Interesting encounter
Massachusetts
I hunted Quabbin (Prescott peninsula) Thursday for the first time ever. It wasn't long before I started thinking of Will's "Hard Question" thread. Not so much about social media but more about the general "it's all about me" selfishness that is so prevalent in society today.
We got in nice and early and shortly after 1st light I was settled into a natural blind of sorts. Not completely hidden but a fair amount of cover with good lines of visibility in several directions. After half hour or so I see orange slowly making it's way in my direction. I naively think "that's OK, when he sees me he'll move off". Well, by the time he gets to about 70-80 yards I know he has seen me but he continues still-hunting right towards me. This continues until he is standing about 15 feet in front of me when he looks at me and says "I was gonna be there". I'm not sure I actually responded verbally, I was speechless. He then proceeds to trip over a log and face plant on the ground. I ask if he's OK and needs any help. He says he's fine (with some attitude) so I stay put. He gets up on one knee and it literally takes him 20 seconds or so to stand up leaning on his gun for support with one hand and the log with the other hand. Looks like he's probably pushing 70 and I'm sort of starting to feel sorry for him. If he ever shoots a deer he'll never be able to drag it out. After he's finally back on his feet he proceeds to still-hunt away from me. Goes to about 10 yards away from me and stops for 30 seconds or so looking around, 20 yards away and stops for 30 seconds, 30 yards, 40 yards, and so on. When he finally gets to 60 yards or so I'm starting to think that my hunt will return to normal soon. Nope! At about 60-70 yards away from me he plants his butt down and takes up residence.
I was kind of PO'd but really all I could do was laugh at the absurdity of the whole thing. Thankfully, shortly after that my buddy texted me that he shot a deer so I just met up with him to help him drag.
" I was gonna be there " Right there , not over there or over there but there . right there ! Now watch my face plant . Bet you can't do that over there. Crazy stuff . Funny too. But annoying.
Did you ask when he is going to be right there next time ?
I ran into a guy last year that shot his gun and when I asked if he got a deer he said no I accidentally pulled the trigger. Then he tells me he tried to shoot a deer in the ass the day before as he just saw the tail flicker. I told him I was going to be over there. Right before dark here he comes and says out loud see anything! Unreal what people are out carrying guns.
As a rule , People suck !!
One of the crossbow hunters where I go decided to ride his dirt bike through all the trails on the last day of archery this year instead of hunting . Yes, people suck
I was walking in to this one public area and along the trail comes this old timer. Long white beard, looked like he had been hunting for years... then I got closer, he was carrying a blue fold up chair with an old shotgun. I started chatting with him and he proceeds to tell me about the massive Buck droppings. Remembering the horse droppings I saw earlier, I asked him where he saw these “buck droppings.” Yup... he thinks he’s hunting a deer but... that poor horse is in for a surprise. He then tells me about his buddies shotgun he’s using and has never shot before... I left and never went back... scary
Bruce, I feel your pain. Got into my favorite spot this morning, had no movement the first couple hours, heard shots at 8 or so, held on a bit longer, then decided to move the fixed I was in to a better spot for a future am sit. As I'm in the process, a member of the orange guard crosses my path. This is a small piece of woods that only a few local guys hunt during gun, during bow I have it mostly to myself. I asked him if he did the shooting earlier, he said no, his buddies son shot a big doe. Then he tells me how on opening day they took 6 bucks out of these woods, one was a nice 8. I asked him if the 8 had a wound on his upper back, and he said he wasn't sure, his buddy got that one. I showed him the picture of the buck I shot opening morning of bow, and he said it looks just like him. Part of me is relieved that this buck was taken, it's been bothering me all season. I know these guys have the right to hunt, but the drives are hard to take. I only have 8 to 10 bucks on cam all year, and just lost atleast 6. I put so much effort into this spot, food plots and mineral sites, hinge cutting, trail making, scouting. Just watching these guys wabble like weebles down the trails for 2 weeks, never seeing another guy in these woods all year long, it kills me. Sorry to complain, I just felt completely defeated today.
Bowhunt3138 , its not a rule ! it's voluntary.
I have a slob on my trail cam walking around with his Metal detector during T-Giving weekend. That day the pins in my climber get taken. I don't haver a picture of him doing it but he did stop to look right at it. Maybe he found it with his magic metal detector. Grrrr.
Someone needs a chat. Grrrr 2
We share the resources of deer and public land. The best way to avoid people is to get your own land, but as noted in another recent thread that doesn’t always happen on private posted land. We have to try to play nice.
Eastie, you didn’t “lose” anything. Someone was fortunate enough to harvest the deer.
