Idahoans do not like out-of-state hunters

[xsn10s]

The assholes in Idaho are assholes to idahoans too. God forbid you find Kootenai Plates in Shoshone County. The panhandle can be really bad, probably the worst area in the state from what I've experienced. Not sure why that's the culture as most people up around here are transplants somewhere along the line. Not sure if the heavy metal in the drinking water or if they're still mad about Ruby Ridge but there are some bad attitudes toward everyone.
That being said, there's a lot of good people around too, most around here just want to keep to themselves.

I see it down here in the Boise area. It's awful, I think it's because of the crowding and rush everyone is in now. I remember back in 2008 or so Boise was a friendly city. I had an outside sales job supplying law enforcement and traveled all throughout the PNW. My family warned me of the panhandle area as it made the news. I wasn't concerned as I found the people to be very friendly and helpful. I had over 25k worth of goods in my vehicle and on my person so I wasn't too concerned anyways. It's a shame now, understandable but truly a shame.

 

[PanhandlePilgrim]

I see it down here in the Boise area. It's awful, I think it's because of the crowding and rush everyone is in now. I remember back in 2008 or so Boise was a friendly city. I had an outside sales job supplying law enforcement and traveled all throughout the PNW. My family warned me of the panhandle area as it made the news. I wasn't concerned as I found the people to be very friendly and helpful. I had over 25k worth of goods in my vehicle and on my person so I wasn't too concerned anyways. It's a shame now, understandable but truly a shame.

I was just down that way to shoot varmints, granted I was aways outside of Boise and not elk hunting but the locals were much more friendly than they are up here and I'm a local! Haha.

 

[Customweld]

I was just down that way to shoot varmints, granted I was aways outside of Boise and not elk hunting but the locals were much more friendly than they are up here and I'm a local! Haha.

North Idaho has always had a bit of a chip on its shoulder. It was where folks with alternate views on things could go and hide out. Not that they were necessarily bad, they just wanted to be left alone.

 

[bow_dozer]

If I go hunt the breaks I FEEL like the NR with how many NR plates are camped in there. Ill stick to the g bear country.

 

[Z Barebow]

Hunted Idaho for the 4th time this season. R or NR, everyone I ran into was friendly and courteous. A few don't say much, that is fine. Some talk a lot, that is fine too.

This year on my final hike out, ran into a resident who took pity on me. Offered to grill up some hamburgers for lunch. (I had a week's worth of freeze dried meals in back country) Had a giant cheeseburger and solved a few of the world's problems. Heck, he and his BIL offered to let me use their motorcycle and/or ATV to finish out my hunt! (we met for the first time about 3 hours earlier)

I am leery when someone stereotypes a group of people. R's/NR's, rural/urban, race, gender, state of origin etc. People are people no matter where you go. Most are good, some are @ssholes.I have hunted 6 or 7 different states. Never ran into anyone who was outwardly hostile. Never had any vandalism to my rig.

 

[wind gypsy]

Just looked inside the window and around. I didn't get offended as I respect law enforcement even if he
was "profiling" me as a pot smoking Californian..... I wasn't worried in the slightest as I wasn't speeding,
I didn't have anything illegal in the truck.

I got stopped on I-15 in ID (MN plates) once while driving to hunt in MT because I "turned off my blinker prior to being 100% in the lane i was changing into". Grilled me about my hunt trying to catch me in a lie and then basically hinted at the real reason to pulling me over being an effort to catch drug traffickers driving through.

 

[Coach529]

The assholes in Idaho are assholes to idahoans too. God forbid you find Kootenai Plates in Shoshone County. The panhandle can be really bad, probably the worst area in the state from what I've experienced. Not sure why that's the culture as most people up around here are transplants somewhere along the line. Not sure if the heavy metal in the drinking water or if they're still mad about Ruby Ridge but there are some bad attitudes toward everyone.
That being said, there's a lot of good people around too, most around here just want to keep to themselves.

100% true. Hunting or fishing in Bonner or Boundry County with Kootenai Plates might earn you some slashed tires. I hear about it a lot.

