Ethics from this past weekend

[Lip RIPPER!]

Did anyone see any hunters do some unethical things this past weekend? Just curious to hear all of the stupid things people did this weekend while out in the field or woods (trespassing, driving 4 wheelers during the prohibited time, etc.). I watched a guy on Friday set up his stand on state land not 30 yards from me on Friday while I was a bowhunting in the same woods. He looked right at me and just kept doing his thing. I know I could never do that to someone. I suppose I should have called the DNR to say he left his stand in there overnight or just removed it myself.

[Deputy Grizz]

You would have done ok calling the C.O. regarding hunter harrassment.

You would not have had the same results if you called the C.O. just because he left the stand overnight. Many state land areas it is perfectly ok to leave your stand overnight. You MUST have your stand removed within 48 hours of the closing of the deer season.

Also, if you took HIS stand, that would make YOU just as bad as HIM, and liable for prosecution for the anti hunter-harrassment laws!

Sorry, I don't write the laws-just enforce them!

[riverrat56]

I hunt down by new ulm on 14 acres of land that my grandpa owned that is now my dads, saterday at about noon me and a buddy of mine were hutning and 4 guys came walking right through my land not 50 yards from my stand, i got down and started to walk towards them thinking they were from acrossed the road and had wounded a deer that went into my land.

as i walked towards them they just started walking faster so i just sat down by the feild road to cut off there escape route back to there trucks.

after they posted up on my land and made a drive through the land next to it and came back i confronted them, there excuse for walking through was that they had no other way to get there and that they were just on the road so whats the big deal, i was none to happy and i asked him how come for the last 3 years ive hunted they have had a way in to that land and how would they feel if i came walking by making a ton of noise when they were in thier stand hunting, they still didnt seem to get the picture that i didnt want them on my land and tried to change the subject and asked me if i shot any deer i told them its rather hard to shoot a deer with people as rude as you walking down the main trail to my stand. finally they got the picture that i didnt want them there and they left, making as much noise as when they came.

i just dont get it how people can be some inconsiderate, i only get 2 days to hunt and i dont have alot of land to hunt but i make the best of it, its people like they that make me wonder about thier hunting ethics and there reason for hunting.

O well we still got our 2 deer so it turned out ok, and i heard from someone that the party those 4 hunted in got 1 deer for 16 people............ aahhh revenge is sweet

RR56

[huntin and fishin kid]

This doesnt have much to do with ethics but there was a guy hauling a deer on the hood of his car and it fell of and he ran over it

[N_Foster]

I was posting in an area that many people wanted to hunt because they had heard there was a large buck in that vicinity. I got permission from the landowner/renter to hunt that day and asked if anyone else had permission to hunt there and he said noone had asked. Ten minutes after getting into the field I see two trucks keep driving around the section. I was very visible to these people, so they knew I was hunting. Didn't know what they were doing, and I didn't really give it a thought. About 45 minutes to last shooting time, I seen THE buck coming in my direction. One of the trucks drives about 200 yards into the field and starting honking for about a minute. This didn't send the buck into panick mode, but he did scurry into the corn field and I thought all was lost. For the next 20 minutes or so, all I could think about was what I was going to say/do to this guy when I got back. Confront him?? Call the CO?? Take him out of his truck and pimp slap him?? Couldn't decide, but I didn't want to leave because the buck was SOMEWHERE close. 5 minutes left to the hunt, the buck pops back out of the corn, headed my direction and forced me to try and aim my uncontrollably shaking gun at his vitals(ten yards). 141" nearly perfectly typical 8-point. All was good. But if I see them hunting next weekend I decided to kinda want to keep tabs on them and play game warden with a cell phone by my side.

[mille lacs muskie bum]

Hey huntin and fishin kid when and where did you see that?

[Dockter]

N_Foster I personally would have went with the pimp-slap option. Seems that would be the only way to reach those idiots! I would have called the CO that night and gotten him ot come hunting with you the next day, whereabouts were you hunting??

[Riverratpete]

Don't feel bad, I Hunt in NC Minnesota and have hunted the same public land for 20 years never had any problems, this year...it was definately "Amateur Weekend" every moron with an ATV and not enough sense to put in a jar were out in droves, driving at 7AM, shooting from ATV's, making enough noise to wake the dead, oh yeah, and the *&^(&* dirt bike riders just havin a good ol time [PoorWordUsage]ing everyone else off that were trying to have a quiet pleasant hunt. The saving grace is that I still have 2 weekends so they (the morons) should be gone, half tempted to call the local CO and drop a dime on these yahoos.

