Rangefinder,
I'm always fascinated by why some guys think a particular spot is "theirs" or a particular deer is "theirs" just because they did a few months of scouting or happened to catch a glimpse of a particular buck, especially when hunting on public land. Even if you've been hunting a public land spot for 5 or 10 years how do you know another hunter hasn't been hunting the same general area for 15 years?
I've been hunting a particular parcel of public land that has great big buck genes for about 15 years now and I've seen scores of 140 B&C plus bucks in this area year after year and have taken my fair share. The forest I'm hunting is about 13,000 acres but the particular area with the big buck genes is much smaller and is easier to access than I'd like.
Some years there are few hunters and other years there are many hunters. Depends on the day and the weather. I recognize some of the hunters and have become friendly with several of them over the years. We all know there are big bucks in this area because we've all done our homework. Invariably new guys show up any given year and traipse through the area and find the big buck sign and figure out the same thing the rest of us know so they decide they want to hunt there as well.
I don't consider the area "my spot" even though I've been hunting that area as long as anybody. Many years I see the bruiser buck I'm after before the gun season starts but I don't consider him "my buck' until I bag him and tag him and since the area is public land I certainly don't expect other hunters that also know about this area to not hunt a particular spot or big buck. I take it as a personal challenge to prove I'm a better hunter by bagging a big buck before the other guys that are hunting the same general area. Just because other guys are hunting the same general area doesn't mean I can't still shoot a big buck before they do.
About ten years after I started hunting this area a couple of sharpies figured out what the rest of us knew and these two cats set up about six ladder stands and put most of them in the right places! In our state if you put a ladder stand on public land the first guy that gets to the ladder stand has a right to hunt from it even if you don't own the ladder stand!
I usually hunt from the ground but since these cats went to the trouble of setting up more ladder stands than they could hunt from and since many of them were over looking some of my favorite deer trails guess where I spent quite a bit of my time during hunting season?
I understand getting ****** if a hunter sets up right in your back pocket when you're already there first. That's not safe nor is it polite. I've had that happen quite a bit especially with guys that are afraid of the dark yet still insist on entering the woods before first light and then they decide to sit 40 yards from a stranger because they are afraid to sit in the dark by themselves. That's one of my pet peeves of deer hunting. If you're afraid of the dark wait until daylight to enter the woods, don't come sit by me! I'm not afraid of the dark and the only company I want is brown with big antlers!
Anybody else run into the afraid of the dark guys that come into the woods after you and know you're 40 yards away but insist on sitting in the same general area?