 

[mt terry d]

Saw a bumper sticker on a Cali car the other day:

DON'T SHOOT!
Just passing through

Maybe it'll help. IDK.

 

[Hnthrdr]

I was just down that way to shoot varmints, granted I was aways outside of Boise and not elk hunting but the locals were much more friendly than they are up here and I'm a local! Haha.

Shoot I made my first trip to North Idaho this last summer… heck I get it man. I’m a Co kid born and raised and I get my hackles up with what my state has become. Stayed on Lake Hayden, I had no idea what beautiful was, I would be pissed that my home town has essentially been sold and bought by developers and outsiders who want to make it in their image… crap sucks. Seems like that is the world we live in now… it’s the worst. They won’t be happy till they cut roads and trails through every hill and have a Starbucks on every corner…

 

[stickslinger23]

I had a similar experience in Idaho a week ago. I used to live there as well. My experience was with an older couple that was hiking on a trail that we've used for several years to get to our camp. The husband cussed us out and told us we had no business being there. I shrugged my shoulders and told him to have a nice day and went on up the mountain. I have to assume he retired to there and feels like he owns the public land, I didn't even bother to tell him I was from there. Of the other hunters we met, 1/2 were super nice and 1/2 wouldn't talk to us as we passed each other on the trail. One of the locals saw us hunting, stopped and talked to us and then told us to have a great hunt, he would go to another spot he had. Those are the type of people I remember from Idaho, I think most of the natives are still that way, but it has definitely changed in the past 15ish years. Maybe the 1/2 that wouldn't say a word were NR and didn't want to get yelled at, I have no idea. Hopefully the cussing we took made the old man feel bigger, because it didn't change what we did, or the fact that I'll be back again next year, probably in the same spot!

 

[Spoonbill]

I had a similar experience in Idaho a week ago. I used to live there as well. My experience was with an older couple that was hiking on a trail that we've used for several years to get to our camp. The husband cussed us out and told us we had no business being there. I shrugged my shoulders and told him to have a nice day and went on up the mountain. I have to assume he retired to there and feels like he owns the public land, I didn't even bother to tell him I was from there. Of the other hunters we met, 1/2 were super nice and 1/2 wouldn't talk to us as we passed each other on the trail. One of the locals saw us hunting, stopped and talked to us and then told us to have a great hunt, he would go to another spot he had. Those are the type of people I remember from Idaho, I think most of the natives are still that way, but it has definitely changed in the past 15ish years. Maybe the 1/2 that wouldn't say a word were NR and didn't want to get yelled at, I have no idea. Hopefully the cussing we took made the old man feel bigger, because it didn't change what we did, or the fact that I'll be back again next year, probably in the same spot!

Not sure where you were but getting cussed out for hunting doesnt surprise me. I went to a meeting with idfg and a local subdivision that backed up to public land several years ago, same attitude. A lot of the people there were retirees who didn’t want any hunting within a mile of highway 75 because “people shouldn’t shoot deer and elk so close to town.” I just assumed it was bored people looking for something to complain about.

 

[wildstar82]

As a NR, I hunted Idaho for several years in the Church backcountry. Then IDFG took an enormous dump on NR and cut NR tags by 90%. The Commissioners said the Residents complained about the backcountry being crowded and their mandate was to protect state wildlife for Residents.

I'd hunt all day and not see another soul. On top of that I could easily count the Residents back there on one hand over several years. It was always NR, paying big dollars for those NR tags, licenses, food, lodging, and fuel. The Outfitter tags for NR were not reduced at all. The Outfitter lobbyists earned their pay.

Right after the 90% NR tag reduction, I was checked in the Church backcountry by IDFG Wardens and biologists. The Warden was a top of the line a-hole. The biologist was great and she told me the tag reduction was not based on science, but politics (I knew that already). She told me that IDFG was losing millions of dollars on the loss of NR tags/license revenue and the big game would most likely end of dying anyway due to harsh winters.

