HUNTER ENCOUNTERS- Was Yours Good Or Bad?

[blackbeltbill]

  Back in the 1970s and the 80s - Orange County had a very active Night Time Migration flyway for Woodcock.

 One Fall Day,I hit the Jackpot and my dog flushed up 3 Timberdoodles  in about 5 minutes. With the Erratic flight of the woodcock,I fired a good 6 times and bagged all 3 woodcock.

  Then- I heard it.--

 Loud and Far off yelling in either Polish or Italian.  Then,I heard a Hunting Dogs Bell ringing and getting closer.

  I caught sight of the dog. Looked like a Britney.  He came running right down to my area. 3 Hunters appeared and since the Brit was on point- they started to race down to their dog.

  Meanwhile my Dog was hot on a scent and a 4th woodcock took flight. I quickly dispatched it.

  More Loud Yelling. The 3 were very close to their Dog now. A Woodcock gets up and all 3 men shoot. The Bird falls.

 Now the 2 Dogs are working together- not good. And,I had 3 Hunters all around me. Somehow it all worked out. I managed to get my dog away from them and hunted a different area.

   Kind of a comical/Bad Hunter Encounter. 

  Let's  hear your stories about Hunter Encounters- Good or Bad.

 

 

 

 

 

[First-light]

Never had a bad encounter. I've always told myself a deer is not worth a fist fight or worse. My neighbor last year who has a camp in PA shot a nice buck. It was gut shot but he handled it well and waited . Came back started tracking and the buck got up and another hunter shot it. They came together and talked the other hunter was not willing to give up the buck. My neighbor left and met up with the other hunters brother that said my brother just shot a dandy down there. My neighbor just kept on walking. 

[blackbeltbill]

10 hours ago, First-light said:

Never had a bad encounter. I've always told myself a deer is not worth a fist fight or worse. My neighbor last year who has a camp in PA shot a nice buck. It was gut shot but he handled it well and waited . Came back started tracking and the buck got up and another hunter shot it. They came together and talked the other hunter was not willing to give up the buck. My neighbor left and met up with the other hunters brother that said my brother just shot a dandy down there. My neighbor just kept on walking. 

  That is too bad. Buck was mortally  wounded and another hunter shoots a little later on. I wonder how common this is?

[GreeneHunter]

1 hour ago, blackbeltbill said:

  That is too bad. Buck was mortally  wounded and another hunter shoots a little later on. I wonder how common this is?

It happens ... It happened to me also , but I was the second shooter !  I heard a shot across the highway from where my ladder stand was I was sitting in and along comes an 8 pointer limping walking slowly . I raised my gun and it looked up at me and I actually said " sorry " and shot it and the Buck went down ! The person whom shot it across the highway never came and I never went looking for them . I'm sure hearing the shot the other shooter figured it's gone !

[Doc]

I'm not sure how I feel  on this issue. It may be a case of where I am glad that someone put the critter out of its misery after I have botched the shot. I don't know. I have never had the situation arise. Perhaps they deserve to have the deer because they successfully did the job that I may have screwed up.

I suppose that the answer varies with the details of the situation. If someone were to try to take a deer that expired right after I shot an adequate killing shot, that would be a whole different situation.

The other question is do you feel an obligation to put down a wounded deer that someone else had already shot? I do.

[First-light]

A few years back on opening day  I had a big buck come by my stand on three legs. He actually changed direction and limped right under my stand. Big body 3 year old not a lot of point but mass. The left front leg was just hanging someone attempted a shot on him and blew it. My gun was not loaded correctly and didn't shoot, it a 1187 autoloader  and I held back the lever to keep the noise to a minimum when I loaded. The shell didn't seat properly. He limped off into the standing pines. No shot. I thought about that situation and tholught if someone was tracking him and I shot him what would I do if we met up. Considering I've been hunting for years if it were a young kid full of excitement I would explain what happened with his shot and then hand over the deer. If it were a seasoned hunter its mine! lol

[landtracdeerhunter]

Back in my early days of hunting, we all knew the lifetime neighbors and they knew us. They hunted our property, we theirs.  Today we get new neighbors every five year or less and the mindset is stay off my property. Less country oriented people have  change hunting forever.

