Good Experiences with other hunters

[USPENAMC]

We often talk about how this hunter took my spot how this hunter was skybusting how this and that blah blah blah.

Now when youre thinking negative thoughts youre more likely to act negative so I will turn the coin around.

LETS TALK ABOUT GOOD EXPERIENCES YOU HAVE HAD WITH OTHER HUNTERS WHETHER IT BE PEOPLE YOU KNEW OR PEOPLE YOU MET WHILE OUT IN THE WOODS OR WHAT NOT. THERE ARE MANY GOOD, CONSIDERATE, ETHICAL AND FUN HUNTERS OUT THERE LET US KNOW YOUR STORY.

[Bassboy1645]

My first year deer hunting had me throwing fits. I saw no deer, too many ppl, public land and everything. The owner of the motel we were staying at in ely must have heard my pain. He let me use his rifle which was more suited to the terrain than the shotgun i had, and not only that but he drove my buddy and I into the boundry waters to his spot and told us exactly what to do and how to hunt it and how the deer move through there!!!!!!! He had already got his buck and the next day the hunt proceeded t odrive my partner and i 45 minutes north to his spot. I saw several deer and some nice bucks but was never able to get a shot due to the cover. I wish there were more hunters like him around!!!!!!! If hes reading this i want to say thanks!!

[Eric Wettschreck]

My neighbor and myself were unloading the decoys and stuff on some public land. Up comes another guy and his son. We started talking about the spot we were planning on hunting. Turns out, we were all wanting to hunt the same chunk of the slough. He offers the idea we all hunt it together. We gladly accepted. I figured he was a nice enough fellow, his kid seemed well mannered, and a bigger group of decoys was far better than a couple little specks in the pond.

We had a great hunt. His kid is one heckova shot. He has one heckova awesome black lab. And his wife makes the best chocolate chip cookies on the planet. Needless to say, every time we see each other on the slough we always hunt together and have a great time.

For me, that's how it should be. No bickering about we got here first so we get to use it and you need to go away. We met a super guy and a nice kid and we had fun.

[jbdragon17]

I will share a couple good experiences I have had over the past couple years.

Last year I was interested in food plotting. Asked a couple questions on this site and Biglakebass stepped up. Even lent me some equipment!!

I was also interested in a bird dog. Put forth a couple questions. Setterguy brought me with to hunt over his dog. I was hooked. He pointed me (no pun intended) to a breeder he knew, and now I am the happy owner of Red Setter. Thanks to both, and everyone else who lends a helping hand, email, or suggestion.

[Gissert]

My Minnesota elk hunt back in September was a great example. I met so many great people, and was not turned down by one landowner for permission. People brought fresh produce to my camper, and had offers of advice and provided other contacts. People around town who I did not know would offer me encourgement on my hunt, and I thought that was really nice. Even though I did not get an elk, it was one of the greatest hunts I had, and a big part of that was the local people.

I have run into a lot of good folks hunting public land in Colorado also.

Back in the early 80's my dad had 80 acres leased for the fall. One evening during the week, he was walking down one of the fencelines, and came across the adjacent landowner bowhunting in a tree that just acoss the line onto the leased land. Dad asked how he was doing, and asked his name. The guy told him his name, and apologized for being there and offered to leave. Dad said don't be silly, I can see you used this tree just to catch the deer coming from your property, you stay put and feel free to keep using that stand. Thhat turned out to be the start of a great friendship, and they became winter fishing pals. We were allowed to hunt his property whenever we wanted up until he sold it to the state.

Biglakebass also got me into the food plot addiction, and helped me with my first plot with advise and equipment.

Cool thread!

[catman71]

I had a bad trailer tire blowout on the Friday before deer season up by Bemidji that left me in the ditch in some serious snow. A couple of guys from the northern metro stopped when they saw us, pulled us out, helped change the trailer tire and one guy even re-did the trailer light wires that got messed up in the icy snowbank. I insisted they take a case of beer for the effort but really weren't looking for any payment. These guys were just happy to be out of the house and obviously in no hurry but it has been 10 years and I still remember the favor.

[MikeYager - Suzuki]

Overall I run into far more decent sportsman than not. To me that is still the norm. Although I did run into a young duck hunter two weeks ago that gave me grief for hunting crows.

[Guest]

The only bad experiences that really stand out in the last couple years is due to a hunter with a lack of common sense that was with my party... he is no longer part of the party. That and I had some problems with trespass issues for a bit... nothing like getting peppered with bird shot(me) in full camo bowhunting.

There is the usual when hunting public water.. people get a bit trigger happy, etc... but its to be expected if you hunt places with too many hunters.

I have helped many people out in rough places in the last few years. I have many new hunting partners.. for the most part.. its usually an enjoyable experience just getting out with good company... to have decent harvest of birds or animals is a bonus.

[hanson]

Good Experiences with hunters?

Thats kind of hard to come up with.

I can remember the arguments we've had over a shot deer. I can remember the skybusters. I can remember the 4 wheelers cruising by my deer stand. I can remember the truck who parked on MY property a number of years ago to deer hunt. (They were 20 yards from the tree I was sitting in. I had to yell at them in the darkness). I can remember all the 'bad' experiences.

I guess my 'Good' experiences with hunters are those I run into in the woods or marsh that seam to have the same ethical standards I have and a certain level of common sense. Our parties tend to keep respectable distances and we tend not to shoot at birds that might be heading in their direction that are out of our range. We don't call at birds that obviously aren't interested. We don't set up a deer stand knowing that another one is 50 yards away and hope to beat them to the stand. As long as we stay out of each others way and respect each other, that is a 'good experience.' I haven't run into too many hunters (people & parties I run into in the field, not friends, acquaintances, etc) who have gone out of their way to make my time in the field enjoyable.

