What would you do/ nd trip report

[HOT SPOT]

Nd trip- I got out Thurs night, and the group I hunt with got there wends mid-day. They found a flooded field and spanked the mallards and widgeon Thurs morn they were done hunting in 12 min.

Well Thurs night I meet up with the group and we did some scouting all we found was a field of about 250 honkers. To make a long story short some one hunted the roost and it destroyed the hunt. We went back to the camper to change and we saw about 400 ducks go into a flooded bean field by camp. We made a group desion. 2 of the guys had pheasant licecens so they went and did that while we mad some grub and took a little nap. At about 1 pm I got up and went to drive around when I ran into the farmer who owns the field. He told us to get are a$$es out their and kill them for him. At about 515 we all left the camper to do some more scouting. We didn’t find anything so we wanted to look at the bean field by camp. When we get there we see 5 guys out there banging away We waited for them and asked how they did and if they had permission, they told that they got permission at1200. By the way they were TOATAL pricks- So we asked them what there plans were for tomorrow and he said they planed on hunting it again. So we tried to go talk to the land owner to see what he had to say but he was out of town for the night.

Would it be wrong to go out there and hunt it knowing they have full plans to hunt it? Not knowing what to do we end up have a few to many adult drinks and slept in. What would have you done?

I even told them I talk to the owner at 1 ish and he told me to get out their. I would have thought he would have mentioned he gave other ppl permission.

Overall, we did not see many duck, we did find some geese. I think a lot of the birds moved south Thurs night. We did manage to find 2 fields for sun morn. One with ducks and geese, we couldn’t get a hold of owner that had the ducks and geese in it luckily we found a field with about 700 Geese in it.

[Flick]

You might as well avoid the conflict and go find something else.

[ikeslayer]

conflicts in the morning while dark and in wetlands or woods or fields are usually not good. I would have said to them something about going there in the morning and if they want to join you they can. or like has been said go find more ducks - its northdakota they are everywhere

[MN Greenheads]

Someone busted the roost, someone else has permisson in one field, adult beverages - didn't get up. You blamed others, drank too much,were lazy, and didn't scout or have enough time scheduled for your trip.Sorry, but that'swhat I see

[candiru]

If you see something good you need to get after it. They can be gone tomorrow.

[tb7108]

I have run into just about every situation in my 30 years of waterfowl hunting, I hunt Saskatchewan for 10 days and then NoDak later in the year, My boys and I run and gun, when we find a good pocket of birds, if and when permission is secured we will hunt them now not later, when scouting the evening for a morning hunt once a good number of birds are found the first priority is asking permission, if yes we will watch the birds till dark making sure another group dosnt come in and disturb the birds. Most farmers will not give permission to multiple parties, the farmer wants the birds away from his/her paycheck not start a war, Do everyone a favor and loose the adult beverages while hunting. Even after a good night sleep it will impair your judgement.

[HOT SPOT]

Sorry If made that sound wrong:

First off, we didn’t drink till after we realized that we dint want to go out to and wreck some NiceGuys hunt. We easily could have got up and beat them out their. I no how I would feel. So we sat around camp and played card and had a few drinks.

We had every right to hunt it. Why in the heck would 5 guys go to a spot at 530 pm and hunt for 45 min by the time that you get set up. And the reason I call them [badWordUsage]’s because when we sat by there vehicle the guy couldn’t even stop he drove right past us. And then he was a total [PoorWordUsage] threw the conversation.

I am not going to say the location but we hunt but we hunted this area for the last 8 years with out one problem finding birds and being able to kill them. This year was different, like I said before there were Thousands of birds wends night and Thurs night went to nothing. I am not complaining because like I said we were way past due to have a bad yr. From Thurs night when I got there to sat night I put on just under 350mi and that’s just my truck. We covered a lot of ground. Yes we did find some birds where we could have done decent but we are used to finding thousands of mallards.

What I was asking is what do you do when you are about 75 % sure that somebody doesn’t have permission to hunt it and the land owner is gone? We hunted this farmers land for the last 6 yrs. The posted sign was on the ground, so we couldn’t say anything for that. But they were hunting a standing crop.

[fivebucks]

In NoDak, they need permission to hunt standing crop. Maybe they got it, maybe not. I think you did the right thing by playing cards and not getting into a confrontation with those guys. We were out there a couple of weeks ago and with the cold temps we had ducks there one night and then they left with the ponds freezing. Had to put some miles on scouting.

