Ever been completely skunked because of dumb hunters?
 

At prime time during a hunt some idiot walks right under my stand dissrupting everything, I didnt say anything in hopes that maybe deer would still come. I was WRONG that guy took every deer in the county and shoved them into the next.

I was just wondering if something like this has happened to you?

RE: Ever been completely skunked because of dumb hunters?
 

Were you on private land?
If so, you should have called the cops or conservation officers and had him nailed for tresspassing if he didnt have permission.
If you were on public land, or he had permission to hunt the land you were on....Deal with it. Many a hunter has had a hunt spoiled by another hunter. Comes with the territory. Gotta accept it as part of hunting. Unless you are on your own land, you dont own the woods, and others should have equal access.

RE: Ever been completely skunked because of dumb hunters?
 

Yeah, definately had this happen. I was hunting private land but i dont have sole permission so there wasnt a whole lot icould do...

RE: Ever been completely skunked because of dumb hunters?
 

Although they had equal access they should have enough respect to get out in the field early or wait until the next day. That simple.

RE: Ever been completely skunked because of dumb hunters?
 

I disagree. Equal access, as you stated, is equal access. That means he has just as much right to be there as you, regardless of who gets there first. Im not trying to be a jerk, but I hear a lot of people say, "I was there first." That is simple not a valid argument. True, he could have dont the respectful thing and walked away, but, if he has access, you have to suck it up and deal with it like a man.
I shot one of my larger bucks about ten minutes after someone walked right under my treestand. Buck didnt seem to mind at all. Just goes to show you anything can happen.

RE: Ever been completely skunked because of dumb hunters?
 

I was huntin' public a few years ago in Oklahoma...I sat in my stand from 4:30 until noon. I decided to call it quits until the evening. On the way out, about two hundred yards from my stand, was a guy sitting there at the base of a tree,with his bow, smokin' aciggarete, and he asked me if I saw anything!!![:@][:@]

RE: Ever been completely skunked because of dumb hunters?
 

yup

RE: Ever been completely skunked because of dumb hunters?
 

I deal with it. Had it happen on public and on private land. Once a guy came up to where I was sitting (rifle hunting at the time), sat down next to me, lit up a cigarette, and started a conversation. This is still fairly early in the morning, prime moving time. I could not believe it. I was probably 18 at the time and he was much older so I let it pass.

RE: Ever been completely skunked because of dumb hunters?
 

I have had it happen but only by family members or friends that I allowed to hunt. Very disheartening to say the least.

Not to go off in a differnt tangent but I don't believe this is an issue of "equal access". Everyone wants to question hunting ethics and I believe this falls right into that catagory. The few times I have hunted public land I was always careful not to intrude on someone elses hunt out of respect for other sportsman. Yes I had the right to hunt it just as much as anyone else butout of respectwe didn't. We would be a far better group if everyone had a little more respect for each other.

RE: Ever been completely skunked because of dumb hunters?
 

It's happened more often than I would like it to have. 2 years ago 2 guys sat right in front of my oblivious that I was there. Did I mention I am on private land and they were tresspassing? Same field next year some guys are walking my creek with rifles and no blaze. Now I do not go into the field with my cell phone that has the Game Warden on speed dial.

RE: Ever been completely skunked because of dumb hunters?
 

I hunt heavily pressured public land in SouthEastern Pennsylvania.

I could write a book on this subject.

RE: Ever been completely skunked because of dumb hunters?
 

Yep!! It sucks.

RE: Ever been completely skunked because of dumb hunters?
 

I'm going to play the devils advocate here...When you're heading to your stand are you looking for something 20 feet in the air, sitting as still as possible,camo'd to the hilt?

RE: Ever been completely skunked because of dumb hunters?
 

well, does the fact that I'm a dumb hunter come into consideration in this discussion?

RE: Ever been completely skunked because of dumb hunters?
 

I have hunted public land all my life and have so many stories about stuff like this it isn't even funny...........Here are a couple of my favorites.

I'm in my treestand on state land and a guy walks up at 4:30 pm to sit in a make shift ground blind made from sticks and limbs (I could also see from my elevated position that a bucket of red apples was inside). I whistle at him and he looks up surprised and says "You know I made this ground blind".........I laughed and said "Yea.......it's a nice one......those must be your apples then too" (baiting is illegal here).

