Originally Posted by
Weekend Woodsmen
Last year on opening day, we were hit with the lows and highs of hunting all in one day. After being the first one to the spot, I am a waterfowl hunter, so that means something to me, but apparently doesn't mean anything to others, we had hunters swing in and cut in behind us a shoot birds on their way to our field. THEN the guy parked out in front of us TWICE and sat there forever, getting out of his truck, walking around, talking on the phone, you name it. We had decoys out and orange up, so I KNOW he saw us. It just blew my mind how someone could have such little respect.
You might have been first - but those other hunters might have parked in a completely different spot and didn't even know you were there. Turkeys also establish home areas and roost trees - so those other hunters might have patterned the same birds and knew they went to the field every day, and they intentionally planned to sit at a pinch point in their trail. Just recognize that to them - you were screwing up their hunt! Unless it's a WMA with pins and posts, then it's all fair game, and don't assume that just because you were in the area first that the other hunters didn't scout the bird for months and that they even knew you were there...
As for the guy walking around in the field - I would agree that he was completely disrespectful, or he was green/orange colorblind. There is a subpopulation of colorblind people who do not see blaze orange or pink, and that's one of the reasons we're now starting to see purple emerge as a new warning color.
To answer you're question - yes, I've had other hunters 'screw up' my hunts. However, after talking with them we all realized (at least 99% of the time) that it wasn't intentional, and most times they didn't even know I was there. It's a passion where most of us wear full camo, walk very quietly through the woods and call like a hen on the ground - it's very difficult to tell the difference between a hunter and real bird.