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Public land @‘s

uncle_loue said:
boy this resonates. i've only gotten to hunt a couple of times this year due to being short staffed at work. yesterday I was able to take a half day and hunt the afternoon. the site im working at this week had a wma access point a half mile away so i went in at lunch time scouted, found fresh sign about a mile back from the parking area and set up for the evening on a field edge. i tucked up into brush for concealment. about 4pm a tall 8 pt comes walking out on my right and im watching him through the brush. hes got to take maybe 3 more steps and im on him for a clear shot at like 20 ft. well he suddenly stops rigid and i assume hes smelled me but i can feel the wind and its still in my favor. hes close enough i can see plainly hes not looking at me hes staring down the opposite end of the field. i follow his gaze and theres a dog and an older gentleman in jeans and a shirt just walking along. buck turns and trots away.

this older gentleman comes walkin past and sees me and the first words out of his mouth were, "why didn't you shoot that nice buck?"... i was calm and polite but explained that the buck hung up before i had a clear shot because it saw him and and his dog. he goes "well sorry if you think i messed up your hunt. anyhow im walkin my dog this way a bit and ill be coming back through in a few minutes". needless to say my hunt was over.

worst part is there was a greenway access 2 minutes down the road. he could have been walking his dog on the paved greenway trail my tax dollars bought for him but instead hes walking his dog on public hunting land in the middle of deer season. such is public land hunting.
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Did the guy have a NY accent or sound like he was from up north by chance ?
 
I don't care what yall say…..that's still MY spot. lol just kidding, I'd never treat anyone that way. I'm lucky in the sense that I haven't encountered that yet in public, but I'm sure I will before the good Lord calls me home.

Sorry you had to deal with that, especially first thing in the morning. Heaven knows I'm not the most patient person in the morning before my coffee.
 
ScLowCountry said:
View attachment 203560

Stop making fun of people that hunt out of crown vics. That could have been me.

This is my part-time hunting rig. I love pulling up to the parking area in a car. I get so many funny looks.
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How is your deer herd down in the low country on WMA? I head there a lot to fish the tidal creeks, never bothered to hunt there though. Our deer herd is the upstate SNF is pathetic. Very few. Not much hunting pressure to be honest, but not many deer either. Most of the people up this way are killing them on private land over bait.

Now for turkeys it's a war zone up here on WMA.
 
MidTennFisher said:
How is your deer herd down in the low country on WMA? I head there a lot to fish the tidal creeks, never bothered to hunt there though. Our deer herd is the upstate SNF is pathetic. Very few. Not much hunting pressure to be honest, but not many deer either. Most of the people up this way are killing them on private land over bait.

Now for turkeys it's a war zone up here on WMA.
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I think the herd is good down here. I hunt only public and have seen a deer every sit except 1. Some places are better than others.

Gz1 and is pretty poor numbers,but gz 2 snf is decent
 
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It never would have occurred to me to not tell the person where I was headed but I think maybe not to do this now after reading the posts. My thought would have been that I would let him know where I'm headed so the other hunter could go to his Plan B if I was heading to where he had planned. I just expect folks to act better and know that I'm being naive in many cases.
 
Pretty much the same thing happened to me several years ago with a turkey hunt at AEDC, was the last time I hunted any public land too… totally ruined hunting for me. Took several years off and now gradually getting back into it again over the last couple years.
 
uncle_loue said:
boy this resonates. i've only gotten to hunt a couple of times this year due to being short staffed at work. yesterday I was able to take a half day and hunt the afternoon. the site im working at this week had a wma access point a half mile away so i went in at lunch time scouted, found fresh sign about a mile back from the parking area and set up for the evening on a field edge. i tucked up into brush for concealment. about 4pm a tall 8 pt comes walking out on my right and im watching him through the brush. hes got to take maybe 3 more steps and im on him for a clear shot at like 20 ft. well he suddenly stops rigid and i assume hes smelled me but i can feel the wind and its still in my favor. hes close enough i can see plainly hes not looking at me hes staring down the opposite end of the field. i follow his gaze and theres a dog and an older gentleman in jeans and a shirt just walking along. buck turns and trots away.

this older gentleman comes walkin past and sees me and the first words out of his mouth were, "why didn't you shoot that nice buck?"... i was calm and polite but explained that the buck hung up before i had a clear shot because it saw him and and his dog. he goes "well sorry if you think i messed up your hunt. anyhow im walkin my dog this way a bit and ill be coming back through in a few minutes". needless to say my hunt was over.

worst part is there was a greenway access 2 minutes down the road. he could have been walking his dog on the paved greenway trail my tax dollars bought for him but instead hes walking his dog on public hunting land in the middle of deer season. such is public land hunting.
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Hope he was at least wearing orange. That is pretty dangerous, walking a dog during muzzleloader season on public hunting ground.
 

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