Yesterday I got out for the first time in a month. Being a very low bird state, I have to let things rest. Got up 4:45, drove 40 miles, set up in the dark, deeks in the trees, on the ground, e-caller at the ready and blind built. Start off with some soft hand calls, not to scare most likely already hunted birds. Action started up, now e-caller on low and getting ready. I glance to my left and about 250 yards is a hunter with orange hat and vest. OK, not great, but he is walking across my hedge row and I'm hoping he will continue going in that direction to other fields. I crank up the volume trying to alert him that I am there. 15 minutes later, I have some birds over me and I am shooting. Not 10 seconds from the report of my last shot is a big ruckus right behind me. I jump up and look, getting ready to shoot a yote or something and it's a dog. Here appears my orange hunter, 12 yards from me. I give him the arms up and what are you doing. He never broke stride and kept going past me. Now, can he be deaf and did not hear me, possibly the first solo blind hunter, I'm still in amazement. Because he continued past me, the only way back on this property is to once again go past my blind. So the hopefully halfway decent mourning was kaput. Packed up and called it.
Now let me say I was on a WMA, open to all. Anybody has the right to be there. But the fact that he didn't at least nod and turn around and hike it back from where he came from makes him an Inconsiderate Butt Hole to say it nice.
If that don't steam your clams, I don't know what does.
I've always hunted public ground and have just recently started to get permission to hunt private property. Hunting around other people, especially during the popular seasons like deer season, has just been a way of life for me. The first thing you learn when only hunting public ground is the feeling of having someone ruin your day of hunting by tromping through your area. I can't tell you how many times I've walked into an area only to notice another hunter up on a ridge against a tree, but I always turn directly around and head back the way I came as quickly and quietly as I can. Seems like too many people today don't follow those same "rules" and it gives public hunting grounds a bad name. Sorry to hear about your ruined day, hopefully that guy will learn some manors, but probably not.
I'm lucky enough to have private property to hunt deer and other game on.
When waterfowl and crow hunting moving around is the order. Most times if I even see a car in a public hunting lot I don't even pull in trying to avoid what happen to me. Years back I walked up on a bow hunter where I goose hunt. This guy was completely camoed and silent, it could happen. Like you said , I turned around and left.
I was calling and shooting, seconds before this idiot go to me.
That's the nature of the beast with the muti use properties with over lapping seasons, but damn there has got to be a line somewhere.
I was once returning to some public land to track a deer that I had shot with my bow earlier that day and while unloading some gear from my truck, a couple guys pulled in and started to unload their gear as well. So I went to talk to them to see where they were going and to let them know where I would be and what I was doing as to avoid running into each other. They seemed like good guys and told me they would be pretty far from where I was going. But after 10 minutes of tracking I saw them come into an area 200 yards from me and start setting up their stands. I ended up losing the blood trail and was going to start doing concentric circles to see if I could pick up the blood trail, but felt so bad about making noise so close to them, that I left for the afternoon about as pissed as I've ever been. I never did find that deer, it was pretty windy the next few days and the leaves were being blown around quite a bit, making a dried blood trail even harder to find.
I've got other horror stories attributed to other hunters, but that was just my most recent.
I love public land stories. There is a piece of wooded public land a decent drive away I hunt maybe once a year just for old times sake. I only have to walk about 200 yards from the vehicle down a well used path to a nice opening overlooking some ponds/marsh area. My blind is only about 25 yards off the main walkway. I cannot remember a hunt where I did not have someone walk by and look down the path or come walking up to my setup to see what all the ruckus is about. I have come to expect it at this location and quite frankly it somewhat amuses me. So far my favorite encounter with a walker was when a guy with a dog came walking up on me with the ecaller blasting. It took him a moment to figure out what was going on as I could see a very puzzled look on his face when he could tell that the noise was not coming from all the crow decoys in the tree. I turned off the caller and said hello, I was only about 10 yards away. We chatted for a moment and he was impressed by the set up, he did not know folks purchased equipment to hunt crows. As we talked a small group of birds flew to the west. I told him to step in the blind for a moment as I cranked up the caller. The birds played pretty good and I splashed one in the pond out front. The dog dang near jumped in his lap on the shot, lol. The guy thought it was pretty neat and headed on his way soon thereafter.
I dont really care if folks are walking around my area as long as they keep moving and are accepting that I may be doing some shooting.
It's unavoidable on public land. Maybe that's why you only hit the spot once a year. When ever possible , you have to try and stay clear of another hunter, for nothing else than a safety issue.
I'm guessing he was bird hunting. This piece of land is stocked with pheasants, but not since the second week of Dec. I don't dare go near there during pheasant stocking. It's like Armageddon. It's a wonder nobody gets shot. I've never ever seen a squirrel on this property. So many small game hunters ramble through there early in the season, nothing could live long. If an bird did escape a hunter, the foxes and yotes would make fast work of them.
There is only one chance in a day to get that crack of dawn setup and he forced me to R&G some lesser spots.
If you hunt long enough you will have a pile of stories.
Brother I feel your pain, yesterday after waiting all year to hunt a piece of property that has a good flyway, and is just down from a landfill that crows always return back to and spend the day. Got out there 2 hrs before light built a great blind and the best setup we have ever done. Are you kidding me! Birds were not flying at all. We had know ideal what we were doing wrong. Ecaller no answers, hand calls no answers every bird we saw was jittery and flying high. Finally we pack it up and go home to lick our wounds. Read in the local paper today that over 100 falconers were out hunting on the property all around us. We had no ideal the state falconry match was being held the same day in the same area we were hoping to have our greatest shoot ever.
Brother I feel your pain, yesterday after waiting all year to hunt a piece of property that has a good flyway, and is just down from a landfill that crows always return back to and spend the day. Got out there 2 hrs before light built a great blind and the best setup we have ever done. Are you kidding me! Birds were not flying at all. We had know ideal what we were doing wrong. Ecaller no answers, hand calls no answers every bird we saw was jittery and flying high. Finally we pack it up and go home to lick our wounds. Read in the local paper today that over 100 falconers were out hunting on the property all around us. We had no ideal the state falconry match was being held the same day in the same area we were hoping to have our greatest shoot ever.
That is some bad luck right there.
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"If money can fix it, it ain't broke" The great theologian and my crow hunting partner AW.
That really stinks. The closest I can come to that is years ago on a trip to Florida. We planned a day trip to fish Lake Okeechobee. After a hard day on the water we find out there was a bass tournament the day before.
