I was hunting with my stepson this morning in a nearby National Forest area that is about
10 minutes from the house. We got there about 6:30 AM and slipped in the woods.After about 4 hours of hard hunting I came up out of the bottom I was hunting and met my stepson.
He stated that for the last 30 minutes or so he had heard a 22 pistol (10-shot) and a shotgun shooting by our truck. Which was parked by the road about a 1/2 mile from where we were presently standing. I figured it had to be kids because every idiot in Georgia knows its hunting season and the woods ain't a safe place to be with some of these boys around here....
  We started making our way to the truck and got about 600 yards away when it sounded like
they opened fire again!!! Due to prior military training I immediately hit it and started low crawling to the closest cover. This tickles my stepson to no end until he realizes why I am scuffing my pecker. After not hearing any rounds whizzing by I figure they might be down the road aways. We get close enough to glass the area where my truck is and no one is in sight.
 We double time to the truck to look down the road and it sounds like the shots are coming from across the dirt road. I glass the area without success and fire a few choice words about their intelligence and family history. No response except more firing. By this time I am ready to head up the road and flank them. I figure sneaking up behind them and unloading a clip would get their attention... I hunt with my AR15 and keep an emergency 30rd mag in the glovebox. My stepson calms me down and says its got to be kids. I also carry a Walther P99 on my
LBE while I hunt, so I just empty the mag(17rd) pointing the pistol in the opposite direction and shout "If your going to do it, Do it right" Still no response, just more shots.

 The area I hunt does have a few houses about a mile away before the National Forest starts and one residence at the end of the dirt road. That house is about 5 miles away. I insist to
my stepson that we need to at least find their car,get the liscense number and leave a note.
We travel to the end of the road and then back. No car is around. We do meet this older woman who kinda looked out of place at the time but it didn't register. My stepson tells me its got to be kids but the nearest house is a mile away.

 

 

 After thinking about this incident on and off all afternoon. A few points didn't register until it all fell into place.

1) Kids nowadays are too damn lazy to walk a mile anywhere.
2) I realized the shooting had a pattern. 10 shots with a .22 and 3 with a shotgun.
  The .22 was always rapid fire and the shotgun always a steady 3. There were different time delays between the two but always the same amount of shots and they never fired at the same time. At one time there was a string of about 5 of these in a row. Its pretty hard to load 5 10rd magazines that quick.
  My stepson was on top of the ridge and heard them shoot for about 30 minutes. When I first heard them I was low-crawling and fearing for my and my stepsons safety. After realizing there was no danger. Anger (RAGE) replaced my common sense.
3) There was no vehicle in sight except the out of place old woman.
4) The shots sounded real close to the road. I should have been able to glass them or get some kind of response. IE..laughter or a smartass remark.


  In Georgia there are Hunter Harassement Laws. I can call DNR and hope I get one that ain't overworked and solve it that way. (The PC way)

  Or..... I am going hunting again in the morning. If I hear shots again, I can wait a few minutes, giving the idiot time to leave. Ease across the road and find the cause of the offending noise. If it is a boom box. I will
destroy it and wait for the idiot to return. I find confrontation an effective weapon when dealing with chicken-shit, tree-hugging, bambi-dick-licking politically correct bed wetters.

    Whew...that felt good. So whats up o'wise and all knowing forum. I need opinions.
  Am I a LITTLE too aggressive here, right on the money or should I play the sheep role and let the DNR guy have all the fun????

Okay..let me get this straight.  You think that the noise/gun fire that you heard was coming from a recording and being played on a boom box that was owned by asomeone trying to scare off hunters??  I can see how at the time it was hard to tell, but after thinking I am sure you can tell the difference between a recording and a real gun shot.

If this is the case I would scope out the area so go you have a good feel of the terain.  The try to locate the source/boom box. After that, if you have the time, I would leave the box there and wait for the treehuggers.  Depending on your abilities I would then either gather info or confort them.  Instead of scaring them I would highly suggest you turn them and all info into the Local police and let them press charges.  That way they will be shown as the fanaticals for which they are.  This won't change their viewpoint but it will change the way other people view treehuggers.  If you have a camera it would be a good idea to take on with you to record any evidance.  It also wouldn't hurt to exaggerate your story a little bit to show the danger they presented[;)].

Let us know how it turns out...I for one would be very interested.

Sgtar15

I find it hard to belive that there is any boom-box made anywhere on earth that could reproduce gunshot sounds (and shotgun sounds in particular) with enough volume and realism to fool most hunters. However, some car stereo systems might be able to pull it off.

Head unit, amplifier, pair of 6"x9" boxed speakers, all hooked to a car battery, hidden in a bush, speakers 20 feet or so from the head unit. Total investment about $250.
Sounds an awful lot like the set-up I have used for calling coyotes.

sounds like a fun thing to sneak up on and steal!

If it is indeed a boom box... I have often wondered what a .223 would do to a piece of stereo equipment. Pictures would be most appreciated.

I don't think the intent would be to scare off the hunters but rather to scare off the huntees if you catch my drift.

Michael

Sounds like PETA trying to scare away your game.

*edited because PonyBoy beat me to it*

Well put- these PETA types are just looking to make themselves into martyrs for a misbegotten, half-forgotten cause, esp. since 9/11/01. Now NOBODY cares about them anymore, and they know it, and they are desperate for attention.

Don't buy into their plan- let the DNR and any other agencies take care of it- otherwise YOU will be the one at the greybar motel, not the violent pacifists :^)....

Even in liberal MA, it is a FELONY to interfere with hunts and to vandalise hunters' cars and equipment.

