Slob Hunters

[Tour. Pro 175]

Well opening day of the 2003 early goose season is almost over and I am once again reminded of how many hunters seem to forget the etiquette of hunting.

This is the first year that hunting geese on open water was legal in my part of the state. I was looking forward to this opportunity. I also knew this would be popular with other hunters as well. My hunting partners and I agreed that a early start would be critical to obtain a good spot as we were hunting public water. At 4:00 a.m. we were on the water, a half hour we were at our location. the trouble started a hour later when a convoy of trucks and four wheelers pulled up to the river bank. A dozen guys and four boats hit the water with such speed that Patton would have been impressed. the island that we were on was 20 yds. long, we were standing on one end when the lead boat landed on the other end and seemed to be content on staying. when we approached them we were civil and exchanged good mornings. We informed them that we intended to hunt the island and also the tip of another a short distance away. They informed us that this had been their hunting spot for eighteen years and asked if we had seen anybody on the S. side of a larger island to the South. We told them that yes there was some other groups setting up there, with that the two boats left, or so we thought they paddeled 150 yds. S. one boat proceeded to set up the other disapeared into a small channel directly behind on of our blind. in the meantime the other boats proceeded to set up to our N. one 40 yds. directly behind us the other 70 yds. to the NE. We could hardly believe our eyes, but with shooting time a mere few minutes away and birds in the air there was no time for a formal confrontion, just a few {what the hell do they think they are doing} loud enough so they heard. With shooting hour at hand and no birds in sight we were serenaded with the constant sound of bike horns, I mean goose calling. Needless to say that even with unpressured geese these birds were'nt falling for it. Well we did manage to shoot a few geese, but once again this was tarnished when one of our heavily hit birds drifted a little to far from our blind {50 yds.} it was quickly dispatched and retrived by two of the young sons of these guys and added to their bag. Knowing that our day was going to be a bust I don't know how we kept our kool, I guess it was the fact that they had their young sons with. The thought that these Dads were teaching their young sons that this unsportsman like conduct was appropiate made me sad. The thought of possibly another generation of slob hunters made it even worse.

The day has ended. As I sit here pondering the mornings hunt I'm a little depressed. A lot of work went into preparing for this hunt only to have it ruined by a few individuals. I'm not suprised by the actions of these individuals. I've seen it before and I'm sure I will see it again.

I would ask that anyone that reads this post, the next time that you are out hunting and encounter other hunters. Please treat them and your actions like you would like to be treated. I think if we all live by this philosophy we will all have great hunts.

[Riverratpete]

Yeah brother!, sorry to hear of the bad experience, were you in the metro area? If you were I'd say that's pretty much par for the course. Its sad but it's been my experience in the past few years that the conduct of other hunters in the metro has gotten alot worse, alot of "me first, screw everyone else" mentality. Of course most of these yahoo's show up at the last moment before shooting and expect to get theirs, totally disregarding the fact that the people that are there probably got their FA's out of the fart sack earlier to get the spot that they wanted..hmmm.. a little foresight and work, new concept for some I guess. Here's your options.(1) hunt farther away from the city (thats what I do) (2) wait and hunt later in the year when it's cold/miserable and all the fair weather hunters have gone home and only the "hardcores" are there and I must say I've never run into a problem with other "hardcores"later in the season. Just my opinion for what its worth.

[fishface5]

You have put your finger on the #1! problem with Minnesota waterfowl hunting. It is NOT! a lack of birds. It is, over crowding, and un-educated hunters!, It is Bismouth and 3,1/2" shells, (shoots farther, kills longer), it is people who'd rather pay to go to nodak or canada rather then change things here. I watched people educate 65+ yard birds. They would drag 1 down, but had they not shot, the geese would have landed in someones spread and they would have shot 3 or 5 birds! "If I can't shoot'em nobody's gonna", seems to be the montra. When are we going to change things, attitudes, in this state?

[Tour. Pro 175]

This incident occurred up in Morrison Co. I have hunted the metro. and yes it is bad and getting worse. But it's everywhere, I've encountered it even in the middle of N. Dakota. It's spreading like a cancer and we need a cure.

