Disappointed in non-resident hunters

[travisch]

This reply does not even deserve a response!! When someone posts, "The WY guys deserve a good beating and the non-residents should just stay away...hunt you own state." , well I'm a non-resident hunter, and that "DOES" put me in that category of a slob-hunter according to your standards and your judgement. After reading your reply about face masks, and.....again your comment about HAZMAT containers I feel that you are one of those people, who I wrote about, who do not care about others, only oneself, and one's own selfish beliefs. Instead of whining about what others are doing, perhaps it would benefit everyone if you did something about it instead of complaining. You did receive some good responses about contacting the local authorities, might want to try that whether it's via phone right then, sat phone, or by contacting by any other means when the means are available. Good luck with your rant, my thoughts are that this thread doesn't warrant following anymore.

Struck a nerve with you and that wasn't my intent. I should have worded it differently.."The WY guys deserve a good beating and the non-residents who wish to be idiots should just stay away...hunt you own state."

As far as masks go...I won't criticize you for wearing one but you can't criticize me for not wearing one - sound fair?

 

[Gater]

You are correct it isn't only non resident hunters and it isn't all hunters it's just that too many people don't display manners or any common sense and make it not enjoyable for others to be out around them . I personally just don't feel safe out there when it is hunting season now , Sockeye66 , We all have our own ideas as to how safe we feel around others and our reasons as to why we feel that way . I ask a hunter to please not point his rifle at me his reply was it's not loaded . My reply was how do I or you know for sure that it isn't and there have been so many people killed by not loaded guns . I had never met this person or his son before . I don't think he was teaching his son to do the right things when handling firearms . I don't know how you are out there as I don't know you so then after seeing a few that I don't want to be around in the field I don't want to trust and be shot by someone that looks like they know what they are doing but then turns around and does something foolish . And since I do live in the U.S. as do you we can have and voice our opinions from our experiences . I do not like the fact that you were hit by a drunk driver and I know that not all drivers are driving impaired but I think you will be more observant of the other drivers around you because of what happened to you . I hope you have a speedy recovery and that all ended up turning out well for you and yours .
[/QUOTEi it seems it always the unloaded gun that goes off. I have hunted with guys that are good friends but there's a couple I refuse to step in the field with. Stay safe and enjoy the hunt and time outside

 

[Alibiiv]

Struck a nerve with you and that wasn't my intent. I should have worded it differently.."The WY guys deserve a good beating and the non-residents who wish to be idiots should just stay away...hunt you own state."

As far as masks go...I won't criticize you for wearing one but you can't criticize me for not wearing one - sound fair?

Yes you did, thanks for the reply back, I get it. I hunt in the northeast of this country, in one state we are called "flat-landers" because we do not come from an area where there are mountains. With that label comes a lot of negative judgements placed upon flat-landers, and non-resident hunters with that name are mistreated right up to and including taxing them more money on their properties in the area; just sticks in my craw. Thanks for the reply back it is appreciated

 

[Daves762]

Just returned from a deer hunt in WY area 82 and I must say that as a resident who's hunted this area for the past 19+ years I left completely disappointed.
I saw numerous camps of CA, ID and UT hunters with open fires in camp while we have stage 2 fire restrictions in place. You can't even smoke outside of a vehicle during stage 2 restrictions. The state has signs everywhere stating NO FIRE, FIRE BAN ect and its virtually impossible they didn't know.
I also had both WY resident hunters (really disappointed) and UT hunters stop 50 yards away from me on two different occasions while I was glassing a small 20 acre BLM piece of ground and start hunting it - no etiquette. The WY guys deserve a good beating and the non-residents should just stay away...hunt you own state.

That is why I hike several miles from the truck before I start to hunt or glass. Usually under red light long before grey light. I've had hunters glassing ME and leapfrogging me ridge to ridge trying to use me to get them on animals. I'm not from the state I currently live as I married a woman from here. I am very cautious of my new states culture, values, traditions, and hunting tactics. But those who are here for a week on an out of state tag, having spent thousands of dollars and precious vacation time to be here, are bordering on desperation. I get it. But the lack of respect transcends the hunting community. Looks like the demoralization Yuri Bezminov described is near complete. Society has lost it's mind, and manners. It was bound to happen as soon as fist fighting was an arrest able offense. Had to teach a guy a lesson in respect without going to jail. Two generations of parents certainly didn't teach respect.

 

[dfrahm]

I get it that its all federal land...I'm talking about etiquette. You just don't part on top of someone and start hunting. Its no different then somebody putting a tree stand up 5 feet below you in the same tree.

