Drinking and Hunting

AntlerKing · Oct 26, 2005

I was wondering how many of you run into the same thing I see every year. For the past ten years I've watched guys stop on there ATV's to retrieve a beer from the cooler drink it down in 5.4 sec and get back on and drive off (can tossed to the ground). Or ride or hike past other guys on horses that have a beer with them (as you come out you pass all their beer cans on the ground). I've watched over the past 10 years different horsemen riding up the trail drinking a beer. Then stopping off on a ridge and drinking another 4-5 beers then getting on there horse and opening a sixth. All of them have rifles with them. Then I see these various guys come out and open another one while loading there horses/ATV's into the trailers. I've called the sheriffs office and DWR on a few over the past years...not as many as I should. I guess partly to knowing some of them. I'm just sick of seeing it and then watching them with a rifle up in the hills then driving after; it just gets me ticked off. This post is to see how many of you run into this kind of thing where you hunt? And what you've done? It's hard to stop these guys due to the remote areas? Anyway just a post I thought I would start.

H. Carrying a Dangerous Weapon While Under Influence of Alcohol or Drugs
76-10-528

(1) Any person who carries a dangerous weapon while under the influence of alcohol or a controlled substance as defined in Section 58-37-2 is guilty of a class B misdemeanor. Under the influence means the same level blood or breath alcohol concentration as provided in Section 41-6-44.

(2) It is not a defense to prosecution under this section that the person:

(a) is licensed in the pursuit of wildlife of any kind; or

(b) has a valid permit to carry a concealed firearm.

Deerlove · Oct 26, 2005

Typical Utard white trash. If you haul your gear pack it out!!!!

FamilyMan · Oct 26, 2005

I have never seen this in 20-plus years of hunting. Perhaps I am just lucky. Perhaps it is because noone I have ever hunted with drinks. Still, I have seen countless scores of other hunters in the field and never one who was drinking.

I find the type of behavior you are describing both dangerous and discusting.

Just my point of view.

Mark

RuttingMuleys · Oct 26, 2005

I love my beer but there is a time and a place for it. And they are not while hunting and or driving. While hiking I see more water bottles and Dad?s root beer cans then I do beer cans. Probably because most the beer cans are on the roads that they hunt. I just pick them up and put them in my back pack on keep going.

JJB

HuntinAddict · Oct 26, 2005

Unfortunately, I too have seen this. Last year a 3 of my cousins drew the same muzzle elk hunt as I did so I asked them to come along and I would get them into some elk (as they had never killed an elk before). I scouted some areas and found the elk before the hunt. I printed maps, and marked the areas where the elk would be at first light (I gave them first dibs on the spot). I was very excited about the hunt.......

We'll, what happened the night before the hunt and the 1st morning of the hunt was frustrating.... As the wife and I hit the sack early the night before opening morning my cousins started drinking up a storm. When opening morning came I had to knock on their door to get them started. To make a long story short they hit the spot that I told them about later than they should have and the elk were already in the trees. The opportunity that I set them up for was blown because they drank it up the night before. They ended up hunting with a hangover.

I was not very happy with the hunt and needless to say I did not hunt with them this year. I think it is dangerous to hunt while drinkihng and/or hung over. Don't get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with some beer or wine after a long day of hunting, but overdoing it can be dangerous.

YoungBuck · Oct 26, 2005

Havent seen it in person...but I know it goes on in some of the places I hunt...proof is in the cans strung out on the hillsides.
Dont people know that crap will just dehydrate you?
YB

AZWALKER · Oct 26, 2005

As far as the littering goes, thats BS. I have seen some of it but what I see more of is cigarette butts. I was walking back to my truck after an evening in the stand and I found where someone had emptied their ashtray right on a two track in the middle of a great deer area. That really pissed me off... and I smoke! I don't think you can just pick on the beer drinkers though. Like one guy said, I also see more water bottles and candy bar rappers than I do beer cans. I personally think the bigger problem is the littering. I hunt with quite a few guys that love to drink beer in camp but if they caught you littering they'd kick the snot out of ya.

Donnie

crimedog · Oct 26, 2005

Never seen it. does it happen I am sure but I have never seen someone driving or riding up the canyon with a beer in hand

RIMROCK338 · Oct 26, 2005

What most people don't understand is that the amount of hooch you drink at home at say 3000 ft. elevation hits you almost twice as hard at 9-10000 feet.how many outfitters pack plenty of booze for their thick wallet'd clients,on the other hand when they get sh!t faced the night before the hunt they don't make it to the really good spots the next morning.(Ya a little more sighting fluid.>>)..I never threw out as much ham and eggs,biscuits and gravy as when I cooked for an outfitter because the clients had hang overs.OH and another thing--MOST--drunks just shoot people in their own camp.:RIMROCK

RIMROCK338 · Oct 26, 2005

Never seen it. does it happen I am sure but I have never seen someone driving or riding up the canyon with a beer in hand >>>
LOL--LOL--ROTFLMAO
NOOOOOOOO way.. not in the land of ZION--AS the song goes
(( POP A TOP AGAIN )):RIMROCK

opportunist · Oct 26, 2005

You think littering is more of a problem than a bunch of liquored up, rifle toting, wanna be cowboys driving around in their F-350's looking for something to shoot?

polarbear · Oct 26, 2005

It sounds like my cousin. He got a bigger fanny pack so that he could carry more beer into the woods. He usually carried 6-8 ice beers. I quit hunting with him because of it. That and the fact that during a 2 week hunting trip, he never once bathed! I told him that there was no wonder why all of the deer that he spotted were running away from him to beat hell. We could be sitting on a ridge glassing a couple hundred yards apart and I could smell it when he cracked open a beer.
Save it for back at camp!

