Backcountry Rant: What Not To Do!

[Gobbler36]

Let me guess. Texas plates?

Or Californians.......,. Wait wait wait that’s only in Idaho where that happens

 

[Jakerex]

A lot of bitching about guys hunting or camping where you don’t want them too. Prime area or not that they may be walking through or camping in, BFD. Just because you were set up on a certain area and someone waltzed through it or camped in it when it didn’t suit you, doesn’t mean they’re bad hunters. Public ground.....

Yes, I’ve been in the same boat numerous times, but oh well. How someone hunts, or the route they take from point a to point b doesn’t concern me.

You all sound like a bunch or cry babies. Just hunt, don’t worry about other hunters, and especially don’t blame them for ruining your sacred spot.


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[cuttiebrownbow]

Not necessarily a back country story but frustratingly funny still.

Hunting whitetails in an area I shot my first deer ever to just remember a very happy moment in my life. Not a very far walk but just straight up a mountain and across the top a bit so maybe a 30-40 minute walk without breaks.

Snow on the ground. I walk in without a light just thinking about how I had hunted that area enough 12-15 years ago that I could still find ‘my spot’ by the light of the moon. Impressed myself.

First light comes and I here a noise across the top of the mountain coming right at me. Here comes this guy with his head down following my foot prints. At like 50 yards I clear my throat loudly so he knows I’m right there - being dressed like a pumpkin wasn’t enough of a warning - he finally sees me.

He immediately drops his pack and pulls out a hand saw. Saws himself a nice little place to sit and clears branches and leaves. Takes him about 30 minutes. I have some anger problems when people are this disrespectful but I’m still just trying to block that shit out and be happy in former hunting haunt.

He settles in and is quiet for about 10 minutes. This guy must have ate lil Debbie snacks or pop tarts for the next 30 minutes straight. You could hear the wrappers. Blood pressure was at stroke level for me. I stand up because now I’m going to say something. He immediately stands up, picks up his gun and walks back out following the tracks.

5 minutes later I hear a noise coming from his direction and I thought it was him coming back. Here comes this herd of deer and I decided there was no way I wasn’t going to shoot one after my morning. I took a very large doe and ended up seeing around 20 deer in the next 10 minute - public, big woods PA this is a ton of deer.

I end back at my truck with the deer and there is a gentleman standing next to his. Turns out he is the father of the knucklehead that followed me in this morning. Extremely nice fellow who was taking his adult son for his first hunt since he was a child.

I was calmed down by then and the gentleman was so nice that there was no way I could tell him his son had no respect for literally the only other hunter on a fairly large section of public land.

Just because it’s public doesn’t meant you shouldn’t have respect for the others using it. A little knowledge and a lot of respect goes a long way.


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[3forks]

A lot of bitching about guys hunting or camping where you don’t want them too. Prime area or not that they may be walking through or camping in, BFD. Just because you were set up on a certain area and someone waltzed through it or camped in it when it didn’t suit you, doesn’t mean they’re bad hunters. Public ground.....

Yes, I’ve been in the same boat numerous times, but oh well. How someone hunts, or the route they take from point a to point b doesn’t concern me.

You all sound like a bunch or cry babies. Just hunt, don’t worry about other hunters, and especially don’t blame them for ruining your sacred spot.


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This is cool with you too, right?

Tags are hard to get, and for a lot of people, hunting season is short. I don’t think people are being crybabies when they want to not not have the effort they put into to their hunt ruined by someone who is inconsiderate or makes fundamental errors that will push critters out of the area.

People make mistakes, and some hunters are just learning, so it can be understandable when someone interferes with another person’s hunt. But, there is etiquette and rules in just about all aspects of everything we do, why should hunting on public land be any different? A little consideration and some effort to be educated about what you’re doing goes a long way.

 

[Idahoguy]

We never know what someone else is thinking. Maybe they camped in your meadow that always has animals in it. Maybe you are glassing on their ridge that they always get animals on and you scared them away by being there and just ruined their hunt. If it is public land you have to just deal with it. I doubt most people camp in a spot to ruin someone else's hunt on purpose.

