Lock and Load for the Opener

[Jayhawk]

Kind of depends. There used to be a half section of good CRP that we tried to hunt opening morning. There was always one truck with 2 guys and 2 dogs there very early. I think they slept there. They camped out on the east side and would walk a mile through to the south and then a mile back, right over the same ground. Our group would often take a pass down the east side. There was plenty of space in between and no harsh words. No words at all really. The problem was when other groups would try to fill in the space or walk a different direction.

Just yesterday we (3 of us) rolled up on a WIHA as a guy and his son were getting ready to hunt it. They were from Missouri. I stopped to chat, but really didn't have any intention of hunting it. They were already there. Anyway, he invited us to hunt the other end, saying there was no way he and his son would hunt the whole field. I thanked him. We took a closer look at the south end of the field, decided the cover was too thin and moved on.

Had something similar happen south of Hays a few years ago. Was getting ready to walk a quarter section of WIHA when a couple of trucks from Crawford County pulled up. They asked to join and I said sure, and I wound up killing a couple of quail that their dogs flushed but flew towards me. But I worry about being out there with Alabama plates--have heard stories of hunters with out-of-state tags getting tires slashed at the boat ramp. Just doesn't create a very welcoming vibe. Hunting used to be about camaraderie. Now it seems more about competition, especially for hunting spots and access. Maybe one of the reasons the old folks are hanging it up and the younger ones aren't even starting. I sure don't get upset when I see Kansas tags headed down to Gulf Shores in the summer--but maybe that's because there's still plenty of beach and we need the tourist money.

 

[Obi_Wan]

I've been in the same spot only maybe a bit worse.
We were walking a 1/4 of WIHA down in Edwards county. It had a great tree row on the west edge and another tree row which kind of bisected the middle, jutting out from the one bordering the road. Four of us had decided to walk it, and had just shot two roosters and busted a covey as a convoy of trucks from Arkansas drove past. They continued down the road, stopped probably a 1/4 mile away, jumped out, spread out and CAME towards us. They were being "guided" by a guy from KS, whom I may or may not have dressed down about a lack of safety and ethics. We quit heading to Edwards Co after that incident.

Had sort of the opposite happen to us once. A group of us from Arkansas went up to Ford, Hodgemen, Gray, and Finney counties to hunt. A local “guides“ us. One member of the group has been going there for 48 years. Several others over 20 years. Luckily, we hunt mostly private land, but some WIHA. We never hunted something someone else was hunting. Kind of like fishing etiquitte. Don’t pull your boat in front of the guy that’s already there. Anyway, on to the story. We pulled into some private land that had a long road off the highway to get to. When we got there a Kansas guide was walking the field we were about to hunt with several clients from Kansas and several dogs. We watched the dogs push lots of birds off the field we had permission to hunt onto one we didn’t. It was clear they weren’t trying to kill them on “our“ field, but they were pushing them off it onto one they could hunt. This wasn’t on the edge either. They were 300 yards into the field we had permission to hunt and had to watch them just barrel through our spot. Our local host was livid and the guide ended up admitting this wasn’t the first time he had been run off private land he didn’t have permission to be on. Said he thought he was on the right land. Some of his clients were mortified.