2021 Season

I've read the horror stories about opening day ass@#$#$%, but we've always had good luck....until this year. We were waiting at our WMA spot for about 1.5 hours. At about 8:40 a guy pulls up in a truck by himself, no dog. He gets out, slams his door shut and starts walking through the the WMA. Literally right in front of us. We were dumbfounded. One of our guys tried to stop the guy for a discussion. He just keeps on walking.....

Overall, we saw more hunters than we ever have for an opener. We busted our butts for 6 birds, four guys. We thought that was a pretty good result.
 
Sorry in advance if this has already been mentioned. I saw that the Minnesota youth deer season starts tomorrow through the weekend. Make sure you meet blaze orange requirements if you hunt the next several days.
 
Glock said:
Sorry in advance if this has already been mentioned. I saw that the Minnesota youth deer season starts tomorrow through the weekend. Make sure you meet blaze orange requirements if you hunt the next several days.
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Was gonna post the same thing. You beat me to it. Watch out for deer hunters too.
 
We all share the public property.

I have never done this but I may do it soon. I plan on arriving very early at a WMA. Park at an available parking spot. Then I will carry my cased gun and walk my dog, on a leash to the far side/corner of the property.

I will sit down and wait until legal shooting time arrives. I will then hunt my way back to my car. I figure that anyone starting from the parking area has to know that I am there and will likely push birds my way.
 
We need to remember that we all share the public property.

I have never done this but I may do it soon. I plan on arriving very early at a WMA. Park at an available parking spot. Then I will carry my cased gun and walk my dog, on a leash to the far side/corner of the property.

I will sit down and wait until legal shooting time arrives. I will then hunt my way back to my car. I figure that anyone starting from the parking area has to know that I am there and will likely push birds my way.
 
John Singer said:
We need to remember that we all share the public property.

I have never done this but I may do it soon. I plan on arriving very early at a WMA. Park at an available parking spot. Then I will carry my cased gun and walk my dog, on a leash to the far side/corner of the property.

I will sit down and wait until legal shooting time arrives. I will then hunt my way back to my car. I figure that anyone starting from the parking area has to know that I am there and will likely push birds my way.
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Technically John, it wouldn't need to be cased. You could be hunting Huns or Doves or something. Crows even. I've done that once, walked to a back corner before shooting and worked my way to the truck. It was with a big group and we just met in the middle. I walked out with my dog on a leash, my gun uncased but unloaded.

It felt funny but I was comfortable I wasn't breaking the law. It's kind of a weird place to me, at what point am I pheasant hunting? I can be in the field before 9 AM, maybe I'm taking a walk with my dog and an unloaded gun, that's not against the law? Or maybe I'm hunting Huns/crows/doves. Obviously if I shoot at a pheasant before 9 AM, 100% breaking the law
 
I understand/agree that we all share public property. I also think that hunters need to also be sportsmen and women, and should follow written and unwritten rules for hunting, and represent our sport well. 95% of the pheasant hunters I've met have been great. The other 5% - not so much. There are a lot of things people can do that are not technically illegal, but still qualify as classless moves.
 
I have had some pretty frank conversations with people that have taken or tried to sneak in on spots that I’m parked at. It’s absolutely unbelievable the lack of common sense.
My rules …
If you see someone at a spot under 160 acres move on to the next one.

If its 160 acres or bigger stop and have a conversation before you just hunt It. If they say no move along.

Do a drive around the spot make sure no one is on it.

Lots of public land available these days. Lots of ways to locate it.
 
Hunted the western part of the state for the fist time ever. Got to a WMA spot 2 hours early and I’m sure glad we did, lots of hunters out. Missed an easy rooster early on in the walk. Sunday I knocked one down that I unfortunately could not find. All in all I probably saw 30 birds over the weekend. A number of close hen flushes and only two close rooster flushes. A lot of birds were flushing off in the distance across corn. I’m hopeful that hunting will improve as more crops come out!
 
I see this as predominantly a MN problem (at least in the upper midwest). I have never been encroached upon in the Dakotas, IA or even WI (well a couple of times and it was always a Minnesotan).

Many Minnesotans have the opinion that it is public land and open to all.

In MN between the Walk In areas, WPAs and WMAs ... there are plenty of "other" spots.
 
