Me and a buddy were able to sneak out this morning to hunt public. Got there around 4:30 (which turned out to be overkill). Got the spread and a blind all set up and waited till lst. At lst the birds started coming in pretty good. Knocked down five in the first ten minutes. Then two other guys showed up and set up 150 yards downwind from us. Normally we would've asked them if they wanted to join up with us had they gotten there a little earlier but since the hunt was already started we didn't. They ended up standing in a wide open area with no decoys taking shots at any bird within 150 yards. They ended up shooting at any bird that got within their "shooting range" including those coming into our spread that were trying to work the wind. Needless to say we didn't shoot another bird until they left. I realize this is part of public hunting but I have never seen anyone this bad in my years of coming to this lake. My question is what would y'all have done in this situation? I wanted to invite them to hunt with us so we could call the shots and hopefully everyone could get a few birds. My buddy wanted to educate them on staying hidden and on shotguns to explain no matter how hard they might try, they wouldn't kill a duck at 150 yards. We decided not to approach the two strangers because they were carrying guns and didn't wanna have anything escalate even if we meant the best. Would y'all have done anything different or let them be as well?

Sorry for the rant. Hunted public a lot before but these guys were the worst I've ever seen. Side note: the birds are here. Saw more today than other days combined. Thanks for any feedback and safe hunts!

Iv seen plenty worse at that lake but yeah that sucks

Wait them out or move to a new spot.

Yup.. most will head out around 10am... 8:15 if its cold

If its real cold they just stay in bed

Yeah they bailed around nine. There is definitely more than one plus for this cold weather. We ended up getting another four after they left.

I'm guessing you didn't spend much time on here yesterday.

I would have invited them to hunt with me. Barney's need lovin too.

Yah this is the trend.

It probably wouldn't have been confrontational to let them know they were welcome to sit in the blind with you. Its all in how you speak with folks.

Had you done so you probably would have had a better hunt.

Inviting those guys into the blind is how you turn "Barneys" into duck hunters.

From reading your post, I doubt either are duck hunters.

I'm just going to start down winding Rob until he invites me to hunt with him, takes me under his wing, teaches me the way of the greenhead, includes me in his will and eliminates all future possible Barney tendencies from my DNA.

I take it duck hunters have long ago earned the right to be hostile, uncooperative and unhelpful whilst hunting public lands that are accessible on foot?

No chance. I'd venture it is something approaching Zen and highly personal.

Call the game warden, claim hunter harassment; there is some common sense to hunting in general they have none let the game warden deal with em.....

Not trying to bash you bud. But those were my buddies out there and they had their spread and blind set up by 2:00AM. They were camping out and said y'all set up next to them while they were shining their lights at you. They had to set up in a different spot to get away from y'all in a hurry so that's why they didn't have any cover. Don't always jump to conclusions.

Did I hear someone say, wanna get away?

The two stories don't exactly match up... Hard to see how they could be the same.



Not trying to bash you, but don't always jump to conclusions

***I have no personal interest in this threat, I'm just stating the differences in stories and stating that its possible (hard to believe, I know) that its not the same scenario in both cases. If it is, there are some gaps in the storyline.

Please fill gaps before booking ticket.

Seems like if they were camped out at 2, and the other party got there at 4:30 that would have been ample time to go figure something out. Stories don't match up to me.