Hunters are human and thus there are many many types, all with flaws, and not all are going to get along. On the other hand we generally do have a number of common interests which hopefully bind us together to achieve some common goals, such as preservation of game habitant, preservation of hunting rights etc. In addition we should respect each other and observe common courtesy. The problem I have with some hunters is that they do not understand,or have not been taught,or have substantialy different vaules than I think should be basic. It is difficult to address such matters out in the field. At that time the adreline is flowing, intensisity is high, and any efforts to confront and discuss lead to hostile and heated exchanges which benefit no one,and at the end of the day reflect poorly on our sport. However a forum like this may provide a way for such matters to be discussed and perhaps some can learn from it.
A recent example might help see where I am coming from. My buddy and I were on a recent archery mule deer hunting trip in an area where stalking is difficult to impossible because of the conditions( crunching snow etc) So we decided to glass sage flats to see if we could pattern any decent muleys as they came and went from the tree line. We had found a draw where we had observed a few decents bucks coming out every night for 3 nights. As they entered the sage flat they seemed to always go one of two ways. We decided to set up 2 ground blinds to cover the options. The last night we were glassing a hunter came up on the ridge we were glassing from and saw the draw we were looking at. He explained that he had hunted this area years ago and that that was a good draw. We told him we were going to set a couple of ground blinds up the next morning.
The next morning as we arrived to get our ground blinds set up we saw this hunter was parked and seemed to be getting ready to do something. As we put on are packs to start the hike into the draw, we approached this hunter and he explained that he intended to set a tree stand up on the treeline in the same draw. He told us he remembered where we said we were going to set up and that he was going to be a least 300 yards from us so it should be not problem. This is not what we wanted but afterall it is a free country and he is a fellow hunter and we could not cover all of the area so we expressed no objection but asked that he get set up as soon as he could because we wanted to be set up to sit the rest of the day undisturbed with sawing noise etc. He agreed and off we went.
After we got our ground blinds built we we set and I looked back along the tree line to see if I could find the other hunter. He had set up, like he said, about 300 yards from us. Late that afternoon, about 1 hour before dark I saw a buck coming out of the trees. It was a 28 inch tall deep forked 4x4 buck, the largest we had seen to date. There was another 24 inch 3x4 buck with him, and as they entered the sage flat they appeared to be on the path that would take them very close to my buddy. I know they are no certainties in this stuff, but I was getting excited with the possibility that my buddy was going to have a great opprotuniy.
As the bucks were feeding into the sage I heard a strange noise off in the direction of the other hunter. I put my binos up to find this hunter rattling. Now the rut was over, and these bucks were a good 300+ yards from this guy and only 150 yards from my buddy AND were feeding towards my buddy. I looked over the situation and figured this hunter could see all of this. The bucks immediately stopped feeding, looked in the direction of the rattling, and when they did not see any other deer, went back into the trees never to be seen again.
We sat our blinds until dark and when we got to our truck saw the other hunter. We asked him about the rattling. We were not confrontational and did not appear to be angry(even though we were) but were sincerly interested in what he thought he would accomplish with his efforts, especially when the deer were feeding towards my buddy. He explained he thought it was worth a try and that there was no telling where the deer would head when they got into the sage. Well my buddy and I simply ackowledged his explanation and left. Yes we were angry and thought what he had done was BS but I am sure had we said so then it would have lead to a heated bad exchange which probably would not have accomplished anything.
We did not hunt that draw again because we wanted to make sure we stayed away from that hunter. On the other hand we did meet many hunters who were good people who shared the same values as us. I do not agree with the genereal statment that all hunters hate all hunters. I think there are some that are probably bad, many who are ignorant, but most are great people that I would be happy to spend time around the campfire with.