It was just the BATF stopping to take a pi$$....
[i]They've still got a lot of stereo equipment left from the Waco job....[/i][:)]

You've already had the best advice.  I would only add:

A "new" trick only works the first few times against an adversary. Countermeasures are soon developed and implemented.

Now that you've had time to think about their trick, you should form a plan of action, and be ready to implement it the next time this occurs.

A vet told me once that when someone is continuously shooting, he is so busy looking straight ahead, that he can be snuck up on and flanked.  I suggest flanking, whether with gun or video-camera.

Were it me, and if I was *sure* that I was being "terrorized" by a-huggers, I would look for the opportunity to sneak up on them, and shotgun their ghettoblaster.  Alternatively, you could seize it, carry it to your truck, and run it over several times on the way out.

---------
"No prisoners"

I bet a 12 "GAUGE" would have really freaked him out!

(Just filling in for Garand man!)

Even though you're pissed, why empty a 17 rd. mag at possibly another hunter or person down the road when you don't have a target?

Maybe it was just some guys plinking.  Rude, maybe, but not everybody knows or cares about hunter etiquette.  

What purpose was there to unloading your handgun, in the opposite direction?  Intimidation?  

If it is PETA types, I hope you get them arrested.  Or, at the very least, destroy their offensive capabilities.

 

   Just got back from a long day in the woods. Thought you would like to know what happened. But first I need to address the concerns of these people.



 
  Didn't say anything in my post but "pointed in the opposite direction". I did not point it in the air or down the road. I fired into the ground. Why? To get their attention. Maybe they couldn't hear me shouting because they were shooting so much.



 See above......



  I hunt N Ga. in the mountains. Echoe's or noise of any kind are not only hard to pinpoint direction wise occasionally but also are amplified through the natural amphitheatre that nature provides with the numerous connecting valleys.
  Ever been to the symphony or in a concert hall? Ever notice how they hardly ever use electrical amplification? It is due mainly to the construction of the building or theatre.
 As far as the boom-boxes issue. I can go to Wally World and get an average system and a copy of trains arriving and leaving a depot.  I can place it in the woods around here and in two hours you will have a line of people all packed up and ready to board the train.


 

   

Did you ever find anything?

    Now on with the what happened today.

   I called DNR last night and got in contact with an excellent field representative who was very helpful and upset about this incident. After talking for about 30 minutes. We came up with a plan. I meet him at the 'crime scene' before daylight. From there I follow him a few miles down the road to leave his truck out of sight. We go back to the 'crime scene' and he slides about 100 yards into the woods where I heard the shooting to wait for company. He is equipped with a video camera and communication  radio. My job is to act like nothings wrong and go hunting. If I hear shots again. I am to keep hunting until he needs me.
      After about 2 hours I get nervous cause there isn't anything happening. A few minutes later the concerto begins as it did yesterday and I am grinning like a chesire cat. 45 agonizing minutes later he finally comes and gets me. Who else but the old woman that passed me on the way out yesterday is sitting in the backseat of a deputy sheriffs car when I walk up. I am trying real hard to be pissed but you guys had to see how ridiculous this woman looked in the backseat of this car. Grandma...Public Enemy #1
   Anyway, the DNR guy tells me he sees grandma stop and get out with this huge stereo system. She hops in the woods, goes a few fifty yards, puts the stereo down, cranks it up and covers it with a crapload of leaves. Runs to her car and turns around and hauls ass, grinning all the while. He video tapes all this and gets her tag number in the process. Calls it in and has the deputy go to her house and bring her down to the 'crime scene'. They question her a few minutes and finds out she lives down the road. The reason she gives for doing all this is she had a fawn get hit by a car and had to listen to squeal for 15 minutes before a passerby finally stopped and puts it out of misery.

  After that day, she says she couldn't bear the thought of another deer dying a tragic death like that again. It turns out grandma has been doing this crap for the last year or so.
   After listening to grandma for about 10 minutes. The DNR guy informs her that there are serious laws with serious penalties that protect hunters from this sort of thing. She replies "What's the big deal, its only a tape?"
   I informed her my stepson and I thought people were shooting in our direction. She replies "So!!!" I am about to unload on grandma when the DNR guy steps in to inform her that not only might she be arrested but face the real possibility of losing her vehicle that was used in the process of a crime. Also, that I now have the right to take a civil lawsuit against her to recover punitive damages as well as costs incurred over my lost hunting time.
    Grandma finally starts to see the seriousness of the situation and replies "Well, I am not going to lose my car over a stupid deer, am I?."  At this point I realize this woman probably just needs a hobby. They put her in the deputys car bawling like crazy. I tell the DNR guy that making her realize this isn't some game is enough for me. He says "She doesn't look like a major threat does she". I thank him and the deputy for their time and efforts. They both seem glad to get rid of the grandma crime wave and take off. Me... I head back to the woods for unfinished business.

   I am glad I handled it this way as a confrontation in the woods might have been to much for grandma's heart.....

   Sorry, I type slow...

     

    I thought about pressing it but the image of me in a courtroom full of people sticking it to grandma would either make me look mean and ridiculous or just plain ridiculous. The story would probably make the front page news.

      "GRANDMA TERRORIZES LOCAL HUNTER!!!"

   

   

The "grandma crimewave."  Actually, pretty funny. Glad it worked out for you.

That is the truth. NO ONE seems to know how serious it is to pester hunters who are hunting.  

Make up for that lost time!  My hunting reaches its peak of intensity when I am deep in the trackless forest, sitting against a granite boulder, drinking hot coffee and considering the whereabouts of the animals.

   Excellent verbarage Erasmus. It gives me an idea for a new topic......

    Lets see if it flys....