Blind Etiquette

[luckysob]

Intresting conversation,

I had a bilnd set up last year for the August hunt.The blind was far enough off a road and nobody had even been down that road all summer.I hunted it a few mornings and evenings.One day I went to check the card on the camera, there was a picture of the backs of BP agents. The blind was ripped at the top by the zippered opening, my folded chair was half way out and one of the poles is broken.I think BP was following some illegals who might have taken up refuge in my blind !!

I put the camera back up in December to bow hunt in January. When I went back to check the card, my camera was gone. This spot is out in the flats, we had never seen any foot prints or sign of anybody around. My blind was well hidden with alot of brush, only some one walking across the desrt would have stumbled on it and my camera !!

Last year up north on my wifes elk hunt, we went back to the tank she had shot her cow the year before. Someone left a brand new blind with a log as a seat inside the blind. The blind was in the wide open, no brush around it !! I called my WM buddy and he said use it and take it if nobody claims it? I decided we would hunt else where because I did not want my wife to see a confontation over a water hole !! I wanted to just to just take the blind down and set up mine in the trees like the year before, instead we sat a natural blind on a water hole in another area where she shot her elk on the second evening. There was a tree stand across the pond, but I think it is first come first serve also !!

[JakeL]

Well its public land, just inside the border of a national forest. So I know it could technically be considered littering and removed. But I wouldn't want to do that if the person really does use the blind. I'll keep an eye on it, and perhaps leave a note if its still there this fall. Its on a travel corridor, which I hope to spot and stalk hunt. So it may not be much of an issue.

[azgutpile]

There has got to be another spot that is just as good, if not better than this location. I would have to ask my self why I'm focusing on this location so much and see if your preception has been altered due to someone else liking it enough to place a stand there? Please note that this isn't an attack, I'm just trying to point out human nature part of it.

 

Also, if you feel that the blind is abandoned, then let the Forest Service know, it's not a decision for you to make.

[JLW]

Well its public land, just inside the border of a national forest. So I know it could technically be considered littering and removed. But I wouldn't want to do that if the person really does use the blind. I'll keep an eye on it, and perhaps leave a note if its still there this fall. Its on a travel corridor, which I hope to spot and stalk hunt. So it may not be much of an issue.

spot n stalk-desert-august.....

good luck! the blind will be a non issue.

 

James

[firstcoueswas80]

I would leave my number and a short note asking him to contact me. If no one touches it or contacts me for a few months, I would take it home for my future hunts. I wouldn't move his blind and hunt from it in the same area because there may be a confrontation if he finds you in it.

 

I know some people will lambast me for this, but as far as I'm concerned it is abandoned property on public land. Attended blinds are one thing, but left out there for months, it is abandoned property......

 

 

Good Luck!

 

For real man? You don't have any idea why it's been left out for so long. Maybe there is a legitimate reason the owner can't get back into the field to retrieve it? Maybe an injury or severe illness or whatever. There are lots of unexpected things that could happen to prevent a hunter from returning to the field to get his/her blind.

 

Justify it as "abandoned" or any way you like to make you feel better, but bottom line is you just admitted that you will take something that is not yours with the intent of using it at a future date as if it was yours. That's theft and that makes you a thief. Period.

 

I see more and more hunters with this "f-you" mentality towards their fellow hunters every year and it's disturbing.

 

 

 

Blake,

 

What would you do in this situation if, say it was a $100 bill? Its not yours, but its on the ground......

 

This is a tricky situation for sure. At some point it is considered trash and litter, but even then, who has the right to remove it? Is say leave it alone but hunt the area.

[BML]

That kind of just happened to me this past weekend. Had to grab some milk at the grocery store. I used the self check out and someone had left all their change in the cash dispenser below the scanner. I took it and gave it to the check out lady. I'm sure someone came back for it.

 

I don't claim to be perfect, but I will NEVER take someone's blind or camera or whatever I come across in the field. It's not mine and taking it is theft, plain and simple.

[JakeL]

Haha. August... ya I didn't mean to say August. I meant December... God help the bowhunter so addicted he'll brave the low desert heat in august for a 5% chance at a buck...

 

On the other hand... 5%... that might be good enough for me

[Non-Typical Solutions]

The one time we left a blind out for about three weeks in a very remote area. Little to no human traffic what so ever...........the bears took care of our blind for us. Ripped it up, broke poles, it was pretty much no good by the time they got done with it............I will give them a pass for we really were intruding on their stomping grounds but flat out taking somebody elses blind.............that ain't cool.

 

We have pics of so many bears, they have tormented our cameras, then our blind.......onery crittters.......

 

Good luck on your hunt.......

[JLW]

The one time we left a blind out for about three weeks in a very remote area. Little to no human traffic what so ever...........the bears took care of our blind for us. Ripped it up, broke poles, it was pretty much no good by the time they got done with it............I will give them a pass for we really were intruding on their stomping grounds but flat out taking somebody elses blind.............that ain't cool.

 

We have pics of so many bears, they have tormented our cameras, then our blind.......onery crittters.......

 

Good luck on your hunt.......

mount ord?????????

 

James

[GreeneMachine]

I recall a heated post a few months back about stands, blinds, what to do, and what not to do, do you use it, do you leave a note, do you go somewhere else. It was a great discussion but at the end of the day, I have to believe the vast majority of everyone on this site would agree to this:

 

1.) if ain't yours, leave it alone; and

2.) an unoccupied blind or stand doesn't stake claim to a public hunting spot

 

The answer to your question is simple JakeL....hunt that spot all day long until you see another hunter that beat u to the spot on a given day. I would welcome a conversation with a pissed off hunter who left their blind out all year who felt like I was stepping on their toes. But if he was cool about it, I'd gladly back out....but I'd be damned if I get an earful from someone who thinks his abandoned blind signifies ownership of an area. And yes, I absolutely consider it abandoned if its left out for more than a day without being used. Don't care if a dude is injured or whatever caused him to not come get his stuff. I wouldn't touch it but it's abandoned and it wouldn't cause me to think twice about hunting an area.

[DBArcher]

I gotta agree with blake, leave a note and see what happens. Blake and I did this a few years ago on a waterhole, worked together and both shot respectable bucks within a think a week of each other. I had a Treestand on a tank this last december, put up 3 days before the hunt, got there opening morning with no one around so I climbed up into it and there was a note and a chain and lock stating that this stand had been abandoned for a year. Had to cut the chain to get my treestand back. Daniel