Public land insanity

[alloutdoors]

d.winsor, you're talking about an entirely different scenario. If there are only a handful of designated parking areas and you are only supposed to use those areas to access the land, then I agree you can't "claim" the parking area for yourself and you have to expect others will use it. It can be helpful to actually talk to the other hunters in those cases to try and spread everyone out in different areas. On the other hand, even in that sort of situation, asking someone that was there ahead of you where they are going to be hunting and then running past them to get there first is completely classless, anyone doing so is a slob.

On other public lands you just park on the shoulder or at the entrance to an old logging road and go, there may not be any designated parking areas at all. In those cases you should just drive down the road if you find someone already at the spot you were planning to hunt. I would try to go at least 1/2 a mile in those cases, unless it's so crowded that's not an option. In that case just spread out as best as you can.

[Bigspurs68]

Alloutdoors, I agree. Small blocks of land, I just move on to another area. Large WMAs and national forrest, I just try to stay spread out. I don't like the safety issue of other nearby hunters not do I like company. There are other birds that others may not walk to. I like me some walking!

[d.winsor]

I have to disagree with all this talk about letting the air out of hunters tires, or cutting them, and trying to run hunters off with strong talk, there is always going to be slobs when hunting public land.  Where I hunt you can only park in designated areas, you have no other options, you cannot park on the side of the road.  I envy you for all the access you have to public land where you hunt, it must be nice.  If I meet another in the parking lot everyone know where the other will be, before going in.  The access points are gated also, to keep people from driving in.

[g8rvet]

I hunt over 600,000 acres of public land.  When you see a truck parked, you move on unless you are an inconsiderate slob (There are no parking areas).  I have lived in this area a long time and know about 25% of the people that pull up.  I have even shared info with a few of them, and we agreed to not go past a certain point if a bird is gobbling (like I will stay west of this creek, you stay east) because we arrived at the same time. I all but gave all the info needed for two different guys to get their son a bird - no sweat, it is just a turkey.  I also believe you will not be punished in the afterlife for lying about hunting or fishing-sure hope I am right about that, cause I may be warm for a long time if I am wrong.

With that being said, it is better to be pissed off than pissed on.  I would not go all OK Corral on anyone, but when those two yahoos did that, I would have said "Not cool-poor ethics.  I would never do that to anyone" and moved on. I duck hunt and I have learned you are not gonna teach a grown man anything that his Momma or Daddy did not already teach them.  But I would let them know that they are being classless and inconsiderate.  I have done it dozens of times.  Maybe once or twice someone had enough personal ethics to feel bad about it later. I would say the same thing to a Game Warden if he or she did it to me.  No law against telling someone they are being a jerk. 

I agree with not keeping the call. Stealing is stealing, regardless of what the law says. I may have left a note that said 'This is how a gentleman behaves, here is your call you dropped when you were hustling past me acting like a slob hunter" or something to that effect. Maybe they were duck hunters that just did not know better (or deer hunters or just plain dumb). 

[datrip]

I don't know where you people hunt public land, when you say if you see another car parked there you drive on, you will be driving until 10 or 10:30 when everyone else is leaving.  I don't see how you can expect to pull your car into a parking area for public land, and block other people from hunting thousands of acres, just because you got there first.  There is not that much public land to satisfy all the different tastes for turkey hunting.  No one can hunt a thousand acres in one day by there self anyway.  What do you do, park and stay in your car just to try to run people off, you should be out turkey hunting.  I don't know if you have ever noticed it or not but parking areas on public land are made a lot bigger than for just one car, there is a reason for that, you need to get yourself some private land, you will be happier.  I have hunted public land all my life, and never have run into an individual like you.  If I had I would have left, but I would have been back with the game warden.  In Indiana there is a law that deals with people hindering properly licensed individuals from legally hunting.  I don't think that just because you got there first supersedes that.  If I were you I would be careful, you might get up in the face of the wrong person one day, not everybody appreciates that kind of treatment.  Years ago a turkey hunter could drive on to another spot, times have changed, there are a lot more turkey hunters now days, and growing every year, with the same amount of public land.

This ^^^^^^^

[datrip]

I blame the nwtf for putting a lot of folks in the woods.

UNBELIEVABLE ^^^^^ 
smh

[CT Spur Collector]

Old Gobbler gave the best advise in his comment that I've heard in years.. Keep quiet!!!

I caught on a long time ago, don't tell anyone anything, scout hard and always keep that one gobbler in your back pocket.  From about now till opening day, I keep a log of the birds I hear, location, weather, how many hens and just about anything else you might imagine.

I don't even show it to my wife.  Haha.

Heed Old Gobbler's advice.

