Would you rather - Trophy solo or Shooter w/buddy

As much as I enjoy time in the field spent with friends/family and helping others with their tags, I kinda prefer going solo when the tags on my pocket.
 
I'd rather do everything with a buddy and I'm just as happy when they take a nice animal as when I do. The people and places of the experience has overtaken the animals in importance. I admit that may be a mental defense mechanism to keep from being crushed by coming back from the mountains empty handed for the past 3 years, but then again, I feel the same way about ducks or pheasants or whitetail here at home now so.... maybe not.
 
I liked bird hunting alone with the dog. All big game I basically have hunting buddies depending on the hunt heck I will go on a hunt and help good friends if I don't draw a tag. You just mentally switch gears and think of them being your weapon. I guess I enjoy the two man hunts more than a big gang in camp.
 
Rethinking... I prefer a small camp of up to a max of 4 people. Then I like to hunt alone mainly, but meet up here and there. I scare 💩 on my own, let alone with another person to worry about. I’m such a dick I always find myself saying wtf in my head when I hear a stick pop... camp alone isn’t all that great, but sometimes I need a moment.
 
gosh i love the time hanging with the guys, but..

so far in my short hunting career it's clear to me - whether it's a good or bad thing - that i care about filling tags: doe, buck, cow, bull, whatever, just filling the tags the i paid for. while my scope of data is relatively limited it seems there is a bit of an inverse relationship between number of dudes going hunting and tags filled...

further, if i come home empty handed i like knowing it was my fault, and not the argument that was had on day 3 about which basin to hunt or how far to hike (or not to hike) - i want to know full well i'm the reason i didn't fill the tag

i'll probably get better about that attitude as time goes on. in all reality i'm probably the insufferable one to go hunting with...
 
Most of the time I hunt solo , and that’s okay with me, I figure it out and don’t worry about it.
 
I'm older and decrepit and I usually hunt with my son's. I have also learned that we are all like bananas, we have a shelf life.. We just don't know our expiration date..

I only have so many more days and I would rather spend them with my son's.. We've all killed plenty of deer and we've all eaten tags....

Spending time together is our priority, seeing some new country and having an adventure.. Killing game is part of the adventure but not the sum of all things.. At least not for us.. We do strive to tag game but enjoy the struggle as this is what we seek, the kill is anticlimactic. Each to his own......
 
My first lion, solo. My first bear, solo.(nobody wanted to go) my biggest buck, solo. (Archery backpack hunt. Nobody wanted to go) I enjoy having a buddy but there’s plenty of trips with friends. And sometimes I think those solo trips may not have ended the same way (successful)with a buddy. One less person toe see hear and smell is not all bad.
 
Man that's a great question. I would do a buck of a lifetime solo. Don't get me wrong, I believe it's important to share experiences with others but there's something about being out there on your own figuring it out and really seeing how hard you can push yourself to achieve a goal alone. Developing that experience and confidence while getting the buck of your dreams would be special.
 
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