Tell me if I'm Wrong (long)

[Kegbelly]

Hunted a greenfield at the WMA yesterday. I'm on this sort-of "S" shaped field, its maybe 35 yards wide and several hundred yards long. I set my stool and shooting sticks up a couple yards off the field, and I'm watching about 50 yards to my left and about 170 yds to my right before the field bends out of sight uphill. Now shooting light here is about 6:30 am, well, at 7:15 --what I call "prime time'"-- I look back to my right and there's a guy standing in the middle of the field about 60 yards away. Now I know I'm on public land and running into other hunters is a chance you take, I get it. But the rule here is 1st come 1st serve, and if you run up on somebody, common sense and common courtesy says you move on. So I step to the edge of the field and take my orange cap off and wave it around, I want to be sure he he sees me. But instead of leaving or moving on past me, he steps off the opposite side of the field and sets up a chair and starts gathering brush to make a blind. I'm like WTF is this??? I watch him thru my bino's, every time he looks in my direction I wave my cap at him. There is no way he does not see me. This goes on for about 20 minutes, and I'm getting more pissed by the minute. He's cut me off from 75% of the area I'm hunting, but more importantly, it's a safety issue, 2 guys with high power rifles do NOT need to be hunting toward each other 60 yards apart, that's a recipe for disaster. There's NO WAY I'll send a shot in his direction, but I dont know this fool from Adam and I have no idea what he might do if a deer or hog comes out between us. I figure if he's stupid enough to set practically right across from me he just might be stupid enough to shoot right towards me when the adrenaline kicks in. So I finally get up, walk out into the middle of the field with my rifle at the ready and throw my hands in the air in a WTF?? motion. The guy waves back at me. I think 'you f---ing idiot, I'm not waving at you, I'm asking you what the hell you're doing?' So I think, well, you've ruined my hunt, so I'll ruin yours, and I stand there a light a smoke right in the middle of the field. I smoke a whole cigarette and light another, still standing in the field looking right at him. After i smoke almost 2 cigarettes the moron finally gets up and leaves. I couldn't believe it. I didn't want to leave first because that meant walking past him, and I was so pissed I was afraid what I might say if he got smart with me. So with my hunt ruined, I gathered my stuff up and just walked around, did some scouting and took some pictures. What a great hunt.

[georgiaboy]

I hunt public land also...learned a long time ago to not hunt the fields or food plots because of idiots like this guy. I scout out the trails leading and coming from the food plots & hunt about 100-200 yds away. Short stand them if you may...

[vixenmaster]

I can understand yer frustration, thats a tuff deal. I was in my Hang-on stand i jus gotstid up. Had me ML & watchin n waitin, thar be a scrape about 16 yds out in front of me on my loggin road. I looked back down the loggin road & here comes some guy wid a ML huntin on my land. He walks up starts steppin in the scrape wid his boots. Then he walked over to an old wooden built ladder stand hooked to a tree about 35 yds in front of me. Then he eases off down into the ravine & i lost sight of him. He totally ruined my hunt on my place. Next time i see him i will climb down & introduce myself to him in person!

[Waif]

Mmmm a smoke! its been a couple months, deer won,t mind if I burn one,oooh my.
Any way, sometimes we,re going to bump into each other.
No the deer don,t all ways get upset someone is passing through. Heck I,ve watched them trail hunters by scent.
I have no problem with some one blundering into my set up. BUT!,just give a nod and a brief wave and keep mosyin along,no blood no foul.
Folks true story, one time a guy crawled into a tree top in front of me about twenty yards and crouched down. I gave a low whistle and the wienie just stayed there!
So I climb out of my stand (I had two legs then) and some one is going to fight or leave by gum, I lit a smoke ,(ahhh a smoke),heard a rustle and out of the pines my stand backed against came the mega buck I was there for!
He ran right by me and by the time my rifle was off my shoulder he was straight away running when he came into scope it was shoot him in the butt or hold above his tail and touch it off....I did neither.
A couple guys walked past soon after, they had bumped him out of the pines.
So now I,m really hot and figuring if I should disarm this idiot before hurting him,(I,m not a big guy,just stupid enough to think I am at times).
I look back where the guy was hiding and he is gone?
When I walked out toward trail I went past tree top downed in woods and could see some toilet paper showing.
Did not need to look closer to realize I should have just stayed put and not got annoyed.
Bet he never heard me either.
But ya, anyone who deliberately steps on your toes is a jerk.
Sorry to hear some one soured your hunt.
Maybe karma will intervene.
Maybe some folks have no idea what their actions do to others.
Did watch a guy build a brush blind from where I sat in a bow tree, thinking he would show up firearm but he never did. Must have found something better some where else.
I would have complained to the guy, suggesting its not polite ,he may just not know, though thats a rare bird they exist.

