Public Hunting Woes

[firewalker600]

I feel your pain and sorry to hear they blew your hunt. I hunt out west alot on the public and have had some of the same luck. The thing that gets me is fellow hunters who have lost or never had a code of hunting ethics. Thats what burns my butt. I'm like alot of fellow hunters who cant afford to pay a thousand dollars to hunt private land. So I have to deal with the not heads. One trick that seems to pay of is to set it out. I get there early and stay late. when the other hunters go to lunch they push deer my way, and the same when they come back for the evening hunt. If you can do an all dayer and pattern the deer it can pay off for you.

I have a story to share that happened last year during gun season. Set up early and planed to stay all day. Blind set up on a hill across a valley with taller hills. You know out west you can see for miles, this truck pulls up to the road 3/4 mile away and here they come. when they got close i flashed my red light at them and then my white light, they stopped and disappeared . When the sun came up I had one straight across from me. that pissed me off, but i can hunt my side of the valley and I could watch what he was doing. A little while later I look out my back window of the blind and I have to other hunters seating right behind me on the other side of the valley. All hunters where with in 100 yards of me. I lost it and packed my stuff up with as much noise as I could make. I thought about a couple of choice words to say and started out of the valley. I packed heavy for my all day set and as I marched out of the valley with all my gear I took a break and a doe appeared and I shot her. Then two other does appeared right by my truck. So I waited for them to come down in the valley and I shoot at my second doe. A double and when I was done dragging the deer to the truck the other guys came out with nothing. Lesson learned never leave your concealed carry in your truck. It does not way that much and it nice to have in stick situations......

 

[Bullbuster]

I was hunting an area they were logging and thinning trees while stationed out in California. I saw a foked horn coming my way up through the middle of this fresh cut area. I was about to let the hammer down when a shot rang out. I look off to my right and see a hunter not 40y from me. He looks at me and waves and walk to the deer. He must have walked up, seen me and saw the deer I was about to shoot and shot it first. I was mad as can be. I got up and walked away. Ended up eating my only deer tag that season.
I have had hunter run ins many times on public lands and I have run into hunter in areas I didn't expect to see any.
One of the worst though my buddy and I had run into a couple of hunters before daylight along a road and my buddy said we planned to head over the ridge into a bowl and hunt for some big back country bucks. They planned to stay along the road. My buddy mentioned the big deer we had seen over the last couple years in that bowl area but didn't think anything of it as we had never seen another hunter back up in that country. We parted way and a few hours later and a couple miles later we sat atop the Mt at just over 10,000' looked back down and wouldn't you know it half way between us and the timber line is these 2 guys. They stayed back but they followed us the entire day. Hope they enjoyed that nearly 15 mile hike and 4k+ vertical feet of climbing.

 

[mr ed]

I expected these situations when I picked a new public area to hunt this year.
However I was greatly surprised when opening day came and there was only 2 trucks besides mine
and those hunters went the opposite direction than me.

 

[keystone1974]

When I'm huntin on Public... My main complaint is- even though I probably spent more time and gas scouting... Who ever gets there first that day shouldnt have to See other hunters from their stand... But it does happen. When i see someone where I planed on hunting I go elsewhere. A funny story now but not before the buck went down. My cousin and I scouted alot of public in S.E. Ok before the " Leases" took over a bunch of the land... Any way he lives in B-ville and I live in Tulsa. 4 Full weekends of driving and walking bout 8 years ago we found a good spot. Opening gun season my cousin and I get to our sPot a day early and set up camp and I put out a bunch of lure on a game trail. The next mourning I hoP on my 4-wheeler drive near my sPot, park . Bout 1pm 5 4-wheelers and 2 dirtbikes come up the game trail and I stand up on the hill wavin my hands... The first guy yells up and ask if the trail keePs goin. I said the game trail dies, but "your not supposed to ride machines on game trails-only on mapped roads." Well I was Really pissed when he Put on his helmet and came up anyway. After they passed my sandwich didnt sound very good. O went back to camP and had a hot meal. An hOur later I went back... And 20 min later I shot a nice 8pt. The biggest of my life at that time. Took it and checked it in, then hung it up at camp. The next day I slept in, the cycle guys came bye and asked where I got the nice buck... I told them 10 min after you guys messed up my hunting area the buck showed up. Ha !

 

[boswinger]

And then there is this...


http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/228...ass-fight-2-men-hospitalized-pennsylvania.htm

 

[imhntn]

That would suck. I had a friend whose son shot his first deer several years ago and they trailed it to some neighbors property and there was a deer camp there and they had it hung up. They claimed they shot it and my buddy started saying how sorry it was that a grown man would take a kids first deer and finally the guys buddies made him give the deer back to the kid. I would have let the law enforcement handle it though.

 

[SPDguns]

My favorite story: I've hunted a friend's place in Noble County for years. I posted the property and I maintain the signs. One morning, I park and start walking in and I see a flashlight moving in the field a hundred yards ahead of me. I catch up to the flashlight and it's a guy and his 12 year old kid. He gives me the old song and dance "I thought this was so-and-so's land". ("So-and-so" is the adjoining property owner). I don't want to be a jerk because he has his kid with him, so I tell him it's not "so-and-so's" land and I tell him he needs to leave. He heads back to the road. There's no vehicles parked there, so he obviously had someone drop him off. I go on to my stand. Not long after daylight, I can still see the guy meandering around the road. Then two does cross the fence and head toward me. They all of a sudden flag and run off. The wind was in my favor, so I knew it wasn't me. I can't figure out what happened and I'm already pissed I had to run this guy off. I get down and head to where the deer spooked from. Several yards upwind, I see a pop-up ground blind. I go to the blind and there is a weeks worth of styrofoam coffee cups and cigarette butts on the ground. I pick up the blind and his trash and head toward the truck. I called the Sheriff and have them meet me at my truck. I get to the truck and put the guys blind in my truck. The guy and his kid, still afoot, comes to my truck and says he needs his blind back. I tell him the Sheriff is on the way and he can get it back then. The Deputy arrives and writes the guy a warning for trespassing.

The next time I go out there, there are brand new "No trespassing" signs on the interior fence facing my property on So-and so's land.

What a jerk. He was teaching his kid to trespass and litter. I spent years cultivating a relationship with that landowner to get permission to hunt. Idiots like him ruin it for everyone.

 

[ez bake]

Around here, those sorts of problems don't just happen on public land. I got permission to hunt the neighbor's land every year for several years. He's got diabetes and some other issues, and I think he's loosing his memory because he came driving a truck out in the middle of his property on the last day of deer gun season last year (in full camo with his hood up over his head) to "show his girlfriend the property". I called him to tell him that someone was out there and almost got shot because they were stupid enough to wear full camo on the last day of rifle season and he tells me its him (keep in mind, I've spoken to him on the phone several times that year about being on his land to hunt prior to this event).

This year I go out there to find survey stakes and I figure out that he sold the property (and not only did he not tell me, I find out that he had given permission to several other folks to hunt there despite having told me that I was the only one).

At least you expect that stuff in public hunting areas.