[icehousebob]

A couple years ago, Our group was hunting the public goose blinds at Lac Que Parle. One guy, John had a great lab and the first day there was very little shooting. Someone on private land hit a goose and it sailed back toward the refuge and crashed into the brush a hundred yards from us. His dog was off like a shot and brought it back to him about the time a bewildered guy came walking over the ridge. John walked over and handed him the bird and and said,"are you looking for this?" The next day two guys in their 70's were in the next blind and hit a glider that sailed until it fell into a corn field and started running. It took that lab half an hour to track it down and the old guys were amazed to have someone walk up and hand them their goose. John didn't go home with any game from that hunt but he still thought it was a great hunt.

[tjm]

Several years ago while duck hunting in Arkansas we ran into a guide and 2 hunters broke down.We towed them back to the access had a few minute convo as it turned out the 2 hunters were from Minnesota living about an hour away from me.

Guide told me we had a free duck hunt with him any time he had an openning.The 2 hunters offered to let us hunt with them in the morning so we did.After the best duck hunt a person could dream of the 4 of us went to lunch.

Turns out these 2 guys were a father and son who farmed about a 1,000 acres along the Mn & Iowa border.

After several hours talking about hunting the farmer asked if i bow hunted.He asked if i was interested on hunting his land this fall under certain guidelines.I said yes i'll come check it out.Well i blew it off since i had several good places a lot closer to hunt.

That winter searching for coyotes i ended up close to where he lived so i looked up his number and we met.It was about 3pm when we arrived in his driveway as i looked out across the stubble snow covered bean field i saw over 100 deer several being prety nice bucks.

Me and my hunting partner looked at each other and had that look on each others face like what a couple morons for not checking it out sooner.

Turns out the farmer had bad things happen over the years and just stopped hunters all together from hunting the 360 acres around the farm.

For the last several years we have been good friends.I follow the rules (bow hunting only)(trophy bucks only)Shoot all the does we can get lic for.I try and get down to the farm a couple times a year to haul grain for free to show my respect and thanks to the 2 of them.

Goes to show you what a small world this is and what 20 minutes outa your way is to help someone out inneed of it.

[Stratosman]

My first trip to North Dakota was a memorable one, my friend and I ventured into uncharted territory many years ago when we decided to try duck hunting in North Dakota, I called until I found a motel in the general area that we wanted to hunt. We new nothing about the area or the land. Once at the motel, we decided to venture across the street to the local pub to discuss the next day's game plan, a bit later we started talking to a local farmer, just shooting the breeze, he asked what we were hunting, we said ducks, well, he continued to invite us out to his posted land to hunt the next day. There were hundreds of greenheads on his slough and he said since he didn't duck hunt he said to feel free to hunt whenever we want. Now every year we hook up with him and do some pheasant hunting and he still lets us hunt his land when we come.... Same trip, the next evening in the motel, we start talking to two guys in the hall that were staying in the room across from us, turns out they were from South Carolina and big time duck fanatics and were hunting for two weeks, they said they scouted a field about 30 miles from town that had 5,000 mallards feeding in it and asked if we wanted to hunt with them the next morning. Of course we were skeptical but agreed, I mean, why would anyone give up their spot they worked so hard to find? Well the next moring they were knocking on our door at 4:30 a.m. and what followed will be remembered by me and my buddy forever, literally thousands of mallards swarming around and landing in the decoys by the dozens. The next two mornings we hunted their spot with them and limited out on nothing but greenheads. They could have easily hunted that spot by themselves and never told a soul about it. One was a Vet and the other a business owner and both were dog trainers and had the two best labs I have ever seen to date. What a treat it was to hunt with those guys and thier dogs.

[FOOT]

I got a few from over the years but I only post a couple.

1) Late 70's I was hunting a small island in the backwaters of the Mississippi. There was a pond in the middle where you could place decoys. A couple of hours before opening 2 guys show up and are planning on hunting the island until I set up in my boat. They excused themselves, said they were sorry and were going to leave when I invited them to hunt. They were hesitant and didn't want to intrude but I insisted, there was planty of room. We all had a great day hunting, BSing, sharing food and coffee and decided to meet at a restaurant that night to continue. Couple of really nice guys.

2) Hunting pheasants in Iowa. Came around a corner and saw about 6 roosters in the ditch. Kept driving to the end of the corn field fully planning to go back and shoot em up. There at the end of the corn field sat another truck with 3 hunters. I turned right and stopped to ask if they had seen the roosters. Yup they sure did and would I like to give it a go with them? The way they had it figured one guy would walk up the ditch and the birds would run into a swale amongst the corn. The other 3 would join up and push the swale. Worked great. We got 5 birds and if we could have shot better we would have had more. There was at least 4 to 5 dozen birds in that swale with about half being roosters.

3) One more. Hunting geese around Rochester and watched as several flocks were dropping in to one particular field over a hill. As we were watching 2 vehicles drove out. They (7 hunters) had there limit of 2 Canada's ea. and were headed in for breakfast. The owner of the land was one of the hunters and told us to go ahead and hunt it if we wanted. Decoys still in the field. We (my son and I) left 30 minutes later with 4 geese. Caught the other hunters at the local truck stop and thanked them by buying them breakfast.