Public land etiquette

[MTNMARAUDER1776]

Alright so I'd like to hear some opinions on this. This morning, Opening day of Colorado 2nd rifle elk.. I have easy access thru dad's private and other have to hike in to this particular spot for some back story.
We're in our spot 30 minutes before first light, and the sun starts coming up and I have elk feeding right to myself and my wife. She's got a cow and bull tag and there are plenty of both coming up the hill to us. when out of no where I hear two people CRASHING thru the brush and kicking rocks. I slipped back and stood open until they saw me thinking they would go the other way....elk still in eyesight 400 yards and closing. This guy decides to come and in plain voice inform me that these elk don't bed here...and that he was gonna hunt this area too and didn't want to hunt on top of each other. Literally actively molesting my wife's hunt. So I with zero profanity but in a not very nice tone told him to go do whatever he was going to do but to get away from us. he then called me a dick and stormed off. I would literally never approach someone WHILE THEY ARE IN THERE SETUP. ever. regardless of if I just hiked my ass off and found out someone was already there.....Would you?
Do you guys make a habit of trying to talk to people you encounter in the field while they're actively hunting?
Then shortly later my wife was about to pull the trigger on a HUGE bull and he out of no where snaps his head in the direction the two guys went and bails as she's squeezing one off (total miss no wound).

 

[suda0402]

Similar thing happened to my buddy last year, but the guys were in a truck. Him and his son hiked about 3/4 of mile to get on a herd of elk. They were under 300 yards from the elk, when he heard a truck flying down the mountain road. He told his son he needed to shoot and shoot now. He missed and three guys hopped out of the truck and blasted of some shots and drove away. Unfortunately there will always be some assholes.


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[Next Ridge]

If they are in their setup-no. Otherwise I read the situation. I wouldn’t go out of my way to talk to someone and generally don’t, but if we are on a line to cross paths I typically wave and try to get a read.
It is public land though, whether I talk to someone or not really isn’t the issue I’m trying to tackle, working around people who have as much right as me to be there is what I try to focus on.

 

[Ucsdryder]

Opening day of Colorado 2nd rifle elk..

That’s all you needed to say. All bets are off during the 2nd season pumpkin patch!!

 

[Still Hunter]

Simple common courtesy is no longer common. Too many self serving indiduals out there in our daily path each day. I believe the biggest problem is that most these people are not being raised to follow any standard code of conduct. I learned to never expect anyone to act accordingly. In the middle of the back country one might be more careful to call someone they do not even know a “dick”.

 

[BuzzH]

I try to ask other hunters where they plan to hunt so we aren't bumping into each other all day. I always give the other hunters I talk to first choice of where they want to go. About half the time it works about half the time they change their plans and end up nowhere near the place they said they wanted to hunt.

I'm about to the point to just not worry about it and do the hunt I had in mind. If I'm really worried about hunting a particular spot or a particular animal I've scouted, nobody gets there in front of me. I've found very few like to get up early or walk in the dark.

 

[MTNMARAUDER1776]

If they are in their setup-no. Otherwise I read the situation. I wouldn’t go out of my way to talk to someone and generally don’t, but if we are on a line to cross paths I typically wave and try to get a read.
It is public land though, whether I talk to someone or not really isn’t the issue I’m trying to tackle, working around people who have as much right as me to be there is what I try to focus on.

Oh ya I had zero issue with the folks wanting to hunt even tho I was already there. like you said. public land.. I had an issue with buddy walking up to my setup and trying to have a conversation while my wife was about to kill an elk.

 

[MTNMARAUDER1776]

I try to ask other hunters where they plan to hunt so we aren't bumping into each other all day. I always give the other hunters I talk to first choice of where they want to go. About half the time it works about half the time they change their plans and end up nowhere near the place they said they wanted to hunt.

I'm about to the point to just not worry about it and do the hunt I had in mind. If I'm really worried about hunting a particular spot or a particular animal I've scouted, nobody gets there in front of me. I've found very few like to get up early or walk in the dark.

I try to ask other hunters where they plan to hunt so we aren't bumping into each other all day. I always give the other hunters I talk to first choice of where they want to go. About half the time it works about half the time they change their plans and end up nowhere near the place they said they wanted to hunt.

I'm about to the point to just not worry about it and do the hunt I had in mind. If I'm really worried about hunting a particular spot or a particular animal I've scouted, nobody gets there in front of me. I've found very few like to get up early or walk in the dark.

And that may be all he was trying to accomplish. But he could hear the same bugles we could there is no way he didn't know there were elk in front of us when he walked up no cover and started talking.

 

[MTNMARAUDER1776]

Opening day of Colorado 2nd rifle elk..

That’s all you needed to say. All bets are off during the 2nd season pumpkin patch!!

Can we please have September back

 

[tdhanses]

In WY this year we had some locals come in behind us, once they saw us they preceded to have a party, think they were half drunk as our guide talked to them.

Some people are just asses plain and simple, doesn’t matter where you are or where they are from, some feel they own public land and some could careless about anyone but themselves.

 

[cgasner1]

Hate to say it but if I had walked up I probably would have laid down next to your wife let her shoot first then shot my elk welcome to public land


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[5MilesBack]

I've had squirrels ruin a nice setup before, so this isn't just a human trait.

 

[FLATHEAD]

If I happen to see someone while hunting, I just raise my hand and head the other way.
No need to screw up someone else's hunt any more than I did.
I would expect others to do the same.

 

[Shawn_Guinn]

2 years ago in a very heavily hunted unit on opening morning the access road had a tree fall across it . Guy in a pick up truck insisted that I ferry him and his girlfriend to the same gate I was hunting because it was quote “only fair since I could get over the log in my quad”. Apparently that didn’t work on the next set of ATV riders either. They pulled in as I was walking up. I waited we discussed where I wanted to head the said they weren’t that ambitious and I watched in the dark as they hiked behind me with cigarettes burning I knew it was my mountain that morning. Shot a spike with my bow at 830 am called my partners on the radio we winched out the down tree on the road for an easy drive out. At least that guy and his girlfriend had access the next day. So that morning I had 2 interactions one was polite and correct the other was silly and entitled. My guess is age is a factor, a lot of under 30 crowds feel like they are owed something. 2nd factor I believe is new people to the lifestyle more new bow hunters out west than I’ve ever seen in 30 plus years of archery hunting. There is a learning curve of everything including etiquette while in the field.

 

[5MilesBack]

One time I pulled up to a TH at zero dark thirty and there was already a truck there with a camper shell. As I was getting my stuff together, a light came on in the back of that truck. Well, I do as Buzz does......I talk to the guy and find out exactly where he's planning on going and then I go the opposite direction. That's not always possible while "in the field" already, but that's public land hunting. In the field I try to blend in without notice and will just head the other way when I see folks out there.