Opinions??? Did we get screwed?

[AzVTR]

As I write this I still sit in somewhat disbelief and think about the situation as it unfolded and can find no other feeling than to think we got screwed, so I am looking for input from those who have had a similar situation happen to them before as well as opinions on what could have been.

 

I accompanied my brother in law out for his hunt this past week into a canyon we know well. Day started out great, got there wayyyy earlier before light, hiked up to an awesome vantage and sat to glass. The trip in was uneventful and while driving in to the canyon we were supprised to see no other vehicles, camps, etc and were happy to see that we had the canyon to ourselves this particular day. While up glassing from our ridge we spotted a lot of does all the meanwhile trying to locate other hunters and again were happy to see no one. We could see our truck at the top of the ridge were we parked and never had any other vehicles come in that we could see or hear (we could follow the entire 2 mile road from our vantage point).

 

About 0930 we start to watch most of the does we had seen start heading down into the cuts to bed, it was starting to get pretty warm. My brother in law spots a deer on an adjacent hillside but initially thinks it's a doe because with the naked eye it has a fairly small body. We put glass on it and as it walks out from behind the tree we notice that it's body looked so small because its head and rack were so big. It was the biggest antlered coues deer I had ever laid eyes on and with the palmations it had it looked like a friggin carribou. Was definately a purely awesome moment as we game planned how we were going to put a stalk on this deer and bag a monster. We watched him top over the ridge and knew he was most likely going to bed just like all the other deer we had seen.

 

We gear up and start heading down the mountain making quick work of the first 300 yards, and slowly moving tree to tree while glassing for the last 100 yards. We had moved around the hillside from it and were heading up the canyon towards it to hopefully get a decent shot at it without the vegetation in the way. We get to within about 50 yards of where we had a good feeling of where the buck was and start glassing feverishly.

 

It was then that it happened.

 

As I scanned the hillside above us with my naked eye I noticed movment to my far right. I looked over to see a hunter in an orange vest coming very quickly around the hillside from where our truck was. He looked right at me, slunked down and proceeded to sneak very quickly in between where we were located and the deer. At this point we don't have any ethical shot knowing that he is somewhere in the 50 yards between us so we stood there trying to figure out what was going on (we were 100% sure we were the only ones in the canyon, I guess we were wrong). About 20-30 seconds later we hear a shot. We stand there thinking, "crap, these guys just shot the deer". However I did not hear any feedback of the bullet hitting it's mark, but no follow-up shots either. We proceed to walk up to where they were located in order to see if they were successful. 1 minute later, we get up to within 15 yards of the hunter who is obviously walking slowly and continuing to stalk in. We whispered loudly to him, "Hey!!!, did you get him". He ignored us, glanced down at us and continued to make his stalk. Meanwhile we hear another hunter talking on the radio telling him to head up a ridge the deer had just topped over.

 

We just stood there in disbelief. With a WTF!!! look on our faces.

 

We headed back around the hill to our truck dumbfounded. As we sat there and discussed what had just happened there is no other thing we could think of other than the hunters deliberately wedged themselves in between us to prevent our shot, fired a shot to spook the deer so they could continue tracking it due to not knowing where it was located at. We really feel like we were had. Again, the whole drive out, no vehicles, no camps, no atv's, etc. These two hunters seem to have materialized out of thin air.

Just wondering how many of you have been in this type of a situation and how you handled it? Not sure if I witnessed hunting ethics at it's worst or just someone beating us to the punch. What would you have done? Do you think the other hunters should have given us the right of way after they saw us on the deer and not wedged themselves in between us?

 

Sorry for the long read.

[JLW]

we have had similar situation, but it was more like dove season on a mule deer hunt!

sometimes ( a lot of times actually ) people don't respect your space.

we set up on a ridge for my wifes first muley hunt an hour early.

as we sat there in the light of a full moon the vehicle lights of several vehicles started coming.

they parked near where we parked and posted up on the ridge by the road.

I spotted a buck coming through the saddle and called my wife over from the other side of the ridge and before we could set up I see this guy start sneaking down the ridge. I look across the steep canyon and see several hunters lined up along the ridge like dove season!

This guy shoots the buck and we are super bummed!

Sucks and of coarse our situation was a bit different.

I hate to say it but it is public land hunting.... I guess some peoples parents didn't teach ethics.

I would hate to think they would do that but then again I wouldn't think another hunter would steal anothers trail camera either!

 

James

[Guest akaspecials]

Without knowing where he came from it's hard to know whether he deliberately moved in on you or whether he beat you to the punch. Also, he may have been deaf. I was with a friend that can't hear worth a darn and some guys called out to him while we were hunting. He just kept walking and they thought he ignored them. He honestly couldn't hear. Those guys could be thinking you guys were the jerks for moving in on their buck and then trying to talk to them. Without talking to the other guys it's impossible to draw a clear conclusion. :/ Sorry you didn't get the buck!