[Fred_Bear]

Don't really know what the question is here

Just get up a little earlier in the morning and beat em to the field. What gives them the right to hunt it over you?

[TylerS]

Don't really know what the question is here

Just get up a little earlier in the morning and beat em to the field. What gives them the right to hunt it over you?

Not the best tactic, especially if they said they had permission. I've seen that done before and the results aren't pretty. You run the risk of confrontation, and ornery waterfowlers in the wee hours of the morning aren't exactly corgial. Or you wind up with PO'd hunters who surrond the field and sit in the ditch shooting at everything that flies by.

IMO its best to let it go and find a new field. Or swing by the next day and see if the birds are back. There may be a chance they decided not to hunt it and you can get in for a hunt the next day.

[carpshooterdeluxe]

situations like this are why we practice the abc's of waterfowling....

option A, option B, option C, and so on. always have another location in mind if something doesnt work out.

[RaininFeathers]

Similar thing happened to us. We got permission to hunt a farmers fields between two snow goose roosts. The first day we banged em up. The second day some dummies pulled right down by the roost about 200 yards and kicked the geese off. I thought it was an unwritten rule to leave the snows alone on their roost. Amatuers didn't even have decs. I guess they thought they could drive right up to them with their brights on and wait for them to fly over once it got light. I never talked to them so I'm not sure if they got permission but I doubt it because the farmer I talked to was soo old you could hardly understand what he was saying. Great trip overall 18 snows 2 ross 6 lessers and 42 ducks for four guys. Could have finished off the bag limit on the ducks but had enough birds and thats not what its all about. The snows have officially moved in to Devils area. The first day Thursday 22nd hardly saw any and by Sunday they were everywhere. Duck #'s were lower than usually and dropped off each day. The last day hardly any bills on Devils. Best hunting was about 45 min from main lake tho. Made buddies with some farmers with beautiful land that will be getting some wild rice mailed to them soon.

[HOT SPOT]

We had a spot that we could have hunted but we didnt really think that 5 guys would go out their with out perision. Yes, my buddy instaled the farmers windsheild yesterday and he talked to the farmer and he told us he talk to a guy from buffalo mn and he told him he can hunt if we give him perision being that he already gave it to us. When my buddy told him they never talked to us, I guess he got perty mad. Thats a good way to wreck hunting for EVERYBODY. He told him he is going to post it for now on.

[Fred_Bear]

We had a spot that we could have hunted but we didnt really think that 5 guys would go out their with out perision. Yes, my buddy instaled the farmers windsheild yesterday and he talked to the farmer and he told us he talk to a guy from buffalo mn and he told him he can hunt if we give him perision being that he already gave it to us. When my buddy told him they never talked to us, I guess he got perty mad. Thats a good way to wreck hunting for EVERYBODY. He told him he is going to post it for now on.

Very confusing post ?? can't really follow the story with all the pronouns.

But either way I know I would be getting to this field bright and early in the morning if I were in this situation. Thats how it goes with unposted fields in NoDak whether you have permission or not. Our group of 7 got beat to a field by 2 guys during early goose this year when we had gotten permission the night before and they hadn't talked to the farmer at all. The field was unposted so there was nothing we could really do about it, kudos to them for getting up extra early. Lucky enough they were nice enough and crazy enough to say we could all hunt together haha. That's kind of how it goes out here though. I run into people scouting the same field as me all the time, and its just kind of a known fact whoever gets their first has rights to the field if its not posted. On opener I actually slept in my truck at the field entrance while my buddies slept at the hotel. I chased 1 group away before my friends got there and then another group pulled in as we were setting up. But our group was there first so we got the field.

[HOT SPOT]

Its standing crop, So yes you do need permision. By talking to the guys that hunted it that night we new that they planed on hunting it the next morning, they told us. So we tryed to get ahold of the farmer but nobody was home. Yes we could have beat them out their but IF they had permision It would have definatly caused a conflict. And we honeslty did not no if it would be worth hunting being they hunted it that night.

[Fred_Bear]

Sorry didn't catch the standing crop part. You had permission though so that was no worries to you, but I do see where you coming from.

And who really wants to walk a spread through standing beans to go hunt soupy muddy sheet water anyway! ...Wait I just did that this morning