Have you ever got into an argument elk hunting?

[Coveyleader]

Curious, have any of you ever got into an altercation in the field? Could be with other hunters, land owners etc? I'm pretty calm by nature, but have got into a couple pissing matches with ranchers, and once with guided hunters on public land. A friend I know ( now dead) was a seasoned elk guy, not many guys have killed the amount of bulls he has over the course of his lifetime, but he was rude. Many would call it "Direct" but I would call it rude if you didn't know him. Well, he got into it with some young guys and they knocked the shit out of him. Ended his hunt that day as he was pretty banged up.

 

[Gerbdog]

Nah... not yet anyway. Pretty laid back, or at least i think i am, and am happy to share information with hunters i run into in the field (in the field, not in the parking area, not at the gas station, if your climbing around where i am climbing around im happy to give you the benefit of the doubt).

Although this year i was yacking with some hunters while we were glassing a bit from the road from a parking area while heading to the hunting area. I put down my tail gate to sit and that exposed a sleeping area i would use that night before hiking in.... those A-holes threw their used chew tobacco bags into my sleeping area when i wasnt looking.

Sure seemed friendly enough but guess they were un-impressed with me. Ah well, hope that act brought on the bad elk hunting juju and the bulls didnt talk to them.

 

[Geewhiz]

One time I took my brother out to try to find a bull. Parked on the road and started hiking up a ridge. There were no other legal roads anywhere in that are legal to drive.

Well about 1/2 mile up the ridge we can now see the head of the basin and see 2 nice bulls that we could not see from the bottom or from anywhere else on the road. We look back down towards the pickup and see 3 dudes on one 4 wheeler turn off the road right at our truck and start boon docking up the draw below us headed up towards the top of the basin where we were headed and where the elk were. Obviously and blatantly illegal and rude behavior. I know they could not see the elk from where they were but they could see us and my only thought was that they were trying to beat us to where ever we were going. They drove up the bottom of the draw past us to gain more elevation and blew the elk out without even knowing they were there.
Later that morning we ran into them. I have never lost my temper with other hunters in a situation like that before but that day I was genuinely pissed that they blew that opportunity for my brother. Choice words were exchanged.

 

[Newtosavage]

Curious, have any of you ever got into an altercation in the field? Could be with other hunters, land owners etc? I'm pretty calm by nature, but have got into a couple pissing matches with ranchers, and once with guided hunters on public land. A friend I know ( now dead) was a seasoned elk guy, not many guys have killed the amount of bulls he has over the course of his lifetime, but he was rude. Many would call it "Direct" but I would call it rude if you didn't know him. Well, he got into it with some young guys and they knocked the shit out of him. Ended his hunt that day as he was pretty banged up.

LOL yes. With my own son. Call it an "aha" moment for me. He left me on the mountain and drove home. I spent four days on the mountain by myself, just thinking about what led to that. It was kind of the same thing as your friend. I thought I was being "direct" when in fact I was just being an ass, and my son (who was almost 24 at the time) had enough.

That moment changed my life. I'm a much better man today because of it.

Other than that, no. I've gotten to the point in my life where I just walk away and go somewhere else if someone is pissing me off. I've packed up camps in the middle of the night more than once, and won't hesitate to do it again. I've turned around and headed back to the trailhead and moved locations plenty of times. These days I just see it as a chance to find a new good spot and don't waste a moment being angry about it. Life is too short for that. Ever since I started taking this approach, I have been so much happier.

 

[Laramie]

Only with a pile of bull elk... They were really pissed.

 

[Mule3006Elk]

Nah... not yet anyway. Pretty laid back, or at least i think i am, and am happy to share information with hunters i run into in the field (in the field, not in the parking area, not at the gas station, if your climbing around where i am climbing around im happy to give you the benefit of the doubt).

Although this year i was yacking with some hunters while we were glassing a bit from the road from a parking area while heading to the hunting area. I put down my tail gate to sit and that exposed a sleeping area i would use that night before hiking in.... those A-holes threw their used chew tobacco bags into my sleeping area when i wasnt looking.

Sure seemed friendly enough but guess they were un-impressed with me. Ah well, hope that act brought on the bad elk hunting juju and the bulls didnt talk to them.

