Access to public land lost due to hunters using semi-auto rifles

[Mustangs Rule]

Over the past few days I’ve been shopping for winter hay for my horses The summer before last set records for heat and drought, last winter set records for snow, then last spring set records for rain and this summer set records for hay production. Now the hay market is crazy and there is hoarding going on.

I got my hay though a horse wrangler friend and while I arranged delivery, I listened to a rancher tell another rancher who was his relative, why he had just posted the last of his land.

He had a small useless section of land on the other side of country road which was the key to lots of national forest land. Up to now he had been generous allowing people to go cross even if he did not know them, but two days ago he heard a long burst of semi auto gunfire, over a dozen rounds fired by two yahoo hunters shooting at a deer and he just decided no more.

He posted this key land and all hunters, except for selected locals, just lost access to many thousands of acres of prime public deer and elk habitat.

He was telling this to the other rancher who was now thinking about granting access across his land by individual permission only.

This story will be told by ranchers in the local coffee shop over and over.

 

[BoulderBulls]

Way to go hunters, chalk another one up in the L column

 

[Oak]

he heard a long burst of semi auto gunfire, over a dozen rounds fired by two yahoo hunters shooting at a deer and he just decided no more.

That's some good hearing to be able to discern what they were shooting at.

 

[LuketheDog]

If I were him I'd have been granting access by permission only long before an evil semi-auto rifle showed up...

Over the past few days I’ve been shopping for winter hay for my horses The summer before last set records for heat and drought, last winter set records for snow, then last spring set records for rain and this summer set records for hay production. Now the hay market is crazy and there is hoarding going on.

I got my hay though a horse wrangler friend and while I arranged delivery, I listened to a rancher tell another rancher who was his relative, why he had just posted the last of his land.

He had a small useless section of land on the other side of country road which was the key to lots of national forest land. Up to now he had been generous allowing people to go cross even if he did not know them, but two days ago he heard a long burst of semi auto gunfire, over a dozen rounds fired by two yahoo hunters shooting at a deer and he just decided no more.

He posted this key land and all hunters, except for selected locals, just lost access to many thousands of acres of prime public deer and elk habitat.

He was telling this to the other rancher who was now thinking about granting access across his land by individual permission only.

This story will be told by ranchers in the local coffee shop over and over.

 

[RaiderRich]

If you need to fire a dozen shots at a deer, you fail at deer hunting. If you are target shooting on public land, could be a different situation but a lot of public land in areas where I hunt forbids target shooting, only shooting at game, where my first sentence applies.

 

[Mustangs Rule]

That's some good hearing to be able to discern what they were shooting at.

They were in plain view from his house. maybe 600-700 yards away. He was outside. All he had to do was look at an open steep hillside and watch the show.

 

[Mustangs Rule]

That's some good hearing to be able to discern what they were shooting at.

I should add that I have had and will continue have access to hunt exactly there myself. It is great place.

That steep hillside is like an amphitheater. It gets he first light and any game animals on it can see anyone coming a long way off.

I have learned to walk in under the cover of complete darkness, the thermals are in my favor and as light comes I can just lay low behind a bush and pick my deer and take stable shots way under 200 yards.

The first time I hunted there I just walked around a little hill and when I came out in the open, deer spotted me from maybe 300 or 400 yards away and they started trotting away. I learned my lesson did not take a shot but planned for a careful return.

What is so likely knowing that exact place and situation is the landowners take on what happened was 100 % correct,

These two "hunters" they just came around that little hill, the steep hill was crawling with deer and they opened up shooting. Highest probability with that many shots they wounded a deer too.

 

[406dn]

It's their land, so they can do whatever they decide. I think it would be better if they just waited for the two guys to come out, then tell them that they have lost their permission to use his land, rather than painting with such a broad brush.

But, in this case, you are a winner, so there is that.

 

[HuntTalk Freak]

 

[Ben Lamb]

It's their land, so they can do whatever they decide. I think it would be better if they just waited for the two guys to come out, then tell them that they have lost their permission to use his land, rather than painting with such a broad brush.

But, in this case, you are a winner, so there is that.

We don't know if it's the first or the forty-fifth time the guy has had to deal with it. The broad strokes may have been earned.

 

[Mustangs Rule]

It's their land, so they can do whatever they decide. I think it would be better if they just waited for the two guys to come out, then tell them that they have lost their permission to use his land, rather than painting with such a broad brush.

But, in this case, you are a winner, so there is that.

It really takes some extra gumption to go up to two guys so heavily armed and give them some serious feedback.

Also, I should add they never should have even been there. The road was officially closed due to fire. To get there they had to have come in from the back way and ignored a very big "road closed" sign.

It does not take a very big fart to clear out a room. All it has to do is be really smelly.

These two guys were really smelly in so many ways.

 

[Ben Lamb]

It does not take a very big fart to clear out a room.

Another sig worthy line.

 

[406dn]

It really takes some extra gumption to go up to two guys so heavily armed and give them some serious feedback.

Also, I should add they never should have even been there. The road was officially closed due to fire. To get there they had to have come in from the back way and ignored a very big "road closed" sign.

It does not take a very big fart to clear out a room. All it has to do is be really smelly.

These two guys were really smelly in so many ways.

Yeah, it isn't easy to give tough news to anyone. More than once it is something I've had to do. It works pretty well to break the ice with a question or statement...Hey guys, can we talk?

The power dynamic when you are on someone else's land is enough to take the belligerence out of most people. Then, you just tell them straight up, they aren't welcome to come back, and why. If the guys aren't reformable, they will forever think the rancher is a jerk. If they were just ignorant how their behavior was perceived, they will learn a lesson.

Presently, it is likely that they will never connect that they were the reason no one can hunt there.

Sadly, there are quite a few hunters clueless about most things. They don't make it better for any of us.

 

[std7mag]

Here in PA. the property owner that was posting their land use to have to have signs at a certain distance from each other & their signature legible on the sign.

Now they are allowed to use purple paint on the trees instead.

Looks like a kindergardner went ape $#!÷ with finger paint on the trees!

 

[JLS]

Would the fart have smelled different if they were lever action or pump action rifles?

 

[406dn]

Here in PA. the property owner that was posting their land use to have to have signs at a certain distance from each other & their signature legible on the sign.

Now they are allowed to use purple paint on the trees instead.

Looks like a kindergardner went ape $#!÷ with finger paint on the trees!

In Montana the paint color is hunter orange.

Back when you could hunt birds on unposted private property without permission, I knew a guy who carried a can of it with him, while hunting birds. If he found a nice honey hole, he would spray orange paint on the fence posts to keep other bird hunters out of it.

 

[Mustangs Rule]

Would the fart have smelled different if they were lever action or pump action rifles?

What do you think?

 

[JLS]

What do you think?

You tell me. The “semi automatic “ designation is in your thread title. It must be significant.

 

[Gojo03]

A jackass with a muzzle loader can do more damage than a responsible hunter with a semi-auto weapon.

 

[p_ham]

Would the fart have smelled different if they were lever action or pump action rifles?

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