[Lake shooter]

Sorry your hunt got ruined, that will damn sure do it!!! I've been hunting the same big WMA for 15 years now and only had this kind of thing happen maybe 3 times, but I rarely hunt the early season when ALL of the idiots are out and I never hunt weekends (self employed) until about this time of year when the weekend warriors stay home. This place has no food plots but some of the training areas (military base) are hit much harder than others, and I purposely avoid them. Heck, when I sign in before hunting I read the whole sign in sheet(s) and won't go to an area that has more than one other person hunting it, and these are BIG areas.

This whole scenario is just another reason why I gave up gun hunting. I totally realize that there are more than a few retards (no disrespect meant to the "mentally challenged") who bow hunt, but even if the percentage of retards per 1,000 gun hunters was the same as that in 1,000 bow hunters, there are drastically more gun hunters out there! This simple fact makes it far more likely that any other hunter out there will have a bad experience.

I hunt mainly to relax, unwind and take in nature, NOT deal with even more humanity of the moronic ilk!!!!!!! Even if the place I hunt had food plots I wouldn't get within 100 yards of them, just like another poster said. Besides, most ever deer in the area is probably conditioned by said retards to stay in the woods or not leave the edges of the field until good and dark!

Hope your next hunt goes better than this one.

Dave

[Roadrunnr72]

Last Thursday, I took my oldest daughter hunting at the local military base. The only way to get a doe is with the bow. The base has about 50 different areas, but only 3 are archery only. We pull up to a spot I had never hunted. Found a power line to walk in on, get out and start getting everything together. A car drives down the gravel dead end road past us. No way can the driver can miss us. We follow the power line and find a trail leading to a field/food plot. Get ready to set up the blind and I hear something coming through the woods, a little past where we just came from. Then I see the blaze orange. He steps out on the field, and I give him the "both hands up, WTF look" he waves, turns and walk back where he came from. Set the blind up, and about 2 hrs later I tagged a small doe. She ran a short way down the same path that the other hunter came from....RR

[Lake shooter]

Food plots on public land are like fishing lures in the store: they draw more humans than the target species! No thank you on hunting food plots on public land!

[Dash]

Its a shame, Good manners must be very expensive these days. So many people can't afford them

[Lake shooter]

Will Rogers once quipped that "common sense ain't common"! That was surely an understatement back then, but in today's hand out, me-me-me society and folks catering to their kids instead of teaching them how to become a responsible, conscientious adults someday, all bets are off!

[Kegbelly]

It's not the fact that somebody walked in on me, that's almost to be expected on public land, it goes with the territory. I've walked in on others plenty of times too, but as soon as I realize it I turn around and get out pronto. What got me so bent out of shape was the guy set up camp right next to me and was hunting facing me, knowing I was there. One of us had to go. And the truth is I'm kind of hesitant to start something when they got a loaded rifle, you never know who you're dealing with. So I've been second guessing the way I handled it. But yesterday was the last scheduled hunt of this season on the WMA, so I dont have to worry about that happening again for 10 1/2 months.

[Waif]

Sorry, understood you. Just got story telling letting you know your not alone.
I don,t think you handled it wrong as theres no way to be set up in the possible line of fire and have any measure of safety, and when some one does it knowingly they should know why its wrong,due to safety.
But like you mention being he is armed. And all ready being stupid...what ya gonna do?

[Lake shooter]

Not to mention, possibly drinking!!!!!

[DaveShooter]

Kegbelly I know just how you feel Yrs ago down in southern Ohio I was shotgun hunting deer.
I was up in a tree in my stand when these two simple not to bright sat almost under the tree I was in. Well a doe was running up the ridge from all of us. So I raised my gun knowing the shot was over 200 yds and unloaded it on the running deer. Never did hit the deer but those two fellows took off like they had seen Rambo in action-I loved it as I laughed to myself...I too get so fed up with folks who just don't care and hunt if someone if another hunter is already hunting in a spot. I mean come on people like there isn't enough room for you to go somewhere else on God's green earth!!!!

[paulaboutform]

My brother, you are certainly not wrong! I've only had this happen to me once when I was a boy dove hunting with my father. A guy set up between us and really screwed up our hunt. I even invited the guy to come sit in my make shift pit blind and he ignored me. It turned out badly when my dad shot a dove that idiot guy missed. The dove flew well past idiot and my dad got to shoot it when it was safe. The dove fell and my dad went to pick it up. When he got it idiot starts yelling that it's his dove. My dad put his shotgun down and walked over to idiot guy with dove in hand. When dad got to idiot guy he proceeded to shove that dove down his throat. Big ordeal, idiot decided better to leave but we ended up leaving shortly after as the hunt was ruined.I'm sorry for what you went through. There's no accounting for some people's bad manners and lack of consideration of others.

[mbc4]

that is why i don't hunt pa anymore