I had a heated argument last night with a close friend regarding pictures from a deer cam that I posted on Facebook, and I don't really understand his anger and side of the issue. Can anyone look at this from the outside and tell me what I have obviously missed? I apologize in advance for this lengthy post...

Story:
We both hunt a club in Sumter Co with 17,000+/- acres spread over 5 different properties. He's been in the club for 10yrs, and being old high school buddies, I joined last yr to be able to hunt with him and his family. Through spring and summer scouting, I found an area that I wanted to hunt hard this year and had setup 3 or 4 stands. He was not going to the club one particular weekend, and he brought a camera by my office and said 'will you put this camera up for me on Property X?' There was no specification regarding locations, so I decided to put it in the middle of the stand locations I had already hung. Sidenote - he and I agreed to share deer knowledge, pics, sightings, stands, etc last year, so I was thinking about these as 'our stands' and 'our pictures'. Anyway, I checked that camera 2 weeks later and had 2 very nice deer (I'll post pictures later). Yesterday, I put a couple of the pictures up on Facebook, like I have in the past few years, with of course no location, property name, stand name, or ANYTHING that would tip off where these deer were. Last night I got a phone call from him asking me why I had done it, and then him telling me how I had ruined the chances of killing these deer, that certainly other people will find them and I may has well have given the exact location of the camera, how I painted a target on my back, that I wasn't allowed to use his stuff again if I was going to do something this stupid (*remember now that he asked me to put a camera out for him*), and on and on and on for nearly 30 minutes of hollering and cussing back and forth, and finally ended with me apologizing for putting them up in the first place. I really was sorry for doing it and creating the uproar, and I deleted the photos, but as soon as I hung up the phone, I got (and still am) so pissed at the way he acted about the whole thing. I didn't sleep well last night and am somewhat afraid that our hunting and friendship from here on will be different. We've been friends for over 10 years, I was in his wedding, etc etc etc so it really is bothering me...

Will someone please explain to me what I'm not seeing from his perspective? How in the hell is someone else now guaranteed to kill these 2 deer on 17,000 acres without knowing even what property they're on for starters? I understand that people now know that these two deer exist, but I would bet so many better deer are in the area as well. These are good, but they're not even close to ruin-your-friendship kind of good.

had your friend been drinking when he called you?

Sounds like a crybaby!

Big bucks make people crazy........like your "friend".
I see nothing wrong with what you did.

I'd go kill the deer, post the trailcam pics from his cam and the new pics with you holding the deer both on every hunting site that I could find.

+ 1

And turkey hunting makes people even crazier.

Friends and families will have spats and say things they shouldn't say. Been that way for years and it will continue. But.............real friends forgive. This will tell you if you were real friends after all. No judgements about right or wrong, just both sides eventually letting it go, no matter who was wrong.

I guess he is looking at it from the perspective that it was "his" camera, therefore "his" pictures. I have no problem at all with what you did, I post pictures of my hunting areas and send e-mails of pictures to other members of our club regularly. Some people are not so free with information. I killed a pretty good 8pt last year in Jan that I had pictures of from Nov. I had posted his picture up at our clubhouse as soon as I got him on camera. Everyone in the club was hunting him at the area of the pic, he was killed over a mile away from there during the rut. Just because you got pics of them there doesn't mean they will stay there. If I killed every buck that I got pics of, I would have my own hunting show. Let him cool off, then give him back his camera.

kendall

That's a good place to start.

Nope. He's not a drinker...

Regarding my previous post........if that don't work just whoop his ass, find a new friend and join another club.

Just kidding...I don't advocate violence.

Some people get to bent on that kind of stuff.

I doubt that anyone would know where one paticular deer would be on a property that size unless they already had pics of him. Or they know where your stand is.

Either way I don't see a problem. I don't get to carried away on these things.

big deer make stupid people more stupid........just the way it is.

I lost a friend over a good deer I killed once, guess he wasn't that good a friend.

troy

Pics or it didn't happen.

I was waiting for this comment!
I haven't used photobucket in so long, I forgot my password and it locked me out. you missed your shot at seeing them on FB yesterday...I'll put them up when i can get back in photobucket

Words from the wise. I am NOT saying you did anything wrong, but you will learn not to post pics of deer, dead or alive, where the public can see them. It is sad but true. You can't share them anywhere without folks losing their minds.

the pictures in question...

They are nice bucks but not worth loosing a friend over. You've apologized and that's all you can do. If he doesn't come around then he isn't capable of being the kind of friend you are. If I were him and I had a problem with what you did I'd just say, "man I'd prefer you keep this kinda stuff covert"! Then if you did it again I'd go ape on ya LOL! My take is his feelings got hurt because he saw them as "his" photos because it was "his" camera, and you didn't ask before you posted them.

I agree, hope you get a crack at them.

If you want to really piss him off..post the lat/long of where the camera is.

Strangely enough, he threatened to do that last night. Not sure about his reasoning, other than to ruin my 3 sets I have hung in the area...