[huskminn]

This didn't happen last weekend, but did a couple of years ago. I'd be curious to hear what you folks think about the situation--was I right or wrong?

I used to frequently hunt public land in MN for deer and always have trouble finding areas with little pressure. So, I found a good area that I could get to by wading across a small river then walking about a 1/2 mile. I scouted extensively, found a very good spot and made a nice ground blind.

Opening morning came and I was at my stand 30 minutes before shooting light. At about sunrise, I heard a boat on the nearby river, heard people talking and banging around and a few minutes later, I heard someone crashing through the brush, headed my way. The guy walked within about 50 yards of me and never saw me. I let him go by, hoping he would keep going and leave the area.

Instead, he wandered around for a while, looking at trees. Then he walked about 60 yards to my left, struggled up into a tree, breaking branches along the way and sat in a low fork. He proceeded to cough alot, eat a bag of chips and pop open a can of soda-never trying to conceal a noise. When he crumpled the aluminum can and threw it on the ground below, I decided to go talk to him.

He didn't even notice me until I was 20 yards away and I wasn't trying to be quiet. I asked if he knew I was sitting "right over there"--nope. I asked how long he planned on sitting there, as I had a stand set up and had planned to sit there most of the day. He asked if I had some special license that gave me more rights than him. I said we had the same license, but that I had scouted the area for months, set up a stand, was there before light this morning and thought it common courtesy to respect the first-come, first-served rule.

His response was, "So, you want me to leave? I ain't leavin'!" I said I hadn't asked him to leave, just wanted to know how long he was planning on staying. He became very upset, swore a lot and mumbled something about not wanting to hunt next to an a@@hole anyway. I said nothing and returned to my stand.

After a moment, he jumped down from his tree and walked out of the woods behind me, breaking every branch he could step on or reach with his hands and cussing at me the whole way.

I've been hunting deer on public land for 23 years and this was a first for me. Was I in the wrong?

My reponse to this was to pretty much stop hunting deer in MN, unless I happen to get a coveted invite to a cabin some friends have, which doesn't happen every year due to space limitations. I now hunt deer mostly out of state, on public land, but where there are fewer people.

[Coldfeet]

Although I didn't actually see it happening, I did see some curious evidence of unethical practices. I was hunting with my two brothers and my dad on my dad's land in NC Minnesota opening weekend. We shot 3 bucks and a doe (2 8 pointers and a 7 pointer). One thing we like to do after field dressing them is cut open the stomach and see what they're eating. They were all plum full of whole kernel corn. The thing is, there isn't a corn field around for 20 miles. Hmmmmmmmm???

[Gissert]

Huskimn -

I have had similar problems on public land. When I was about 17, I had a stand on private land that butted up against public land.

About 9am one morning, an old duffer walked by and started screaming at me for building a perm stand on public land. He shook me up pretty good, but I did not say much, or come down. I just stayed put, as I knew I was on our property. He proceeded to stalk around me, making lots of noise, trespassing when he would crossover onto the private land. I figured he was purposely trying to ruin my hunt. I still stayed put. 45 minutes later, a small buck snuck out from where he had left, and I had my deer.

I have not hunted public land since the late 80's, but that still has not stopped us from problems from adjacent landowners. People showing up late, shooting in the dark, driving trucks repeatedly around property perimeters, etc. All this stuff, while very annoying, has got me my venision several times.

Several years ago, they showed up about 7:10 am, and slammed their doors out in the plowed field. A nice fat doe promptly snuck toward me and I shot her. I could hear them swearing about how "those a-hole$" had shot their deer again.

Last Saturday, they trolled along the edge with their truck about 2:30, and dropped a guy off to watch the far edge of where I was sitting. They paid no attention whatsoever to the wind direction, fouling the area they were watching with their own scent. At 5pm, an eight pointer snuck out of the heaviest cover in between us and he is now in the freezer.

These guys have pushed no less than four deer right to me over the years.

I know it is not always possible, but I try to let these people do the work for me. It does not always work, but often enough to make it worthwhile.

[CornPirateKiller]

Coldfeet, We ran into the same thing. Took four deer out of a heavily forested area in the Deerwood area. Every one of them had stomachs that were packed full of corn, yet the nearest field is at least three miles away. Seems sort of odd, especially with all of the acorns on the ground this year. We seriously wondered whether there was some unethical work afoot.

