Solid List

Except #9

Public Land Ethics

And boy does #6 chap my butt!

I think #8 is the biggest one. It's one thing to have someone you don't know screw things up, but when one of your own stabs ya in the back... that hurts.

Shame we just can't count on common sense anymore...

No mention of early shooters.

Yep! I've been a victim of everything on this list, sometimes several of them at once...

Yep, solid list there. And they are in order of importance too. I have a lot more tolerance for #1 when 2# thru 4# are followed.

#8...I'd just say if you are worried about someone hunting your spot on PUBLIC then don't take them there.

Yep, I agree with that completely. Guys I hunt public with either 1) only hunt when they are with me, 2) they hunt public but not the lakes I hunt on a regular basis, or 3) they scout hard and they already know the spots, and if I discover birds in spot and tell them about it and they hunt it the next day that's cool because they will recipicate.

Newbies, don't take them hunting unless you expect them to hunt there all season, and lazy mooches that hunt public just stay clear of them.

#8 yep. Not naming names but I took someone from this forum several years ago and I know that they are now a regular at that lake. I don't care because I have only hunted there maybe twice in the last 8 years. But lesson learned for sure.

I have 4 people in my circle of trust. One is my brother who won't hunt without me, another is my son who doesn't know where the heck we are anyway, and two folks (one on this forum) that I trust more than my own family. The one on this forum and I have a scouting coop going and share info even if we can't hunt together.

I took a noob 2 years ago. A guy I've known forever and I guess you could label as one of those Duck Commander effect hunters. I had found a great spot and didn't have anyone else that could go so I invited him since he had been asking for a long time. We ended up with a coupe of limits pretty quick. I told him at least 5 times about rule #8, but I still felt like one day I was going to show up and meet him at the boat ramp. I don't need self inflicted paranoia so I'm done with that...

What did you expect, that lake would be off limits to him for the rest of his life? I try to get a friend to hunt with me on a particular lake, he will not do it because another friend introduced him to the lake for the first time years ago. While I admire his loyalty, that's just stupid. You hunt public long enough and you know all the lakes and all the spots. It's more about finding birds during the season than spots.

I took Larry hunting on a lake he never hunted like 2010 or so then few years later he said he never hunted that lake again because I showed him. I said good grief go hunt that lake and spot all you want. If I was worried about it I would not have taken him. I took a newbie hunting once, he hunted that same spot all season, just what I expected him to do.

I remember that! Still haven't been back... except to fish.

But I would got back to a lake, I wouldn't hunt the same spot or close to it tho. Although in this case I am like my son and have no friggin' clue where we were.

Had to tell a close friend he couldn't hunt with us because he would leave his safety off, shoot at anything he saw regardless of range and told everyone where we hunted. Gave him 1 break but he did the same thing the next and last time.

if you dont want a hole burned to the ground dont take anyone...public is public and human nature is human nature

I'm trying to burn your holes down but they're not producing.

Stop by the house, I got more corn last week