LAST EDITED ON Oct-18-11 AT 08:11PM (MST)[p]LAST EDITED ON Oct-18-11 AT 07:58?PM (MST)
LAST EDITED ON Oct-18-11 AT 07:53?PM (MST)
Wouldn't bother me in the least, as long as you weren't there to harass hunters or game. I've gone out many times during the hunt, just to see what's out there and how the folks are doing.
We often hear that the days of large family and friends hunting camps are a thing of the past, but it never has been anything like that for a lot of folks around here. You can go out on the opening weekend of either the deer or elk hunts and find grandpas, dads, grandmas, wifes, sons, daughters, aunts, uncles, cousins and friends all in the same camp and maybe only a third of those in camp have a tag. Some go out and help locate game, some stay in camp and visit. Now days, in Utah at least, There may be as many folks without tags on the hunt as there are folks with tags. Some are staying home because they can't pull the trigger. It is a choice that some make but they are missing a lot of enjoyment and opportunity if they only hunt when they have a tag.
My children, both boys and girls, were in our hunting camps many years before they could shot anything. They were with us in the field, learning, helping, spotting and locating, as if they could shot. Now that I'm old, my children take their child to camp and these grandkids and I do what my children used to do with me, we help, spotting and locating, as if we could shot. It's great, as it always has been.
This year, I was fortunate enough to have a moose tag. There were 2 grandchildren, two children and two friends in our moose hunting camp. We all hunted. I pulled the trigger a fair piece from the road, one grandchild was at my elbow when my moose was shot. Within 30 minutes everyone was there, to help with the retrieval. That night, around the camp fire, everyone was as excited as I was, or more because each one knew they'd been on a moose hunt and had as much to do with filling the tag as I did, some even more because they had been involved in weeks of hunting (scouting) before the hunt started. They had no tag. They actually were hunting more than I was.
Two weeks later one of my sons had a mt. goat tag. One brother drove to Logan, Utah from Southern New Mexico 1150 miles. Another brother hunted (scouted) for 30 days for the son who had the tag. A friend joined them in camp the weekend of the hunt. So four hunters in camp, all hunting, one gun, one tag. 6.5 miles from the trail head "they" killed a goat. 6.5 backpack miles back to their vehicle, "they" told me it was one of the most exhausting hunts "they" ever been on.
Last weekend was the "youth" pheasant hunt. One 13 year old grandson with a tag and a Dad with two bird dogs, without a tag, hunted pheasants together before their baseball game. Great hunt and a great experience for two, one with a tag and one without.
This weekend, I will be hunting deer, without a tag, with a son and a grandson who both have tags. A grandson, that attends college in Montana, who does not have a tag, his mother who does not have a tag, and a grandmother that does not have a tag, will be in hunting camp as will.
My second son will be hunting deer in a different camp with his nine year old and his father-in-law. They could be in the same camp as the other son and most years they are, this year they decided to hunt 250 miles apart, because they wanted to, not because they had to.
In January two sons and a friend will hunt together in New Mexico for barbary sheep. Two tags, three hunters (maybe more) in camp.
For the last 5 years, I've assisted numerous non-family hunt deer and elk. Never had the tag but I got to hunt, in some cases I hunted a lot more than any of the shooters. Who had the most fun? Me or the shooter?
I know this has turned into a lecture but the point I'm trying to make is, you don't need a tag to be a hunter and have a great time in the outdoors, year round. SO LONG AS SOMEONE HAS A TAG, just in case I sound to some folks like I don't want everyone the resource can stand to have a tag. There isn't anyone that wants to promote and preserve long term hunting more than I do. (In case anyone should suggest otherwise.)
I'm not an outfitter, I've never taken a dime from anyone I've helped, the pleasure of hunting has been pay enough.
GLEDEASY, start planning to feel "up", find someone to hunt for and get out there and have fun.
DC
