Elk Hunting Etiquette on Public Land?

[WapitiTalk1]

Most of us hunt on public land which in turn means, we may very well find others hunting the same general area that we do. That's no big surprise but how do you deal with bumping into somebody that has plans to hunt the same specific area that you have scouted and plan on hunting? Do you feel there is an acceptable code of ethics that apply when hunter A and hunter B both arrive at the same jump off point, and, appear to both have plans to move to and hunt pretty much the same spot?

[Swede]

Most of the time I have come to a very acceptable resolution on these matters. Not always.

I was setting up my stand one morning when an old police officer came driving his ATV illegally up to where I was. He proceeded to start climbing another tree to hang his stand at the same water hole. I showed him my stand and said I was planning to hunt there. He said, "That is ok. I will be right here with you." I packed up and left, but I was ticked.
A friend had been sitting morning and afternoons in a stand for several days. He left for lunch and came back and found a person hiding in a quickie ground blind nearby. My friend proceeded to climb into his stand. Words were passed back and forth and the other guy went out and started shooting a large caliber pistol to intimidate or whatever.

I have found people in my stand several times. I have visited with them and they volunteered to leave, but I insisted they stay. I gained a friend and we were both just fine. Most of the time, you can work things out if you are respectful, and verbally recognize the other person's right. After all it is public land. The code is; recognize the rights of others and be respectful.

[Steve G]

I am a spot and stalk hunter. I have probably driven over a day to get to my spot and put in a lot of effort to arrive at the conclusion that this is the spot for me to hunt. If I already have game spotted, I would inform the other party of my intentions. If I don't have game spotted I will either inform them of my plan or ask them theirs and work around. But I'm not likely to be rude nor am I likely to give it up without a conversation.

[saddlesore]

Usually I work some thing out where as we both benefit. Outfitters placing a client won't generally work with me though.If someone wants to sit close to me,I tell them which way I will be looking and shooting. I advise them strongly not to sit in my shooting lane. I very seldom encounter other hunters though that I don't know.
I don't use commercial blinds and usually throw some limbs etc. up as cover. Either way, if I had blind up, left it came back and found someone else close, I'd figure they got there first and go elsewhere.If they were in my commercial blind,I would ask them to get out and then take the blind down and again go else where . A person who leaves a blind setup and leaves has no right to thing that areas is theirs to hunt exclusively.

I met a nice young fellow last year on a ML hunt.I was all set to leave the truck and go sit at one of my favorite spots.He drove up and asked where I planned to hunt.Seems he had tree stand that he had use in rifle season and was going in to pull it out but it was close to where I was going to sit.He said he would come back later so as not to mess up my hunt and I could use it if I wanted to.

[Lefty]

I quit hunting the desert one reason a,family, nice people, they didn't hunt to my liking. Basically they would drive I n early, didn't know where they were going. Then. blow the elk out in the dark.
I've run it the same fellows the past two years. Good hunters. Last year they let me decide where I would hunt. This year I suggested they chose first.
Good hunters tend to want to work it out so they can hunt.
I've run into some waterfowlers and waterfowl guides that don't want to work things out. I just move.
Guys I've met back in want to hunt, so do I

[Roosiebull]

my whole program is to avoid others, I cannot remember seeing anyone while hunting elk, maybe walking out, but never hunting.

if I am hunting an area that is a popular area, I get there early, and start in early. if someone also gets there early, before I get out of my pickup, with plans to hunt the same spot, I will get out, make contact and see what the situation is. i'm not protective of spots, I have plan A through at least D each day, if I get the feeling they will effect my hunt, I will let them have it without attitude, knowing it's still plenty early for another plan.

if I am on a bull, I will be in the woods very early listening close to where I think he is, and waiting. I have never had people problems, even though it seems very crowded in my area I hunt. it's a big part of my strategy, not just figuring out elk habits, but also those of fellow hunters.

I figure I will do whatever I need to stay away from people, usually it's no problem, some times I have to go out of my way. my first goal each day, fishing or hunting, is to not have a negative impact on someone else (parking somewhere before someone else gets there doesn't count )

I have only had one really poor encounter with someone, and it was opening day of rifle deer. I parked at a gate with not much country behind it, several pulled in, saw me and left....one didn't, one guy pulls up, jumps out of his pickup and bails in behind the gate, I thought that was pretty chicken****, but I just went and scouted above that area that day, let that guy have it, stayed out of his way, and didn't become a victim.....as luck would have it, I ended up killing the big tracked buck in there that year, I thought he was a stud, turned out to be a 5.5 yr old forky still a super cool buck, and the one I was hunting.

getting worked up about people means becoming a victim, I just adjust my plan to pressure, and never have issues.