[blackbeltbill]

9 hours ago, landtracdeerhunter said:

Back in my early days of hunting, we all knew the lifetime neighbors and they knew us. They hunted our property, we theirs.  Today we get new neighbors every five year or less and the mindset is stay off my property. Less country oriented people have  change hunting forever.

Agree with That.

[First-light]

20 hours ago, landtracdeerhunter said:

Back in my early days of hunting, we all knew the lifetime neighbors and they knew us. They hunted our property, we theirs.  Today we get new neighbors every five year or less and the mindset is stay off my property. Less country oriented people have  change hunting forever.

Yeah it's a shame. I very fortunate to have geat neighbors. We all own big chunks of land so shooting over ones border is no big deal. We all are happy for the ones that harvest deer. 

[Doc]

47 minutes ago, First-light said:

Yeah it's a shame. I very fortunate to have geat neighbors. We all own big chunks of land so shooting over ones border is no big deal. We all are happy for the ones that harvest deer. 

When I was a kid....Damn that was a long time ago.....posted signs were a rarity. Farmers had much better things to spend their time and money on than posted signs. today every hunting spot that I used to hunt has several houses and the little postage-stamp sized properties are all heavily surrounded by posted signs. I can't say anything because I post my property too.

I also remember when as a kid at home, we had a few people that we allowed hunting on the old farm. Within a few years those people began to invite others to hunt on our property without anyone asking for permission. It finally got so bad that we had problems getting our own cars in and out of the driveway because so many people took advantage. It got so that the original invitees no longer were there hunting, but all those cars belonged to strangers.

So, not being too bright, when I got a place of my own I fell into the same trap. I invited a few people from work to hunt, and next thing I knew there were brother-in-law's and complete strangers that felt that because they knew the original invitees, there was no need to ask permission and complete strangers began filling up our land. That went on until finally one day an army of redcoats began setting up a 10-man drive on the thicket 900 feet in front of our house. After I gave them the boot, I sent away for a bunch of metal posted signs and the whole property got posted with only one person given permission to hunt here and he was warned never to invite anyone else to hunt here. 

[Daveboone]

Luckily, in about fifty years of hunting I have had darn few (none I remember) bad encounters with other hunters...A buddy and I did have a slug pass between us (both dressed head to toe in orange) when he mistook us for a deer....at 30 yards in the open. I really do not like to hunt where I am not sure of who else is around. I am lucky to have my own small chunk of woods, surrounded by public land, which happily is not hunted much. I only bring good proven friends there. NO friends of friends, brother in laws, etc. My place, stays my place.

[First-light]

3 hours ago, Daveboone said:

Luckily, in about fifty years of hunting I have had darn few (none I remember) bad encounters with other hunters...A buddy and I did have a slug pass between us (both dressed head to toe in orange) when he mistook us for a deer....at 30 yards in the open. I really do not like to hunt where I am not sure of who else is around. I am lucky to have my own small chunk of woods, surrounded by public land, which happily is not hunted much. I only bring good proven friends there. NO friends of friends, brother in laws, etc. My place, stays my place.

Wow that is how I feel. We have a new lease across the road. My brother said one of our friends was thinking about brining someone up. I put an end to that right away. Group text and told everyone its just just us and no one else this year. If they come to my property to hunt I want to meet them in the summer and come help with somethings and get a feel for them. 

[Daveboone]

Yep. Exactly. I have several friends who have more than earned their priveledge with sweat equity. Some others who just like the idea of hanging at the camp and drinking. Others, I point out that there is 10,ooo acres of state land surrounding my place that they can check out on thier own. 

 

[blackbeltbill]

I remember one Mid October when a Comical thing happened. 

  Somehow a Walking Bow Deer Hunter,a Rabbit Hunter with Beagles and me- out Pheasant Hunting with my Dog all crossed paths in a field and briefly looked at eachother.

 Now,I know all the Seasons. The Bowhunter was not a happy camper with 3 dogs around him.  Classic.