For this reason, I just play nice with everyone period. I'm laid back so it's not too hard for me. No telling what someone will do to your camp or truck when they know your gone for the entire day or days. If some wants to be an ass, it's just too easy in the woods, and VERY low risk of accountability. I have certainly thought of putting up a trail cam near my backcountry camp. More to watch the critters but ya never know when 2 legged critters may decide to check your camp.

Both during the same hunting season: I've had ranchers that we pulled over for to let their cattle pass as they were rounding them up, give them a nice wave, they damm near looked the other way. Blatantly rude. 2) We pulled over for another car to let them pass on a FR and the ass yelled at us. You ******* Californians. Both scenarios were in ID. I live in ID and my brother lives in CA. You guessed it we were driving his truck with CA plates. It's all good I don't like the CA plates here either. It did give me a great lesson in perspective. This was just straight hatred nothing more nothing less. This dirtbag didn't know my career is taking care of his ass when he's sick. My brother's career is ensuring the safety of all of us. He's a sheriff with near 30 years on the line. I have 20 years in medicine. Perspective.

 

[BuzzH]

Curious, have any of you ever got into an altercation in the field? Could be with other hunters, land owners etc? I'm pretty calm by nature, but have got into a couple pissing matches with ranchers, and once with guided hunters on public land. A friend I know ( now dead) was a seasoned elk guy, not many guys have killed the amount of bulls he has over the course of his lifetime, but he was rude. Many would call it "Direct" but I would call it rude if you didn't know him. Well, he got into it with some young guys and they knocked the shit out of him. Ended his hunt that day as he was pretty banged up.

Big Dan should have shut his pie-hole...but I guess Pig got his mouth shut for him that day.

Couldn't have happened to a nicer guy, he had it coming, and long over-due.

 

[Wrench]

2x. Once a guy was trying to get into my rig. Spotted him from half a mile out, chased him to camp and discussed it.

Other time guy told me I was trespassing. He had permission from a landowner with 40 acres claiming they owned 1200....except that pesky taxsifter map showed otherwise.

He took it well after he calmed down....and we walked him back to his 40.

 

[Dos Perros]

Every interaction I’ve had in the field has been courteous and respectful. I think if there’s an altercation likely both parties are at fault, one for instigating, the other for escalating.

 

[ewade07]

My brother and i got into a pissing match with two out of staters one year archery hunting. We grabbed our dogs and were gonna go shoot some grouse and they didnt take too kindly to that idea, they thought we were gonna go after elk with our shotguns apparently. I thought it was going to come to blows when the older of the two got in my brothers face and started throwing a tantrum. Thankfully it didnt. We went and shot our limits and came back to find they had uprooted there entire campo and moved on. They made sure to leave a fire ring full of trash before they did tho.

 

[BuzzH]

Shot a 6 point bull one year in a place I'd hunted for a few decades, on a Montana NR OTC Native elk tag. Came back and found the locals from the nearby MT town near where I was born and lived the first 30 years of my life, left me a note on the tailgate of my truck. You have to know the town, a good friend of mine I grew up with, a local LEO, summed it up best, "this town is nothing but a retirement community for carney's."

Went back to pack it the next day and left them a note of my own:

 

[Newtosavage]

Shot a 6 point bull one year in a place I'd hunted for a few decades, on a Montana NR OTC Native elk tag. Came back and found the locals from the nearby MT town near where I was born and lived the first 30 years of my life, left me a note on the tailgate of my truck. You have to know the town, a good friend of mine I grew up with, a local LEO, summed it up best, "this town is nothing but a retirement community for carney's."

Same can be said for a lot of small towns in rural regions of this country. I can think of a few where I've lived. LOL

All the smart kids left and never came back, effectively high-grading the gene pool.

Was that too direct?

 

[ID2NM]

This is the only time I’ve ever confronted someone/been confronted in the elk woods. I’m a very easy going and non confrontational person but I found my limit this day.
I was once in the advanced stages of calling in a bull for a friend that had never killed an elk with a bow. He had drawn a primo tag and we hunted our assess off for days before landing ourselves in the middle of a “rut frenzy”. I was standing right next to my friend to coach him as I called. We had a bull coming in hard and I was extremely confident we were going to kill him. Literally right as a small bull was about to present a shot a random a-hole appears behind us and loudly exclaims that we shouldn’t shoot that one as there is a bigger one in the area that he’s been seeing/hunting for days. We didn’t care about size, we just wanted to notch his tag. Needless to say the distraction saved that bulls life and I went ballistic. In the following 5 minutes I called the guy about every name in the book and had to basically be pulled away from kicking his ass right there. I’ve seen and forgiven some bonehead moves in the woods but you DO NOT intentionally interfere with someone’s hunt, especially right when the moment of truth is there.
The worst part was that After all that happened he had the audacity to ask if we wanted to hunt together since he was alone and hadn’t hunted elk before. It’s the only time in my life I’ve seriously considered killing a man.