[six]

Had an interesting scenario last year. I felt bad afterward but grateful it all worked out.
After a 22 hour drive a 3 mile pack in and wonderful nights sleep. My buddy and I were working our way to a saddle where I could put him. He is a avid whitetail hunter and I really wanted him to see an elk. I felt the saddle was the best place to see an elk that morning. I had planned to be at the saddle for months on my first day in the mountains.

We left camp at zero dark thirty and headed for the saddle. It was breaking dawn and we were still 10 minutes from the saddle when we heard a cow call. We set up immediately and after calling back and fourth it was obvious it was another hunter. He was between us and the saddle. We exchanged a wave and I backed out. I wish I would have talked with him at this point or known the lay of the land better. We made a plan to make a wide circle around him and continue on to the saddle. We had already burned a lot of daylight at this point. We had gone a couple hundred yards when the guy comes running up to us and yelled in his quiet voice. "I'll just go hunt somewhere else". I told him I was sorry. I told him I really wanted to go to the saddle and pointed my GPS in the direction of the saddle. He turned around and walked away.

Lesson learned I'll go talk to the person next time.

[twinkieman]

It doesn't happen a lot where I hunt, If I do run into another hunter, if they were already there, I back out, and go hunt somewhere else. 3 years ago, I was calling for another of our group, we were working a nice bull. I heard noise behind me, I then saw 3 other hunters, coming to my calling and the bull I was calling to. I made sure they saw me, they waved, and headed in a different direction. I assumed they were backing off, and letting my partner, and I continue to hunt the bull I had been calling to. About 10 minutes later, they herd bull and his harem, just blew up, and ran away. I moved up to my partner, and he was stunned, he said why would they blow up like that. I told him of the other hunters,( he had no knowledge they were there), we waited and sure enough, we spotted them sneaking in, they had been winded by the herd. They started calling, bugling, and cow calls. They gave up in about 20 minutes, and started back out down the mountain we were all on. They called there way down, and when they were almost to the bottom, I bugled. They bugled back, I answered, and they started calling there way back up the very steep mountain. I called them all the way back up to where they had been before, and then I just shut up. When they left the second time, my partner and I went in a different direction, and went on to hunt different elk.

[CurlyTail]

My policy is "First come, First Served"

If I pull up to a parking area that already has a vehicle, and I don't think the area is large enough for more than one hunter, I just go elsewhere.

If another guy is working a Bull, I try to leave him alone

The problem is when you are not aware of the other hunter (s). Then you get in each others way, and usually someone is not happy. That is the frustration and challenge of public land hunting. That is why it is so satisfying when things actually work out.

[Rangerz]

The Good,

Ran into both extremes last year in ID. Met some guys who were from Twin Falls. We were hunting the same areas and had seen the same elk. We agreed to work together to try and get an elk. Even exchanged phone numbers so we could keep in touch in the future.

The Bad,

Had some guys who walked right past us as we were set up on a wallow. We were hoping the elk would come out in the evening to water. We had been there all day. They claimed "we are meeting a friend". They proceeded to set up @ 200 yds away from us on the trail the elk would probably take. About 4 pm we heard a couple of cow calls and then a round up bugle. They ended up getting a shot into the bull who then ran right past my partner. They came down asking him if he had seen the bull go down and he hadn't. Don't know if they ever found it as it was getting dark. Weren't real happy, but it is public land. A little courtesy would have gone a long way.

[saddlesore]

Here's a funny one.Several years ago I was hunting in NW CO. This particular place, I had sat under a big pine tree opening day for 8-10 years each season. So this opening day, I get there well before daylight and get comfortable. About 15 minutes after legal shooting light, a fellow walks thru the meadow I am watching and sits down at the end of it about 200 yards away. I know he has seen me because thru my binoculars I watch him looking at me. The next day, I go to the same place and when it get slight, he is already there ( Guess he learned something ). No elk came thru, but a little later , some doe deer came thru. Since I had two doe tags in my pocket, I dropped two and then walked across the meadow to tag and clean them out .

After that was done,I went back and got my mules and proceeded to load both deer up.. I had to climb a ways back to the main trail and I guess that guy figured he needed reinforcements because when I got to the trail he came over with 3 other of his buddies and commenced to ream me out from messing up his hunt. He was an NR from back east and I guess he figured he had found a honey hole. This area was well known as an elk crossing, in fact locals called it the Shooting Gallery.

