What would you do?
 

This is a first for me.....this morning I took my 10 yr old son on a turkey hunt. We had patterned some birds and knew where they were going to be this morning. The plan worked great and we got into the ground blind about 30 min before sunrise. When flydown time came around, we had 8 hens flying down all around us. We had 3 that stayed in the field feeding and serving as live decoys. We watched them for a little over an hour without making a single call. After about 45 min of watching the hens, we heard a gobble within 100yds. We were really pumped up and I was convinced my son was finally going to get to score on his first bird........WELL, HERE COMES THE PROBLEM!! We heard a vehicle coming down the dirt road (a county road). I didn't think too much of it, until I heard the shotgun blast. The individual shot the tom about 10yds from us in our ground blind. I opened the door of the blind to see a flopping tom about +/- 10yds away and a teenage boy running down the fire break to get him. He was rather surprised to hear me ask who he was. He's in the hunting club!!!!! Also his dad (in the club) was driving the truck and told him to shoot the bird. Needless to say I had a few choice words and I am so very thankful I decided to sit in the blind instead of where I had thought about setting up......because it would have been in the line of fire for this incident. So let me have the input guys......What would you do or have done? Thanks, GB

Firstly I am sorry that this happened to you and your son. I can't imagine what you went through. I have hunted with my son nearly every weekend of the season for the last four years and I can't imagine what I would have done had this happened to me.

I think that I would do the following:

I would be inclined to kick the crap out of him on the spot, (if I thought I coiuld) but since your son and his are involved I wouldn't do that in front of them.

I would immediately call everyone else in the club and tell them what happened and move to immediately suspend this guy from the club and never let him back, even if you have to refund a prorated portion of his dues.

In my state it is illegal tol hunt game from a moving vehicle and aalso illegeal to discharge a firearm from a public road. IF the same applies to your state I would swear out a warrant with the Sherrif and have his butt served and forced to appear in court where you can tell the judge what happend and he would then be forced to explain himself. Revocation of his hunting icense would be one of many possible outcomes, and that should happen. This guy is too reckless and stupid to have the right to hunt.

i agree! im sorry to hear that this happened to you. it has happen to me before. but when i got there the guy and the bird were gone...

Have a sign in board on your club tolet others know where ( waht section of area, etc.) you are hunting.

What the other club member did was wrong to a point? Unless he violated some game regulations as mouthcaller has indicated.

Was your blind visible from where they shot? If so they are totaly in the wrong - if not and your decoys were hidden - you didn't help yourself much. Unlike deer hunting fully enclosed camoed blinds do not need to be brushed in ever.

Just my suggestion - glad yo where safe.

And I do agree with mouthcaller's other written suggestions too! Get the rest of the club involved.

JW

Sounds like a club meeting is in store.

1. Call the game warden and report what happened. He will know how to proceed with any enforcement

2. Report to the club what happened. They can decide how to proceed with any disciplinary action if needed.

Gman

Thanks for the replies. I still haven't figured out what I'm going to do. There is a bit more to it (usually is), but this is my first year in this club and this guy is the vice-president and has been in the club for years. While I've known most of the members for many years, he has known them all his life. I feel like the members would support me on the issue, but they all have family ties that I'm not a part of. I don't want to look for another club to deer hunt, but I doubt I'll go back for turkey hunting. All is not lost as far as turkey hunting goes though. I was offered a place to hunt yesterday (limited amount of land though), but there is a LOT of public land near me that I was planning on hunting anyway. The only thing about that is (public land) and some intrusions last year is why I wanted the club anyway. I just feel dejected right now......you work so hard all year long just for this time of year.....take vacation to hunt......get the birds patterned and a good plan for the hunt.....get your son all pumped up for the hunt and everything falling into place for his first bird...and BLAM from behind you.....man the more I type, the more I'm steaming!!

Thanks for the support though. The HN crowd is a great bunch!! GB

I agree with Mouthcaller - verify the legality of the issue and pursue the heck out of it. People like that have NO BUSINESS hunting or teaching their kids to hunt. That story gave me goosebumps - thank the Lord you and your son remained safe... Keep us posted on the outcome!!! Good luck GB.

Kim

This is a tough situation for you. If you try to have him banned from the club, it may backfire on you. If you call the authorities, he may make your life a living hell. What did the guy say to you when you confronted him? Did he at least apologize? I think I would have a private club meeting. What the guy did is against the law, unless it wasn't a public road. Most states require you to be at least 100 feet from a public road to discharge a firearm. Even if it were legal, it's not right. You may want to hold off for now about calling the GW. Have a meeting and see how that goes first. Sorry for what happened. That really sucks.

?I wouldnt try to get him band. Id say have a meeting and talk about it with everybody in the club, Try to get it worked out tellhim how you felt and the cluband just try to make sure it dont happen again.

same as mouth caller! i wouldve opened a can off whoop butt! and probably called the authorities.

its good that everyone is ok! but i wouldve dirtied my drawers

Could have been a big score buck that you patterned all archery season with no kill shot. Only to have him under your stand before first legal light He walks away about 50 yrds and BOOM! I know how you feel and wish all hunters were ethical. The bright side besides no one getting hurt is that your son learned a valuable lesson about why you should follow the rules. all be it at the cost of his first bird. I would call this father and let him know your concerns in private. And hope that he would understand! If not then bring it up with the club. If they keep him you don't want to be a part of that club anyway!!

As Curtis said, I would seek out calm, private restitution first. A private appeal with nerves controlled can be so effective, however this is rarely used...myself included. IF that does not work, I would let him know calmly that you are going to talk it over with some of the other club members to see what they think of the situation. Before I'd do that though, I would be ABSOLUTELY sure that no progress was going to be made just between the two of you. Give him the opportunity to go about making it right. Many people will if you simply let them rather than trying to one-up them.

If he is unwilling to rectify the situation, I would continue on with notifying the other members of the club, as well as all appropriate authorities. You gave him his chance to do the moral thing here, yet he was unwilling.

A cousin of mine had a similar thing happen to him a couple years ago while deer hunting. He gave the guy a chance to make it right and ended up with a free elk hunt in CO, and written permission to hunt the offender's other private property as long as he owned it. He came through, and went overboard in doing the right thing. Not saying this will happen for you, but you never know.

Well, to give everyone an update, I did speak with him and he was very appologetic. I also brought it up to a couple club officers without naming names (however, the club is not that big, so everyone pretty much knows who it is) anyway, there are going to be some rule changes and anyone breaking the rules is out!! No refunds, no forgiveness, no questions, and the club will call the appropriate authorities. I brought up the point that we wouldn't tolerate a passer by doing the same thing and we are all close enough friends that no one would want to live with the consequence if they shot someone. Thanks for all the replies. I think cooler heads have prevailed in this one._GB

Glad to hear that.

I had something similar happen a few years ago when my buddy and I were duck hunting. We left our house about 4:00 AM to drive to some public land. It was quite a drive to get there. We got set up waiting for sun rise, were calling have birds wanting to land in our spread. All of a sudden some hillbillie comes walking into our spread, splash, splash, splash. He stood there wanting to talk. We finally got rid of him. He went and set up on a mound behind us. We have birds working again and he starts blasting them over our heads. Here we got up early and set up in plenty of time for a good hunt. The hillbillie probably just rolled out of bed and decided to go hunt and make someone elses life miserable. Oh well. That's why we only hunt on private land now.