 

[WKR]

I was hunting a wilderness area in Northern California a couple weeks ago, on my way out I saw 3 trucks with Idaho plates on them at the trailhead...I thought to myself "what the hell are they doing here when archery elk is open in Idaho? "

 

[khart_6882]

I was hunting a wilderness area in Northern California a couple weeks ago, on my way out I saw 3 trucks with Idaho plates on them at the trailhead...I thought to myself "what the hell are they doing here when archery elk is open in Idaho? "

Dude…one time in November in eastern Washington I met two old boys from Montana on a woods road. I asked them what the hell they were doing here. They said “we thought maybe this was a secret gem state that everyone overlooked. We were very wrong.” Hahaha


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[innerdinosaur]

People are rude everywhere now days.
Just keeping doing you and continue to be courteous. It goes a long way with the good people left out there.

 

[Mtns2hunt]

NR's pay through the nose to hunt. They should be able to enjoy themselves without folks hassling them. Like I said above I don't think that it's just hunters that are seeing the animosity. I think there is frustration bleeding through to a lot of interactions with out of staters.

Never had any issues when hunting out of State. I normally keep to myself wave and smile. Usually get a wave back and sometimes later they come by and chat. I am okay with that. In my home state when hunting public land I am more than happy to point others in the right direction. I know, generally, they probably won't be back. There is so much National Forest where I live I could not hunt it all in a lifetime. I feel that everyone is entitled to a good time.

I did hear a Wyoming resident complaining about non residents getting tags because they paid much more when residents could not get tags but every couple years. He was talking to my guide and since I was pretty ignorant of the situation I kept my mouth shut.

 

[String&stick]

As everyone has said there are always "those" people. But I will say I've interacted with both NR and R in the Idaho back country and had good experiences with most. The exception was a group of 20 something kids that hiked up and set their camp up about 300 yards above us, after talking to us and seeing our camp. But it's public ground, so after they blew out the bedding areas we just moved on.

This year in Wyoming I had probably the most courteous and positive interaction with a couple residents I have ever had (me bing the NR). We were on cow tags and I was sitting a ridge with a spotter as my buddy dropped down to chase a small herd leaving me on the ridge to give hand signals if they moved on him while out of sight. I watched these two residents hike up out of the bottom to the road about a mile or so over and drive away. 10 minutes later they pulled up behind me and I didn't know what they were doing but knew from the lay of the land we couldn't have messed them up where we were.

It's 10:30 am, About 65 degrees, sun beating down. They jump out introduce themselves and proceed to tell me the son has a bull down, in the bottom of the drainage. . . They saw my buddy go off the edge and the road down into the drainage runs within about 1/2 mile if where he was headed and they didn't want to blow his stalk! I told them hell it's hot out guys you can't wait, just go. They genuinely felt bad about things (probably because they had just claimed that same ridge my buddy would have to come back up) and said they would stop on a flat where I could see them before they got to a spot the elk may see them so I could signal them if it was ok to proceed! They didn't want to lose any meat, and didn't want a cape to start slipping on their bull, but they were concerned about our hunt, I waived them on as soon as they came into sight in the bottom to make sure they weren't worried about us, and yea they bumped the elk out a bit, but we came back that evening and got on the same herd and my 13 year old son took his first elk ever, with his bow. So it all worked out. But those residents were great guys that didn't want to mess up us NRs hunt.

All that to say, for every ass hole out there, there are plenty of stand up hunters that want you to have a good hunt just as much as you would want them to! It's just like the old customer service saying. Provide good service and your customer will probably tell 1 person. Provide bad service and they will tell 10! Same thing for ass holes, you talk about them more than the random decent guy that just nodded and said hi on the trail.

 

[Steve300xcw]

You NR know that you look the same as a local boy soon as you leave the pickup right?

 

[Swamp Fox]

[...]

Right after the 90% NR tag reduction, I was checked in the Church backcountry by IDFG Wardens and biologists. The Warden was a top of the line a-hole. The biologist was great and she told me the tag reduction was not based on science, but politics (I knew that already). She told me that IDFG was losing millions of dollars on the loss of NR tags/license revenue and the big game would most likely end of dying anyway due to harsh winters.

Was she cute?

 

[mt terry d]

I've always wondered how your state of residence was of any concern when on FEDERAL property.