I know public land is public but

[snipe n]

Up on the Miss. River in WI the best spots usually(in the old days) had willow blinds from day one till the end of the season. With beaver hardly being worth trapping they have flourished. It takes them a day or two but those willows will be gone. This year with very low water. My dad and I made a blind in the afternoon and hunted it that afternoon. It was in a slough were there was no easy way to get my 80 year old father out on shore as he struggles in the bad mud in this area. So we shot 3 ducks and stayed till close. A few other hunters went by observed where we were. Next morning out we go to find no willows. Thanks Brandon wanna be's. It wasn't beavers that took the willows and nobody hunted there. They just didn't want us to hunt there. Who I believe took it was speeding to us and saw we were in our boat blind there.. they stopped and choose to go elsewhere. We take down carefully, what we can daily and build it back if we hunt it again.

 

[Squaller]

Public and Private... I have seen dumb and inconsiderate hunters...

• I once watched a trio of hunters mash down a tule patch they were hunting in... I had to walk by them when I left, and asked why they did it... "So we could see and shoot easier..."
• I am careful when I hunt a blind at my club, to use natural cover/grass to hide the blind... I have seen more than one member pitch grass that I have taken into the water cause they do not like it.
• I have seen well-hidden hunters in a tule patch, with a dog out in the open on a dog-stand.
• I have seen guys at the blind island with the dog sitting up and obvious.
• I have seen boat hunters using camouflage canvas that was very much the wrong color and stood out like a sore thumb.
• Guy at my buddies club was so very proud of himself for using Christmas tree trimmings to hide several of the blinds at his club...

Lots of hunters feel the dog does not scare birds... I strongly disagree... I have seen older hunters, still trying to hunt the way they did 30 years ago, and young hunters do silly things due to lack of experience...

I love running into a fellow duck hunter at a social gathering... Hate seeing them in the field next to me....

 

[Deltaman]

Public hunting here has changed a lot over the last 20 years. The resource isn't getting any bigger, but the user group has exploded, and it seems there is an inordinate amount of "screw you, it's all about me" attitude!

 

[smashdn]

If you appear to know what you are doing I will let you hunt with me.

The only thing that really sets me off is when you set up too close AND you call at or shoot swing ducks. Certain circumstances you can't help but be close enough where birds working me are gonna fly over your spread and vice versa. We either need to hunt together, one of us needs to leave or take turns working birds and shooting.

And that is why I go as far back in the sticks as I can get and sometimes hunt places that are "marginal" just to avoid people.

 

[Squaller]

Or shoot swing ducks.

Clubs and refuges, often set up on the same pond... Birds working the water... I am calling, and they go over another hunter who is not calling and he shoots... Did he shoot my swing?

I hear about hunters "shooting the swing" all the time.... Think it is tremendously over-used. If birds are working a pond or cell, just cause I am calling and someone else is not, does NOT make them my birds.

Now... Guy walking down the levee and shoots at geese that are circling my spread, is shooting my swing (had it happen before). Guy set up 50 yards from me with no decoys and not calling... Shooting my swing. Birds that I am calling at, working the pond, fly over the next guy in range (a reasonable distance away), NOT shooting my swing.

If birds are circling a pond, and are interested in the water, whether alone on the pond or competing with another hunter, I do not call at those birds till they are low enough to shoot... I do not want them to pass overhead out of range and get a good look at me... Now, if those birds are low, I love to hit them on the corners... Some call that shooting the swing, I call it working birds correctly.

 

[smashdn]

The last paragraph is how I would define swing ducks. When they get low enough and it is obvious they are circling to work a specific hole in the woods or decoy spread, those I won't call at. Treetop high ducks are working unless they just got their rearend shot off. They are working you or someone else. If someone else, lay off till the other group gives up or boogers them off or they just drop in your hole or decoys.

Clearly not a hard and fast rule. Just how I operate. I'm not gonna go hungry if I don't kill a duck.

 

[mallardhunter]

I take out peoples flagging tape and cat eyes all the time.

Personally I don’t like seeing someone else’s ****ty blind or stand when I want to hunt a spot. Portable hides and quick makeshift hides are easy enough for a lot of areas. Obviously some spots they don’t cut it but when I go out to enjoy nature I’d rather not see trash all over the woods

Why not have some fun with 'em? We like to remove all but the first one, then replace them, leading the poor souls on a wide circular route. Would lead 'em off a cliff if I could find one!

 

[mallardhunter]

I have hunted a lot of public thru the years in a number of different states. I still believe no permanent blinds or stands should be allowed on public sites. They should be removed at the end of each hunt.

There are some places where without a permanent blind, you would be forced to hunt from a boat - or to put in another way, the only people allowed to hunt that area could afford a boat! Unique places require unique rules, and practices. And all I hunt is public.

 

[fishnfool]

I don't hunt ducks very often anymore, and when I do, I don't shoot many, but I never once have to consider the term "swing bird, and for that I'm profoundly content.