Eric

IDhornhound · Oct 26, 2005

I may be going out on a cracked limb here but I have a solution to hunting AND drinking problem. It also keeps the trails free of beercans(at least ours anyway). I like a few around the campfire in the evenings and with 5 guys in camp a few around the fire each night could add up to ALOT of beer cans to deal with on a 2 week hunt!. Not to mention having to pack in case after case. It's 3 hrs on horseback to our camp and beer runs cost a days worth of hunting.This prevents us from bringing a sixpack or to with us during the day,(we don't drink and hunt at the same time anyway)and we did not have to make any extra trips out except to pack out our bulls! I don't know if the pic will show... our solution:just pack in a couple ponie kegs and your good to go!Plenty of beer in camp and no way to take it elsewhere!

RuttCrazed · Oct 27, 2005

A few years ago my brother and I were bowhunting above Heber, we came to a crossroad and there was a F&G officer checking licenses. We stopped and showed him our tags and he leaned over and looked in the truck and said, "You guys are the first people I have checked this morning that didn't have an open container", this was only a few hours after sunrise!!

Rut

five_point_buck · Oct 27, 2005

About 5 or 6 years ago there was a group form Louisiana that hunted another ranch operated by our old ranch manager. They had deer and elk tags, but found it way more enjoyable to cram four guys in the front seat of a Z71 and drive the raods looking for rabbits. They had a quad in the back, and a cooler. The cooler was reachable by one of the middle passengers through the slider. They would drive around for a better part of the day until the beer ran out. The killed a bunch of rabbits, but not too many deer or elk. Never understood why you would drive all that way to get a heat-on, then look for cotton tails.

The litter thing really drives me nuts. Is it that hard to put th wrapper or can in your pack?

five_point_buck
C.B.C.S.

AntlerKing · Oct 27, 2005

IDhornhound,

That's a sweet set-up!

Five point...it's hard to stop and like you said, pick up other people's crap and put in your pack. We did that one year. We took a big bag and just filled it with everything we found one day in Sept. Most guys are good at packing there junk back out with them...then there are those few that litter everything. I've had a nightmare with my scouts picking up there junk. It took me one year in the scouts before I got them to pick every piece of junk up when up camping and hiking.

KNOPHISH · Oct 27, 2005

There's a huge diffence in drinking some beers & being drunk. I thought of putting a garbage can in the back of the truck & picking up every can along the road. Might make for some good karma for getting a monster buck or at least look nice.......for about a minute.

PronghornHunter · Oct 27, 2005

I save the beer drinking for back at camp and don't carry any in the truck while hunting. It just doesn't look good for game&fish to see you hauling beer around while hunting.

MrMuley · Oct 29, 2005

All,

Not one to say that drinking is right or wrong at ?camp? but from one (me) out of state hunter?s perspective/view I think its just plain stupid. Meaning, I wait 51 weeks out of the year to spend one week, sometimes two, hunting western states big game. So, why in the @#%$ would I be drinking during the hunt when I could do that during the other 51 weeks of the year? In fact, I try to refrain from consuming and/or limiting alcohol at least 30 days prior to the hunt. Dealing with mountain elevations coming from sea level is difficult enough; in my case they (mountains) don't need an additional advantage.
Factor in the money spent?.well let's not?.just in case my significant other somehow gets whiff of this forum.

I look at hunting as a fairly structured event; out at dark, back at dark, with dinner and a good night sleep to refuel for the next day. Meaning, there's not much time for much else. So, when I go hunting I am thinking about hunting, to include the social aspect and camaraderie that comes with it, to me, I don't need alcohol at hunting camp to get that feeling.

Also, hunting for me is a very important part of my well being. It's a way to stay connected to my roots and somehow balance the impact of working in corporate America and living in a highly urbanized environment (city). I ain?t going to mess with my one week of relief by getting %$@& faced at camp.

I sometimes have a toast the last night after the hunt is completed, but just as often I wait until I get home to the safety and comfort of my home. Trust me I am not tea toddler, as I can carry my own, just not when I am hunting. My humble perspective.

eelgrass · Oct 29, 2005

MrMuley, my feelings exactly! I more enjoy the "high" I get from the hunt too much.

Many years ago, our neighbors 9 year old daughter was hit and killed by a drunk driver while delivering news papers in our neighborhood. I was the first one on the scene. I hope I never have to see anything like that again. And I hope none of you do either. For her parents, the nightmare never ends!