[abens1078]

Huskminn,

that's a tough call. I personally would feel bad about getting within 100yrds of a hunter who has set up his stand but public is public. I might have just walked over and asked him if he needed a hammer or a whistle so he could make some more noise and commend him on his tree climbing ability and then taken a leak somewhere in the very near vicinity. I'm a huge fan of being a smarta$$. Don't forget, public is public so if the spot is ruined you might as well have some fun at the expense of that dope. If out of state licesenses weren't so expensive I'd have you come down and hunt with me but the bucks on our ground aren't the greatest. I usually go for a couple 'jerky' deer and call it good.

'Pimp slap', that's two fun words and I will be using them frequently now.

I actually had a deer stolen by a trespasser about 14 years ago. It was my first IA shotgun deer season and I got to stay home from school to hunt on a Friday. I hit a big doe about 4" below the sweet spot. I saw I had hit my first deer and started tracking as soon as I got reloaded. Dumb dumb dumb, I jumped her twice in thick cover and couldn't get another shot off. I basicly drove her right to the useless batsurd sitting on our property. 2 shots later I watched him from a 1/2 mile away acorss the crick dragging my deer out of our timber. stealing a deer from a 12 year old kid, what a loser. If I would have been older I would have walked across that crick and put the stomp on him. He knew what he had done too, I've never seen someone get out of the woods so fast. I started bow hunting after that and only recently started shotgunning again. I'm older now with a few years of college wrestling at heavyweight under my belt. I think I could convince him to leave the deer now.

Best wishes on a safe and fun seaon to all of you.

Abens1078

[89Bronco]

Coldfeet---I've seen that happen before. We hunt in NE MN. How many cornfields do you see on the Range?

[ChuckN]

This was the quietest deer season yet. I think a lot of people are not hunting in the same general area I hunt (public land). I only heard shots from one hunter all weekend, and that's it. No ATV noise, no hollering, guns blazin.. Hunter numbers are way down IMO, which is fine by me.

The only dumb dumb I saw was after the Sunday morning hunt (10am) on the hike back to the shack a stupid kid on a new wheeler drove right through our gates, past our "No Trespassing" signs and I stopped him. He was looking for state land to hunt on, and I politely informed him that he couldn't cross private land to get to the state land, and no ATV's at 10am. LOL It looked like he had risen from the dead...blood shot eyes, total confusion and it's scary he was carrying a gun. Then he couldn't figure out how to start the ATV and I had to start it for him. These are the people that give hunters bad reputations. Come on people!!

[MikeYager - Suzuki]

I heard lots of shooting on opener that could only be attributed to target shooting. One time no less than 12 shots from the same gun. Then a .22 later. Honestly, who target shoots in the woods on opener with deer rifles??????

I once had a bullet land near me. Kind of a whizzing sound then thump into the ground. For a split second I thought it was an arrow. Again who are these people shooting high powered rifles skyward?? HELLO!!!

[huntin and fishin kid]

Well every body knows or should know that you can only have a 10 round clip for your semi auto weapons I heard I gun go of atleast 13 times on one deer I hope

O and millacs muskie bum I saw that on the way back; just outside of the wadeana city limits

[Harmonica Bear]

Huskminn,

You know you had the coveted invite, you are more than welcome, always are. Anyway, you would have loved this one. (thank god no one was injured or killed).

The coveted cabin Huskminn refers to, also has some neighbors across the road. Let be the first to say they are wonderful people, watch our place, would darn near do anything for us if asked, mow our grass etc. but...

They also suffer from a severe lack of judgement. AS some of the boys were coming back to camp from the store, they came across one of the neighbors walking down the minimum maintenance road. They stopped to chat, when a doe crossed the road maybe 200+ yards away. He said (I kid you not) "Uffda, there's a deer der" and proceded to use the running truck as a rest and lobbed a shot down the road. He missed by a mile, looked at the guys and said "Guess I was a little low".

Well, to me, that had to be one of the most stupid and dangerous things I have ever heard of. The driveway to his cabin (and our cabin) was at the end of his shot and who knows. His Dad, his brother, his son could easily have just walked out onto the road as he fired. Again thank god nothing happened. Anyway, there is a good reason we always stay away from the road during deer huntin season. That was a prime example.

Oh yeah, Huskminn, 8 days and we are on the way to the hills for some serious huntin!

Always be safe,

HB.

