Just when you think you've seen or heard it all...

[bdirks]

Today was a new one. I have been hunting a certain area of public ground here in Iowa since Thursday. It has been quiet up until today. That's life. A new one today though was a guy walking into where I was hunting and walked right up to me and asked how it was going, at 6:30am. Shooting time was 5:40am. I didn't even know how to answer. The guy said he and his daughter were just out listening before 4th season, next weekend. We all own the land but can we give each other a little common, seemingly uncommon, courtesy?

[Greg Massey]

Maybe he wanted to be your best friend . It's the pain of hunting public ground. Good luck ...

[Mossberg90MN]

All that public land stuff doesn't really bother me, because there's nothing you can do about it. I just accept it and move on, sucks when it happens but oh well.

But this season on public brings its whole new challenges with Covid. A lot of people being out of work.


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[eggshell]

You can't possibly tell me any story that would surprise me about public land. One time I came back to my truck to discover someone had set up a camp all around it. I walked up and unlocked my truck and looked to see how I'd pull out and a guy comes out of the camper. He looked just like the guy they'd call "bear" in a motorcycle gang. He's like all friendly and asked if I was turkey hunting and I said yes. You kill a turkey? My old lady can cook some if you want. I replied, I didn't have a turkey. He says, sorry bout the camp dude, but we always camp here and just didn't want to go anywhere else (this is National forest, along a river). I'll move my truck so you can go. I said thanks and he yells into the trailer, hey sweety bring this guy some of that chicken alfredo. I'm like no you don't have to do that and he says, my older lady will be an upset bitch if you don't eat her food. So I reluctantly agree....man it was some of the best alfredo I ever eat. So we set and shoot the bull and I say I got to leave. He ask, you hunting in the morning? I said I had planned to and he says come early I'll have coffee and I ain't letting no one else park here. So I have breakfast and lunch the next two days with my gate keeper friends and no body else hunted that gate. I did give them a half turkey breast and she cooked it like they said they would.

[RutnNStrutn]

Stupid people are a fact of life.

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[Tomfoolery]

I heard an airhorn last weekend. That was a first for me.

[Brian Fahs]

 

I heard an airhorn last weekend. That was a first for me.
[/quote
It works.
Last weekend a truck alarm someone set off did the trick.]

[WorkingBirds]

You can't possibly tell me any story that would surprise me about public land. One time I came back to my truck to discover someone had set up a camp all around it. I walked up and unlocked my truck and looked to see how I'd pull out and a guy comes out of the camper. He looked just like the guy they'd call "bear" in a motorcycle gang. He's like all friendly and asked if I was turkey hunting and I said yes. You kill a turkey? My old lady can cook some if you want. I replied, I didn't have a turkey. He says, sorry bout the camp dude, but we always camp here and just didn't want to go anywhere else (this is National forest, along a river). I'll move my truck so you can go. I said thanks and he yells into the trailer, hey sweety bring this guy some of that chicken alfredo. I'm like no you don't have to do that and he says, my older lady will be an upset bitch if you don't eat her food. So I reluctantly agree....man it was some of the best alfredo I ever eat. So we set and shoot the bull and I say I got to leave. He ask, you hunting in the morning? I said I had planned to and he says come early I'll have coffee and I ain't letting no one else park here. So I have breakfast and lunch the next two days with my gate keeper friends and no body else hunted that gate. I did give them a half turkey breast and she cooked it like they said they would.

That's funny right there!! Guess you made a good friend?

[zelmo1]

Take the good with the bad, lol. My favorite was mushroom hunters in Missouri. Ole Ed and Bob were tickled to yell back and forth while I was working a bird. 

[Spitten and drummen]

Public land just being public land. Just like turkeys just being turkeys.

[DP42912]

Today was a new one. I have been hunting a certain area of public ground here in Iowa since Thursday. It has been quiet up until today. That's life. A new one today though was a guy walking into where I was hunting and walked right up to me and asked how it was going, at 6:30am. Shooting time was 5:40am. I didn't even know how to answer. The guy said he and his daughter were just out listening before 4th season, next weekend. We all own the land but can we give each other a little common, seemingly uncommon, courtesy?

Holy sh**. As others said it don't surprise me anymore...

[Cut N Run]

Here's one of my more remarkable public land experiences;

I was bowhunting deer on some public land where I'd killed a doe a few weeks before.  Off in the distance, I hear somebody hollering, but I can't make out what they're yelling.  Suddenly, a herd of deer comes bounding past my tree like the woods behind them are on fire or something. Great.  My chances of a successful hunt in the public deer woods is probably over.  The yelling keeps getting closer, but I still can't see them or determine what they're saying.  Next thing I see is two guys dressed head to toe in blaze orange(!), carrying .22 rifles... Oh, that's right, squirrel season had started between the time I took the doe 2 weeks before and then.  Now, I can hear them yelling: TROY.  One guy spots me up in the tree and asks loudly "Did you see a boy named Troy come through here?" (I don't tend to ask people their names who might randomly pass by in the woods).  I hadn't seen anyone (& didn't tell them about the deer they spooked) and told them so.  They moved on, hollering as they went, disturbing any wildlife possible. Maybe they'd push the deer back my way? About the time they get out of earshot, here comes the second search team...TROY.  Oh no! They're in blaze too, moving like someone in a hurry walking down a city street.  This was not at all what I expected to experience on a beautiful day bowhunting deer.  They didn't see me and blew right through headed the same way as the first pair.  T-R-O-Y.  Realizing that my chances of shooting a deer that day were done, I started to pack up my gear and back my climbing stand down the tree.  Suddenly, a .22 rifle cracked twice in the next draw over, followed quickly by the BOOM-BOOM-BOOM, of three shotgun blasts.  I hunkered down behind the tree for safety's sake.  Two more guys came over the ridge.  Apparently, they missed the squirrel they'd unloaded on.  They weren't trying to move quietly or keep their voices down. One whirled and pointed to a treetop from the direction they'd just come. BOOM-BOOM-BOOM, Crack-Crack, Crack. Missed again I gathered.  This was a whole different way to squirrel hunt than what I learned..  The whole scene was so comical and pathetic that I couldn't help but to laugh out loud.  One guy heard the laughing, looked up at me, and asked "Is your name Troy?"  It only made me laugh harder.  That was the last time I hunted deer with a bow on public land during squirrel season. I wish I was kidding. I also got to wondering how you lose somebody in blaze orange in open hardwoods?  TROY!!!

Jim

[Sir-diealot]

I was hunting some public a few years ago and had some dude walk up to me and say "You look like a partier, could I borrow you lighter to light my bowl man?" I told him "Back in the 80's I may have been down with that if there were no firearms around, but man the 80's were a long time ago dude." He just said "oh" and turned and walked away.

[tlh2865]

Some nice stories on here

[Pluffmud]

Theres a high school kid on the river where I duck hunt that loves to run up in your decoys "just to see if yall are doing any good," during the morning flight. The first time I gave him a pass and said "we are trying to hunt, we can talk at the ramp." The second time, I had birds in my decoys. They were ruddy ducks, so I wasn't interested in shooting them anyway though they were making good confidence decoys, but he didn't know that I didn't want to shoot them. I told him to take a hike and don't ride up on me again, basically. The next day, my buddy who knows of this kid somehow, showed me a picture of him on his FB, at the spot he rode up on me and flushed the birds out of my decoys, with 12 ruddy ducks. So he intentionally flushed those birds away from me during my hunt, then comes back the next day to kill them. And that is your new age "bro" hunter. Yes, he wears a wide flat billed hat and yes everything he owns is in new bottomland camo.