 

[IdahoElk]

Cow call, rake tree, bugle, Cow call, rake tree, bugle, Cow call, rake tree, bugle,Cow call, rake tree, bugle,Cow call, rake tree, bugle, Cow call, rake tree, bugle, Cow call, rake tree, bugle, Cow call, rake tree, bugle,Cow call, rake tree, bugle,Cow call, rake tree, bugle.

This went on for an hour before I let out a whistle to make it stop, guy turned and went back down the mountain continuing this proven technique.

 

[The Ri Guy]

What not to do -- attempt to threaten people off "your" public land spot because you're running a "guide service" that consists of a train of 4-8 ATV's driving around skylines throwing rocks downhill trying to jump deer.

Happens to me every year...I'd be upset about it if it wasn't for the fact that they have pushed the big bucks to me the last three years in a row.

 

[TheGDog]

Blood pressure was at stroke level for me.

OMG Man... I SOOOOOO feel you on this one! That was me when that fluke pair of hikers, the lady decided to stop right damn there smack-dab in front of my sit and just blah blah blah for greater than a minute! (Or at least, it felt that way)

 

[Warmsy]

Yeah... I did that too at first. Musta seen 25 does in 3 different zones (D13, D11, D15) But then asked a lot of detailed questions of more experienced folks and learned that's it's more about picking a spot where logic and evidence suggests it's likely they'll eventually pass by, and you sit, in the shadows, backed up against something to break-up your outline, trying to remain as motionless as possible, making no noise.

And when they come-in? WAIT! Don't raise your rifle until their eyeball passes behind a tree or bush. Or they lower their head to the ground. So they don't see your movement and spook! If they do see your movement, FREEZE! If you've got kicka$$ concealment gear on like a leafy suit... if you can freeze long enough... you'd be AMAZED what can happen! Such as a face-to-face encounter with a 3x3 at 7yds!!! But you can't do anything because he's staring right at you! So you make like a stone, and mentally be prepared to then hurry up and make a shot opportunity once the situation changes. I cannot emphasize enough how important it is to be able to play the FREEZE-Game very well! And always use a facemask and liner gloves. hands and face stickout like a sore thumb! P.S. I've got 15minutes of cellphone video up on YouTube of a Mama Doe and her Daughter wakin' up (from smelling that I'd urinated some 25yds away downwind from my sit spot.) and then creeping up and passing in front of me at 17yds! Just me w/ the leafy gear, on a Tripod stool, backed up against the hill, up against some scrub oaks, so the leafy-to-leafy thing would work. With a bow with a knocked arrow on my lap! And me with a regular ol' buck tag, Doh!

I appreciate that. Still trying to learn those "logical" spots.

 

[elkliver]

Cow call, rake tree, bugle, Cow call, rake tree, bugle, Cow call, rake tree, bugle,Cow call, rake tree, bugle,Cow call, rake tree, bugle, Cow call, rake tree, bugle, Cow call, rake tree, bugle, Cow call, rake tree, bugle,Cow call, rake tree, bugle,Cow call, rake tree, bugle.

This went on for an hour before I let out a whistle to make it stop, guy turned and went back down the mountain continuing this proven technique.

You werent in the pioneer zone last week were you? except for it wasnt rake, it was hit tree like swinging baseball bat with large pole

 

[IdahoElk]

You werent in the pioneer zone last week were you? except for it wasnt rake, it was hit tree like swinging baseball bat with large pole

I was! The baseball bat method really brings them in ....... to other hunters

 

[Dave0317]

I think a lot of “idiots” out there are actually people just like yourself. If you walk a ridge, someone is thinking, “what an idiot, that’s the ridge the bucks use as an escape”, you walk the basin, “what an idiot, that’s where the bulls feed”, you walk a timbered slope, “what an idiot, that’s where they bed down”. Every piece of terrain may be seen as the prime targeted area by someone else. You pick what you think is an idea spot, and you hunt it, you may very well walk through what someone else thinks is prime territory on the way there. Every piece of terrain you use may be used by someone else’s game animal.

With that said, if there is some specific terrain you think is of no value to anyone, let me know so I can always use that as my approach route to my hunting spot.

