I had the opportunity to take my oldest nephew on his very first duck hunt. He just got his first shotgun and everything. We got up early to hunt at a public lake close by. I had great luck there last year, always a lot of wood ducks. We get to the spot, and think that we will have the spot to ourselves since we were there first. About 5:30 rolls around and a boat comes around the bend toward us, and I flash my spot so they would know that this particular spot was occupied. They keep driving toward us, and talking very loud. I spot them again (keep in mind that I have never had a problem with people being disrespectful to other hunters at this lake.) They are still coming our way, and end up setting up about 40 yards from us. This is not a very big spot to hunt. Long story short, no ducks for us, three for them, because they set up just opposite of our decoys. Therefore, they cut off the flight pattern of these ducks. My nephew did not even get to shoot his gun even though we saw tons of ducks. I always try to be considerate of other hunters, and I guess that is why I am so pissed about this. Am I wrong, or was that bad etiquette?

Bad etiquette...but unfortunately becoming so common. Wish your nephew better luck next time.

I feel your pain. I would have to say complete disrespect and bad eitquette. Karma has its way of working things out though. Good luck this weekend!

This happens way too much on public. Not much you can do but suck it up and try again. Might be a good lessen for your nephew in the long run...nothing worth having is easy and that's especially the case with duck hunting. There are always trade offs...when you hunt public there is little to no cost...but then you have to put up with the crowds. You could hunt private but it would end up costing you and even then it's still hunting and other things can go wrong that can spoil your hunt.

Unfortunately it happens a LOT and yes, it is really bad etiquette.

I think most of those "barneys" don't realize that they're doing anything wrong. The first time it happened to me I just flashed away and didn't do anything else. After putting some thought into it, when that does happens I now (as politely as possible) yell, "Hey you're too close" before they get setup at all. Nine times out of ten they'll move on.

If they object or don't seem to care I follow up with, "You aren't in a safe spot - you could easily get peppered."

Usually that does the trick. I don't yell angrily or cuss or anything. Nice and calm.

As a last ditch effort, if they ain't budging, invite them to hunt with you. At least you may get some shots that way.

Sorry to hear that! Good luck to you in the future

Sorry to hear about it. I think Larry gives some great lines to try.

Damn. Sounds like my opener. I had a guy in a boat come in around 6am, flashed him off and he set up a respectable didtance. 8am rolls around, while mallards are still flying really well, the buthole proceeds to take down his boat blind, I think, wow he's done early. Nope he decides to take the boat for a joy ride back and forth on the other side of my spread. Keep in mind, we never shot in their direction, flared their birds or anything. There is no sign that he plans on leaving, so like a complete tool I decided to move to a slough around the bend. Guess what we heard 20 minutes later.....lots of shots from our initial spot. Some people are just douche bags. Sorry to hear that happened to you also.

We should have just peppered those guys Kayl. I'm still pissed.

I can give ya ton of stories just like the one above. Get there at 3:00AM, even with my son getting there that early, and him waiting patiently in the cold until LST, only to have some self-centered Barney set up right next to ya right at LST. When you tell them they are too close, I always like the comment back “Well this is public land aint it? I have a right to be here just as much as you!” Had a guy set up about 50 yards down wind from me and my son once, as the birds cupped into our spread, they flew right over his head, he shot at every one, and one he shot was banded.

Yeah if only there were a barney season.

i have had this happen a few times but I also have set up 100 to 150 yards from someone and then had them walk up to me and comence to gripeing that I am too close... In that situation I made the comment about public land and the guy kept running his mouth I finally said "how f***** far you wanna go with this?" and that was followed with the sound of his sorry arse walking back to his spot... I am also of the mind that if you want to hunt with me, I always got room for someone else but dont be a jerk when you get invited.

Had that happen to me in Louisiana, thought no big deal he can shoot the birds coming from his direction and I will shoot the ones coming from my direction. Well he was shooting at birds on my side when they were still out of range for me. So when he left his blind to get some ducks I let my blind down on my boat and jumped the land his blind was on. There are no permanent blinds allowed on the reserve I was hunting, so I made sure his blind was not permanent. Took me about 4 jumps to get it completely flattened. Then I went a ways away and pulled my blind up again.

This seems to be common with several stories shared from the opener. We setup 2 hours before LST with one group coming in an hour after us and a 2nd 20 minutes after LST. the first group went 150 yards down but the post-LST group tried to setup 40 yds away but I guess thought better of it and moved on. No altercations or anything but it begs the question what is an acceptable distance when hunting public land? In my opinion 100 yards should be a nice minimum.

100 yards is absolute minimum. Anything closer is dangerous. 300 yards is best. But if you set up close to someone, at least put the duck call away, and do not sky blast!!!

I've had it happen numerous times of public lakes. I think it really depends on the lay of the land when it concerns how close others should be. Some situations I'd say 200 yards minimum...others 75-100. However, I think there should be a law stating there should be 100 yards between hunting parties on public lakes. Certain WMAs are a little different.

It is one of the most disrespectful things that could happen to someone on a duck hunt. I have read several stories about this occurring this past opening weekend and I actually had a group drive right up to us and tell us we were in their spot and needed to leave. However, we ended up hunting the spot and them nearly 200 yards away. Unfortunate, but it is quite common now...

too much of a good thing. we need all the duck hunters we can get, but need to teach the jack aces a little hunter etiquette. we are all doing this for the same reason. enough groups fighting us, dont need to be disrespecting our own. i hunt pubilc lake in west tx, always gotta deal with a Barney or two...

So, you set up arguably too close to another hunter who was clearly there first, and when he walked down to tell you you were too close, you proceeded to bully him into what was most likely a miserable hunt for him? Man, you're a badass.

100-150 yards is WAY too close, no matter the sittuation.

Most would say 40 yards is max shooting distance, So if I have a group of birds working my spread circling in a 100 yard diameter that puts them in or at max 10 yards from your shooting range.... WAY too close.

Others saying 100 yards is a reasonable distance, not sure what makes you think that is reasonable.

If you've got a few groups at 100 yards apart you will never, never, be able to work a good group of birds to the water. In that sittuation most every group will get shot at as they are swinging to line up for someone elses decoys. This is partly why you hear so many complaints of sky blasting. The real problem is there is no room for the birds to work the wind and really line up.

Fire a shot in front of the boat as it approaches...

That usually deters them from coming closer!

Simple, but effective!

J.J.

For me, the worst part of this is that I was trying to introduce my nephew to duck hunting and this was his first impression of it. Sad. By the way these shot a duck which landed in our direction, then left it for the rest of the hunt. When we were leaving they had the nerve to ask us to throw the bird back toward them in their direction.

I have never had this happen to me and I couldnt tell you what I would do unitl that moment but I am sure glad that no one got hurt.

I am just speculating here but it seems to me that when you get tempers and guns together someone always gets dead, I cant beleive that there hasnt been a fatality yet....

ROFLMAO so great.