What would you do?

[TheLBLman]

The law and hunter ethics often contradict,
and this gets compounded with a lack of communications between hunters.
Often, no one is at fault, as there's no way for strangers to communicate in advance.

I have arrived early many times, climbed a tree, only to have someone else come in later to hunt the stand they had left, but I didn't see. Sometimes I leave, sometimes they leave, sometimes we both hunt essentially the same spot.

Personally, if I arrive at a spot that someone has beat me to, that more or less negates any desire I had to hunt that spot. I always have a backup plan, or two, or three. Often a move of only 100 to 200 yds is sufficient, and gives me higher odds than had I stayed hunting right beside someone else.

But my #1 tactic is to arrive earlier than most, as I believe the guy there first at least has the law on his side, and many hunters will respect the fact you arrived first.

 

[ImThere]

You all assume he seen the guys stand?

 

[ImThere]

Another problem with arriving early he probably broke the law

 

[Lost Lake]

LBL, a few will respect the fact you were there first. A very few IMO.

That number is dwindling though, from what I've seen.

 

[CHRIS WILSON]

Public land is pretty much all I hunt. Coming across stands that folks have left in the woods is pretty much common place these days. As I'm sitting here, I can think of at least five ladder stands, one literal shooting house and a climbing stand or two that folks have hauled onto public land....setup and left there for the whole season. Seems that some folks either don't take the time to read the regulations concerning leaving equipment in a given area or just flat out don't care....but that's a whole other rant I could go off on. Being that it's public land, one can pretty much expect that the great spot you believe you've found has probably been discovered by at least one other hunter and probably several in reality. To expect other public land hunters, who have also scouted the area, to not hunt a specific spot just because someone left a stand there in an attempt to call dibs is a pretty narcissistic line of thinking. If someone has that expectation, they're probably going to get their feelings hurt more than once in the course of the hunting season while hunting on public land. Word of advice.....always have a back up plan when hunting public land. Chances are good that at some point, you'll need to just move on to different spot.

 

[scn]

It is public land, unless stated, leaving a stand DOES NOT reserve the spot. Would I set up near someone's stand, most likely not, if the person who leaves the stand is not there first, they should find another spot. No matter the situation, whoever is first has priority to hunt that spot. You are wrong.

Show me the regulation that first to the spot has priority, clueless.

 

[DMD]

Show me the regulation that first to the spot has priority, clueless.

I doubt there is a regulation, as you already know - but, it's the only fair and reasonable way to handle the above situation, imo. Otherwise, what do you do? Some yahoo hangs his stand, so no one can hunt there? And how far of a radius would this allow him to unhunt unencumbered? It has to be first come, first serve. There is no other way to handle it. Again...imo.

 

[DeerCamp]

the issue as a public land hunter stumbling on a setup is - how old is it? How long has it been there?

If it is older, would stink to let that make a good spot "off limits".

Typically on public I hunt from the ground or a climber for this reason.

 

[DMD]

On a similar, but a little different note, I was on a brand new lease on some bowater land one time. It was like 2200 acres, but only about 50 acres of it was really huntable, the rest were thick pines. The 50 huntable acres were little strips of hardwoods along creeks. One of the club members had put orange, surveying tape on every patch of hardwoods. Every single one of them. Why? There is was no other explanation but he was letting you know that was his spot. We had a club meeting and brought that up. I asked "what does the orange tape mean?" The lease president said - "he's just marking spots so he can find them". I said, "no he's not, because he's marked every single huntable spot on the lease." How can you not find every huntable spot on the lease without orange tape??? They were hardwoods on the creeks, everyone of them on roads you drove in on. They weren't marking a trail to walk in on. I told the president and the whole club - "He's marking his territory to let us know those are his spots - there is no other explanation". When you are hunting with other hunters on a property, you can't just mark your spot and expect everyone else to avoid it. Unless there are rules that allow that. It's just not right.

On my lease, we share whatever we have. I have a few ladder stands out, but anyone in the club knows, they can call and ask, and I'll always let them hunt them. They would do the same for me.

