More on hunting etiquette
Elk
Wondering what others feel about people who camp right at trailheads. Its clearly a move to block others from wanting to hunt that area. Do you pull up and hunt anyway? I tend to go elsewhere and not deal with them, but that is exactly what they want.
Depends on how much land is on the other side of the trailhead. The more there is the more likely I am to go.
I wouldn’t over think it. I’ve camped at a trailhead. No other reason than to have pickup camping accommodations but not have to fire up a rig and beat down the road in the morning. If it’s public and I don’t mind sharing a space I go where I like even if rigs are in the area. Usually in the places I hunt people are hard to avoid even if you take off from a different area. Just go hunt.
I'd rather have someone camped at a trailhead than camped 1 mile in.
That said, I avoid trailheads like the plague unless my plan is to make a 90 degree turn at the trailhead and follow the private off trail. Human trails are hunter funnels. Animals that hang around them die; the ones that are alive quickly learn to avoid them during hunting hours/season.
“ I'd rather have someone camped at a trailhead than camped 1 mile in.”
No doubt about that!
Depends. I don’t think someone camping at a trailhead is them trying to take control of the area. If it’s a small area and won’t support multiple hunters then I’ll probably move on. If it’s a big area go for it.
Good to know. I've always thought it was uncool. There are several good places I like to hunt that are limited access and not huge areas. Sounds like no big deal to camp out on the access, I will move in next season for a couple weeks. Thanks.
Just walk on by and go in to hunt.
Never thought of it as rude. Thought of it as handy. Anybody who’s wandered into camp versus wandering to a parked vehicle, that you use to drive you back to camp, sees that advantage quickly. .
I had a situation this year where there is about a mile of road you drive to get to the trailhead (off the main drive route) and had a group of hunters set up their camp about 1/4 of the way RIGHT in the middle of the road. I went back to my camp and got my 4 wheeler, went back and drove right through their camp to the trailhead gate. Total lack of etiquette and complete selfishness. It's a sad way these days!
“ I will move in next season for a couple weeks. “
Not sure how cool THAT is....
I'd go around the camp and hunt.
I would have issue with it?
My camp or your camp does not claim an area. I camp a a trail head, that I don't hunt every day on. If someone pulls up and hikes in, that is fine with me.
Totally dependent on situation. Camped at a major trail head into the backcountry. . . . No problem.
Camped blocking the end of a closed logging road (like I saw this year), obviously to discourage access---jerk move.
If the camp is located so as to discourage or block access, it's a jerk move. If it's located nearby, or doesn't impede or otherwise discourage access (other than you know someone else is obviously hunting there), then I have no problem whatsoever.
We camped this year just past the gate because it was the only place flat enough to put camp. I would have no issue with someone walking through camp to go hunt beyond. And they are welcome to stop on their way to/from and say "hi".
I’ve camped just beyond a gate. I never thought the area or the closed access road was “mine”. My tent crowded the edge of the road because of the huge grove of “dick pines” in the area.
I’ve hiked past camps at trail heads and near gates of closed roads and never gave it a thought other than, “When are these guys going to get up and get at it?”
Bake, Agree, you said it better than I did.
Anyone blocking a road is a d-bag. Camping at a trailhead isn't as bad imo, but I can also see how some might view it as trying to block access. It wouldn't stop me though. I would just walk around it or threw it. My beef is what is referenced on another thread where people treat NF as their own and park a camper all season on a spot. In WY I was scouting bear hunting spots and all summer the same rvs were in the same spots. Vacant during the week....people just park them there all season and act like it is their land.
Just to be clear ryanc. I was off the road. Just crowding the edge. Guy lines were not staked in the road. Fly was against the trees on the other side. Not blocking the road. I agree that anyone blocking a road is a d-bag.
The camp Bake referred to was a bunch of guys from WI (in WY) who literally blocked the entire entrance to a closed road with big tents, a trailer, tables and chairs, plus their trucks. Two had tags and I'm pretty sure the whole bunch was party hunting.
Anyway, I had been hunting that closed road since opening day, and had to walk through their chairs (where they were sitting) and around their grill to reach the gate. The guy who was apparently the Huntmaster stood up and puffed up his chest and got in my face and informed me they were hunting there now. I told him I was too. He said their "group" had been coming there for 7 years, so apparently they had some claim to the road.
Long story short, they blew all the elk out of that basin in a day and a half (which I'd been hunting the same bulls off and on for two weeks when the wind was right) then packed up and moved somewhere else to screw others up. In their wake, they left huge piles of crap and big wads of toilet paper all over beside the closed road. Looked like each guy used about 1/3 of a roll and just scattered it around after wiping. There is hunting etiquette and lifestyle etiquette. These pigs lacked both.
