What would your reaction be?

CharBroiled

CharBroiled

Active member
On Opening Day, I had a friend hunting an area of public hunting which required a check-in and non toxic shot. While they are in the field or just beginning, SEVENTEEN pickups all from Texas rolled up on them (in a quarter section) and hunters poured out of the trucks. My friend kind of asked, "hey what's going on" to which he was told "This is public hunting, we can hunt it and we will. You just stay on your half." They lined up and started marching.
My friend's dog went on point. Before he could get over to her, someone from the group ran over and shot the pointed rooster over my friend's dog. If it was me, I think I would have probably lost my mind a little. And probably would have made a quick call because I'm willing to wager none of those guys checked in or had non-toxic shot. What about y'all?

I've been walked in on, on WIHA in Edwards County. Four of us had just started, working a treeline when we shot a rooster and busted a covey of quail as a convoy of Arkansas hunters drove by. They must of heard us shoot as they drove down about a quarter mile or so, jumped out of the trucks, spread out and walked at us. When they were about 75 yards away, they swung out wide and went away from us at a 90 degree angle. Yeah, I did yell a little about being safe. We realized they had ruined our hunt so we started trekking back to our starting point. There was a guy from Kansas, basically guiding this group from Arkansas, sitting in his truck. I was mad enough to chew rocks and spit sand, so I yelled at him. He did a lot of him-hawing and sputtering because I think he realized how in the wrong his party actually was.

We're getting close to someone getting shot in an accident and there being no repercussions or consequences from irresponsibility.
 
If you do drop a dime on guys like that and a KDWP officer finds them in violation I would think you had better be a hundred miles away as quickly as possible. They would likely want some payback if they saw your vehicle parked at a motel that night.
 
Wow! That’s wild. 17 trucks? Shooting a bird over your friend’s pointed dog? I’m usually pretty calm, cool, and collected, but I have no idea how I’d have reacted to that one.
 
That’s why I don’t hunt opening weekends any longer for anything. Hell, I rarely even hunt anymore. Just to many people these days.

I have turned to fishing almost exclusively. It’s crowded as well but at least I can get away from them and nobody is shooting guns haphazardly!
 
That’s unfortunate my friend. And unfortunately it doesn’t surprise me in slightest. The good ol’ days of people treating each other like neighbors seems to be too far away in the rear view. I couldn’t tell you how many people I saw driving around and hopping out and shooting roosters off the road with no WIHA for another half mile or more. And I can assure you, these were not local landowners or leasees.
 
I would have asked them why they replaced their Minnesota license plates with Texas plates, and why the heck they drove all the way down to Kansas to shoot roosters. 😉

Last year I had my daughter with me on Minnesota opener. We were parked at one corner of a small area. We worked it down to the edge, about 300 yards down, and then crossed over to the other side of the road and hunted a little patch over there, pushing some birds back to the first section. Some idiots pulled over 50 yards from our vehicle and piled out into the small section just as we were crossing back over the road (I assume they saw the birds fly over there). I waved my arms in the air and made noise, thinking they didn't see us, but they just kept on hunting.

I recently had some guys in SD hop out and shoot a rooster (that they presumably saw run in from the road), after I had been sitting at the spot for 30 min before shooting time, and with me in the field, 80 yards down, in the direction they were shooting.

A common problem, especially on opener, in Minnesota, is guys parking 100 to 200 yards down from you and getting into the same area. Too many hunters for the number of properties, and they don't want to get up early enough to get a spot or don't want to drive to find a spot that isn't occupied. If it is a large property and they park at a completely different access, I don't have a problem with it. But it shows a pretty big lack of sportsmanship to jump into an area close to another group, and isn't safe.
 
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Plain2SeePlainsman said:
That’s unfortunate my friend. And unfortunately it doesn’t surprise me in slightest. The good ol’ days of people treating each other like neighbors seems to be too far away in the rear view. I couldn’t tell you how many people I saw driving around and hopping out and shooting roosters off the road with no WIHA for another half mile or more. And I can assure you, these were not local landowners or leasees.
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Did you call them in? Wiha or no wiha, can't do it in Kansas.
 
We were hunting some public yesterday, had a spot in mind we wanted to hunt. Pull up to the spot, start getting ready, just about to get the kids out. An older dude, pulls up in his new tahoe, parks, gets out, slings some dogs out and immediately starts hunting right on top of the spot we were about to hunt.... worked out alright because that forced us to hunt a different spot and we got into 3 coveys and moved a couple phez!
 
Frangler said:
Colorado residents should get the first week of elk season then too... lol
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Colorado DOW doesn’t give two hoots about residents. They’re tied to the mighty dollar and at $700 plus for a OS Bill tag I’m surprised they don’t have a NonRes only BEFORE the locals take to the woods.
 
Not that much of a surprise given it a weekend and on an opener.

The only part that does kind of surprise me is that they weren't from Minnesota. Whole lotta people here love to paint the disrespectful brush on that state. Clearly it can happen with hunters from other states too, and an example has been posted above.
 
gimruis said:
Not that much of a surprise given it a weekend and on an opener.

The only part that does kind of surprise me is that they weren't from Minnesota. Whole lotta people here love to paint the disrespectful brush on that state. Clearly it can happen with hunters from other states too, and an example has been posted above.
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My guess is we simply have more people in Minnesota -- about twice as many as Iowa and Kansas and over 6 times as many as South Dakota. Our pheasant territory (with decent bird numbers) is mostly concentrated in about 1/3 of the land area of the state. During opener, especially, the ratio of vehicles to public land properties is too high and the scarcity brings out the worst in people. It may just be a matter of it happening more, because there are more chances for it to happen.
 
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