 

[FLTENNHUNTER1]

Yeah that's painful when it happens. I consider my blinds/stands on public land pretty much fair game. I have learned to manage my own expectations and actually expect someone to be in my stand/ground blind now. Makes figuring out a new plan that much easier when it happens.

If they were in my blind or using my stand they would have a really bad day.

 

[themanpcl]

Since it's legal to leave stands for this hunt I'd be a little pissed if the guy saw it and didn't care. On the other hand maybe some folks put out multiple stands and pick one and let the other(s) sit empty therefore claiming a spot and not hunting it. Tough one for sure.

There was a guy who placed multiple decoy stands on public to dissuade other hunters from the area he wanted to hunt. There is a one stand limit on IL public land but he didn't care and no officers to monitor.

 

[sharpshooter]

I think we should bring back duels to settle the problem. It's simple, the one still standing gets the spot.

 

[Headhunter]

Show me the regulation that first to the spot has priority, clueless.

Show me the regulation where if you leave your stand in the woods and someone else beats you to the spot then you get to refer to them as a MF and climb a tree and cause what could be a deadly incident. You got beat to the spot, go find another spot.

 

[Headhunter]

Show me the regulation that first to the spot has priority, clueless.

Love how call me clueless. Especially since the game warden told me, if you leave a stand on public land, then it is available for anyone to hunt and you can't say anything about it. So to me that says "first come, first served".

 

[scn]

Love how call me clueless. Especially since the game warden told me, if you leave a stand on public land, then it is available for anyone to hunt and you can't say anything about it. So to me that says "first come, first served".

It also has zero to do with someone hunting the same spot.

But, you win since you obviously know everything.

Life is too short to have to deal with idiots. Thank goodness for the ignore function.

 

[Headhunter]

It also has zero to do with someone hunting the same spot.

But, you win since you obviously know everything.

Life is too short to have to deal with idiots. Thank goodness for the ignore function.

I don't know everything, like someone famous said, I don't even suspect anything.

I can tell you that you are wrong on calling someone an MF and hunting next them because they were first to a spot on public land.

 

[fisher01]

Well according to one poster here, the public land hunting spot in which I have been hunting on for the last 20 years, is now off limits to me because someone scouted the area and hung (most likely) an illegal stand.

It's public land, first come first served, end of discussion.

All I hunt is public land, if someone gets to an area before me, I simply keep driving and go to plan B, sometimes plan C.

Using the logic a stand on public land claims the spot, if anyone sees the leaves/debris cleared about 4 feet at the base of a tree, that spot is already claimed by me (I only hunt from the ground with my back to a tree). Do not hang your stand there, that spot is off limits to everyone, go somewhere else.

Public land is available to all to enjoy, there's no claims to spots.

 

[RidgeRunner13]

Reading this thread, it's pretty clear who regularly hunts public and who doesn't. Public has pretty much been treated as first come first serve. You still have some dudes that will come in and try to sit on top of you after you get in the stand. That's when things get interesting. Stands already being hung don't mean squat. As to the affect of the OP, to me this is first come first serve. I don't care that it's some special hunt. Always have multiple back up plans. This is why I personally prefer being mobile. Just in case an audible needs to be called at the last minute. Plus, with only hanging one stand you're kind of screwing yourself over provided this happens.

 

[Lost Lake]

Another problem with arriving early he probably broke the law

This is another area that needs clarifying.

The law reads no hunting til 30 minutes before sunrise, and hunting is over 30 minutes after sunset. Does coming in a lot earlier break that law? Does having an hour hike out of the woods after getting out of your stand in the evening break that law as well? Serious questions.

 

[Falconi]

This is another area that needs clarifying.

The law reads no hunting til 30 minutes before sunrise, and hunting is over 30 minutes after sunset. Does coming in a lot earlier break that law? Does having an hour hike out of the woods after getting out of your stand in the evening break that law as well? Serious questions.

Why would it? You can walk to and from your stand all night if you want. You just can't shoot until legal hours.

Edit: Unless WMA rules prohibit it.