Just to add my two cents - - for what it's worth. I'm a WY native of 67 years. About 45 years ago my dad told me that 'economic development', which has been a phrase we have had in this state forever means 'when you go to your favorite fishing hole (or hunting spot) there will already be someone there'. Be careful what you wish for. Then, there are 130,000,000 that's one hundred and thirty million more American's than there were in 1982! They have to go / fish / hunt somewhere. AND - what's new here is money to hunt. Back in the day, if you had the guts to ask, most would allow you to hunt or fish on their land. Then along came walk-in areas, in which the State pays landowners and all of us can access. Where I live it's a lot like what you described where guys pull up to the spot you are glassing, get out and walk in front of you to go hunt. It's happened to me personally - but what can you say - it's 'walk-in'. So landowners were not being weaned off of permission only to getting some money for their land in the non-growing season. Can't blame them - but then along came the 'outfitters' or those with money who approached the landowners with perhaps double what the State was paying, and they were used to getting money now, and they got double the amount and probably fewer hunters. Who can blame them? I can't - but the hunting opportunities have evolved to what we have today. Do I like it - no, but I've seen it the other way. To people starting now - it's their reality. Thanks for the opportunity to vent.

 

[duckhunter175]

NR hunter here- I was hunting near where the OP was and saw some of the campfires etc but not close enough to see where the campers were from.

My group had a mixed experience— folks in town at the motel, restaurants and gas stations were awesome and greatly accommodating. I guess as NR "tourists" our presence and input into the local economy was still welcomed. +1, especially when they were excited to see our harvests.

Then we had some local DBs stop by our vehicles (legally parked on public land) and start taking photos of our plates as if it were some intimidation tactic. -1 for Res


Thankfully a resident hunter saw it and he came by to make sure our vehicles hadn't been tampered with. +100 in my book.

Then watched a resident drive through a no-trespass gate to cut across to another side of public land (save a mile walk- maybe he had permission?). Then shoot a buck we were working toward, which he clearly wasn't happy with (once they found him). -1

our last experience was with a father/son resident combo who were elk hunting and were kind as could be- exchanged some info on recent sightings and off we went.


I think the hunting world as a whole could do with a good bit less entitlement and a lot more of rule #1– be a good dude.

I love when these threads pop up. As a non resident who hunts Wyoming I'd say your experience isnt unusual nor is it different than any other western state. The region I hunt on a draw takes me 3 years to draw so cost about $700 by the time I get the tag straight into your game department(your welcome). It's a general tag for residents, and definitely gets treated as such. The MO I observed by locals was to drive out on ridges and glass a bit then drive down and onto another ridge, never saw these guys and gals venture very far from the truck... About a decade ago many of the roads where we hunt were closed to vehicle traffic, residents didnt take kindly and ripped the signs out of the roads, drove around them or drove around the mountain and ripped those signs out, the game warden literally couldn't put them up fast enough they'd get taken down and thrown out into the sage. This wasnt non resident guys this was residents who didnt like that they couldn't drive to their favorite overwatch anymore and threw a fit. I guess what I'm trying to say is jackassery knows no borders. Hunting, with competition, a 20 acre parcel sounds like torture unto itself

 

[Ranger Rick]

yep, seen my share of that as well. i mean,, I am all about getting kids and new people into archery but I gotta say, I think more practice should be done before hunting,, and I think people who have their kids hunt with bows set for very low draw weight should re think the whole wounding thing. would you think that the 2 biggest factors that wound animals are accuracy(due to lack of practice or being a rookie) and low draw weight? i do, especially on a big elk. i think a lot of folks put in for archery cause they can't get any other tag but they think it is as easy as rifle.

I believe there are some reasons in addition to your post - in Idaho, the minimum draw weight is 40 pounds and that is for anyone. IMO, that is too low for elk. Yes, I agree that lack of practice and lack of skill Contributes to lost elk. I've seen arrow wounds on an elk's body that are disgusting. Idaho allows 85% let-off. Newbies can do that all day. Back in the '80s, it was 15% let-off. Elk calls - I started with and still use a diaphragm. Modern calls allow anyone to just blow. Too many units with rut hunts are only for archery and they are every year. Ethics, in 30+ years of elk hunting, I have lost one elk, and I quit for the season. I have heard guys say they stuck and lost 3 or 4 in one weekend. Then say, the coyotes or bears will get them.

 

[swe123]

It is an easy cheap shot to blame non-resident hunters.

 

[travisch]

It is an easy cheap shot to blame non-resident hunters.

It is indeed but I was referencing what I actually saw & experienced myself - both resident and non-resident.

This might sting alittle as a non-resident from Texas.......In 2015 Wyoming game wardens placed a robotic decoy of a small bull elk off the side of the road in the area I was hunting. They were also doing studies of how the blow-down has affected hunters so they handed out GPS units and asked you to turn them on when hunting. I asked one of them about the robotic bull and how effective it was. Non-residents outnumbered residents 10:1 for sticking a barrel out the window and shooting the fake bull - 6 were Texans (sorry Brandon). The one resident got out of the truck because he wanted to be legal but he still shot across the road.