Eastie, and the sad part is that they don’t care. They will keep coming back until all the deer are gone just doesn’t make sense why someone would want to destroy a good spot. I had an absolute honey hole years ago that I saw deer pretty much every sit. Shotgun came and everywhere I walked I saw gut piles. I was told by a guy that has a house on edge of those woods that 16 deer were taken from drives. That place has never been the same since and I stopped going there. I once did scouting there and jumped 20 deer while walking. I would still be there today if it was still good. I hope one day MA bans drives.
get to my stand tonite my strap is cut only hanging on by a thread the tail end of the strap dangling in the breeze i had it wrapped and tied 20 yrd from the spot i had one stolen last season how can people justify themselves ?selfritchus sweaty ball sacks
I hear you GED, the thing is it's private land that I went through the trouble to get permission to hunt, which as far as I know no one else did. Atleast one of the guys is local, and I'm not trying to bust balls, so I just go along with it. I ignore the dogs, ignore the shots after or before legal light, and everything else, because that's the way I was raised. I guess I was just pissing and moaning to a bunch of guys like me, that put the time in. I have nothing against getting it done with the bow or gun, and if the deer population in an area can sustain a drive and that's your thing, have at it. I know these deer don't belong to me or anyone else, but they are a resource to be conserved. I also have immense respect and admiration for whitetail deer, too much to line my buddies up at one end of the property, and drive them straight into a barrage of gunfire, and most likely right out of these woods.
I find at my job negativity feeds upon itsself like a creature eating its own tail. So when folks complain about their job at the public schools i start bitching too sorta in comraderie. Then we all feed off that and others start adding in about how things suck and more budget cuts, etc . Next thing ya now we are all pissy and think our jobs suck. We all mope around bitching about how things are bad
Then i go home and smile about being outta work.
Just saying,.. is all.
Ps at the same time i realize having a place to vent is important.
Had 2 state police cruisers waiting for the three of us as we exited at 5pm this eve. Now there is an odd tale. I will post tomorrow on that if hunterma or jp dont do it tonight. Beat and hungry. What a day!
yesterday morning, last day of gun in NH I had a guy walk past me then cut across in front of me. it was about a half our after sunrise and I came in early and set up under the moon. I'm up in my climber bow hunting and he's walking w/ a shotgun, I'm also holding in a full bladder that I really need to unload. I watch him pass me, never looking up, then snap a few sticks under his feet not worried about making noise I guess. he then cuts to my left @ about 60yds and starts looking around. thought he was still hunting and going to move on but he pulls out something from inside his pocket and starts spraying pine branches around him. I'm like "great he's gonna set up camp here". So I relieve myself out of my tree hoping he doesn't shoot up in the air. He then looks at me, I wave and he moved on. but I could smell the doe estrus spray the rest of my sit. he basically moved on through where the deer move toward me. then a couple hours later he comes toward me to my left. so he pretty much circled the spot the deer are hanging out in and probably pushed them out. at that point I packed up. hopefully now that the gun hunters are done for the season I can get some decent opportunities.
Bruce - that's a bummer! Big woods, plenty of places to go. Hope the fellow was ok - falling down that often makes one think him hunting is perhaps a little dicey, as you alluded. Hopefully he had a son, daughter, buddy or something to help drag.
That said, great to hear your buddy got one. Buck? Doe? Many deer shot - I've heard little of the Quabbin hunt this year.
Did you see any moose or bears or bobcats?
Will
BB, please fill us in on the State Police encounter. Always interested to know if those encounters are positive o negative. Pete
Will, nobody from our group drew doe tags. My buddy shot a small 4 point, it was the only deer any of us saw. One of the other guys saw two cow moose go by him pretty close. Didn't hear of too many deer being shot but it's really hard to tell. Early in the day heard what sounded like the making of swiss cheese deer :-(
It was cool and all hunting in there and I'm glad I did it, but to be honest I probably wouldn't be in a big hurry to go back. You can get in fairly early but you need to be out by 4:00PM, just the time that you really want to be sitting in a tree. And I get the feeling that the deer density in there isn't any better than anyplace else, maybe less. The time would probably be better spent hunting somewhere that you've scouted and know fairly well.
I thought everyone hunting Quabbin got a doe tag?
Spike, nobody (6 guys) in our group got one and I know of at least one other group where nobody got one. Extremely limited sample size but maybe that's some evidence that the deer density in there isn't really very high.
Zone 6 is about a 50% chance now of getting one. That is better odds then a few years ago due to less people applying for that zone. Ironically though my zone 6 spot is seeing more hunters then years ago.
these are the reasons I don't hunt the quabbin( and I'm a 100 yds from it!) the one time I did hunt it I am guessing that 75% of the hunters were inexperienced city once a year type of hunters. With the amount of ppl they put in there I'm shocked no one has been shot yet.
Here are those 2 cow moose Bruce mentioned... (actually, i think a cow and a calf.
I'm no spring chicken , but I can feel for this thread...there has been a florida old timer haunting me for years...I will not say anything to him,,i will not be rude..but man..someday he needs to disappear... LOL