[El Pavo Grande]

Huge difference between parking in a parking area and parking beside someone on the side of the road or logging road.  I predominately hunt public and I've seen it all.  Folks lose their minds when it comes to hunting sometimes.  I have never and will never park beside another hunter as in the situation S & D described, but I've had it done to me multiple times. 

I believe the majority of these instances are with folks that are newer to hunting and maybe didn't grow up hunting.  No one ever taught them any better.  They need to be told and hopefully they learn from it.  I really get great enjoyment from placing a turkey feather on someone's windshield.

I agree with the notion of "it's not a lie" when discussing hunting.   .  I'm like others, I try my hardest to avoid others while near a road or truck and simply don't want to talk to anyone.  I'm not selfish and have helped plenty of others kill turkeys over the years.  But, it's on my terms of who I choose to help and too many folks want a short cut and don't want to invest time and effort in learning themselves.  I've quit hunting a few spots because a "friend" or "acquaintance" claimed it as their own after me taking them there.  Yep, for some of you guys that's their right, but it still don't make it right no matter how you dice it.  I could go on all day.

These forums and the internet are fun, but way too much "I heard 47 gobblers on XYZ WMA this morning".  But, that's a whole other subject in itself......

[d.winsor]

Turkey are in the same general area every year where I hunt, you don't have to tell anyone, and you don't have to do any scouting. If anybody has been hunting the land also they know where the birds are too.  Moving to another spot and it is the same thing, etc. etc.  So with public land trying to keep the location of gobblers to yourself is futile.  Everybody has the same information.  I guess that is why some get out of their cars and run in. 

[d.winsor]

There is one more thing I have to say and I'll be done with this thread.  When it gets to the point that some people try to control the public lands to hunt, and other people have the air let out of their tires, in one fashion or another.  Or some hunters try to run off other hunters by towering over them and being abusive, and no telling what else.  When all this gets back to the state, they will have to correct the situation of public land being over crowded.  More than likely the state will initiate a lottery or draw hunt for turkey and deer hunting.  That way the public land will have controlled numbers, and no one will have a reason to be mad at anyone else.  In that set up one might go a couple of years or more without being able to hunt public land. Just something for everyone to think about.  It may come to that anyway because as I said there are more and more hunters every year, and the public land is not growing with the numbers, The more reasons the state has, the quicker it will happen.

[Old Gobbler]

It's common courtesy , first come first served - it's public property and anyone can hunt anywhere they deem fit , but when they bump up on top of you that's not only rude , it's dangerous - I wouldn't do it to another person , so I expect they wouldn't do it to me

Some spots are known to be crowded , so I avoid them , when I park up my truck 5 miles away from the nearest person , and another person just parks up on me like I don't exist or matter - that's when there is going to be hard feelings - it's like they are saying " you don't matter" - I used to have a group of hunters who would look for my truck and hunt the spots when I wasn't there , I simply just park my truck and walk a mile or two these days

I'm not touching another persons property - that's stupid

[jmasters]

D. Winsor. I hunt exclusively on public land and i will go to another spot if someone is parked where i planned to go. That was instilled in me by my grandfather who was a old school turkey hunter. He called that respect. Apparently the public land you hunt on is different from that in the south. Like i said previously, there is 80,000 acres with no designated parking areas. There are thousands of logging roads and forrest service roads to chose from. If you dont like them then you can park on the side of a gravel road and take off. So basically what im saying is if you knowingly go into a place someone has beat you too, then yes, it says alot about your character.

[jmasters]

Well put spitten and drummen to the above statement.

[turkey_slayer]

Old Gobbler gave the best advise in his comment that I've heard in years.. Keep quiet!!!

I caught on a long time ago, don't tell anyone anything, scout hard and always keep that one gobbler in your back pocket.  From about now till opening day, I keep a log of the birds I hear, location, weather, how many hens and just about anything else you might imagine.

I don't even show it to my wife.  Haha.

Heed Old Gobbler's advice.

I do the same but if people keep seeing your vehicle parked in the same place they can put 2 and 2 together. It's up to them to figure out if I'm hunting near the road or 2 miles back or just parking there and walking the road to another area

[turkey_slayer]

Turkey are in the same general area every year where I hunt, you don't have to tell anyone, and you don't have to do any scouting. If anybody has been hunting the land also they know where the birds are too.  Moving to another spot and it is the same thing, etc. etc.  So with public land trying to keep the location of gobblers to yourself is futile.  Everybody has the same information.  I guess that is why some get out of their cars and run in.

Not here. It can be loaded with birds one year then not a track the next. Food sources are the reason here. Ohio has the most screwed up road system I've seen. You can't walk a half a mile without running into another road. Whereas here in va there may be only one way in to access several thousand acres