Archery antelope etiquette: discovering another hunter's ground blind?

For various reasons I was unable to get out ahead of this archery antelope season to scout water and setup a blind within permitted pre-season limitations. I went out scouting governman lands the past 2 days and came across several water holes with blinds already on them. In all cases it appeared the blind was currently unoccuppied.

I have two etiquette questions:

1. In Idaho, blinds placed on public land cannot legally be restricted from use by other hunters. Pragmatically, is it best to avoid hunting someone elses blind in order to avoid potentially voilent confrontation? What is considered good etiquette here?

2. Assuming I decline to hunt somebody else's blind, what would you consider best practice in regards to returning to a specific watering hole later in the season to place my own ground blind? Should I assume whoever placed the blind will be hunting the spot until end of season and throw in the towel? Should I wait 3 days and then return? A week?

Thank you for your thoughts.

 

i sit in the blind even if someone is in it.

 

Do whatever is legal and if you confront someone tell them the laws. I like to avoid confrontation, but I certainly wouldn’t not hunt a waterhole bc of blinds already in place. Just remember the louder/crazier person in a confrontation doesn’t get anywhere. Stay cool, collected and use your head. Good luck!

 

If you came in my blind to hunt it when I was hunting it that would be an issue

 

I personally would consider it very poor etiquette to hunt someone else's blind or stand without talking to them and having them offer me to do so, even on public land. It actually amazes me that there is a written law that says it's okay.
In that situation, on a public waterhole in an area where waterholes are fairly scarce, I would set up my own blind on the same waterhole before I would sit in someone else's.
If I was the person that first put up a blind on a waterhole and then later came back to find another blind setup on it as well, that wouldn't bother me near as much as it would if I came to hunt out of my own blind and found someone sitting in it. I can pretty much guarantee that I'd at that point tell the person sitting in it that I had come to collect my property and would proceed to take it down and walk away with it. It is one thing to setup your own blind to hunt the same waterhole, but quite another to try to beat someone to their own blind and then "claim" it.
Setup your own blind and I think you will have a much less chance of confrontation.

I don't know southern Idaho very well and certainly don't know how much public vs. private there may be in the unit you're going to hunt, but I very commonly hear from people in my area that have gone down south to Antelope hunt say that private land owning farmers down there despise Antelope and most are more than happy to let someone hunt them on their place. It has been described to me that half of them would offer you their own rifle and some ammo to go with it if you're going to shoot Antelope on their place.
Depending on the unit you're wanting to hunt, if you want to try to get away from crowded public land it may not be very hard at all to gain permission on some private. Just some food for thought in case you want to try.

 

I would set up my own blind on the hole (not too close to the other blind) and drop a note in the other blind that says something like "not ideal but this is the unfortunate reality of public land, I plan to be here these dates" maybe also include what you saw, what time, where they came from.

Nothing you can do if you're both there at same time.... never worth having words with a stranger in the middle of no where when everyone has a weapon of some sort, be nice.

 

Thanks for the input everyone