Public Proximity

[Singing Bridge]

How close have other hunters gotten to you on public land before you realized they were there? The other day I was recollecting a public land hunt where another hunter set up within 15 yards of me on the Michigan gun opener without me realizing it. We had gotten a foot of snow the night before, and the opener had high winds with heavy snow drift. I made it to my parking area in four wheel drive, and headed for my stand. I had built a coffin shaped blind out of dead logs against a small grove of birch trees on a ridge that overlooked three intersecting draws. The largest scrape I had ever found was in the bottom of the draws, with big rubs all around it. The intersecting draws created a natural funnel. It got to be light and I peered out of my sniper's hole in the coffin blind. I saw a one inch square of orange in the middle of a fur tree's limbs 15 yards away and did a double take. It didn't move and was only one inch in size, or at least that was what was visible. I kept watching it and it never moved, and I wondered if I had put a piece of flagging tape there? After about 20 minutes I couldn't take it and slipped over there. Here was a guy watching "my" draw. I said, "Hey!" and this guy crapped his pants I scared him so, and he screamed like a little girl. When he calmed down he said he was looking for a place to hunt and saw my tracks in the snow and thought he'd check out the area (always a public land hazard). My tracks drifted in so he climbed to the top of the ridge my coffin was on and sat down. He apologized and took off down the ridge, saying he'd had enough and wanted to find his truck and get out of there. He'd been gone just over a few minutes, and I glanced in the direction he'd left. I could barely make him out, and between he and I a nice public land buck was rapidly approaching the draw intersections. I made sure my shot was well clear of the bloke, and touched off "Lord Thor", my 7mm Mag. It had to have scared the crap out of him and he never came back .

[PredatorTC]

interesting story!! Did ya kill the buck?

[Singing Bridge]

interesting story!! Did ya kill the buck?

That buck went down "LIKE A FREIGHT TRAIN ON A VOLKSWAGEN!!". Sorry, couldn't resist.

[PredatorTC]

sweetness!!! Do we get to see pics!!!

[The Rav]

Yeah Bridge! A great story like that deserves some pics to go with it!

[Singing Bridge]

I shot that buck in the late 80's, no digital pics. Here's a link to a post of a couple of my bucks that were recently taken by "Lord Thor", and I had a digital cam with me-

viewtopic.php?f=3&t=357&start=10

Have you guys ever had someone set up right on top of you like that? That coffin blind was productive, I only hunted it a couple of years before they clearcut the entire area and I moved on. It's probably just as productive now as it was then. The snow that year that I started this post with didn't just make hunters quiet. While sitting in "the coffin" I caught movement less than five feet to my right . A six point was standing there surveying the bottom of the draws, a great close encounter. A couple of days later I carefully stood up from the coffin and leaned back against one of the birch trees for a while. Some instinct told me to turn around, and a different six was trotting right up to me, less than 40 yards, before he thought something looked suspicious. I also befriended a couple of elderly hunters who were stationed quite close to the road. I showed one of them my blind, as I was leaving, and told him to go ahead and sit there. He sent me the coolest note, a nice 8 came in but wouldn't step out of the brush. He voice grunted the buck, and he trotted out of the brush with all his hair standing up. The old hunter put him down, and he and his buddy spent the rest of the day getting the buck out. He sent me a letter thanking me.

[huntinnurse]

Now this last story is what it's all about!!! Kudos to you Scott!!! Few hunters today are willing to share that way. When you pay it forward, payback is sweet!!!!!!
The first story was an awesome one as well, there are many hunters out there today that would not have left. After that encounter, wonder if he still hunts public land.............or at all!!!!!!

[Sneaky]

I rarely hunt public land on the weekends, and as a result, I rarely run into anyone else. Also, around here, it's all broken up into sections. I choose the sections overlooked by most. The smaller, out of the way sections. Christmas day is also a good day. Probably the least crowded day of the year. My buddies and I hunted ducks on a small lake (30 acres) that gets hit pretty hard. We went on Christmas day. The place was a ghost town. Great hunt. We went on Thanksgiving the following year. I'll never make that mistake again. There was a small army surrounding that lake. Not sure why anyone would stick around for that.

