some thoughts
Had a guy cut me off Friday morning on my local WMA. Two weeks into the season, I thought pressure on a rainy morning might have waned. Wrong. He didn't shoot, but got so close to the bird that it hushed/spooked. Bird was 100 yds from me, guy came down a drainage, got midway between me and bird.....just out of sight. I'd roosted the night before, was there before dawn, saw the bird fly down, had called some, and when I heard this jaybird calling from 150, then 100, then 50 yds away, full volume on a box call. I called some myself initially, to note,...."Hey, I'm here and working this bird". No use....he kept on, I shut up, didn't want him to shoot me! When the bird shut up, he started on a crow call. No gobble of course. I called out...."You ran him off, and you cut me off, fool" No answer and the guy vanished. His truck was at the nearby parking area as I disgustedly drove off to hunt elsewhere.
1. Common decency is less common, as witnessed by the overall decline in mannerly and moral behavior overall. I would never knowingly cut off or bushwack a bird somebody else was working. For me it cheapens the success and I want no part of it. But I use the phrases "Mam, Sir, please and thank you, " and hold doors for people too. I don't knowingly turkey hunt "close" to anybody, and 175 yds is indeed close, despite other posts to the contrary. I wonder, with the "that's OK logic" what distance is unacceptable or unsafe? Hmm......100, 75.....60??? Not only unsportsmanlike, but unsafe as well.
2. The advent of all the hunting shows has brought gobbler hunting into the light again, and I talk to more and more new gobbler hunters. Some may well not be able to tell the difference between a well run call and the real thing. I suppose my guy may have thought I was real....but I doubt it. But...he got there late, he started calling too far out, he called to loud....all the indications of a newbie. I'd bet he's not killed many birds.
3. There are fools everywhere, and some hunt turkeys. I try not to get upset, though I could not resist my shouting out to this dude....note he did not reply. I've come to almost expect this on public land, but it spoils the hunt for sure. I just go and hunt elsewhere. But I will admit to at least a glimmer of vandalistic thought as rolled out past his truck....but I resisted, as that would not only be immoral, but illegal.
4. Contrast this with the lease I'm in. We all know each other, we all have paid the same fees. On any given morning, there may be multiple guys hunting, and the place is not so big that a gobbling bird may not be heard by more than one hunter. But....if Sammy's truck is parked at that crest, or Juniors 4-wheeler is at the head of the hollow, don't you know he heard it, better than I did from over yonder. I'll not spoil his hunt. And they return the courtesy. But anonymous people have comtempt for each other....note big cities....and public hunting land.