Lou, that would have been a great opportunity to take pictures of garbage and license plates and share with the forest service guys. I bet they’d love to pay them a visit.
The area I hunt elk guys were camped at most of the access trails, I moved on, but these trails access huge area's, I just like to avoid conflict, but there would be nothing wrong with walking right by their camp.
My biggest pet peeve is intentionally getting crowded. I saw more of that this year than the previous 14 years I’ve been hunting elk. If I see a vehicle, camp, ATV, utv or any evidence of other hunters, I move on to plan b out of respect for someone already hunting the area. This year guys were just horning their way in to others space all over the place. I hope this isn’t the new normal. For the first time I saw what I’ve seen Jaq talk about when elk get pushed onto private and that’s the last you see of them. I mean elk literally tore fences down to get away from humans. Never seen anything like it. Hope I never do again either. More of a reason for guys like me who like to hunt every year to support full on draw units......
I hate jerks.....sorry to hear you encountered some Bake and Lou........
David, I'm like you. If somebody is parked there, I move on. Now it seems like running in on top of others is becoming the norm. My observations over the past several seasons are that these folks tend to be younger (early 30s or less). Don't know if it's a generational thing, or societal, but it is definitely becoming more of a problem.
I talked to a couple younger guys who had gone on on two old fellas, who were very pissed when they came out earlier. They looked at each other, shrugged, popped a couple beers from the cooler in their UTV, and told me they didn't care, and they thought it was funny that the old guys were angry. "Screw 'em" was essentially the response. They were laughing about it.
Yes very unfortunate Lou. It had been since 2016 that I had hunted this unit last and never seen this before. The landowner I spoke with is the one who told me about the elk tearing his fences down.
Ya know after he and I talked for a spell and have been talking ever since, he offered me a depredation tag for a cow on one of the barley fields those elk have made home. They don’t want to leave the safety of his land. He says it’s pretty typical for elk to enter his property during hunting season but never the shear numbers he’s seen this year. Literally the whole herd from a 40 square mile area is on his and his neighbors farm land in the lower elevation now lol
Yes very unfortunate Lou. It had been since 2016 that I had hunted this unit last and never seen this before. The landowner I spoke with is the one who told me about the elk tearing his fences down.
Ya know after he and I talked for a spell and have been talking ever since, he offered me a depredation tag for a cow on one of the barley fields those elk have made home. They don’t want to leave the safety of his land. He says it’s pretty typical for elk to enter his property during hunting season but never the shear numbers he’s seen this year. Literally the whole herd from a 40 square mile area is on his and his neighbors farm land in the lower elevation now lol
Where I hunted in N. Central CO in 2018 there was a herd of over 200 roaming the hay meadows below us all of September, and another herd of 300+ a few miles north. The public land above was basically barren. Even the private land cow hunters shooting at them with rifles didn't run them back up. They just went to the next bend in the river bottom. This phenomenon is happening all over. Ranchers are pissed, hunters are pissed, and game managers are pissed because they don't get the herd harvest they want.
I'm never hunting that ranch country again. Lots of elk and the unit population counts reflect that. But "huntable" elk are a different matter.
I’ll be camping at a trail head in Ohio for the next 12 days...and I don’t even hunt that spot haha Drive 20-30 mins ever day just no where else to camp for free close and I’m or paying a campground
Similar issue in MO with duck hunting, believe it or not. The state set up these wonderful refuges full of flooded corn with a few hunting spots along the edges. The ducks sit on the safe corn filled refuges. Unless you drew a spot next to them you had a hard time finding a duck to kill. Rivers, creeks, private water holes, all became very difficult after being productive for years. Dux sat on the flooded corn with no hunters created by the State.
Does it make a difference if they camp elsewhere and drive to the trailhead? That doesn’t bother me at all as long as they don’t block the road or trail AND leave no litter.
MP, yep, that's how it should work. Leave room to park and walk through take your garbage with you, not at the gate, especially when you're camped at the gate.
how about a guy at work you talk to about elk hunting and then the next year he shows up early with a buddy and camps right where you were gonna. then claims he "found the area on his own".
Gdx.... tents are flammable! What an ass!
“ I’ll be camping at a trail head in Ohio for the next 12 days...and I don’t even hunt that spot haha ”
May all the people who avoid the area where you are camped decide to do all their hunting “20-30 minutes away” instead.
I’m surprised those lawn chairs aren’t “folded up”....
I camped at a trailhead near the Flat Tops wilderness area this season. My camp and truck was at least 50 yards off to the side of the road leading into the area. I certainly was blocking no one. Nor did anyone have to walk through the middle of my camp to access the area. I camped here to avoid the noise and disturbance of driving a vehicle to the trailhead each am and pm.
