The Public Land Parking Lot- " Question". Has This Happened To You?

[quavers59]

   The last few Springs,I  just start my slow walk in when, Park. No problem  at all for me to walk on in at 3.45am. I might have a Mountain to Climb- so,I  walk in nice and slow.

[avidnwoutdoorsman]

Anyone that hunts public has this problem and I have to say I always try to talk to them about general areas to avoid hunting "too" close to each other. 99% of the time I always have a plan B, C, D, E anyways and will often concede.

The only time this has ever been limited is when hunting a state or area on a draw and you are restricted to limited size plot or dont know the plot well enought. (dang non-residents) which in this case was me. I had done days, hours, months or research on a WMA I was drawn for ... it was not small. I showed up 3 days before the season and biked in to scout it every day. Low and behold I had a turkey patterned. Had it on and off the roost Wed, Thur, and again Friday before the Saturday opener. Friday the gates are open and everyone can drive in to scout. But the didnt open until 8am... so I biked in again an hour before sunrise, found my bird again and thought I was ready to hunt Saturday. Now I did say have a plan B - E and in this case I had scouted through out the days and in the morning had heard some other birds but not like this bird. I was really confident in this bird. That Friday night I slipped in at 3pm to put the bird to bed at sunset. When I came out, two other parties had put him to bed as well. You know what the insane solution was? One party can hunt east, one south, and one west of the bird (north was the WMA boundary). Not kidding. ITS PUBLIC LAND. Despite my unquestionable "rights" to hunt this bird it meant jack squat. No one was going to budge from hunting this bird. I knew where he was headed and so I of course stood my ground on which side of the bird I was going to hunt but I wish I had another spot at that very moment.

Spoiler, the bird didn't peep that morning and slipped out quite assumingly to the north as no one came out with a dead bird and we almost had him surrounded.

This is how hunting goes on public land.

[marshboy]

A lot of public is a ghost town after 9:00...

[quavers59]

    Personally, I  try to pick areas that hold a good amount of Gobblers and at least a good 50% of the Spring Hunters will avoid especially  on opening day and the first weekend. So,I  do plenty of Scouting to totally learn the Wetlands + Swamps before the Skunk Cabbage pops on up.
   Most of the Mountains in my area are medium height. Only about  800- 1,200 ft . Still most Spring Hunters won't  climb them. 
     If there are a number of Prime Fields on your Public area- that is where at least 75% of your Spring Turkey Hunters will head to. Pre Dawn Question  or not.
    Most  Spring Turkey Hunters today are drawn to Fields- " Like Bees To Honey". And most have Plan " A" only.
     Good Luck to all this Spring.

[Missouri hunter]

My truck is the empty one at the parking lot by the time anybody gets there... I don't like talking to people about where they'll be and were I'll be because most of the time they won't pay any attention or respect what was discussed. I go in early and far especially from big multiple vehicle parking lots. If I do stay in the truck till close to listening time, it's on smaller ground with one little pull off.

I'll tell people general areas when I'm deer hunting more often than when I'm turkey hunting. It's not so much that I wouldn't tell people, I just don't put myself in the position to talk much.

[GobbleNut]

My first and foremost thought after reading all of the posts is thank God I do not live in a place where i would have to deal with things like this!  My second thought is that, if I did live somewhere that I had to deal with stuff like this, I would know every single public land area that held turkeys within a couple hours driving time of where I lived so that I ALWAYS had options wherein I could avoid these kinds of situations. 

Finally, if there were verifiably no such places available, I would be planning more extended trips to other destinations where I could actually go hunting to hunt turkeys rather than go hunting to try to outwit other turkey hunters.  There are plenty of places to hunt gobblers where you are not constantly trying to outwit the goobers!   

[derek]

I can't think of the last time I parked in the same parking lot where there was someone else parked, I'll move on.  Its just not worth it.  There's a only handful of pretty rare circumstances that could even justify it, i.e. very limited access points into very large areas.  I get parked earlier than most, and I prefer to be away from my vehicle when someone pulls in.. that way I don't have to answer "the question" and without knowing exactly where I am, I hope it deters the next guy.  We all know that doesn't always happen. 

I have had people pull in before I got away from my truck.  2 particular instances both in Florida in the same week that I thought were just funny.  1st parking area was at a split trail head.. I could go right or left.  I parked on the right side of the lot and was going right.  Guy (Florida tags) pulls in as I'm getting ready to start walking and asks which trail I'm taking - I say right, going down good bit and will listen from there.  He says yea I'm taking that trail too.. and he did.  I eventually held up just to let him get past me so at least he knew where I was starting and would hopefully go much farther.  Different parking area a couple days later - I pull in and I'm getting ready to start walking.. different guy (also Florida tags) pulls in, I go to talk to him so he knew where I was heading.. yep he's going there too.. of course.  I start walking.. he unloads his bike and goes blazing past me... Went to walmart that afternoon and bought a bike.  That wasn't happening again.  I got the feeling that was how the local boys dealt with all the out of staters. 

