Public land etiquette?

[Chestle]

What a jerk. No way he could have even gotten to the SE corner in 30 minutes if he was moving/hunting that way and doing it right. Going corner to corner the hypotenuse is nearly 3/4 of a mile.

Some people just don’t think. You’re hunting alone. What if you had a serious medical problem (you or your dog) and a clown like this made you vehicle inoperative?

I think in this day and age snapping phone photos of the other vehicles is sadly not a bad idea.

 

[KS GSP]

What a jerk. No way he could have even gotten to the SE corner in 30 minutes if he was moving/hunting that way and doing it right. Going corner to corner the hypotenuse is nearly 3/4 of a mile.

Some people just don’t think. You’re hunting alone. What if you had a serious medical problem (you or your dog) and a clown like this made you vehicle inoperative?

I think in this day and age snapping phone photos of the other vehicles is sadly not a bad idea.

Agreed. Only issue is unless you actually catch the person in the act there is no evidence.

 

[westksbowhunter]

I am new to MN. This is only my second hunting season here. I am just getting started exploring the public land hunting here. I have yet to feel crowded.

You are correct that Kansas has a lot of pheasant hunters. But it also has a lot of public land.

"Kansas has nearly 1.7 million acres open to public hunting (wildlife areas and WIHA combined). This is only a small portion of the more than 52 million acres of private land that also provides ample opportunity where permission can be obtained."

The OP was talking about South Dakota. SD is a state with limited public land that markets itself to out of state hunters as the pheasant capital of the world. That is a recipe for circumstances as described in the OP.

You have stated that I am desensitized to this issue. Should we be more sensitive about this?

What solutions do you think may be effective?

Kansas has about the least amount of public land in the U.S. 98.1% is private and only 1.9% public. Kansas ranks 49 only behind Rhode Island. South Dakota has 8.9% of its land that is open to the public. Lets get facts straight.

 

[5 stand]

Kansas has nearly 1.7 million acres open to public hunting (wildlife areas and WIHA combined).
This is a fact.

 

[KS GSP]

Kansas has about the least amount of public land in the U.S. 98.1% is private and only 1.9% public. Kansas ranks 49 only behind Rhode Island. South Dakota has 8.9% of its land that is open to the public. Lets get facts straight.

I'm not sure this is taking WIHA into the equation if we are discussing land that can be hunted by anyone.

 

[westksbowhunter]

Kansas has nearly 1.7 million acres open to public hunting (wildlife areas and WIHA combined).
This is a fact.

And over half of that is not huntable. Much of it is barren cattle pastures. Wait til you get here this year, much of the crp has been scalped to the dirt. WIHA can also be pulled out at anytime the landowner see's fit.

 

[CharBroiled]

I've hunted a lot of WIHA in Kansas.
The worst experience we ever had was in Edwards or Stafford County. It was a quarter section of CRP with a tree row (not hedge or cedar) running along the western road. The tree row had a T about halfway too. We had just started,six of us, shot a rooster and busted a good covey as a caravan of trucks came by as we shot several quail. These guys actually drove down about 500-600 yards, jumped out of their trucks, spread out and CAME WALKING AT US. I realized if a bird got up someone was going to get shot.
They were a group from Arkansas and at the last minute, they swung out to walk around the T of the trees. Realizing our hunt was now busted as these guys had ruined it for all of us, we crashed back through the trees to find their trucks and a gentleman from Kansas who was "guiding" them. I was so mad I could have chewed rocks and spit sand as this guy should have known better. I kept skewering his pathetic excuses for his group's behavior.

We never walked in a group. We'd make a point to make sure no one was on the property we wanted to hunt. Trucks or orange in the field and we'd wave and move on.

 

[UplandBird]

So I got a good one for you fellas. I had my wife out hunting with me yesterday. She struggles to get her pheasant every year, she has short legs and trouble keeping up with the dogs in the field.
So, I see two roosters road side tuck into a fence line. I stop the truck 300 yards away, get my pointer out, get her in her vest and gun loaded and we start our walk. From behind us hauling butt down a road comes a pickup truck, I grab my dog so he doesn’t get hit and try flagging down the truck to let the drive know what our intentions are. He blows right past me like we’re not even there, doing about 25-30 mph dusting us out. He then proceeded to slam on his brakes in the proximity that we spotted the roosters, swings his door open and shoots standing on the running board of his truck. He shot one bird on the ground and missed the other bird that took flight. He jumped out of his truck grabbed the dead bird and blasted on down the road. I was so dumb founded I just stood there looking at my wife thinking (did that really just happen). I never seizes to amaze me how desperate people are to kill a pheasant. I would have given him a $20 bill to buy some chicken at the store so my wife had the opportunity to shoot her bird.

