What do you do when another hunter gets to close to an area your hunting that is marked but on public land? Now heres the kicker, What do you do if you get out to said area and find someone has snaked themselves into your area or worse in your tree?
When I am already there I usually just whistle to get their attention and wave. They have always been courteous and moved on quietly. On public land there is no "your spot" or "your tree", they belong to the public, which is everyone. If someone were in a place/tree I was going to and I saw them, I would be courteous and move on quietly.
I would pee on the ground around your tree and scrape some dirt near the field edge and then make some rubs on near by trees. This will let others know that this is your territory...
The key words are "quietly" and "courteous"... I have had folks sneak in quietly until I whistle and wave... then it's as if there is no longer a reason to be quiet or they keep walking through the middle of where I am hunting. Another thing, it has been daylight for 2 hours and guys are just now coming in... c'mon really? I understand some people like to hunt mid-morning but puh-leze. A comical story... once, another hunter and I ended up less than 25 yards apart before daylight and neither of us knew the other was there until we got down. We both watched the same 6 point pass by at about 50 yards and both turned down an easy shot at a doe that walked along the trail we were sitting on. It turned out we were the only two hunters on the 250 acres that morning.
I hear that works! Ha I spent allot of time this summer working the area and scouting now I have scrapes and lots of movement its like a Deer crossroads Id hate to have someone ruin it for me but thats the deal with public land.
My favorite hunting spot on public land I had a guy who would walk by me at 100 yds and head back to his truck every night 30 minutes before legal time was up. One time I had a guy come walking in, I whistled and waved, he looked up and proceeded to climb into a tree 30 yds. away ( in that case I waited for prime time and deer to start filtering into the field to climb down. He had a crossbow and I had a compound, he had a shot at deer before I could get a shot in almost any direction. I was mad). Normally people are rather respectful if they come in on you, though.
9 of 10 are a joy to be around and I look forward to hearing their stories and sharing my own. We look out for one another and make sure everyone is out safely before we leave. We share information about deer movement and respect one another's preferred hunting area. We help track and drag for each other and even share phone numbers in case one of us has a problem when hunting alone. Then there is that 1 guy that messes things up and who takes politeness and courtesy as a sign that his being stupid is okay...
Year before last we were walking to our spot on public land, we had been hunting for a few years and never saw another hunter in that area. As we were walking in that afternoon my buddy and I ran a big 9 point right to a guy about 50 yards from one of our stand locations. He stuck it and we helped him tack and find it.
If he is there first and its public land, it isn't your tree. As far as someone else setting up within eyesight of me, and they know I'm already there, I think its pretty rude unless they are at least 80 yards away. If it is within 40 yards that is just ridiculous.
this is my first year on public land. You guys said go past 100yrds. My locations are 500yrds from parking. I will let you know how it goes...I'm nervous though, Just don't want to run into any ****** bags. I can get pretty mad if people are rude. I'm 30yrs old but I look 24 so sometimes people assume I'm young. do you think 500 yds is far enough?
I killed a 125 pound doe one year on opening day within eyesight of a public land parking area. I could literally understand conversations that were taking place. The guys hunting were walking within 25 yards of me and never knew I was there. When I shot... I got down, told a couple guys at the parking area where I had been and they went in, tracked my deer, drug it out and loaded it in my truck while I ate some breakfast. Point being, you can use other hunter's movements and lack of experience to your advantage. I knew they would be running deer out of the main woods area so I set up on the litttle escape trail and just waited. Life is that way... full of obstacles that you can be grumbly and hateful about... or... you can view them as opportunies that you can be humbly grateful for... the choice is yours. Enjoy the company of the other hunters... you may just make a lifelong friend.
Hunters are people like you and I. There are some absolute Aces and some good people. I've had my share of run in's with people who thought they owned the public land and were mad at me being in my tree stand before they were. I've also had people see me and continue to hunt like I'm not there. I've even had 2 guys hunting together come in on me while I'm in a climber and sit 40 yards in front of me on the ground with no blind. I've also had a guy shoot a doe in front (30 yards) of me with his rifle from the other side of the field. That one earned the guy a dead doe at the bottom of the ravine after I dump her there. On the other hand I’ve also had some great encounter with many more people. I’ve even had a guy give me a beer after a hunt in the parking lot. Best beer I ever had. But I'd say if you are hunting on the same trail and you can see the other hunter it's too close. Field hunting has its own set of rules.
I've had a few weird experiences but I would have to say over 90% of my encounters with other hunters have been positive. Curious what you meant by this? Surely you didn't waste a deer out of spite?
I can't stand hunting on public land. The only time I hunt on public land is during rifle season in PA where the state game land butts up against our property and the neighboring cabins stay away. For Ohio, my brother in law and I purchased an 8.5 acre wooded lot next to a 120 acre farm/wooded lot so we could stay away from public land.
No I didn't waste the deer I just made it extremely harder for the trigger happy Jack hole to get his deer out. the Ravine was right behind me. HEHEHE I've had to pull deer that I shot out of similar ravines or steep drop offs before and it was no picnic. It wasn’t my deer to waste, but perhaps he did? It’s hard to tell what morals someone like this has. If they are willing to risk shooting me by aiming 100+ yards across a field to shoot a deer 30 yards in front of another person then they probably didn’t even come over to look for it. After I left I informed the GW down the road that I’ll never be back because it isn’t worth getting shot at. He seemed concerned and said he would look into, but you never know if he did.
