Got cut off by some unethical hunters this morning.
I have been scouting this group of mallards in some flooded timber for about a week or so. First thing I will say is, this location is remote as they come, and I felt secure that these birds were untouched. So there was no big rush to get on them. So I finally got a couple buddies together and we gave it a shot this morning. Everyone was on time ready to go (which is a miracle on its own). We got there two hours early, got all of our stuff together and started heading to the spot when we saw some vehicles coming down the road. I hit them with the spots full signal on the spotlight (I don't think they took the same Morse code class i did) cause they kept on rolling. I told my buddies we should get to our spot and hold it down, just in case. Got to the hole, got setup and settled in, and about 30 to 45 minutes later here they come, we had all of our lights on so these guys would know where we were but i think that backfired, cause the skirted us and set up shop about 150 yards from us. The kicker being they went on the upper side of us (the direction the birds were going to come from). After a few choice words, I decided it was going to be ok, that is until 15 min before legal light when they started busting the sky at birds treetop high. That was it for me. I knew how this was going to transpire. They skybusted birds all morning, and then called hard at the few groups that happened to slip in on us from the other direction. I was so depressed and upset. Not a very good thing to happen this close to the end of the season.
Watch thename calling - no problem calling those hunters Unethical! JW!
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One Shot.
Last edited by JW; 01-26-2010 at 01:04 PM.
Reason: Poor language in title
That's public land hunting for you. I haven't hunted public since 1994, and don't plan to again. Back in the 80's, we didn't have a big problem with hunters getting too close, but as the years passed, more and more hunters showed up. The last time I hunted one of my favorite public holes, it was absolutely rediculous. We killed many ducks throughout the years at this place. Each year it got a little more crowded. This last time, we got the hole we wanted, only to have three different groups set up 100 yards from us on each side. The skybusting started early and continued until I couldn't stand it anymore. There were lots of ducks, but it was useless to try and work them with all the calling and shooting. I have not heard so much shooting in my life as I did that first hour. I didn't hang around much longer. I have never been back since. It was horrible then and I'm sure it's even worse today. I would rather not duck hunt at all then hunt public around here.
unfortunatly thats the way of life with hunting public
but that other group could have scouted that spot for days
and had there minds set like you did. which is why they were probly so dissmisive.
I have this problem a lot oklahoma has great public hunting but people have no clue that 250 yd min. between each group. so i started just walking up to other groups and inviting them to hunt with me or ask if my group could hunt with them most folks are cool with that and it stops the sky busting. I have done this over twenty times and it has worked great most of the time. when i didnt i still made a deal with the other group to not sky bust. i have had some great hunts and met some good guys. Try it out!
Got cut off by some unethical hunters this morning.
