Horse envy?

Joined
Dec 31, 2021
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1,664
Location
Montana
Had an interesting experience yesterday. I usually get out later in the morning as I have found the majority of hunters are focused on 2 hrs before daylight to 9:00am. I get there about 9:30 and ride well past their limits.

Yesterday on the trip into the area I met a couple on a 4 wheeler going home. As they passed the girl flipped me off. All vehicles were local including mine.

When we got to the gate there was a pickup parked in the middle of the turn around blocking egress. We got our truck and trailer squeezed into parking and started out. About two miles in we met the owner of the truck walking out. He explained how he had hunted everything out and there was no need for us to go any farther. That was about 10;15am. I listened to his dialog patiently and then explained to him that I had a camp in there for 25 years. I didn't say we stopped 12 years ago when the trees all caved in.

About an hour later we ran out of his tracks and got over to the next ridge where we usually start hunting and as usual the majority of the elk were just past where the pressure ended.

My normal process is to recon a large area to define the boundaries of where the elk are and aren't . Then once the boundaries are defined then we plan a more detailed hunt based on our past experiences. We rode about 12 miles and got out about dark. Everyone was gone just like usual.

I just wanted to share that the antimosity is not just toward non-residents. I think it is a point of immaturity especially with the under 35 population.
 

Nbowlin

Lil-Rokslider
Joined
Jul 17, 2021
Messages
171
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N. ID
People are impossible to deal with and/or please. We had an interesting and similar interaction with an outfitter. Peeved at the world we even existed, hated our rifle, hated our strategy. Quite comical really the amount of marginally contained hate the dude had for the peasants that had intruded onto "his" land. Its nuts out there anymore. I just refer to it as combat hunting.
 

EdP

WKR
Joined
Jun 18, 2020
Messages
1,164
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Southwest Va
Kind of hard to make sense of things from your description. Were the folks on the 4 wheeler hunters? Maybe non-hunters and anti's, hence the middle finger??? If it was me I would pull the 4 wheeler over and turn it off until you had passed, but I'm a horse owner. The parking issue just sounds like someone being oblivious or inconsiderate. Did you think it was intentional?

I think you have a great hunt strategy. You can get in deep without disturbing the elk and still have the energy to cover ground on your feet when needed. Plus you have the ability to get your harvest out.
 
OP
P
Joined
Dec 31, 2021
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Montana
I found the four wheeler response strange as hell. This was the first time since last year that i had been there and I was 4-5 miles from my destination. They were carrying rifles so I guess they were hunting.

The pickup had multiple places to park but chose the turn around for what ever reason. I remember seeing the same truck last year but at a reasonable parking place.

This was nowhere near as strange as the idiot that pitched his wall tent in the middle of the turn around so they could then drive the roads. I rarely see anyone after the first week.

As a horse person I don't care about the competition as I can hunt well past their physical limits. I frankly have a hard time understanding the inconsideration or immaturity.
 
Joined
Jan 22, 2016
Messages
1,210
Location
Missoula, MT
People suck and this period in society is the worst. Lots of people acting immature and it’s very disappointing.

Hope you had a good hunt and ride after you got past all the bs


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OP
P
Joined
Dec 31, 2021
Messages
1,664
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Montana
I don't let little things like that bother me much. A recon trip like that tells me where the elk are, the condition of the access routes and I trim the logs out for future trips with my electric saw. I return when the snow hits so I can hunt with tracks.

The one thing I have started to do is check for nails placed under my tires before I take off. Its not a guarentee but a defensive action in a petty society.
 

Lando

WKR
Joined
Jun 5, 2018
Messages
341
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Arizona
Sadly, it's not just hunting. Every time I fly fish the San Juan River, I really appreciate being told by the guides to not cast and wait, and let them fish the one or two holes that I can cast to while they float through when they can fish the whole damn river from their drift boats. But no, they want to fish the holes that I hiked into and waded out into the River to fish.
 

taskswap

WKR
Joined
Oct 6, 2021
Messages
358
Love or hate him as a "Youtuber", but Randy Newberg talked about an experience like this in either AZ or NM, can't remember which. He was down there a few years ago and somebody let the air out of his tires TWICE on separate days.

Some folks are just jerks. Can't fix it. Pick any 100,000-member subgroup of the human population and no matter how you slice it, you're going to have a few saints and a few crooks, some smart folks and total dumb-a*****, and every bit in between.
 

Lando

WKR
Joined
Jun 5, 2018
Messages
341
Location
Arizona
The one thing I have started to do is check for nails placed under my tires before I take off. Its not a guarentee but a defensive action in a petty society.
Every single time I hunt CO, I get at least one false report to the Fish and Game from locals that I have to then deal with an interrogation from F&G on, just based on my license plates alone. Two times ago it was that we were trespassing...we weren't. Last year it was that we shot a deer from the truck...we didn't, and, even more unbelievably, that we shot a buck the night before the season started...again, we didn't. Three times ago, it was a complaint that someone in our party shot an elk without a tag and that the shot was across a road, there was no road in the area. Nevertheless, F&G showed up to our rental, searched the rental, checked our tags, threatened us a bit, and then left without finding a single violation for all 7 animals taken or issuing an apology for wasting our time or mistreating us. I'm a lawyer by trade, so every time I ask them if they have a warrant to search our property, and they then threaten to throw me in jail while they go get a warrant, if I don't consent to the search immediately. I don't have anything to hide, so I then let them search and feel tough. It's great fun.

Maybe I should just start setting an appointment for the search when our group draws tags. I understand that they're just doing their jobs and that the locals are the problem, but it's getting old, and time-consuming, and I wish they would just quit listening to them. Not all of them act like dicks when they follow up, but sadly they do more often than not.
 

EdP

WKR
Joined
Jun 18, 2020
Messages
1,164
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Southwest Va
The locals are the problem and the F&G folks are locals too. Seems to me they may be part of the problem too.
 
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