I was in PA for opening of rifle and I got in the woods at PITCH black about 2 hours before light. Over the next 2 hours I saw about 50 flashlights go by and when day broke there was a guy sitting on a ridge about 60 yards behind me.........I wasn't too pleased so I went up to him and said "There are over 100,000 arces in this state land so it's pretty stupid for us to be sitting on top of each other don't ya think?"..........he was a little older and his reply was "Tell me about it".......to which he motioned with his head and I looked over to see ANOTHER guy sitting about 20 yards from him. That day was a frenzy.........I kept walking until I found peace and quiet and I ended up seeing 27 deer that day.

Just this past year I had a guy come up to me and ask me if I was sitting in his stand............a very odd question considering I was in my Summit climber. I just laughed and said "What kind of stand did you have??" He says he didn't know but he thought it was right where I was sitting. I told him there was a crappy half ladder stand about 80 yards down the trail but I didn't think anyone hunted out of it..............he came back about 10 minutes later all smiles and said that was his stand and he was just happy no one stole it..........WOW.

Two years ago I also had a guy walk by with a bucket and so I waved at him to let him know I was there to which he responded and kept walking............only to sit down about 40 yards in front of me.........I hit my grunt tube so he would look and put my arms up as if to ask WTF?........he quickly moved on because I honestly think he didn't realize he was so close. He bopped around at least 3 more times before heading out early.

I have had a parade of tree huggers walk right by on a hike.........kids on ATV's........small game hunters.......dogs.......farmers.....friends and foes all show up at the bottom of my tree from time to time.


Perhaps my LEAST favorite of all hunt destroyers is when a pheasant hunter lets his dog roam through the woods. That is just plain ignorant and the fact that it's another hunter being so rude makes it worse.

Public land........expect anything.

Private land is another story and I would react TOTALLY differently to intrusions there.

RE: Ever been completely skunked because of dumb hunters?
 

Peak Chase several seasons ago:

I was hunting a creekbed travel route in otherwise open terrain on private land. I had arrived very early and by sunrise I saw the inspiration that kept me waiting all day long! Several big bucks were fighting over the attention of a couple does - one buck in particular caught my attention as he was the victor throughout the morning, running off smaller central Illinois bucks that would make a southern boy cry. Comforted with the knowledge that eventually one of the losers or even perhaps the King himself would come my way, I sat it out the entire day - through rain, cold, and sore shivering muscles. I watched the King mate with his prize throughout the day and watched challengers interrupt, only to be sent away wounded.
Near sunset, a full 10 hours after I initially crouched down in the tall grass, I felt the magic in the air. I noticed movement working my way from a half mile down the creekbed in the direction of the recently invisible mating pair. Anticipation filled me yet again and my shivers quickened from the adrenaline rush. 10 or 15 more minutes passed as I patiently counted the muffled heartbeats escaping my throat. And then I saw them...
Three pheasant hunters dressed in orange, carrying on loudly in amazement at how many big bucks they had just driven out and exclaiming how they should be bowhunting for deer instead [&o].

Like I said earlier, this was private property and although I was the only person with permission to bowhunt - the owners had given others permission to pheasant hunt the creek. Lesson learned

RE: Ever been completely skunked because of dumb hunters?
 

What you don't tell us is whether he was even aware that you were there.When you say you didn't say anything do you mean no PSST or slight whistel to get his attention (didn't throw a twinky or piece of jerky at him)? He coulda been doing his version of stalking (and it sounds like a bad version at that) and never bothers to look up. If that is the case you'd probably scare the crap out of him. Campo has avalid point but if hewalked up on you and then realized you were on stand he shoulda backed out.

RE: Ever been completely skunked because of dumb hunters?
 

Its happened to me many, many times on Public Hunting land. Nothing I can do about cause he/she has just as much right as me to be there, at any time. It pursuaded me to purchase my own land.

RE: Ever been completely skunked because of dumb hunters?
 

That's exactly what I was thinking .... I have done it and had it done to me ... it happens when you have to share a hunting area.

