Hunting Public Land Etiquette: Part One Big Game

When big game hunters go afield anticipations are high. The crisp air with the smells of fall. Everything is running through your mind. Checking the wind, checking your gear, and going over the scouting information you put so many hours into. Then that trophy or target animal that has been on your mind for months maybe even years keeps scrolling in and out of your thoughts.

Its opening day your up all night and to the spot extra early. You are the first person at public land spot x. You settle into the desired spot and wait for first light. The woods start waking up slowly with a chirp of a bird here and there. Light starts slowly showing on the horizon. Just as prime time is approaching her comes other hunters walking through the area you are hunting.

Frustration aggravation and tempers will start to flare at this point. Just like these hunters walking in on you have no clue of the work you put into this hunt you don’t know or understand their circumstance. You can’t control how others will act but remember you can control yourself and your actions.

Treat others how you want to be treated

If hunter b walking in on you gets to close instead of screaming and yelling at them. Start up a conversation that will allow you to educate or get a better understanding of their situation. Talk with each other and figure out where each of you will be potentially hunting not only that day but in the future.

Now not all others are going be as accepting in this way of engagement. Be patient and allow them to be them. No need to get worked up and get on their level. Walk away but be observant of their hunting style. You can tell allot by watching fellow hunters.

As a group like all groups, we are judge by the few bad apples than the greater good. So, in these times when covid caused an influx of 27% increase in new hunters be the good apple. Help newcomers learn and educate them to treat people good and teach them how to utilize these state lands with respect for all. Check out this post on covid and the increase of participants. https://fowlerscorners.com/hunting-state-land-and-forgotten-ethics/

The Wrong thoughts everyone shares

The mind set that every hunter carries that keeps this issue at the top is that we treat public land like we own it. This is the root of the frustration. I can see how we get to this mindset. When a person spends a copious amount of time on this to achieve the goal of harvesting your trophy. The hours of scouting, hiking, and observing sometimes never seeing another soul can create this feeling of ownership.

Unfortunately, we are not the sole owners of public land, and we need to keep this in mind. This is a good thing because there was a time when kings and lords did own all the land. So, know we realize this the next thought will be someone else is going to get my trophy. This might be true and might not. This thought is a tough one to push out, but it is also out of our control. There are just somethings we can’t control.  Then we can get a plethora of thoughts know as excuses of why someone else was successful when we are not. When hunting public land, I would say success will be 80 percent work and 20 percent luck.  To be successful we need to change our thoughts and mindset. When interacting with other hunters I remember my grandmothers saying you will catch more flies with honey than salt

The missed opportunity

We can use these situations to our advantage. Just sit back and think about it. You put in the time to know your target species. You know everything about your trophy down to the smallest detail. You should do this with your competition as well when utilizing public land. Just as we patterned our target trophy, we can pattern our fellow hunters as well. When we have the whole picture that will give you the best position for success.

I have used this mindset when eastern turkey hunting in New York. Watching my fellow hunters. Knowing the competition habits, I altered my tactics which allowed me to be more successful in the field. For example, one morning I was turkey hunting I heard 35 vehicles drive down the county road come to a stop. Some would get out of the vehicle, and you could hear the doors, and some would just lean out the window. They all called to the turkeys that have been seen in this area. They owl hooted, crow called, and hen yelped. The turkeys didn’t respond.

After one hour or so I started my calling sequence. Got a few responses from a tom turkey. Cars passed down the road and some even stopped. I learned when a car stopped this turkey stopped calling back. But over the weeks of hunting this bird I figured out If I was going to call him in it would have to be on a day where the hunting traffic would be close to zero. For several weekends I would go and not call at all just listen and put myself in different positions to get a better idea of where this group of turkeys liked to be. Once I had a good idea of where the turkeys roosted and where they would likely be in the mornings. I took a vacation day for a Wednesday.

That Wednesday I harvested the old tom. This turkey opened my eyes to public land hunting. The main idea is I can use other hunting activities to my advantage. You just need patience and be observant. No matter what you are pursuing on public land if you educate yourself not only in the species you are pursuing but the others pursuing the same game you can beet out the competition and even maybe use them to your advantage.

Thank you for reading. If you liked this post, please check out my other post feel free to reach out to me at anytime by going to the contact us page on WWW.fowlerscorners.com . Another good read for western hunters https://www.americanhunter.org/content/public-land-hunting-etiquette/ .