I’m just a dumb easterner that hunts whitetail on public land. But that’s half the game here, find the deer is one half, avoid humans is the other half.

 

[Fartrell Cluggins]

A lot of bitching about guys hunting or camping where you don’t want them too.

No, not really. Most of the posts are about people behaving like clueless disrespectful dolts in the woods.

 

[NDGuy]

You know the old saying something like "There's two types of hunters, those in your party and the assholes." lol

Rings very true.

 

[Glory]

Made a few boneheaded moves myself over the years in the great outdoors. Sometimes it works out, other times it’s just something to learn from.

I am guilty of hiking through great habitat to get to another spot.

 

[Bighorner]

These are exactly the type of things that happen when you learn how to hunt off youtube. I took a guy with me last year who had never been archery hunting for elk and all I heard for 4 days "that's not how the youtube guys do it." or "those guys always do good in the sagebrush" He tagged out on the last morning on a lucky break and all I heard on the way back was "I think im going to try and film my hunt next year and make a youtube channel" SMH.

 

[Geewhiz]

I'm happy to be able to say that I have never made a mistake when it comes to hunting... lol

A few years ago I was taking my brother out to look for a bull to shoot at. He had never killed an elk before. We parked well before daylight and started hiking up a ridge to get a head start and glass a little as the sun came up. Public land. Well as luck would have it we spotted 3 nice bulls feeding up in the head of the basin we were looking up at. Not an every day occurrence in this area and we figured we had fairly decent odds of getting on them. We grabbed our gear and started quickly heading up the ridge towards them.

About that time, 3 grown men piled onto one four wheeler were headed up the road and passed by our pickup. They then proceeded to turn off the road and boondock up the hill past us, trying to get up ahead of us before they ditched their wheeler. I am lead to believe there is no way they did not see us in our bright orange. They could not see the elk from where they were. Well the elk took off and we hiked up and made our loop anyway. Later that morning we ended up running into those fellows and I had some not very nice things to say.

I realize public land is for everybody, but being blatantly rude and inconsiderate just ticks me off. I'll get over it.

 

[Opah]

Using the word public to excuse unethical, inconsiderate or rude behavior is in my Book BS, yes it is all of ours to use but same as a public park it is not ok to walk up to a BBQ some one is using and throw your shit on the grill.
Some need to wake and smell the shit that is being spread around

 

[NorthernHunter]

I've never got fussy with people on public land. I always get mad initially but talk myself through it. Everyone has a right to be there. It does piss me off when people setup their treestands right on the edge of my private land, but it is what it is. My worst interaction was 3 years ago. It was my wife's first rifle deer hunt. I have 1200 acres and for the most part know exactly where the deer will be. (Way too much scouting) So there is a swamp in one of the corners of the property that butts up against public land. I convince my wife to laying on the ground with me on a dry patch near the center 2 1/2 hours before shooting light. It's 20 degrees outside so she isn't happy. Sure enough like clockwork the public land starts having the orange army coming in. You can hear deer walking in and laying down all around us. I'm thinking to myself "Yes! At least one of these should be a good buck." It's just starting to get light and I'm looking through the glass. Find 2 really good bucks within about 60 yards. Tap her shoulder and get her to settle herself in and get them in the scope. 20 minutes to legal light I see a lantern stumbling along on my property on the ridge above. He walks right down toward the swamp and you see a mass exodus of deer running out of there. I was pissed. The poor guy was just lost and didn't realize there was private land there. My wife was pretty mad about freezing for so long to have it get ruined. Can't change what's already happened though.

 

[NorthernHunter]

A big screw up on my part. It was a week before the rut here and I decided to go hang a new stand along a ridge I had scouted. I walk the mile and a half back and start setting up my climber. Season has been open for a couple of weeks now. For some reason I assumed since I was just rushing back there and getting out I didn't bring my bow. Sure enough I finish securing my stand to the tree and turn around. There is the 170" buck I've been chasing for weeks standing at 12 yards staring at me. It was like he knew. We stared at each other for 2-3 minutes and then he just casually walked off. Lesson learned: Always carry your weapon if the season is open.