Slackdaddy

I hunt public land,
8 years ago I could go out opening day of muzzle loader (thursday) on Pat river park, and see almost no one out there, in 3 years had 1 hunter walk by at mid day, there where hunter out there, but they where hard core hunters. Then Basspro opened, they had pallets of "bubble packed" muzzle loaders for $69.00, these kits had everything in them and claimed to be sighted in. That year I got to Howard chapel rd (Pat Rive park) at 5:00AM, it looked like opeing day of shot gun ! I hiked in and got in My climber, Had guys walking in on Me even at 8:00Am, had one guy walk in carrying the "bubble pak and a ladder stand still in the cardboard box at 7:30 AM. He was ripping open the boxes "building the stand" and try to figure out how to load the gun. Ever since then early muzzle loader has become a zoo in MD.

Same thing seems to be happening with Bow season, I have seen a doubling of "Bow hunter" signing in on public land the last 2 years.
But I am not seeing seasoned hunters, ALOT of guys signing in at 6:00 pm walking around the woods, smoking, talking on the phone, THEN signing out by 7:30pm ??? A few years back the bow hunter seemed to be the "hardcore of the hardcore", now I am seeing a lot of "slob" hunters with bows.

I was in Basspro 2 days before bow season and they where selling bow packages "all set up" as fast as the guy could hand them over the counter !
one guy was pushing 2 carts loaded with sacks of corn, a crossbow, camo, blind, boots, etc.

This year it took the deer 2 days to go completely nocturnal on the public land.

Slack

todd a smith

crazy,,the guy building the stand is nuts..i would have left..

breakaleg

It could play a very small role I guess. I hunt in Cecil county and have no problems at all on public land.I may be the city thing. They just aren't taught how to hunt and may be on there own to learn. I really feel for you to have to deal with all that crap.

Steve F.in MD

Just way too many people on too little public land. All the private land is either developed, in the process of getting developed, or leased by those with very deep pockets. It will never get any better in Maryland. I have watched Frederick County go from being the best place to live and hunt to just a huge suburb of Washington DC and Baltimore. I will be retiring in just over two years and, as soon as I can, I plan to relocate out of the peoples republic of Maryland.

Prozacaddict

Public land anymore is starting to look likea pumpkin patch during gun season.

Rick C.

Yeah, I see a lot of guys buying bows and guns a couple of days before the season opens. I took a few months to get familiar with my gear before I even thought about using it for hunting.

One way to look at it is that these guys will get bored of hunting real quick if they expect to bag a deer without putting in much thought or effortbeforehand. After a couple of times out without seeing anything they will hang it up (hopefully). One way to avoid the crowds is togo deep.

-Rick C.

slicendice

I have to say I find this post interesting. I never really thought about the negative impact of the big chain stores and their "ready to hunt packages". I do alot of hunting on public land in MD and I have to say my feelings are mixed. On one hand, I like the idea of new blood coming into hunting. I know the more hunters we have, the bigger the voice we have in protecting our rights. And of course I see the other side of the arguement about new hunters not being courteous and ruining spots that have been good producing spots for years. The only thing I can say about that is this,a guy who doesn't scout, comes in in new clothes with a new, unsighted gun after first light, he's probably not hunting far from the parking lot. All that is going to make me do is scout harder, find those out of the way spots that aren't easy to get to and let those slob hunters push the deer to me. Sure, it takes more time to walk into an out of the way spot and it creates more work getting a deer out a spot that takes you 1/2 hour to walk to, but it is what it is. There's a piece of public land that I hunt a good bit that gets pounded, but with some scouting, looking over maps and comparing notes with other guys I know who hunt the area, it is very much possible to get away from the pumpkin patch.

Bow-4-It

Very interesting post. I agree with others that the reason why public land is getting more crowded, centers around the availability... or lack of...private land to hunt due to developement and big money hunting clubs. Also consider this, shouldn'twe blame the manufactuer'sand technology for creating the "instant hunter" instead of the big chain stores like Bass Pro and Cabela's? I mean, how many guys do you know would still bowhunt were it not for the compound bow, and how many would hunt with the muzzle loader if they didn't have their in-line? Not many I suppose.

MDNewbie

Don’t forget that we all were new hunters at one point. Perhaps these new hunters never had a father or family member teach them how to hunt or what proper hunting etiquette is. We as experienced hunters should help and not criticize these new hunters.

I think it’s great that more and more people are taking up hunting. The more hunters we have the stronger our voice will be. We need to stop fighting amongst ourselves and realize we are in this fight together.

Instead of being thankful we even have public hunting areas all I hear is hunters complaining about how crowded it is.

As for basspro shops I’m thankful we have one in MD because I can get quality products at an affordable price.

Steve863

Heck, I don't think we can blame a store for such a thing. As someone else said we were all beginners at one point. The MAJOR problem with hunting today in many if not all states is access to land. We surely can't all hunt on public land, especially in the crowded northeast. Private land is getting harder and harder to find. Not many large parcels of open land left, plus many don't want hunters on their land and the ones who do are starting to ask big dollars for the right to hunt the land. This all adds up to BIG problems for hunters and hunting in the future. I know more hunters are giving up hunting because of a lack of places to hunt than anything else. There may be more game to hunt, but it won't do us much good if we don't have places to hunt at least for a reasonable fee if not for free. The public spots will surely NOT be getting any better any time soon because of this also.