Come to find out he was from Texas. I’m not saying all Texans are idiots, but this guy was the absolute king of that demographic in the Lone Star state. This happened 2 years ago and Thinking about it still pisses me off to this day.

 

[Mule3006Elk]

This is the only time I’ve ever confronted someone/been confronted in the elk woods. I’m a very easy going and non confrontational person but I found my limit this day.
I was once in the advanced stages of calling in a bull for a friend that had never killed an elk with a bow. He had drawn a primo tag and we hunted our assess off for days before landing ourselves in the middle of a “rut frenzy”. I was standing right next to my friend to coach him as I called. We had a bull coming in hard and I was extremely confident we were going to kill him. Literally right as a small bull was about to present a shot a random a-hole appears behind us and loudly exclaims that we shouldn’t shoot that one as there is a bigger one in the area that he’s been seeing/hunting for days. We didn’t care about size, we just wanted to notch his tag. Needless to say the distraction saved that bulls life and I went ballistic. In the following 5 minutes I called the guy about every name in the book and had to basically be pulled away from kicking his ass right there. I’ve seen and forgiven some bonehead moves in the woods but you DO NOT intentionally interfere with someone’s hunt, especially right when the moment of truth is there.
The worst part was that After all that happened he had the audacity to ask if we wanted to hunt together since he was alone and hadn’t hunted elk before. It’s the only time in my life I’ve seriously considered killing a man.

Come to find out he was from Texas. I’m not saying all Texans are idiots, but this guy was the absolute king of that demographic in the Lone Star state. This happened 2 years ago and Thinking about it still pisses me off to this day.

I have no words except WOW!!!

That's almost unbelievable.

 

[Rifleman86]

Not an argument, just a weird encounter…

Up on a glassing knob way back in on NF land opening day. Not near a trail or anything. All the sudden heard crashing through the timber to our left. Out comes 5-6 horses from an outfitter.

Lead guy, this old Cowboy who I assume owned the outfitter walked his horse almost on top of us. Didn’t say a word despite my friendly “how's it going? See anything?”

He didn’t respond, just sat their awkwardly glaring at us for about 30 seconds. Finally old Cowboy spoke up… “Where did you guys come from?”

Me- “Uh, Ohio?”

Cowboy-“No, I mean how did you get back here?”

Me-“We walked?”

Cowboy muttered something under his breath and rode off. Guess he didn’t like the fact we were in “his” spot. All in all it was a very weird encounter. Guy kept looking at my rifle, which had a can on it, I didn’t think he liked that either. Sorry I like my hearing I guess? Lol.

Other than that, all of my encounters with others have been overwhelmingly friendly. To the point of random strangers helping me with some grueling pack outs. We even had an outfitter put us up for free one night when some nasty cold weather rolled through.

 

[LostArra]

I've argued with myself and even kicked my own ass a few times while elk hunting. In fact I beat myself up for the 900 mile drive home after getting greedy about antlers/shot opportunity. Still makes me mad.

 

[5MilesBack]

My buddy isn't allowed to carry a bugle or call at all anymore on my hunts. That about sums up that argument.

 

[5MilesBack]

A friend I know ( now dead) was a seasoned elk guy, not many guys have killed the amount of bulls he has over the course of his lifetime, but he was rude. Many would call it "Direct" but I would call it rude if you didn't know him.

A lot of people out there don't care for "direct".......whether it's rude or not.

 

[StillBald]

I left a note on a windshield, that's about the worst. I was calling in a bull on public land and three guys come trudging in behind me 300 yards back calling by mouth-- no reed, no tube, nothing but the sounds of a goose being strangled-- and had that bull high tailing it out of there in no time. But, hey, that's public land hunting.

 

[Coveyleader]

A lot of people out there don't care for "direct".......whether it's rude or not.

Agreed. He was funny, but at the same time "Direct". The last few years of his life he was much more mellow, very much so compared to earlier years. He's not around any longer, but was a pioneer for sure.