other was pull the trigger. The first time we hunted together I shot a bull and gave him half because I felt he worked for it just as much as I did. That set the stage and that is how we rolled from then on. Getting a half of elk on a year you didn't shoot anything is pretty nice. If you were in his position, how much do you think you should get?

I'm leaning towards that . . . 1/2. It's more than he would expect, and it would shut him up at work!! (lol)

Besides . . . I need the room in my freezer. 1 elk, 2 deer, etc.

I'm with the dog and cajun on this one...the last elk I got we all (4) helped get it back to the road skinned it and loaded it in the Suburban...so we split it 4 ways, one guy who had gotten a deer really didn't have the freezer space so he only took a few packages of meat....so 3 of us split the rest as well as the cost of processing the meat, some times I cut my own, but as I get older I find that the youngsters don't really want to learn how to do it so much, so I just have the pro's do it !!!!

that is a conversation that should come up before opening morning. Sometimes it's hard to bring up, but it's harder once a elk is down and packed back to a vehicle. I just had 2 buddies come hunt with me for their first elk hunt in Colorado. As we were setting up camp I made it clear that no matter what, I would help them boning, packing and packaging, but we had to talk about how to split the meat. Everyone then knew what to expect.

I personally believe in splitting up equally as the shooting is the easy part, but packing is why so many people road hunt and don't see elk

That's good advise. It's something that can be discussed at the same time everyone is discussing other items like splitting the cost of food, fuel, ect. Our 1st trip, my partner was pleasently surprised that I was giving him half. Heck! Like I mentioned it before, he worked as hard as I did and I wouldn't have it any other way. A few trips after we took another guy and we explained prior to hunting our camp practices and that if one killed something, we would split it 3 ways and that is exactly what we did.

I gave my friend 1/2 of mine that he helped with. He helped me butcher it as well.