Also, I have also watched deer watch hunters walk by ... the deer was never detected, and mant times just went about what they were doing before the hunter showed up. I also encourage myself with the thaought there are plenty od dumb hunters pushing deer all over ... maybe even to me ;)

RE: Ever been completely skunked because of dumb hunters?
 

It happens to me all the time. It disgusts me how stupid some hunters can be. Some people just don't use common logic.

I have unintentionally disrupted hunters as well. If it's on public land everyone had better deal with it. That's what you get with PUBLIC places.

RE: Ever been completely skunked because of dumb hunters?
 

Ya, thats public land. I was hunting a strip of timber between 2 fieldsduring the rut one year. Had a nice buck come to within 75yds of me, working my way when all of a sudden he throws his head up& swaps ends& takes off. Here comes 3 pheasant hunters. The older fella stops under my tree & the other two set up to drive the field to him. Now I'm picturing this guy swinging on a bird in my direction & blowing me out of the tree. I didn't want to yell to him but he didn't hear me whistling. After yelling to him he was so startled he almost threw the gun into the air. Says he took his hearing aides out because of the shooting. :D

RE: Ever been completely skunked because of dumb hunters?
 

Not while bow hunting, but definetly while goose and duck hunting.

RE: Ever been completely skunked because of dumb hunters?
 

A tissue for footballskrat. That's all I have for you. Public land is open to the public. No reservations needed or accepted.

Like Madjac said, folks aren't sneeking thru the woods looking 20 ft in the air for someone all camo'd up - they're focusing on deer(on the ground).

Don't let that experience bother ya so much IMO. I have been interupted and interupted on public land.

A few years ago me and a nephew weregoing to give Ferne Cliffe SP (S. IL)a try on opening firearm season. So the day ahead of season we were going to do a recon. We were seeing some deer and thenwe came upon a guy we didn't see all camo'd upin a deadfall/blind he had put together - it was nice. Well he got very PO'd (I actually think he had a screw loose). "I could hear you guys coming 5 minutes ago!", "Thanks for scaring any deer away!" "Man you gotta get out of here. You probobly don't have any cover scent on and are smelling the area up.""That's the quickest way outta here (as he points)."

I just said to him, "Yeah? Why don't you take it then?" (I'm not usually so point blank - but he was a JERK.

He said he was going to tell the park super and have us thrown out. We kept on and within a couple minutes we came into a small clearing and stood on the edge talking about what we thought. Bang! DIRECTLY across from us a nice buck comes out into the clearing and we just freeze. (There's one of those deer we scared away with our noise and scent) The buck pokes along the edge and goes back in the woods after a couple minutes.

We saw more deer on the way out, too.

What does the guy think the gun hunters aren't going to be looking around the day before? Yeah - right.

Later we see him over at the shower building and he smartmouthes "Man! What do I have to do to loose you guys?" The nephew was gonna nail the guy but I stopped him - hey we're here to hunt, have a good time & enjoy ourselves, not get in trouble. I just told the guy the only thing that might get lost were some of histeeth.

A little later the park girl who comes around and collects the site fees comes by with the police. That guy said we threatened him and tried to jump him and wanted to "press charges".

I didn't give it any thought - I thought it was freaking hilarious. "And what part of this fairy tale the guy told you do you actually believe?", I asked.

He asks what do I mean fairy tale? I just asked him, "You've seen that scrawnly little wack job, right? Do you actually believe for a second that if we were going to jump him he would be able to do anything about it?"

Then we told him about running into him out in the woods earlier and how he was having a hissy fit out there. The ranger girl said that sounded just like him (turns out she knows him - he's an annual regular). The cop just ran our IDs and left - he was cool with it and the ranger girl apologized and when talking to her a bit she said she had the same opinion of him - missing a chromesone or two.

But bottom line is it may have been the first time it happened to ya - but it won't be the last. Roll with it. Use it to your advantage. Ask these "intruders" what they've seen, etc. Some may one day even drive deer to you - certainly likely and also very possible. Try to turn the negative into any kind of positive you can - no matter how small a positive (it's still a positive). That is what successful hunters always manage to do (atleast that's what I've been told by successful hunters - [X(])

And be careful - cause there's wack jobs out there. Not just the kind I just cited, but think about the WI Hmong incident and the other one that just happened.