The last thing I want to happen is for me to interfere with someone else's hunt or have mine interfered with.  It's going to happen eventually, but I'd rather avoid it if I can. 

[ddturkeyhunter]

Hunting public in a lot of places meanes just that, your dodging the public, if your first or not. Have had a lot of instances through the years hunting the Black Hills of SD of people messing me up. There is a lot of room out there but when something bad dose happen it still becomes part of your hunt that day or year. In 2019 I was snowed out of the higher elavation I normally hunt. So I moved down closer to Rapid City that year to hunt some areas I had hunted years before. The place I stopped first at the night before hunting there was a truck already parked in the service road, ahead of time. It had been placed there days before because it was covered with snow. So I moved on, but I did make it back past there a day later and there still was no people tracks going in, and the truck had not moved. So lesson number one learned, lesson number two happened later at noon that day. Was having a ruff time locateing some birds to chase. I had just stopped by this one service road to park when not five minutes later a truck came up to me and stopped. A guy got out and came over to me talk. And he asked me if I was aware of the private property lines; private went back half mile and then went south another half mile. I said yes I use ONX, just then not 100 yards away over the hill a tom lets out a gobble. So now I really start grabbing my stuff and the guy say there are two guys in there hunting. The road was packed down in the snow from people coming and going so I said crap, then I am not going in there. So when I said that the guy told me of a different place I should go check out. The entire time this bird will not shut up and it is noon. Make the story shorter, turns out there had been someone in there hunting in the morning and the day before. But right at that moment the hunters were in town having lunch, and that bird won't shut up. Turns out the guy talking to me was not one of the private property owners right in that area but a Turkey Guide service. And I just said I would't go in there (Public Land) so I didn't, but I was at the gate first the next day. That afternoon I was set up in the far back corner of public when I see the guide driving on a little road with his white truck. Half hour later two people come walking across a private field going to far back corner of public where I was. Short walk for them long walk for me. I was up on a hill side I could see them comeing a long ways away, so I let out a sick crow call to let them know I was there. Some one else needed to go to plan B

[Mossberg90MN]

This question doesn't really bother me. I too ask people this question to avoid hunting in the same area. If I see a truck i normally drive to another spot, but if it's a big enough spot I'll head in. I also don't give exact location but in the general direction.

I do go by the first come first serve rule.

I don't really fret about it I guess. Just do what I can to make sure I'm there first.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Tom007]

You know what is a "breath of fresh air", this forum. As you can see by the responses here, we are the ethical group in our fraternity. If the general public of turkey hunters outside of this forum had the ethics we all live by, there would be no hassles hunting anywhere.....just an observation.....be safe, get there early....

[Greg Massey]

You know what is a "breath of fresh air", this forum. As you can see by the responses here, we are the ethical group in our fraternity. If the general public of turkey hunters outside of this forum had the ethics we all live by, there would be no hassles hunting anywhere.....just an observation.....be safe, get there early....

X2 Tom.. I agree , some really good post from a lot of guys who have lot's of experience and maturity on this answer about being first on public and parking etc. I've watched just about all of Hunting Public guys video's and they are for the most part always respectful of others and they still kill turkeys.

[quavers59]

    Gregg Massey- you might then have seen a few of my 7 Utube Turkey Hunting Educational  Videos. I think,I  did a good job there and my 3 Turkey  Hunting Books as well.

[ARjtk]

When I get the question, my answer is simple. I'm going to the gobbling bird behind this gate.

[Tom007]

You know what is a "breath of fresh air", this forum. As you can see by the responses here, we are the ethical group in our fraternity. If the general public of turkey hunters outside of this forum had the ethics we all live by, there would be no hassles hunting anywhere.....just an observation.....be safe, get there early....

X2 Tom.. I agree , some really good post from a lot of guys who have lot's of experience and maturity on this answer about being first on public and parking etc. I've watched just about all of Hunting Public guys video's and they are for the most part always respectful of others and they still kill turkeys.

Yea, the guys that can stand the public pressure, manage to deal with it, and harvest turkeys are respectful, patient guys. Taking nothing away from private land hunters, they are respectful too, or they wouldn't secure permission on their tracts. Respect and ethics are needed no matter where we hunt.   Be safe.......

[Bowguy]

Perhaps not advertising everywhere you hunt and hunting places without crowds would help. I've never ever had this problem. I also am long gone before others get there. The key though is hunting less popular spots and again not advertising them.... Idk I hunt NY and some of it public. Used to be exclusively public and I still didn't have an issue. Never once ran into anyone. Just don't advertise and if it's busy go somewhere else completely avoiding the scenario. Just because it's public doesn't mean it needs to be busy. Why would anyone wade into that mess? Turkey hunting could inherently be a dangerous sport. Fact lots of guys are around excludes spots for most guys. I know it would for me.
The same thing happens in my home state guys complain but all hop in the same tub so to speak than claim they have no leg room. People need to just stop clinging onto one little area and expand. Than keep quiet where they went. The options are to ask on forums what they could do and get no common sense solution. It'll never change.  Why hunt like that?