Moving in on another hunter working a bull

5MilesBack

"DADDY"
Joined
Feb 27, 2012
Messages
15,527
Location
Colorado Springs
So entire rest of the day wasted, talking, writing their report down for LE back up too, over 3 more hours. LE did nothing. The 2 hunters word vs guides and his.
What would you expect LE to do? Two other guys move in on a bull and shoot it and then your buddy's guide comes unglued harassing the hunters when there's a lot of work to be done. What was LE going to do? If I've got a guy escalating a situation my hand is going to get closer to my sidearm as well. Protecting oneself is not a crime.
 

tdhanses

WKR
Joined
Sep 26, 2018
Messages
5,721
So quick question, when do you determine your the first one working a bull, is it because you bugled first and got a response? How do the guys complaining that someone moved in on their bull know that the other hunter wasn’t silently stalking the bull already? Just wondering as seems to me unless you actively see the other hunter move in, how do you know your not the hunter encroaching on another’s hunt?

Now I’ve had other hunters come in behind me and follow within 100 yards of me which I just find weird but I was nice, some people lack common curtesy but it is public land and they do have a right to it as much as I do. I’ve known some that I think would push their mom’s in a wallow to get to a bull.
 

mavinwa2

WKR
Joined
Sep 11, 2018
Messages
528
Location
Res WA ST, winter>Gilbert AZ , NR>AZ, UT, NM, CO.
What would you expect LE to do? Two other guys move in on a bull and shoot it and then your buddy's guide comes unglued harassing the hunters when there's a lot of work to be done. What was LE going to do? If I've got a guy escalating a situation my hand is going to get closer to my sidearm as well. Protecting oneself is not a crime.
if it would have been up to me, I'd just as soon walk off.

But what could my friend do when guide & wrangler did what they did. The whole scenario sort of ruined his hunt. Not to mention getting nervous being a bystander to the altercation and what might have occurred.
A guided hunt he spent $thousands on too.
 

TripleJ

WKR
Joined
Apr 12, 2016
Messages
1,810
Location
OR
It's been going on for a long time, but it has definitely gotten worse in the last few years. We had it happen multiple time this year.
 

bsnedeker

WKR
Joined
May 17, 2018
Messages
3,020
Location
MT
What would you expect LE to do? Two other guys move in on a bull and shoot it and then your buddy's guide comes unglued harassing the hunters when there's a lot of work to be done. What was LE going to do? If I've got a guy escalating a situation my hand is going to get closer to my sidearm as well. Protecting oneself is not a crime.
The way I read it they called LE because they felt he threatened them when he displayed the firearm. Depending on the state that can be considered assault.
 

5MilesBack

"DADDY"
Joined
Feb 27, 2012
Messages
15,527
Location
Colorado Springs
The way I read it they called LE because they felt he threatened them when he displayed the firearm. Depending on the state that can be considered assault.
If the guy with the gun felt threatened by the guide going ape crap, that could also be considered assault. But once they saw the gun and the situation diffused, it should have been over.
 

grossklw

Lil-Rokslider
Joined
Mar 24, 2017
Messages
224
Location
Wisconsin
It happens. I assisted this year on some guys moving in on an elk. I only had a couple hours before we had to head east and didn't have time to drop 1500 feet into this canyon. There was another group of hunters hunting this ravine and we both had been good about respecting each other's space (big area), good dudes, weren't hunting stupid.

Anyway- there were 3-4 bulls cranking pretty good and I could hear them moving in on a bull (pretty doug flutie sounding bugle). So I thought I'd help them, I kept the bull they were after bugling from 1500' above them so they could move in. I ended up hearing a hell of a commotion so I'm assuming they shot or blew em out. I wasn't going to drop down to see, just hoping a little karma will come back at me for my good deed.
 

mavinwa2

WKR
Joined
Sep 11, 2018
Messages
528
Location
Res WA ST, winter>Gilbert AZ , NR>AZ, UT, NM, CO.
post for my experience in 2021 OTC CO. 1st time happened to me.

bull, cows working their way toward me. I bugle, bull bugles back. All elk headed down trail my way. I move toward the elk and get set up. Bull and I go back & forth calling, chuckling. Now raghorn 4x3 bull is at 80 yards and coming fast! Bull comes to abrupt stop. Then I hear THUNK! Bull swaps ends, runs right over small group fir trees and disappears. I hear the CRASH minute later.

2 hunters emerge between me and where the bull had stood. Looked at me as I was standing 40 yards away. Came over, said they got between 2 dueling bulls. Told them I was one of the dueling bulls, "damn, you sound real". One hunter made a 50 yard shot thru brush they said; "got lucky". I told them the bull was about 100 yards past the bloody fir xmas trees. They took off, I watched them go lickety split. At least my bugling sounded good to them.
They only had hoochie mama calls but didn't use their calls.

<SIGH...>!
 
Joined
Oct 13, 2016
Messages
30
Location
WI
I've had it happen to me, and it REALLY sucks.

3-4 years ago I was hunting an OTC unit in ID, glassing a valley when a small herd (about 15-20 elk) with a decent 6x6 came running off of the opposite ridge, dropped down to the valley floor and started heading up the ridge I was sitting above. I had a pretty good idea where the elk were headed (a thick pine stand below me), so I scrambled as quickly as I could down the ridge, dropping about 1200 feet in elevation in an effort to beat them to that stand of pines.

