Public land tactics... Dealing with other hunters.

[dan]

Your spring scouting reveals a big buck hideout on a small island 1 1/2 miles from the parking lot. You come back several times till you find the bucks bed. You find the perfect tree but need a N.West wind for everything to work out. You leave the area alone all summer.
Shortly after opening day you get the right wind. You go in and set up for an evening hunt. From the tree the trail don't look like its been used much. An hour before dark the biggest buck you have ever seen in the wild walks out of the bedding area and heads down a different trail unaware you were ever there... You can hardly wait to get back, but the wind is dead wrong for a week and a half. So finally when its right you head back. You take the long trip thru the muck and water and as you get close a flash goes off and you notice a camera around a tree 30 feet from where you were going to set up. You look up and see a new tree stand in the tree.
What do you do?

[PredatorTC]

I would hunt the spot and keep an eye on the area. I would try and figure out how the other guy is getting in there and how the buck is avoiding him. This kinda stuff is interesting to me. I guess im kinda stubborn that way and would not give up a great buck that i had been after all summer. I would set up but pry not where the camera and tree stand is because this spot is most likely all scented up.... If it were a smaller buck like a 130, i would let the spot be for the other hunter.

[Dor]

IF possible I would hunt a different tree seeing as I am already there. If no other tree is available I would hunt out of the same tree in my own stand and probably vacate the area for at least a few weeks before reaccessing the situation. Public land can be tough.....if the other hunter was near and actively hunting that day I would leave immediately.

[magicman54494]

I would cuss out Dan for making a marsh hunting video!

If poss. I would adjust to cover the trail I saw the deer on the last time.

[Zap]

Go kill the buck and go back and leave a pic of us.

Since I am there ready to hunt, a quick assesment of the situation is in order. I would definately hunt the spot that day, keeping a sharp eye for FRESH sign from that buck.
How would the buck travel to avoid the new stand and camera?
Set up.
If he aint there no more try to relocate him.

marty

[NatureBoy]

You forgot to put, "Take a dump in the other guys stand" in your choices. (Just kidding)

[virginiashadow]

I once "hunted" an old buck for two years until I finally saw him one November afternoon. He walked up onto me so fast I could not get an arrow into him. I grunted him back in and he came within 25 yards but I could not get a shot. He would absolutely shred cedar trees, the weirdest looking rubs I have seen to this day. I saw those rubs for two years without actually seeing him and when I saw him I knew why...his bases were layered with crazy stickers and were huge. He wasn't a huge racked buck, but he was OLD. I wanted to kill him in the worst way.

So I spotted that buck on a Friday afternoon after hunting all day. I left my climbing stand in the woods and quietly slipped out of the woods. The next day, Saturday, it rained like all day with a wicked wind. So I waited until sundown and headed out into the thunder and rain and repositioned my stand not 40 yards, but where I thought I could kill him. I came back that Monday morning and someone had screwed with my climbing stand and left stinky leather gloves on tree branches near my stand. Nothing....never saw that buck again. SOME people just suck.

[Black Squirrel]

If I made the long journey in I would probably hunt it one last time, then move on. The buck would probably move on too, if it had't already.

[venisonassassin]

I would hunt it but I wouldn't be to enthusiastic about it since it's probably all stunk up now. Especially since I just walked a mile and a half to get back there.

[Singing Bridge]

The beast buck's been pressured twice in a week and half, I would automatically assume he discovered your first hunt within twenty-four hours barring a major rain. Hopefully I'm in early enough to adjust to another one of his bedding areas that he likely moved to because of the disturbance. I just wouldn't have confidence in that spot again, and would either move somewhere else or call it a day.

[The Rav]

Since I'm already out there I'm gonna stay without my hopes too high. Instead of taking one in the guys stand, take one on the ground to make sure your scent sticks around for a while.

[PLB]

I would move on to a different area. I would try to relocate the buck if possible? But if the other hunter has walked 1.5 miles back into a public marsh, he or she probably aint that bad of a hunter and stands a chance at arrowing "MY" buck! Been there done that! It's public land! That's why you have to have a lot more spots like that to fall back on! They dry up or somebody else finds them! It is what it is! That's why I love the challenge of public land

[publiclandhunter]

That would bite. Since you are there - hunt. If the other guy comes in to hunt, I would move out and re-evaluate the situation. He may totally change the buck's pattern. Start raking some of the other trails with a small hand rake and check them periodically for his big track in the mud to see which trail he is using now. Dirty trick, but a bag of human hair from the barbershop scattered about the other location may ice the chances of the other guy getting a crack at the buck - without the other hunter knowing it.

PLH

[Singing Bridge]

There really are a lot of people that don't understand what it means to hunt "pressured whitetails" along with having to "Deal with other hunters"... in my home area, we have illegal chemical warfare going on. For example, Chlorine Bleach is used to illegally eliminate bait piles, bedding areas, stand sites, etc (bait is now illegal in the Lower Penninsula, but is still everywhere). That is just one of a number of chemicals used. I have access to a Level C Hazmat Tyvec suit with respiratory PAPR if I need to take my hunting to a new level.

[magicman54494]

Chlorine Bleach is used to illegally eliminate bait piles, bedding areas, stand sites, etc That is just one of a number of chemicals used. I have access to a Level C Hazmat Tyvec suit with respiratory PAPR if I need to take my hunting to a new level.

publiclandhunter - Dirty trick, but a bag of human hair from the barbershop scattered about the other location may ice the chances of the other guy getting a crack at the buck - without the other hunter knowing it.

I sorry guy, but if this is what it takes I'll go fishing instead. It's one thing to try to outsmart other hunters but sabotage is going too far IMO.