The guys getting more and more work up the longer he talks and I'm saying nothing. He then keeps repeating " Do you know what I'm saying" about ten times. I finally related to him as to how he did the same thing the day before to me and I no problem with it, but that didn't cut any ice. I told him I had been hunting this area for years and it was common to see 3-4 guys sitting in the local.

He keeps getting closer and I figure he is either going to grab the halter of my saddle mule that I am sitting on or try to pull me off . So I push back my coat, and turn a little bit in the saddle so he can see my handgun and I keep my hand on the belt right above it. I guess that made them see the light , because his buddies told him to get going. He called me a God Damn Local and left.

I'm a little guy 5'-5" with boots on and 150 pounds if I fall in the creek. I had the crap beat out of me a few times in my younger days and don't expect I will not anyone do it again. I do what it takes to stop that from happening. I don't have a keen desire to kill elk any more, and I will usually let an area pass if I meet someone. In fact, I usually tell them how to hunt it if they are personable. However, I won't tolerate fools or but tholes.

[saddlesore]

Here's another.
This was in the West Elk Wilderness,north of Gunnison. I had a moose tag two years ago and it was during the elk season I usually hunted, so I missed the first three days of the 9 day season. I got the moose home and put it in a walk in cooler and left the next day to go elk hunting.There has been a party of 3-4 guys from TN and KY for a few years hunting in the same area and one guy had been pestering me to tell him where to kill an elk at. I sure wasn't going to tell him where I was hunting ,but I did give him some pointers.

Three year s ago,I had killed a bull early in the season and there was some snow on the ground.Darned if that party didn't track us and then tie their horses up about 50 yards from where we had our mules tied and commenced to hut around us. They didn't know how to hunt the area, but we shot another cow close by and all season, the four of them killed one calf.

The next year( two years ago) two of us rode into our hunt area in the dark on that Tuesday after my moose hunt. We knew the area and the trail so riding in before light was no problem. What we didn't know was that the same party had set up camp right on the trail and had erected an electric fence corral.This wasn't a FS trail, but a trail that the local rancher with the grazing lease used to drive his cows too and from the meadows above. We saw the camp and was trying to skirt it,but my buddies mule touched that wire with his butt and a wreck commenced. The mule bucked thru the wire , tore it down, and all the camp horse stampeded.I didn't know my buddy got bucked off right away and I'm at a full gallop chasing the spooked mule thru the timber in the dark. When I caught up to it there was no rider and I was freaked out. Adrenaline was about 150% in me and running full bore thru trees in the dark hadn't helped. Back tracking I found my buddy where the electric corral was and he was about 1/2 concious and not coherent.One of the guys from the camp was helping him, but it took about 15 minutes for him to come around and he was still confused. Looking around,I noticed their horses had come back but I didn't know not all of them.

I got my buddy up and walked him up the trail a ways ,stopping every 10-15steps.He didn't want to go back to camp and finally felt well enough to mount up and wanted to hunt, so I tied up the mules once we got to our area and set him up on a meadow. I I went up a little further ,sat down, and immediately killed a bull walking across a meadow. I radioed my buddy and told him to sit tight and I processed the bull .Got back to the mules, picked up my buddy, and went up to load the hind quarters on the pack mule and led off.

We had to pass thru that camp on the way down and as we we did,the one guy who always pestered came storming out and I thought he was going to drag me off the mule.He was raging mad, because we didn't hang around and help him round up his horses that had run down the trail. Plus I had killed that bull when they were doing so.( Probably more about that than the horses). Things got pretty heated and there was a lot of shouting, but we finally shook hands and departed. I didn't see it was my responsibility to help when they had putt hat corral across the trail and my buddy got hurt because of it.

Turned out ,my buddy had three broken ribs and a mild concussion.The next day, I left him in camp and went up and got the loins and front quarters and antlers. We went home the next day to get my buddy doctored.

It probably didn't help much that two years before,I turned the same party in for letting a camp fire burn when they left for home and they got fined $400.

These guys from back east must have a different set of rules about etiquette.

[Deanmac]

interesting reads saddlesore, thanks for sharing

[Indian Summer]

I usually know my area well enough that I always have a plan B and C that are as good as A. So I just ask them where they are going and explain that I know the whole place very well so not looking for their honey holes. Just be honest and I'll be more than glad to go the other way so neither of us gets screwed up.