[AzVTR]

Ya I agree. I was definately chocking it up to the woes of public land hunting. The thing that has me confused though is why would someone who was definately in a farther out position on the deer from us continue to sneak in after seeing us standing there only 50ish yards from it when we were obviously making a stalk. I will probably never know.

If I had been in there shoes, personally, I would have said, "dang, theres someone already on it looks like it's theirs". I guess my thinking only goes so far though. Ultimately your right. I will never know the other side of the story, unfortunately I can only call it like I saw it.

[trphyhntr]

i would of said "hey bung hole. what the *&^%$%^ was that!?"

[cw4192]

could have been PETA or some other tree hugger organization

[Non-Typical Solutions]

We had 3A/3C late bull elk tag a few years ago. You know what a circus that can be.

 

I had a tag as did my 16 year old son at the time.

 

We had scouted the tree farms and several other places for options but decided we would try the tree farms opening morning..............WRONG!!!

 

There was a hunter in every nook and cranny out there as the sun came up.

 

We see where the elk are headed and get down there quick to get into position.

 

Hunters in a truck driving down a two tracker come up on us, we tell them we are getting ready to put a stalk on some bulls just to the west of us.

 

They wave bye and proceed to drive off road cross country in the direction we just told them we were going to put a stalk..............I honestly was ready to put a hole in a back tire.

 

 

Not 10 minutes later we see a G$F truck bailing off the hill and pulling over that same truck..............I can only hope they were getting a citation for off road travel............

 

Sorry about your blown hunt............

[200"mulie]

That does suck ... hopefully next time out will be more eventfull

[Coues Sniper]

So what you're hypothesizing here is, those guys (who clearly knew the deer was there also) saw you coming in, then made a stalk on the deer, got in between you and the deer and fired a shot in order to scare it over the ridge in the hopes that it would stand there and they could kill it once it topped over knowing that you wouldn't follow for some reason? Here's my guess. They saw the deer, saw you making a move (likely during the other guys stalk), the guy saw it and tried to kill it and missed. As has been said before, that's just public land hunting. I would have ignored you also had I been in his situation. At any rate, sorry it didn't work out for you guys.

[AzVTR]

Ya Coues Sniper, that is kinda how i see it from my perspective. However you are also right. There isn't any way for to know the whole story, just my perspective . Who knows, we might have been ruining their stalk. The fact that we were within 50 yrds from it heading at it when they were just coming around the hill and positioning leads me to think differently. Its always a bummer either way when your on the losing end of it. I think that is whats playing into my bitterness about the situation.

[Coues Sniper]

The fact that we were within 50 yrds from it heading at it when they were just coming around the hill and positioning leads me to think differently.

The fact that there was radio chatter from what seemed to be a guy watching the deer for him makes me think he didn't just bump into it. But hard to say. Sorry again it didn't work out.

[elkhunter]

just tough luck- nothing in the rules/regulations about this type of situation other than whoever put the last bullet in the deer belongs to the person- sucks to hear that

[rclouse79]

A similar thing happened to me and my buddy opening morning of cow season last year. We spotted a herd about a mile away right at first light. We cut the distance down to 400 yards and were discussing how we wanted to get closer. I knew I could have hit my mark from that range, but wanted to get closer with my .270. We dropped down into a wash when world war 3 started up. Out of all the shots fired by the other hunters, none hit their mark. We actually talked to them and they were shooting off hand at 400 yards. We are convinced they started shooting because they saw us and knew they wouldn't get a shot if they didn't shoot then.

We were bummed, but we came to the conclusion that both parties are going to feel the other is in the wrong when their hunt gets screwed up. All you can do is remind yourself that it is better than being at work, and go try again.

[Str8Shot]

I would say bad luck for hunters on both sides ... there is a big difference between hunter A and Hunter B coming from different areas putting a stalk on the same buck ...and a situation where hunter B knows you are a hunting a particular area you reached first and camping on top and around you all hunt ( I have been in this situation and it is much easier to move on ) ... getting screwed would have been if there was a Hunter C on a ridge 1k out who decided to throw lead at a buck you were stalking...

 

If you were at 50 yards from the buck when seeing the other hunter who was further off at that point, what kept you from putting him down? you said he came from further out to put himself between you a the deer... did you actually see the buck or think you were about 5o yards from him ?

[AzVTR]

I think it's just bad luck either way. Hopefully he's still out there for next year. If not, then big congrats to whomever tags him, he was sure one helluva buck.