Thought I would chime in on this one as well. I agree with both sides of the coin on this one. You have to try and work together but not everyone will be respectful in the field. After an initial conversation if someone isn’t going to be respectful I don’t think it is worth our effort to try to accommodate them but rather move on. I personally don’t like hunting in an area where I know there are folks who are not respectful of other hunters’ space. Biggest thing for me is safety and I don’t trust someone’s thoughts on safety if they are trying to rush in front of another hunter (they tend to carry around firearms, which personally, I don’t ever want to be on the receiving end of but that’s just me. Ha!)
I have hunted with my wife’s family on public land for 10 years now (I didn’t grow up hunting big game). They have an area the family has hunted for 30-40 years. Several years back they showed another local the family honey hole on National Forest land. This has come back to haunt us as this other local now all of a sudden has “friends” from out of state who he brings into this honey hole. The race will be on Saturday morning for who gets there first with the runner up moving on to secondary areas. They usually respect the area if we get there first and likewise we respect their initiative if they get there first.
However, two years ago we won the race and had 4 elk down on opening morning with the pack out continuing to the second day. We notified them we had elk down to retrieve but they still raced in there the second morning and set up to hunt. We let them know for the second time that we would be retrieving elk and just to be safe would make as much noise as possible so that they didn’t mistake us for elk. That sort of attitude ruffled our feathers a little bit. They have even tried to go in a few days ahead of the season and park a dirt bike or ATV at the beginning of the trail to make it look like they arrived before us. Every time we run into them during the season they complain about how crowded it is. We try to politely remind them it wouldn’t be so crowded if they weren’t there. We always wish we could do something about this guys “friends” as we believe he is receiving payment for guiding but is not licensed to guide on Forest Service land. We don’t have any proof so we don’t think we can do anything about that except to wake up early and try to hoof it in before they roll out of bed. The moment I don’t feel safe with them in the area I will not be returning there and that is all we can do.
