Some people just have no decency anymore.  Where I came from and how I was taught was if you saw another hunter at a spot before you, you packed up and left with a nod of the head and maybe a hello and good luck.  Instead today after waking up at 3 am and making it out to the area that my friend and I choose, mind you being the first out here, I have had two vehicles pull up with his wife staying, one idiot set up around 50-75 yards away, and another walk up and possibly set up 100 yards away as well.  This is after signaling to both with my flash light to show my presence and spot.  I am going to be looking for some private areas next year, but hunting on base is all ready looking to be a pain.

Ps: if the individual is reading this I hope and will ensure that you don't see shit, 300 wm can hit and travel a hell of a distance at deer.

This year, the two guys who just did what the hell they wanted instead of backing out, were old guys.

As in, 60 - 65 years old.

They don't care about what it takes for a guy to get out in the woods during the work week.

My first time out (ever)  this year, and we left the area Wednesday when a large group came through driving deer ACROSS A MAJOR HIGHWAY and into our area, where they posted up a bunch of idiots doing 30-06 mag dumps on deer in full fucking bound.  Funny enough they went right around where almost a dozen deer were bedded down (we were waiting for them to get thirsty and poke their heads out) and only scared up two small does.  I'm sure they had great target isolation when they were trying to track their sights on those deer moving at full tilt. Clownshoes.

The day before we only ran into a few guys and we all gave the nods, maybe exchange a bit of intel on what we'd seen, and then moved on our ways so we wouldn't interfere with each other.

Have to get used to that on public land. I have been bow hunting and have had two guys one with a full size plastic doe decoy tromp right under my stand to get to where ever they were going. I have also had 6 guys doing a drive right past me during gun when Im in full blaze orange and dont care I was there first.  A lot of people especially old timers dont give a crap because some of them have been hunting the same spot for most of their life and they feel you are in a sense trespassing in their area if you aren't local. I hunt an area in SE Wisconsin that is public. In order to get away from some of those people I have to walk in for a few miles. Most people hunting public land will stick to trails. I try to get in deep and rarely see anyone. If I do they are like me and respectfully give you your spot.

I've only ever hunted public land, and nearly every hunter I've met out there is cool.   I usually see people in the parking lot, and we talk about where each of us is setting up so we don't screw up each others' stands.

One time, however, I had a guy come strolling through my stand around sunset.  

I gave him a quick "psst," got his attention, he asked if I had seen his buddy, I said I had, and told him to sit tight as the deer would be coming through shortly.  He found a bush, not more than ten minutes later a doe came in, and walked right over to him.  The doe spooked and snorted. I snorted back.  The doe started circling back towards me, and then the guy's buddy comes stomping in five minutes before the end of legal light and scared it off.

In their defense, I was practically on top of a path, but still who the fuck goes stomping around in the woods looking for deer during the last half hour of legal light? smh

I talk to everyone while at the parking lot, on main trails, etc...  Love that part of the hunt.  Really.

Hate the part where people tromp all around you at the magical times.

The "joys" of hunting public land. One thing I've learned in decades of hunting public land is that getting up at 3am to be the "first one there" doesn't mean diddly squat on public land. It's a fact of life that more than one person might've found your preferred spot and it looks good to them too. They're just as pissed to see you there, as you are them. I get what you're saying "first come" and all that, and I agree it sucks... with this exception (and I'm NOT saying this is the case in your situation, but for those whom it IS the case, this applies to you only.    But admitting you got up at 3am just to be first one there, sets off alarm bells to me... bells that signal you knew someone else would there and you beat them there intentionally, and that's the only reason I'm saying all this).

If someone else installed a treestand or built a ground blind there before you found this good spot, you know full well someone was here before you and intends to hunt there, and your 3am wakeup was entirely meant to BEAT that person there because it's public land and you "have a right" to it, you have no sympathy from me. That shit goes both ways, and IMO you are the person who has no decency, if you know that someone else intended to hunt there prior to your intentions, and you got there in the middle of the night to "surprise" them by being first guy there. That shit sucks too, just as much if not more. It turns everyone who hunts public land into non-courteous assholes whose biggest goal is to get up earlier than the other guy to claim a hunting spot, just because "it's public".  

I quit doing that "race to the hunting spot" dance. If I find a spot to hunt in preseason scouting, but see someone else's treestand or blind there already, I move on. The national forest I hunt in allows non-damaging, commercially made, tree stands to be left up overnight during the entire deer season, as long as your name, address, & phone number are on it (as per state regs). I'll put up my two-person ladder stand several weeks before gun deer season (securely locking it to the tree). During deer season, I'll occupy it 45 mins before shooting time. I no longer give a flying fuck if someone sets up 50 yds away, hours before I get there, I go to my stand and hunt. If you didn't see my ladder stand set up during your pre season scouting, you're too blind to hunt deer. And if you did see it, and you knew that someone would be hunting there (duh)... and you tried the "I'll beat him there cuz it's public land" shit, too bad. You WILL have company. Or if it'll make you happy, I'll just move my tree stand to a different spot, and let you have this one, as soon as it gets light enough to see what I'm doing.  I should be done taking it down by about 9am or 10am.    

It was a portable blind that they setup out there, know this for a fact as I got to hear them struggle with it for a good five minutes and saw it as I was walking out as they put it up near some brush in the middle of a field.

The early morning thing comes after a decade of Mil service, if I'm going to be doing this then I want to be in, set up, and waiting well before first light.  If I had seen the blind prior to my arrival and with someone in it then it would have been a different story, would have just backed out and moved to a new area, I've been taught better.

Re:  Worst season ever, with the farmers' guys coming out.

Oh and, not to piggyback too much on the other thread, but the guy my buddy has randomly told to come out all the time now.  He was insolent when I suggested we should keep it within the regs and go archery only (we legally cannot harvest deer with firearms in this area).  Because the landowner is both of our friends, he feels like he's got every right I do to hunt the property, even though every ounce of improvement to the land for hunting purposes is my own sweat and money.  It's a lowly being that feels entitled to another man's stands.

That is why I don't hunt on public land and hitting clubs

I hunt public land a few times a year.

Never had much of an issue. But I find places down in draws and valleys a little further then most of them. My tactic is also to sit all day.

Almost like clockwork I start hearing/seeing guys get up and walk around right about 9:45-10:30am and see them again around 3:30-4:00.

I love it when I hear them. It means the deer are moving. And very soon I will get to shoot something. Because as easy as it is to predict the humans it is easier to predict the deer are running around away from them... And in a stand up in a tree I have just increased my odds.

Hell, I have shot deer just 10 minutes after guys have walked under my stand. I swear I could be walking to my stand at like 9:00 and still get a shot as all the morning guys are leaving.

On public land you have to pattern the other hunters as much as the deer. It will be less frustrating for you knowing this....

This. Just gotta flow with it

It sucks sometimes

Sat 1.25 miles in this year on opening day, 7am two does came running in and I plugged the bigger one. Somebody jumped them.

Last year, 4 guys decided to walk in front of my family hunting in one location and sit in "their" stands that they put in 3 days before opening day, on land that doesn't allow overnight stands. That sucked, especially one guy shooting a deer 50yds in front of my young cousin his first year hunting. He would have had the opportunity if the guy wasn't there

My uncle was upset

What " f' ' tards"...  People have no decency sometimes......    It amazes me to no end - that people will do that with....   It's like going fishing and people see you catching fish and they will anchor right on top of you - I reserve a 6 oz. egg sinker to mistakenly launch at their boats,  for those purposes ...  Just start howling like an Indian next time to run off anything within a mile -- because in essence that's what they are doing to you --  ruining any chance you got.