Labs
Active member
Want to preface this and say that I'm not a fan of push & block hunting nor more than 4 guns in the few times I hunt with a group for anything. My concern is safety, as in my experience it defaults to the least experienced, least safety conscious, or least ethical member of the group. Nor am I a fan of getting involved hunting with people I don't know. Nothing personal, but when there's excitement, guns, and my dogs involved, I want to know, not guess, how everyone carrying a gun will react when a rooster flushes or geese are feet down 10 feet over the spread.
That being said, if big group and push & block hunting is your thing, more power to you...
My biggest upland hunting peeve is when one or a group of hunters actively interferes with another's hunt. The ones I detest most are those who see someone hunting a field, then hustle into the line of fire and post in hope that a rooster will flush and fly over. In my experience, these are often guys that will do anything legal or illegal, ethical or not, if it means they might get a shot at a bird.
So anyway, yesterday morning the Wrecking Crew and I are working a PLOTS south of New England. Good looking cover but birds were scarce, the Crew had only put up one rooster in a half mile and it had not presented a shot. We reached the north end and and began to hunt back to the south side. There is an east-west prairie trail along the south side, my plan was to hunt to the trail then swing east and hunt back to the truck.
When we were about 250 yards from the trail, a pick up and a soccer mom SUV came slowly down it from where my truck was parked. There is absolutely no question they could see me and the Crew as they stopped on the trail directly in my line of fire. Three guys w/o dogs got out, spoke together briefly, then spread out along the trail facing me.
By this time, we were about 150 yards away and I was about to swing east to create a safety buffer and deny them the use of the Crew to push any birds to them. It was at that moment that Harley flushed a rooster about 10 yards in front of me that stayed low and flew straight at the group, then took a hard left about 100 yards from them.
I couldn't safely shoot, and was damned mad this bunch of lazy iceholes had screwed up my one shot at a rooster in nearly a mile of walking cover. One of these idiots had the gall to point at the rooster and yell "rooster" while looking at me. I yelled a few things back and pointed at him too, but only used one finger.
They again had a group discussion as the Crew and I swung east. I kept an eye on them in case they decided to meet me at my truck for a discussion on ethics & communication, which I was more than ready to engage in. One stayed on the road, the other two began to walk down a fence line on adjacent posted land. They flushed a rooster about 100 yards down the fence which they missed, then the two hustled back to the road. My guess is they didn't have permission to go on that heavily posted land (that's the only kind of private land down here. You want on, be prepared to open the wallet and pay a per gun fee.)
The three then began to walk the PLOTS that the Crew and I had just hunted. Good luck with that, my labs are very thorough hunters. We then worked another nearby PLOTS and never heard a shot from these guys...
That being said, if big group and push & block hunting is your thing, more power to you...
My biggest upland hunting peeve is when one or a group of hunters actively interferes with another's hunt. The ones I detest most are those who see someone hunting a field, then hustle into the line of fire and post in hope that a rooster will flush and fly over. In my experience, these are often guys that will do anything legal or illegal, ethical or not, if it means they might get a shot at a bird.
So anyway, yesterday morning the Wrecking Crew and I are working a PLOTS south of New England. Good looking cover but birds were scarce, the Crew had only put up one rooster in a half mile and it had not presented a shot. We reached the north end and and began to hunt back to the south side. There is an east-west prairie trail along the south side, my plan was to hunt to the trail then swing east and hunt back to the truck.
When we were about 250 yards from the trail, a pick up and a soccer mom SUV came slowly down it from where my truck was parked. There is absolutely no question they could see me and the Crew as they stopped on the trail directly in my line of fire. Three guys w/o dogs got out, spoke together briefly, then spread out along the trail facing me.
By this time, we were about 150 yards away and I was about to swing east to create a safety buffer and deny them the use of the Crew to push any birds to them. It was at that moment that Harley flushed a rooster about 10 yards in front of me that stayed low and flew straight at the group, then took a hard left about 100 yards from them.
I couldn't safely shoot, and was damned mad this bunch of lazy iceholes had screwed up my one shot at a rooster in nearly a mile of walking cover. One of these idiots had the gall to point at the rooster and yell "rooster" while looking at me. I yelled a few things back and pointed at him too, but only used one finger.
They again had a group discussion as the Crew and I swung east. I kept an eye on them in case they decided to meet me at my truck for a discussion on ethics & communication, which I was more than ready to engage in. One stayed on the road, the other two began to walk down a fence line on adjacent posted land. They flushed a rooster about 100 yards down the fence which they missed, then the two hustled back to the road. My guess is they didn't have permission to go on that heavily posted land (that's the only kind of private land down here. You want on, be prepared to open the wallet and pay a per gun fee.)
The three then began to walk the PLOTS that the Crew and I had just hunted. Good luck with that, my labs are very thorough hunters. We then worked another nearby PLOTS and never heard a shot from these guys...
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