[Mark Christianson]

Interesting weekend for us too.
Overcrowding, and some sky busters in the area.
Its ironic, that to keep the sport, we need to grow the hunting base. The fewer people that hunt, the more out-manned we get within the world of anti-hunters; yet if we want more hunters to continue our traditions, we are going to be butting heads because space is limited.
The area we hunted this weekend was FULL of hunters. Never seen anything like it. Not that I had an onslaught of people crawling around us like Tour Pro, but everywhere around us was filled. On the farmers land I hunt on, all of a sudden there were 3 more trucks. And of course 2 of them were in a field that we wanted. The farmer never mentioned that others would be out there, so I was a little chapped.
The field to the north had hunters, the field to the south had hunters, the lake to the SW had hunters, etc......
Then comes the skybusters. Man, I saw a couple flocks of geese get shot at, that knock my shorts off. Worse yet, a couple of those bunches, the jerks did the classic single shot(educator) round. Why, Why, Why???
Geezus.
We didn't get any birds, but that isn't the disappointing part. Just seeing everything deteriorate around me, that has been so peaceful for so many years is what gets to me. Ducks were everywhere, so I am hopeful that in a couple weeks on the youth opener, I don't have to watch the same shananagins and my son can shoot his first duck.
PS - I was so pumped for this weekend, and I am home now, feeling a little empty.

[Dean Schellinger]

I agree with everything said so far regarding this post. Where we were hunting the fields in all directions were covered by other hunters, and despite the fact we were the youngest group of hunters out there, we by far had the best hunting etiquette. It was unbelieveable how these middle aged men acted when geese were around. If they were within 125 yards they took a ram at them, several times because they didnt like what they saw with their spread and turned our way. They too usually gave 1 shot at them just to give them a scare and keep them from coming into our spread. I know our hunting group really got screwed out of alot of geese and after this highly anticipated weekend of hunting I am both disappointed and and a little [PoorWordUsage]ed off. People just amaze me sometimes with the stuff they do, this was definetly my worse experience with slob hunters and I just hope it gets better before it gets worse. I know I got very frusterated and after all the time and money I spent getting ready for this weekend, its sucks to see uneducated, wannabe hunters out there ruining it for everyone else. FT

[Guest]

I call it "Blind Rage"

See it all the time duck hunting. Total slobs.

I don't know what can be done. Most of these jerks have kids who learn from them so it just multiplies the problem.

I gues we could push for mandatory hunter education classes before people are allowed to hunt and they must take refresher courses every 5 years or so. I know that kids must take a firearms safety course, but if I remember right, we really did not get too much training on hunting etiquette or how to judge appropriate shooting distances.

I guess we all just need to make sure that WE do not slide into THEIR catagory and to keep our cool when we are faced with their stupidity.

[Guest]

With all these negative stories on the post i will post a positive one. In the course of a flurry of geese we crippled one and it sailed on us up the river to another group. We heard shooting at it so we were content with the fact that at least it wasnt fox bait. About an hour later after another barrage of shooting from the next group north and a bird falling, our dogs took off and grabbed the dropped bird. As we were heading up the river with our hats in hand, a hunter from the other blind came out and said that he had gotten our cripple and that he was going to bring it to us but to just keep the one that our dog stole and we would be square. It was very refreshing to not have to get into a battle over it and that hunter gets a tip of my hat for his sportsmanship.

From an update side, I believe the goose population on the Mississippi south of brainerd took a hit, we saw a lot of birds fall in addition to our 9.

[Sartell Angler]

Well put Brian, well put...
Ado

[honker23]

I saw the same dump this weekend too, and it has been bad on the lakes duck hunting for a couple years now. When the limits were 3 ducks a day, I remember hunting on a large slough with 3-4 other parties. All did well, no one screwed up others hunting. Now the same same spot has 15 parties on it and they get there at 12:30 am. They cant call can't shoot and wreck hunting for everyone on the lake. We need more habitat.

[duckbuster]

Obviously everybody knows this by now after reading the post, but who ever coined the phrase"MN NICE" is a moron!!!!!!!! It doesn't matter where you are, on the hwy, on the golf course, in the woods or on the lakes hunting or fishing. People in the state of MINNESOTA are rude, plain and simple. Just like an earlier post mentioned " ME,ME,ME and the hell with everbody else". Like Tom said though those of us who know right from wrong must not get sucked into there evil ways!!!!
GOOD LUCK & GOOD HUNTING

[Rick]

I have to make a point here guys, some of you are sounding just like the guys you're talking about. Think about it before you resort to name calling.

I agree with you, there are uneducated and selfish people out there. Don't bring yourself down to their level with name calling.

[jegerjack]

I have completely given up on public hunting land. Yes, it will cut down on the amount of hunting I can do, but with the way the world is today I do not want to encounter anyone with hunting rage.