[cheektowaga]

Didn't witness this myself, before my hunting times, but my old man loves to tell this story. Our family used to hunt in NC MN on fairly heavily hunted public land. All parties that hunted it had done so for long enough that they all knew each other and where they were hunting. There was a very large hunting party in one area and one morning my dad hears something that sounds like very rapid .22 fire. Once the noise gets closer he investigates and finds out that the grandfolk and grand kids of hunters in that party were driving the woods with black cats. Setting off fireworks to drive deer towards their hunters. Amazing.

[ironranger420]

This one isn't really bad but still very frustrating and irritating. We hunt East of Orr, MN. in St. Louis Cty, north of Myrtle Lake. We own 80 acres just off the lake on the North shore. There is one guy who owns a cabin that butts up adjacent to our southern property line. He owns maybe 1 or 2 acres that his cabin sits on. Anyway, this guy hunts on public land that surrounds our 80 acres, a couple of his stands actually have shooting lanes that cross the property line into our property, but we try not to make waves, and leave him alone. But this weekend he really pi*@ed me off. He left his dog outside the whole day on opener tied up outside his cabin. That's fine, but this dog never, and I mean NEVER, stopped barking for the entire day. I couldn't believe a dog could actually bark for 8 hours straight (maybe stopped for a couple minutes here and there, but that's it). It sounded like the dog was about 50 yards away, but more like 300 yards, but you guys know how sound travels in the woods. I am a huge dog lover, but I was wishing that dog would get loose and run by my stand, cause it wouldn't get any further. i actually climbed down from my stand and started to walk to this guys cabin, but stopped myself because I didn't know what I was going to do when I got there. What is this guy thinking? I don't know if he was trying to move deer around or what. This guy knows that we are there, and he knows were most of our stands are. There isn't anybody else that hunts in these woods except for him, and our hunting party of about 8. Not much else that I can say about this guy, except what a jerk! If he is at his cabin again this weekend, and the barking continues I will be waiting in his yard when he gets in from the woods. And if I have to do that, I will not be happy! Is there anything illegal with what he's doing, or is it simply unethical and inconsiderate?

[Stratosman]

Definately inconsiderate! That had to suck, I have one place I bowhunt that is small, only 10 acres and the neighbors have a mutt the constantly barks, I think it barks at leaves blowing across the lawn, it drives me insane just thinking that someone can let thier dogs bark like that.

[echotrail]

Ironranger:

How did you guys do? Or, what are the general results of week one in the area? I'm Leaving for Buyck tomorrow and will be there for next week. Ready to go. Guess I'll leave the snow shoes home.

[lawdog]

I'm new here, but I'm not new to hunting. I used to post on the DNR forum before the nutjobs took over and ruined it and they closed it down.

I'm wondering where you think this 10 round magazine law is? I don't see it in the law book and have never heard it as a requirement. I hunt a slug zone so its not too relevant, but I've never seen where that's a law...

[lawdog]

I have a question for you guys on something I don't agree with the CO on.

I was sitting in a fence line Saturday morning (farm country in SW MN with no woods). We were there and then the farmer on the neighboring land comes to start harvesting the corn. We are still sitting there and watching for deer coming into this grassland from everywhere, including obviously the cornfield this guy is taking out. I'm probably 100 yards from the field. The CO drives in there and tells me we have to leave because "that's not a legal method for taking deer". I know the guy pretty good (actually he said when he got there, oh I didn't realize who was in here...) so I say Doug, what are you talking about, sitting in a field isn't legal??? He says "you can't drive deer with a vehicle".

I think this is totally absurd, and I told him we don't have to leave the ground we are hunting because a farmer on adjacent land decides to finally pick his corn. He didn't give me a ticket or anything, and I'd be going to court to fight it if he did, but it still upsets me that he drove in there and made us leave...

THOUGHTS???

[Mark Christianson]

Wow Lawdog,

Never heard that one before. If you "plan" with the farmer to do this with the intention of shooting deer he chases out, then I think its questoinable. But, man, what control do you have over a farmer that is just trying to do his job?

That would suck to have property surrounded by farm land, and get chased off because of "normal or accepted farm practices". That "normal or accepted farm practices" is used in regards to the baiting laws, and should be no different in this case. IMO

And also, if we are truly being driven by the DNR to harvest more deer than ever, why would they even push this particular issue? Let us shoot deer if they want deer shot.

(I am not saying to ignore laws/regs, but this one is too gray in my eyes to even worry about)