 

[Deleted member 115374]

I live in Mt. A few yrs. ago, I took my son back to one of our favorite "roadless wildlife mgt. areas" on public land. We had hunted this area the 2 previous seasons, we were hunting for mule deer and there was another father and daughter from Mt. that had hunted it as well. Motorized vehicle travel was prohibited except for the main access rd into the area. When we arrived at our camping spot we found 4 wall tents, 6 vehicles with flatbed trailers to haul their ATVs and at least a dozen ATVs that were still in camp. There were 5 mule deer bucks ranging from 2 pts to 4 pts caped out with skulls still on them lined up laying with their noses no more than a foot off the road. The eyes were sunken in, they had obviously been there for days in the 60-70 degree temperatures in the sunshine-no shade. License plates were 3 from Texas, 2 from California and 1 from Wisconsin. We drove past the camp about 3 mi, decided to split up and take a walk. We repeated that scenario 3 times throughout the day, Every ridge, drainage and draw had ATV trails that these guys had made that year. We were so disgusted and saddened by it we didn't even unload our gear or set up camp. Instead we drove home and haven't been back since.

 

[Ol' Red]

Unfortunately it was mostly outfitters and ranchers (fellow hunters) who outfitted or leased to outfitters that pushed for and voted in the corner crossing law. Some really great land that became inaccessible when this law passed.

Disappointing, but yes. Also the same people that made it illegal to step out of your boat while drifting through their property on the rivers.

 

[GunHawk]

When I read this post it really annoyed me to read! I take great umbrage with being put into a pigeon hole as "all non-resident" hunters are slob hunters. I can say the same about resident hunters being inconsiderate to non-resident hunters and being slob hunters themselves. But……the behavior that you have described is not unique to non-resident hunters, or resident hunters, it has to do with society in general. You have written about hunters; we cannot even get our society to where face masks to protect the lives of the people who live in this country!! What would make you think that people would give a **** about rules that would protect the land. Presently we live in a society that does not have or is lacking in values, morals, principles, or…..respect for themselves, this country or each other. I'm seventy-three years old, I have heart disease, if I get this virus it in all likelihood will be a death sentence to me. Then……I go into Home Depot or the local shopping center only to find people defiantly not wearing faces masks, "because" they do not believe this virus is real or because they have "their" rights; however I don't have the option or privilege of taking a chance that it is not real!!! I hear your frustration loud and clear, however what you have described here has nothing to do with non-resident hunters, it has to do with a society that doesn't care about anything but what suits there needs at the present time. So please don't make the statement that non-residents should just stay away….hunt in your own state. If it were not for the non-residents that you are asking to stay away, without their monies you probably would not have the public or federal lands that you so tout on as being "your land", and the local businesses, guides and guide services would probably be unemployed!! And if you don't believe that just take a look at what is going on in Canada right now because the country has been shut down to non-resident hunters due to the Corona virus and the outfitters there and their businesses are really in a tough place right now. You telling me as a non-resident hunter to "stay at home" is no different than me telling you "If you don't like what you experience or see out there in the country where you hunt to simply stop hunting and to stay home!!" And…..I would never do that. I seriously hope that you get the point!!!

Yep! And which states pay the most tax money to the federal gov't, to be distributed to other states? Please, let's be one tribe and not get into a circular firing squad.

 

[Pulpwood]

Just returned from a deer hunt in WY area 82 and I must say that as a resident who's hunted this area for the past 19+ years I left completely disappointed.
I saw numerous camps of CA, ID and UT hunters with open fires in camp while we have stage 2 fire restrictions in place. You can't even smoke outside of a vehicle during stage 2 restrictions. The state has signs everywhere stating NO FIRE, FIRE BAN ect and its virtually impossible they didn't know.
I also had both WY resident hunters (really disappointed) and UT hunters stop 50 yards away from me on two different occasions while I was glassing a small 20 acre BLM piece of ground and start hunting it - no etiquette. The WY guys deserve a good beating and the non-residents should just stay away...hunt you own state.

It's a lack of respect and it's everywhere

 

[Hugnot]

I come from the big city (traffic, noise, crowds), don't like deer meat, and have moved so many times in the last 20 years I would be regarded as a "non-resident" for months after moving. Each hour spent hunting is a major pleasure - just love to shoot those rodents.

I was trained by my parents to be respectful of others and their property. More than once, I have asked permission to shoot rodents on private property and have been denied only to hear upon leaving - "wait, its OK but be careful & leave the gates as they were".

I don't see why others cannot be the same - respectful of others and their property.

Fishing, stripers & blue fishes - below the high water mark (tides, ocean) is public access - colonial days, fishing & fowling laws.