[matt1336]

More than a few times we've had people wander through our deer drives. Potentially dangerous for sure- but something you gotta live w/ in our part of the state. Thank God our group is an experienced bunch and not trigger happy, shooting at moving cattails.

[PLB]

I try not to hunt the public pieces near my home, rather opting to go hunt the big woods public up north by the deer shack The public land close to Green Bay gets hammered on the weekends During the week after work is the time to hunt that as the deer have had a couple days to calm down and start moving again. I have had some close encounters up north too, but lately there are lots fewer hunters and nobody hunts mornings! Most of my spots are gated off walking only trails so you can really get back a long way if you are willing to work a little I can't remember the last time I seen a bow or gun hunter near me up north! Best thing they ever did was gate off a lot of forest roads that people used to drive 2 miles or more back.

[PredatorTC]

Awesome story bridge!!!!! Way to be a true sport!!!!!

[Uncle Lou]

bridge, good stuff.

I once crawled up a tree to find someone in a stand I was heading too. This hunter didnt hear me coming up the tree (imagine that). I was coming in the back of this homemade permanent stand with a flap in the back and a big pallet like platform out the front. The stand was called "the condo in the pines" and was set in between a split of these two red pines about 20'up.

It was early morning and dark. I crawled up and tapped the flap lightly. I heard a voice say "Mark", "no I answered, who's Mark" anyway as I handed the guy some toilet paper, I went to another stand.

That was my first hunt on a private spot I have been hunting since 2000. Around here even private land hunts seem like public hunts.

[UPbowhunter]

Our winter bow is now over lapped with muzzleloader. A few years ago I had a stand hung on public, that was in a generally overlooked close area that had alot of deer in it. My plan was only to kill something for the freezer, well I got in real early on afternoon, and around 4:00 I had a doe group come thru, and made a good double lunger on one of the mature does. At the shot she ran and circled about 45-55 yards in front of me from my left to my right. When she dropped, right on the other side of her I could see hunters orange sitting there! Not 40 yards from me this guy slipped in and had been there for about an hour I found out later. Dangerous, he had to have orange but I didn't!

[dan]

Back when I used to guide hunters in the public marsh, I had this client who was a little over weight, and a whole lot of slow. I took him out to an island way back in a marsh where there was a good buck hanging and it took way longer than it should of. It was a morning hunt and I had left him on the island and was heading back the mile walk to my truck. The cattails were about 10 feet tall and I was sinking to my knees in muck making sloshing muck noises as I walked following a deer trail out of the marsh ( you have to follow a deer trail cause the cattails are to dense off of the trails.) As I hit the transition line where cattails meet dogwood brush I am not sure if something caught my eye or it was some sort of 6th sense but just as I came out of the thick crap there was an old hunter kneeling on one knee at full draw 10 feet from me aiming at me. He just lowered the bow and stared at me. No words were said...
One time I had a client from Tennessee shoot a buck and we were having a difficult time following the blood trail and I had more clients in another woods that needed to be picked up, so I went and got all the hunters and dropped them off at the local pub and ordered them a pizza and went to look a little harder for the fellas buck... It got pretty late, several hours after dark. I headed back to the truck after finally giving up. Back then I rarely used flash lights to navigate, just to follow blood. I used to believe that I was spooking to many deer using a flash light cause of how far they could see the light.
Anywho, it was dead quiet, and I was walking along a trail when I heard a strange noise above me that sounded like a metal arrow sliding across a rest.
It made the hair on my neck stand up. I immediately flicked on my light and aimed it into the trees where I lit up a bow hunter ( er, I mean poacher ) aiming at me at full draw! He immediately let the bow down and started yelling at me!
What he said to me, was probably the single best piece of hunting advice I ever got, and I follow his advice to this day... He said, " WHAT THE IS WRONG WITH YOU! YOUR GONNA GET SHOT WALKING AROUND THE WOODS WITHOUT A LIGHT!"
I now use a flash light to navigate...

[PLB]

Good story Dan! I always use a flashlight! Nice Avatar by the way