PABowhntr

I hunt heavily pressured public land in SouthEastern Pennsylvania.

I could write a book on this subject.

Huntinlady

Yep!! It sucks.

Madjac20

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?

txjourneyman

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

atlasman

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.

HAZCON7

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

BKE

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.

j_beste

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.

PreacherTony

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

outdoorslover

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.