Am I in the wrong?

[def90]

It’s a Colorado public land hunt, it is what it is. Just wait until you shoot an elk and it runs off and you then hear another shot 5 minutes later while you are tracking and you walk up to a group of guys cleaning out the elk you initially shot. Happens all the time.

 

[sndmn11]

I think being upset over this is too much.

It reminds of when you hit the river and see a few people strung out across a bit of the river who obviously know each other. At times they will stretch a hundred yards, other times they will bunch up over 50'. They also will get persnickety if someone else gets within 100'.

To me, if you are fine hunting/fishing with one of your buddies X distance on each side of you, you should be fine with any other safe person doing the same. I also might wonder if I saw the game animal and knew it had come by another hunter to get to me, if they turned it down due to size or just didn't see it.

I would have however offered to help that hunter get his meat to camp.

 

[Yoder]

I've hunted in PA on public land my entire life. One year we had a guy walk in at 7am. Walked almost right under our tree. Sat 40 yards away, took a shit then shot a spike buck an hour later. Then he drug it out. People are awesome. We we're pissed but it's public land.

 

[Dust Rider]

If the bull is legal, and he was not shooting in your direction, then that’s elk hunting. The first to tag it wins it. Would you or brother have been as upset if it was a cow?

 

[Tod osier]

What would you have done?

I would have asked the guy what his plan was and roughly told him ours. I don't hunt in big groups and I don't like it when big group feels like they own the whole mountain because they are a big group, but it is also extremely unlikely that I'd worm my way into a big group like that. So I wouldn't be the OP or the shooter in the first place. Had I been scouting and had a great animal well patterned and I thought that they were just randomly posted on the ridge not after the specific animal I was on, I would do my best to get on that animal with out screwing them over.

After talking to anyone and telling them that my partner was down that way and the person still goes that way, I'd follow up. I'd rather change my location to a poorer location than hunt next to a person that continued in the exact direction where my partner was after I told him. I've had people try to take animals from me and I'd prefer not be in that situation again. I would prefer to have to hunt extra days than get an animal in a crowded situation.

 

[5MilesBack]

2nd. I would be curious to know how much of a personal bubble around his group on public land is he expecting? 300yards? I just wonder...

Ya, everyone has different sized personal space zones in every day life and hunting. Mine are larger than most are, I'm sure. I use a 14x16 wall tent solo, my space is important to me. There are some rivers where fly fishermen are 30 feet apart. I like to have at least a mile of river to myself, and I will fish every bit of that.

In this instance, the guy had a drop camp. You don't pay for a drop camp to have four guys move in and set up on the ridge above your camp. Yes, it's public land. But if I hiked in and found a drop camp, I'm then at least two miles too close to said drop camp and I'm moving on.

Since 2010 I've had five different ML hunters shoot bulls out from under me while working those bulls during archery season. All but one of those was within 100 yards, and I had no idea any of those hunters were even in the area. That's always disappointing, but it's never made me mad. Getting mad is a choice.

 

[beachbunny]

happened to me .all set up on public land way before light,best spot ever.guy shows up right at light setsup 10 yds away,after 15 min.. i said ,hey,see anything?
he stalks off within 10 minutes, boom.
sure i was upset but you have to be able to laugh it off or you are doomed,public land is public,
deer sure did not have my BRAND on it!

 

[doc holiday13]

Sounds like the issue I tend to run into with deer hunters while I'm running my squirrel dog. My dog does not chase deer, but he covers a hundred yards every 5-10 minutes and runs a big circle around me as I walk.

Is it my problem that deer will get bumped and mess up public land hunters going after deer?

*edited by changing "fault" to "problem"

 

[Ucsdryder]

Where is the line drawn? If some of you are cool with shooting a bull underneath another group, what if one of those guys races you down the hill? Does it turn into a foot race then? Where's the "courteous" line at or is it just a competition?

Heck, this is par for the course. Last year 2 guys saw me sitting on a buck in a sage flat, I’d already been there for a couple of hours waiting for him to come back to public, and they tried to put themselves between me and the buck, then laid out all their hunter orange on sage brush around them so I’d see where they set up. It’s only been 345 days or so, but as you can see I’m definitely over it…

 

[streetdoctor]

Sounds like the issue I tend to run into with deer hunters while I'm running my squirrel dog. My dog does not chase deer, but he covers a hundred yards every 5-10 minutes and runs a big circle around me as I walk.

Is it my fault that deer will get bumped and mess up public land hunters going after deer?

Yes.

 

[doc holiday13]

Yes.

Sorry I used the wrong word.. I should have used "problem" instead of fault

What if instead of a hunter shooting a bull going towards his brother, it was some thru hiker walking down that way and pushed out the herd while trying to get closeups for instagram

 

[streetdoctor]

Sorry I used the wrong word.. I should have used "problem" instead of fault

What if instead of a hunter shooting a bull going towards his brother, it was some thru hiker walking down that way and pushed out the herd while trying to get closeups for instagram

Obviously this is subjective. For me personally- if I know there is another hunter in an area actively pursuing a group of elk or in an area where elk move through even if I don't actively see them, then I'm going somewhere else. Period. I personally would feel dirty sniping a bull from someone else. It doesn't matter if I spent every day scouting that area since the previous season, It's no one's fault but my own in that instance- I should have gotten there earlier. In my opinion this attitude is what's wrong with society these days in general. It's a lack of personal responsibility. Generally no one beats me onto the mountain during archery season if I'm day hunting. I'm not a rifle hunter though so sitting on an area is not how I hunt and it's a bit foreign to me. Obviously I could see instances where someone unknowingly stumbles into a spot someone else already occupies. In your example of running into a hiker I would have to say if that's the area you chose to hunt you're wrong from the get-go. Hikers generally aren't miles off the trailhead off trail. To put it another way in elk hunting nearly the entire month of September in Colorado since 2014 the amount of hikers I've ran into in an area I'm actively hunting is 0.

In general when I'm elk hunting my goal is to compete with nature. Not other hunters.

 

[streetdoctor]

So… maybe this guy has been watching these bulls for days. Then 4 guys show up and sit like their hunting whitetails. What do you do? Go kill elk or let them mess up your whole plan? I’m gonna go kill an elk. Maybe that’s not right. But it is public land.

I would blame myself for not getting there earlier and take personal responsibility for not being able to hunt those elk. Then I'd find an elk somewhere else. There are 8.3 MILLION of acres of public land in colorado and a majority of that holds elk. How bad do you want to kill elk? How else have you prepared for the season? Could you have woken up earlier and beat them there? Could you have gotten in better shape to be able to access areas others can't? Could you have put more time in scouting and have #2, 3, 4, 5 backup spot? Could you have worked overtime, saved more, etc and rented horses to get 7-10 miles from a trailhead where the chance of running into someone else is slim?

 

[KenLee]

All relative though. If brother has bead on bull A, and stranger shoots bull B then I was just curious why the OP is upset about anything.

Gotta send it quick on public

 

[Huntindog45]

somewhere on another forum there is a thread about you screwing up their hunt.

 

[KenLee]

Heck, this is par for the course. Last year 2 guys saw me sitting on a buck in a sage flat, I’d already been there for a couple of hours waiting for him to come back to public, and they tried to put themselves between me and the buck, then laid out all their hunter orange on sage brush around them so I’d see where they set up. It’s only been 345 days or so, but as you can see I’m definitely over it…

Authorities might still be looking for those 2.

 

[Ucsdryder]

Authorities might still be looking for those 2.

Lol, they called the authorities and tattled on me for “shooting over them”. Karen and Ken…

For the record I didn’t, I shot before the buck got to where they were.

 

[KenLee]

Lol, they called the authorities and tattled on me for “shooting over them”. Karen and Ken…

For the record I didn’t, I shot before the buck got to where they were.

Wouldn't have bothered me to shoot over them.
About 5 yrs ago, I had a problem on a new property with trespassers on 4 wheelers stealing stuff and tearing up food plots.
Game wardens and local deputies couldn't be bothered.
Let a trespasser call 911 claiming someone is shooting at them and a deputy shows up in less than 10 minutes. Responding Deputy was a hunter with similar experiences. Didn't turn out well for trespassers.

 

[Forest_Ghost]

That's just PL hunting here, you can be upset but it won't do you any good. Learn from it and make contingency plans for next time.
Gone are the days of having an entire mountain side to yourself so adapting is the only way.

 

[PRC_GUY]

There are more hunters in the public land than elk.