JegerJack

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"What did the old man trade for these guys, a used puck bag?"

[Riverratpete]

Thought just occured to me, having read many posting in the past few years about the same problem (slob hunters,skybusters,etc..) I'm beginning to think that it is more a lack of education and just plain ignorance of not knowing the proper etiqutte. How about when the Star Tribune/Pioneer Press etc. puts out all it's info on the hunting, they dedicate a page to the "10 Commandments" of gun safety, proper hunting ediqutte ie. no skybusting,don't row through other people dekes as the ducks are coming in,. I have personnally introduced several adults to hunting in the last ten years that had never barely shot a gun before. I've never had problem 1 with them, if anything they have a tendency to hold their shots. I'm not saying I'm the greatest teacher, but being in the military for 20 years helps with the whole firearms thing. I'll gamble to say that alot of this bad behavior is from people that need to be reminded of the rules/etiqutte every now and then. A good kick in the cosmic *** is good for the soul.

[Guest]

Geez...you guys should get away from the crowds. My son and I hunted public water this past weekend and never encountered another soul either day. All that water and all them geese all to ourselves ...it kinda-sorta makes me feel guilty(NOT!)...listening to your stories.

[ice banger]

well i think alot of it comes down to this.these people that call them self hunters are people who have never been out with a real sportsman.they buy the gear and they hit the lakes or swamps and they think because they pay for a license and stamps they are intitled to do whatever they want...last duck opener i seen it frist hand two guys parked there truck in the middle of the trail to block us from getting acess to a slough my family has been hunting since to 40s.we didnt care they were there.the thing that really made me mad is it is state land and they thought they owned the slough...so it brings me to this thought. think back to when you were taken hunting as a child and who took you and what they taught you.im sure that they taught you 1st safty and then respect the land and respect the others around you..i still hunt with my teacher and i still learn from him every year..and i hope when its my turn to pass my wisdom on to somebody i do half as good as my uncle did for me.....ice banger out

[full force five]

We've all been there, done that. It's interesting that the hunts most people remember are the ones where everything went wrong. Every year even in Minnesota things come together, no other hunters, plenty of birds over the decoys, and good shooting. Remember those fellas, it's what keeps you going back for more!

[MG - Fishin']

After reading all of these posts I wonder where these people ever received their hunting ethics or lack there of. When I first went into the field with my Dad after my gun safety training, he pounded everything into my head regarding safety and ethics. And to this day I thank him very much for bringing me up the way he did because I practice these ethics/morals every time I have a gun in hand or am in the boat fishing or one the ice. But here's a little story I have about last years duck/goose season just outside the metro area.

I live in St. Michael and had a couple of hours of shooting time left after I got home from work and decided to hit the waterfowl production area off of Hwy. 119 in St. Michael. So I pull in and no one's there at all. I'm thinking I might actually be able to get a few shots in tonight w/o anyone else around while they fly to the water for the evening. I walk down the beaten trail for a mile or so and hide out down by my spot at the corner of this slough. It was a clear afternoon so everything was flying sky high. So After sitting there for a while waiting I decided to take a little walk about and see if anything was happening anywhere else around the area. I'm heading back down the trail and can see two guys sitting about 20 feet down the trail from the parking lot. I'm thinking that it's probably someone just doing some normal scouting, like the rest of us do. And they can clearly see me walking down the trail now. Then I hear "honk, honk, honk." So I hit the weeds and try to hide out and see if they'll come right over head. Just as I'm about to stand up and pull the trigger, it sounded like I was in Baghdad. Bang, bang, bang, and so on. I can hear BB's whipping through the weeds and not a single bird dropped anywhere. First of all there was no way any of them had a plug in and they were blasting right over the top of me. Now after my hearts racing from BB's flying everywhere. I started walking down to them and see them through something on the trail and head to the truck before I could get there. I walk down there and find a six pack of empties and a bunch of Lead shot shells right on the trail. These two were so lazy not to even walk more than 20 feet away from the truck, then they almost blasted me, no plug, using lead shot, and drinking on top of it. I just sat there in amazement at what these two were doing and doing it on public land none the less. I really hate going out anywhere on public land around the cities, but I was just trying to get out next to the water for a couple of hours during the week to bag a bird or two. I would've called them in, but had no license plate number or truck description. It's a shame that there are people out there like this and I just hope that they don't kill somebody someday in the process of their unethical hunts.