Please don't drink and drive/hunt

Steve

boneaddict · Oct 30, 2005

I saw it so many times this weekend elk hunitng it was pitiful. I'm not a saint but you know when you drive by a guy and he is just blitzed its insane.

caelkhnter · Oct 30, 2005

Alcohol + hunting is one of the big reasons I hunt exclusively archery(that and the fact I love the challenge of archery). Many years ago my buddy and I had worked late the night before the fall turkey season. By the time we got up to the woods we were pretty tired and so by late afternoon we decided to just sit quitely by(up in the trees) a water hole that had some turkey tracks. About an hour or so later a pick up came up and 3 guys got out and started shooting into the water and at the trees next to the water hole. They all were drinking beer and seem to be enjoying themselves. Well as I saw pine needles jumping on the ground next to me from their shooting I was afraid to move for fear they might shoot at any real movement. When they stopped to reload my buddy and I came charging out from the trees yelling and they then understood their fun was pretty stupid. That was the last gun hunt I went on. I am not saying that archery hunters do not drink on hunting trips, I just feel safer with hunters that may be drinking not having high power rifles in their hands.

COSA · Oct 31, 2005

While hunting I may take a small flask, never have more than a couple of swigs at camp after a hard days hunting. Just enough to get me tired. Another post could be called Drinking and Posting, now I've made that mistake before on a hot topic or two!

larrbo · Nov 1, 2005

There is a time and place for everything. For me Beer and Firearms are the same combination as gas and fire. I only hunt with those that practice good firearm safety. After 3 beers someone may only be about 60% safe. That is a failing grade for me.

RLH · Nov 1, 2005

shootin' road signs from the back of a movin' pickup is more fun when yer drunk. ain't ya knowed that yet? the drunker ya are, the better a mullet looks too. best to drink till you're rich, good lookin' and bullet proof. the latter being real important, so's bubba's '06 will bounce offa ya when it goes off "accidently". drinkin' and huntin' is probly dumber than drinkin' and drivin'. and illegal as hell. and folks that do it oughta all hunt in the same place so's evertime they kill somebody they're doin' the rest of us a favor.

AndymanSavage · Nov 1, 2005

I've seen it too, it really pisses me off. I've been in camp with guys who crack open a beer or two in camp and it didn't bug me at all. I've also seen guys who can't even speak clearly but feel that they are sober enough to tote a rifle. Just one more reason to pack a pistola in the woods.
Andy

Canoe · Nov 1, 2005

I've been known to get drunker than he!! in camp. I've been known to sleep late and miss the morning hunt. I've been known to waste time going back to town for more beer so that I could get drunk and sleep in late the next day.

You know what? I could give a sh!t what any of you think about it.

But it does piss me off when people litter- seems like it is mostly all those guys that don't drink doing all of the littering. Man that just eats me up, I mean come on. Have a beer and spend a little time picking up your camp.

Dang non-drinkers anyway. They are going to ruin it for all of us decent fun loving drunk hunters.

opportunist · Nov 1, 2005

I've been known to hide drunks guns so they don't kill anyone else. Notice I said "anyone else", cause I could care less if they kill themselves.

Hawkk33 · Nov 1, 2005

Booze and hunting dont mix. In the camp sure a beer then go to sleep. But partying all night leads to sleeping all the next day.

Booze and guns and drunk hunting is really idiotic.

Serious hunters wouldn't cloud their minds with booze until AFTER they have killed their trophy or not at all. It takes all the senses being spot on to hunt.

Just my .02

AZWALKER · Nov 1, 2005

To each his own... just don't be an idiot! That goes for anything in life. It sounds like people are just preachin' to the choir on this thread. Are we all here to complain about people that won't read this anyway or are we here to talk about hunting??? You know what I'd like to hear more of? I wanna here how somebody came up with a new way of glassing up big deer or how somebody called in a big herd bull during the late part of the rut and how he did it. Its getting old hearing about all the idiots you've seen in the last month or what this guy did or what that guy didn't do. Everybody here seems to be really cool but at the same time you sound like a bunch of old women. People have been getting drunk since the begining of recorded history and they aren't gonna stop... you want a solution?..... hunt wilderness areas!

Donnie

12gaugeage · Nov 2, 2005

This weekend, hunted the Pecos Wilderness in New Mexico.. After heading back to the truck this guy stops and we talk about any wildlife we saw that day.. He later tells me that he came across a spike buck and would have shot it if there weren't other hunters around.. He stated tomorrow, that he'll buy himself a 12-pack and road hunt all day.. As if that wasn't enough, mentions that last year, on the last day of a bull elk hunt, shot a 4-point muley, loaded it up in the truck and was off..

It made me sick to my stomach.. I was by myself at the time, and was tempted to say something, but I had to remember that he was toteing a rifle..

ktc · Nov 2, 2005

What really pisses me off is when I am riding off the mountain good and drunk, stop to piss, and trip over a damn Pepsi can. There ought to be a law against drinking that stuff. Don't those idiots know that Pepsi is just empty calories?

cabinfever · Nov 2, 2005

Many think you have to have Alcohol in order to have a good time. What a crock of crap. I've seen a few opening morning hangovers to know it aint worth ruining a hunt over. There has been way to many familys destroyed by this stuff as well. I guess I'll get off my soap box.