Unfortunately, the elk beat me there so I setup within 200-300 yards of where I knew the elk were bedded, with the wind in my favor to wait for them to get up and start moving that afternoon. I sat on those elk from 11ish that morning until they got up and started moving about 5ish that afternoon.

When they got up and started feeding (I could hear the cows mewing), the bull started bugling after I threw out a few cow calls and a bugle. I began slowly trying to close the distance to the bull (continuing to call as I moved, the bull responding) when I heard a branch snap about 75 yards in front of me. In that instant, I thought how did that bull who I could hear bugling a minute before above me, get in that close without making a sound? To my horror, it was not the bull, it was another hunter who looked directly at me and continued with his stalk.

I lose sight of him (the hunter) and a minute or two later, I hear his bow go off followed by a large CRACK and the woods erupted with fleeing elk. As I stood there dumbfounded by what had just transpired, this guy comes ambling down to me and asks if I'd seen the bull running off. I said no, I had not. He responds by saying he was up on the ridgeline and could hear two elk bugling so he dropped in. He said when he saw me the bull was already right there so it was too late for him to back out. He said, "you called that bull right down to me and I had a clear shot at 40 yards, but I shot high and hit a tree behind him." I said, "are you sure it was a clean miss and the arrow didn't go through him and then hit the tree, or that you didn't hit him in the shoulder?" As he came right down to me after his shot, I knew he had not checked for his arrow or blood and therefore he had no idea if he'd actually hit the bull or not. He then asked me if I would help him look for his arrow and blood. As much as I wanted to, I didn't yell, scream or make a scene, I politely declined and just walked away back up the ridge. At the end of the day it's public land and he has as much right to be there as I do.

A few days later my dad ran into this group of guys from MN and that dude was with them. He did apologize to my dad for that and evidently he found his arrow (buried in a pine tree) with no blood on it, so at least it was a clean miss and not a wounded animal.

*Oh and the day this happened was my birthday...........it was not the present I was hoping for that day.

-BHWI
 

WyoKid

WKR
Joined
Aug 6, 2019
Messages
312
Unfortunately, this is all too common. This year, I had an outfitter bring two clients through our camp and up the draw next to our camp. His client kills an Elk and then he brings horses through camp to retrieve the bull his client shot and they come back down the draw with 3 loaded horses again through camp. Did he stop to chat? Say, hi? Say, sorry for riding through? Nope. My group is pretty friendly and we all stood out and walked a few yards toward them each time, saying "hi", "need a hand?", "do any good?". We always try to lend a hand if necessary, since you never know when you might need it in the backcountry. The client at least acknowledged us but the outfitter just ignored us.

It was no big secret there was Elk in the draw as we had camped and hunted the same area for over 5 seasons and we had never seen an outfitter in this drainage before.

I get it that the outfitter is running a business but what happened to common courtesy?
 
Last edited:

Button

WKR
Joined
Oct 14, 2020
Messages
391
Location
Tx
I have boats drive right up to me as I’m fishing. Literally miles and miles and miles of beach front and you want to pull into my spread of shark rods. Blows my mind, some people are so inconsiderate and dull. I guess they think this guy has it going on let’s fish on top of him and in the process I’ll cut off some of his lines and tangle up others.
 

Sled

WKR
Joined
Jun 11, 2018
Messages
2,148
Location
Utah
Ok, after reading this thread I think I have it figured out. Odd days of the week are for flat brim hunters and evens are for the curved bills and cowboy hats. Or you guys can all stay home and let me hunt weekdays by myself.😎
 

Kwa_bena

FNG
Joined
Aug 14, 2021
Messages
65
And here I thought if you see someone else moving in an animal you either look somewhere else or just keep your distance and check your wind and if they miss or make a hit then you would pursue the cows. I get the "hunt the hunters" mantra but you would think people would not be rude around people with weapons.
 

Savage99

WKR
Joined
Jan 26, 2017
Messages
429
Location
CO
I have boats drive right up to me as I’m fishing. Literally miles and miles and miles of beach front and you want to pull into my spread of shark rods. Blows my mind, some people are so inconsiderate and dull. I guess they think this guy has it going on let’s fish on top of him and in the process I’ll cut off some of his lines and tangle up others.

When I used to fish a bay down in FL there was this point that was good for reds, snook, and trout. You had to cross a large section that was a no wake flat. More than once we’d be moseying across and some Jack would come flying by up on plane to cut us off to the spot. Each time they’d end up cussing loudly as we pulled fish after fish and they were skunked. Maybe I shouldn’t feel this way, but I loved the fact that “it came around”…


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

danarnold

WKR
Joined
Feb 16, 2014
Messages
1,111
Location
Missouri/ and 81252
Years ago my friends 80 year old dad shot a bull in a meadow, as they approached from several hundred yards away in walked a couple guys who quickly tagged it. To say it got heated is an understatement.
I don’t know how much public land hunting you’ve done but there’s an incredible amount of people who don’t give a f about what’s right.
Pretty weak story in comparison to theirs. Good luck
 

Ca_Mike

FNG
Joined
Oct 25, 2021
Messages
28
Location
Central Calif
I don’t think this is anything new. 21 years ago on my first hunt to Colorado I had two jack wagons in a pickup drive through a meadow and shoot a bull out the window of the truck. I was sitting at the head of the meadow waiting for the elk to clear the trees.

I do think it’s getting worse due to more hunters in the woods, inexperience and people imitating their favorite YouTube star
 
Top