 

[Goosemaster]

We killed 16 over 4.5 days with 4 guys is all. We didn't see the numbers we had thought we would but still a great experience. Just couldn't believe some of the issues we ran into on public land.

Yeah, this public place I like to hunt keeps getting these redneck hicks driving trucks all over the place!

 

[Goosemaster]

I cringe to hear some of these stories. Like some other guys on this forum, I'm a life long (or long time) South Dakota boy. I'm not the world's best pheasant hunter by any stretch of the imagination, but I've harvested enough birds in my life that jumping on public ground where someone else is or will soon be hunting is something I absolutely would never intentionally do. I've accidentally entered large public tracts and bumped into folks and had the same happen to me. Anymore, I drive past all parking spots on public land to do my best to ensure that doesn't happen.

That said, I do have a couple observations.

1. Mr. I'm From Here - this guy, by virtue of being a local, has some sort of God given right to public land within a radius of his hometown. He sadistically enjoys confrontation and butting heads with out of state "city boys". This guy is worse when he's with his buddies as he is even more apt to screw up someone's hunt for a laugh. Sadly, no one ever taught him manners or put him in his place.

2. Mr. I Spent Good Money To Be Here - on the other hand, a guy that has paid good money to travel and hunt in South Dakota feels that public land is like a public restroom and he isn't going to wait to piss just because someone else is there.

Both these guys act like they've never shot a rooster before and have zero consideration of others in their efforts to do just that. Sadly, they seem to have one piece of knowledge - how to butt in and flush those birds a person has been working for the past hour.

Again, I'm sorry to hear of these interactions and can only emphasize that not all South Dakotans behave this way. In fact, a lot of us are happy to see others in the field and want to let them enjoy their hunt, and move along to find our own place to engage with creation.

The thing is, the locals aren't on the public land generally. I knock on a lot of doors in Montana, and I hunt by myself 90% of the time, so in get on some good ranches.That being said, it takes a lot of scouting, and effort, to get good pheasant hunting. I know some public land that is decent, it gets hammered by hunters, but it still can be good at times.

 

[Steelshot Loaded Gun]

I think my worst encounter was a couple of years ago on public land west of Marshall, MN... shot gun deer season had begun the day prior. My husband and I waited until 11 am to go out for a pheasant/dog/hunting walk, on the way to the proposed property, we passed an abandoned farm site surrounded by trucks/cars/loitering people 3 country miles from our wanted public land. Thinking nothing of it, we parked, prepared ourselves/dog, and loaded our guns. As we started from my truck, a whole posse of trucks/cars sped down the gravel road and pulled in behind the truck. My husband turned away in disgust with the dog as three men marched up to me and my steel shot loaded gun... "We planned on hunting this now, what are you doing here?" was shouted at me. I'm sarcastic, so my comment was "Good luck" as I beeped the truck locked and went to catch up with my husband, giggling as he was shooting a rooster down in full sight of these doofusses... No deer to be had on this property that day. Certainly it's not worth having a confrontation, personal or property damage due to others' poor behavior. I did find satisfaction in NOT budging or being intimidated... after all I had 4 long #2s in my magazine.

 

[Munster927]

My worst experience I've had is in SW Minnesota a couple years sgo. We had a relatively big group that year and about 4 of our cars were parked at the only parking spot this WMA had. It wasn't a huge piece by any means, but we had some older guys who were going to post so it was a good piece for us. We'd been there since about 7 AM holding the spot down (we left that morning from home and just drove straight to the spot).

About 5 minutes before 9 AM (our start time) a car pulled in with 2 guys in it, they jumped out and we said "hey we kind of got this spot covered" to which he replied "we've planned on hunting this spot. We were here last night running our dog and saw lots of birds". So off they went with 1 dog, ran through the field so fast and finished a pass before I even got half done with it. They never shot their gun and I had a bird in the bag within 15 minutes (which my dog pointed in an area they had just walked through).

Main take away, maybe don't pull up to a spot with 4 cars and 8 guys standing there 5 minutes before legal shooting and not expect to be thought of as a dickhead haha I never hunt a spot that someone is at. I've thought about asking if they wanted to team up, but I just keep rolling to the next spot.