Not looking foward to Saturday!
 

Rifle season opens Saturday. The woods will be filled with drunken, stinking noisy folks. I just started bow hunting this year and it has become an addiction. I am not looking forward to every Tom, Dick and Harry being in the woods armed with guns and very little knowledge. Spooking all of the deer and making them nocturnal. I feel myself tearing up slightly. My days of nice quite times in the woods are over!!!!




I'm not referring to you hunters out there just the weekend warriors!

Yeah, in some locales the weekends can be pretty crazy, especially in the easily accessed areas. Many casual hunters have little interest in scouting an area and finding the remote hard to get to spots, and often times these are the places that the older deer head to once the orange army hits the woods.

Private land FTW(:

When hunting public land go deep into the woods or somewhere away from where all the Dick's, Tom's, and Harry's think is the hotspot and scout until you find where 'ole megabuck is hiding from them.

Yeah private land is were it's at.

Last year I was hunting on a semi-public plot of land. I climbed up in one of the 6 ladder stands that were put up by the land owner 2 years ago before he became disabled. I got up there and got situated and looked through the trees and all I saw was orange....Literally.

Never again will this ole' redneck hunt on public land.

Couldn't help noticing you're from TN. I live in TN also. Do you know where Natchez Trace State Park is? Other than draw hunts thats the only public land I find worth hunting around here.

No,I've never been there bud.

Thanks for the heads up though;)

No problem. I watched two monster bucks chase doe through my foodplot this morning and I've seen a buck that will definately get over 150 so as far as public land goes I could care less lol :D

I COMPLETELY agree!! You should see some of the swingin dick IDIOTS with guns in the woods around here! I LOVE bow season....I love the strategy, the challenges, the difficulty, everything...mainly because it keeps all (correction...MOST) of the dumbasses out of the woods. In my opinion, gun season and blaze orange can both SUCK IT! I'll take bow season ANY DAY!:party0005:

Shotgun season in Iowa reminds me of my time overseas, I do my best to just stay out (even our private land), I tend to get worked up hearing the semi-automatic fire.

Glad Im not the only one. I thought twice after I posted this. I didnt want to offend anyone.

I hunt all three ... Bow, rifle and muzzleloader. I could not agree with you more. I posted a thread earlier after opening day muzzleloader about how the woods were like a Tennessee Vol football game. I look forward to all three seasons. Being able to get shots at deer I couldn't get during bow. But I don't look forward to the woods getting crowded. Fortunately, we have bow only WMA's and I go to areas that are public but not listed in WMA hunting guides. They are state or federal owned lands that are legal to hunt on.

Last time I hunted public land was close to 35 years ago. I wouldn't want to think about returning to public land.

Here in Southern Maryland hunting on public hunting grounds two things which I've noticed is when the temperature drops, there's alot fewer hunters in the woods. And alot of hunters on public hunting grounds don't like going much further than 100 yards in the woods. I love hunting muzzleloader season, I pretty much have the whole woods to myself.

Try hunting public land in PA for the rifle opener. Orange army will be out on Monday Some areas are worse than others. I do think it has gotten a little better with hunter numbers going down but not by much.

Opening day of rifle season is like going to Wal Mart on black Friday, except the Wal Mart shoppers are armed!

These days it seems as if more guys bow hunt than participate in the muzzleloader season. Muzzleloader seems the least popular of the 3 methods.

I really get tired of this too. I hunt on private land which borders private land that others hunt on. I hear shot after shot after shot while hunting coming from the same person. I'm not sure what the heck they are doing but it happens a lot around here. Are they freaking shooting at the deer while the deer are running after missing their first shot!? I've not been hunting long but do feel that I have stronger hunting ethic than a lot of my fellow rednecks out there don't have. I've never believed in shooting a moving deer. Especially a running deer like I saw a friend of mine unload on this past season (and it was a 60 pound spike at that). Another friend of mine took a 8 point buck that turned and was running away from him. He shot it in the butt and LUCKILY it didn't run long. WTF makes any since at all about doing this? Let the darn thing live for someone that can put a good shot on the thing and don't take a chance on gimping it and letting it run off and die never to be found. (tracking any distance around here would likely put you on 10 different people property). I had the opportunity to take a shot at a nice 10 point last season. The shot ranged at close to 285 yards, and i was hunting with a 7mag. I didn't take the shot even though the buck paused for several seconds in the wide open. I personally didn't feel like I could make a clean shot on the deer and passed on it. I've told multiple people about this chance I had and every single one of them say "I'd took the shoot". Exactly what I figured they would say. Why take the shot on a trophy deer that your not confident in? I understand that your not often going to drop a deer right where it stands but again save the deer for someone that can comfortably make the shot. Even more so on a NICE BUCK. I just really get tired of seeing and hearing this from the people around me.

Around here, we get the helmet wearin', window lickin, short bus ridin' sheetheads from NYC that come out and think they're Johnny Rambo - Deer slayer.
Never mind that they pick up a rifle/shotgun twice a year - at the beginning of the season and at the end to clean it - and think they're all that and a bag of chips.
MY family camp borders state land, and there's an adjacent hunt club from Long Island, some of whom I've had to chase off the land (VERY visibly posted - every 15 feet all the way around) after listening to their adamant assertions that the property is in fact theirs. Never mind it's been in my family for 4 generations, and darn near deer free anymore.
Where I used to see a herd of 15-20, I may see one or two all season. Such a shame.
Makes me very sad...such a beautiful place too.