I have a hard time believing that a game officer would permit someone to enter a field before 9am with all their pheasant gear, blaze orange, dog, etc and buy the story that you were "hunting crows." If you are going to go into the field more than a few minutes before legal shooting time, you better be able to prove that you really are NOT hunting pheasants. I realize that all kinds of hunters get to their spot early. Duck hunters get there early to set up decoys. Deer hunters get in their stands in the dark. Turkey hunters set up in the dark. Its common practice to do that sort of thing. But walking through the field at 7:30am toting your upland gun? Not sure about that one.

Dealing with other hunters is one of the reasons I stopped hunting public land a long, long time ago. Although I never did it much for roosters, I ran into this problem regularly with other duck hunters. We'd set up in a prime spot and another group would show up after us and set up 100 yards down. Got old pretty quick. But its public land and no one owns it. First come, first serve.
 
gimruis said:
I have a hard time believing that a game officer would permit someone to enter a field before 9am with all their pheasant gear, blaze orange, dog, etc and buy the story that you were "hunting crows." If you are going to go into the field more than a few minutes before legal shooting time, you better be able to prove that you really are NOT hunting pheasants.
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That's what I struggle with in the rules. I've done this once to set up a big walk to meet in the middle of a field, definitely not a common practice of mine and I probably wouldn't do it again. But how do I prove I'm not pheasant hunting? If I have a small game license and duck stamp, there are lots of things I could be hunting before 9 AM in pheasant country.

Not trying to start a debate but its just one of those random things I'm thinking about given the recent comment about hunters in the field before 9.
 
I love getting into the nitty gritty details of the regs. Fwiw the dnr has "shooting hours" listed, not hunting hours.

I don't think a CO would or could do anything about a person walking a field before shooting hours, as long as there's no shots fired. If I was worried I'd just leave my gun unloaded until 9am. Unless you plan on jumping ducks.
 
Munster927 said:
That's what I struggle with in the rules. I've done this once to set up a big walk to meet in the middle of a field, definitely not a common practice of mine and I probably wouldn't do it again. But how do I prove I'm not pheasant hunting? If I have a small game license and duck stamp, there are lots of things I could be hunting before 9 AM in pheasant country.

Not trying to start a debate but its just one of those random things I'm thinking about given the recent comment about hunters in the field before 9.
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I don't see you as the sort of person who would try to get away with starting before legal shooting hours. Your posts are detailed, accurate, and well thought out. That being said, if it was me, I would not use the excuse "I'm crow hunting" unless you had the stuff people actually use for crow hunting. I've never done it, but I assume they use crow decoys and a crow call.

Game officers know when you're lying. If you have a real, legitimate excuse to be out there before 9am and you have the proper gear that is commonly used, he might buy it.

This is really just getting into nitty gritty minor details. I'd rather just wait until legal shooting time to get to my spot and not risk it.
 
Id totally agree Gim. Maybe crow hunting was a bad example haha a guy could be rabbit hunting or something tho. Either way, I keep myself out of the field until 9 AM 😂

Now don't get me started on not having my license on me in the field haha I've been stopped twice in the field for not having it on me (I often leave my wallet in the truck and forget to take my license out and put it into my vest). Both times just a warning as they could look it up. But the 2nd time the CO made me walk half a mile back to my truck to show him my license. I pay for an extra copy of my license now and just leave my spare inside my vest all season long.
 
Munster927 said:
Id totally agree Gim. Maybe crow hunting was a bad example haha a guy could be rabbit hunting or something tho. Either way, I keep myself out of the field until 9 AM 😂

Now don't get me started on not having my license on me in the field haha I've been stopped twice in the field for not having it on me (I often leave my wallet in the truck and forget to take my license out and put it into my vest). Both times just a warning as they could look it up. But the 2nd time the CO made me walk half a mile back to my truck to show him my license. I pay for an extra copy of my license now and just leave my spare inside my vest all season long.
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There is absolutely no reason for a DNR to not have a license app at this point so you can keep it on your phone.
 
s.davis said:
There is absolutely no reason for a DNR to not have a license app at this point so you can keep it on your phone.
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I 100% agree but it won't help me at all. I rarely have my phone on me when I'm hunting. If I'm hunting alone, I'll put it in my pocket as a safety measure but with a group, I never have it on me.

I usually have a pretty heavy vest to begin with so I try to lighten the load haha
 
s.davis said:
There is absolutely no reason for a DNR to not have a license app at this point so you can keep it on your phone.
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I was told you can online purchase a duplicate and save it on your phone. I always carry my phone as I typically hunt alone but many times leave my billfold in the truck for fear of losing it.
 
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