Disrespectful Hunters!
 

I hunt on public hunting grounds here in Southern Maryland. Last Saturday morning I was headed to my stand which is about a 1-mile hike. I was headed North walking next to the stream and right before I get to my spot, I look up and there is hunter standing in his tree stand with his arms extended out. What does he think? Excuse me for walking into his area, like I knew that he was going to be hunting there. Did the state start taking reservations for hunting spots on public hunting grounds and I wasn't notified?!
So then I was like "no big deal, I'll just turn around and head south to one of my other spots that I've got picked out. I get in my stand to the top of the tree and turn around to sit down. Finally! In my stand! I look across the stream about 50-yards another hunter is sitting in his stand and waving his orange hat. WTF!! He coundn't have made some noise to get my attention before I got to the top of my stand?!!!

Honestly sounds like you got in real late. I try to get in to mine 1 hour or more before daylight. If your getting in seeing a hat, that means its daylight.

I don't mean to be rude, but it sounds like you were being disrespectful. I can't stand hunters who show up at daylight.

Its public land, how else are they to get your attention? What were they supposed to do? All a person can do is show a light and let hunters know they are there.

Respectful thing is to walk away. Maybe the guy 50 yards didn't hear ya. Did you expect him to yell out?

I believe i can say that we've all had this happen to us one time or another. I was hunting saturday (opening day for rifle) and had just got to my spot, when a hunter flashed his light at me. He wasn't but 40 yards away from me.

Luckily i scouted out 2 spots, but I've been hunting that same area for 3 years now, and have never had any one been remotely close to me. (its about a mile hike into the woods). Needless to say, he didn't get a deer, but neither did I. Only seen does.

I hunt on public hunting ground and know it's just a matter of time before someone walks into my hunting area. If I would of seen that hunter sooner I wouldn't have walked through his area. But if I do walk through someone's area, the last thing I need is some other hunter to give me an attitude like it's there own private land that they're hunting on. And yes, by time I saw that hunter and had to turn around and head to my second spot it was daylight. And you're telling me that if I don't get in the woods by 5:00am I'M BEING DISRESPECTFUL??!!!!! OK!!!!!

I have no idea if your being disrespectful or not. Might have to chauk it up as "crap happens". If you would have rolled out of the bed earlier, you could have been to your first stop and flashed him out, and that would have been it.

But the title of this thread is "disrespectful hunters".

What did you expect them to do? You got in late. Nobody gave you attitude. They just want you to leave so they can continue hunting. They are aggravated as you are.

I see no signs that he treated the ground as private property. He showed himself as there, and thats all he can do.

If you saw his arms waving in the air, as you say, you got in there late and possibly ruined his hunt. Call it what you want. I was in my stand Sat. AM at 5:20AM. If anyone would have came in, I would have flashed them with a light. Its really that simple.

Doesn't sound like they were disrespectful at all. If anything you were, not to the first guy, you saw him, turned and moved. The right thing to do.

The second guy however, you didn't see an orange hat until up in your stand, 50 yards away? Again, don't think you were disrespectful, but from his point of view you might have been, you climbed into your stand 50 yards from a guy in orange.

as long as you moved off from stand #2 as quiet as possible, then there's really no issue.

Dissrespectufl is what happened to my wife:
- got in her tree stand for an afternoon bow hunt, wearing an orange vest/hat.
- 20 minutes later a father and son came along, she waved, they waved back.
- they kept coming and stopped 15 yards from her tree and face away from her standing there.
- She texted me, after 5 minutes they hadn't moved off, so I came over.
- They siad "we didn't want to scare anything away from her" they promised to move off.
- they did move, as I was leaving. They went 40 yards away and stayed there until dark.

I kind of agree with BigCountry... It sounds like you got into the woods a little too late, and all the good spots were taken.

I sense your frustration with public land hunting areas. I've been there and done that too, on both sides of the coin. It's not easy, that's for sure... I've tried getting into the woods way ahead of time in the pitch black darkness, trying to beat the other hunters to the good spots. But then when the sun came up, I looked out across the ridge from my stand, and it was just a sea of blaze orange. I mean, it looked like a freakin' pumpkin patch! I wanted to scream!!! :bash:

Other times, I've gone way far in, way in deep, and didn't quite get in there before sunrise. Other hunters quietly whistled or went "Pssssttt" so I could see where they were. I moved to another area to give them room, and ran into the same problem. Again and again... One time I got so discouraged and pissed off at seeing like 9000 hunters per square acre, I just packed up and went home. :s8:

As it is now? I totally REFUSE to deer hunt in the public land WMA's (Wildlife Management Area) here in Virginia. They are so packed and so ridiculously crazy, you wonder if somebody is going to get shot! :eek2: I go 2-3 hours west to the Blue Ridge Mts of Virginia, out near I-81 and out near the border of WV where it's more open, more spread out, and where you don't see a deer hunter in every tree.

Don't think anyone did anything wrong.
Just 3's a crowd and you were late to the party.
Ok to get a hunters attention,
Also ok to keep quiet, thinking person is passing by and will keep on going..

The state park where I hunt gets crowed the first day of firearms season. After that the hunters seem to thin out. But normally where I hunt I don't run into any hunters. But as long as I continue to hunt on public lands that is something I'm just going to have to expect. Looking forward to muzzleloader season when the shotgun hunters won't be in the woods. But I've learned from this, if I have to wake up at 3:00 in the morning to get to my spot...then that's what I'm going to do.

You'll probably see more deer being in there before first light too. :happy0001: