Flatlander

That game wasn’t as bad as I thought it might be. Actually pretty impressed with how well our defense held up without Jones and Lucas. Definitely not the season we hoped for. Jayden Daniels definitely doesn’t look like a WB that is taking this team anywhere.

Probably early December.

Saw one cruising and scraping this morning and one mature buck with does tonight. Couldn’t put an arrow into either unfortunately. IMG_1369.MOV

Man, what a buck! Congrats.

Good question and I don’t know. That’s something everyone’s got to sort out for themselves. I do know that I wouldn’t plop down a blind 30 yds from a salt I had nothing to with and think that was going to go over well. All these dudes pretending that anyone is arguing something else is nonsense. Their feelings for Russ makes people justify their desire to take advantage of his work. I have no great affinity for him or anyone else up there. But I sure do know what will and wont keep me up at night.

I have 0 bias for anyone here. If you’d like to chat about my personal feelings toward all the parties, I’m happy to do so privately. I frankly don’t care who’s side I am taking or who disagrees with me. But I do respect another person’s work. Whether Satan himself or anyone else put that salt there, it took time, effort, money and sacrifice. The fact that so many people feel that they should be entitled to those efforts simply because they show up first one morning is absolutely baffling. I don’t contest that anyone owns that boundary or any other piece of public lands. But to set up a blind, 30 yds from a salt someone else put the time in to establish and monitor is BS. The only reason to be there is because of the salt, which somebody out there. The opportunity was created by that person. I sure as heck wouldn’t show up at a trail cam and take pics off someone else’s SD card. It’s no different in this situation. Established water sources (with or without salt), saddles, roads, etc. all belong to the public and first come first serve makes sense there. Other guides and DIY hunters can easily throw a salt out and put up a cam. They can hunt any tank in that unit. Walk the boundary. Drive the highway and wait for them to come out in the open. Those are all options, why the heck would they feel the need to go sit somewhere that they someone else established and then get all sideways when that person shows up. Yes it’s legal, still chicken shoot. This is the same argument that people use to justify stealing trail cams. It’s on public property, it’s illegal to leave on FS, therefore it’s abandoned property and I am entitled to take it. Technically it may be true, but that doesn’t change the principal of it.

I could give 2 shits who puts a salt out. Your distaste for one man is making your arguments silly.

The salt lick in question is not on a water source. There is nothing else there to make a Buffalo come to that spot other than the salt. That is the case for about half of the salts there. But if you have been there, you know this. The guys pretending that a salt block next to a public water source is the same thing are the ones building a straw man.

No one said that.

Took one out of Nature Girl’s playbook. I like it.

Congrats Kev! The real question is, did you wear your heels on the stalk?

It’s not about the blind. If someone else hauled water or salt out there to create an opportunity, I am not going to set up a blind and then try to beat them to the spot they created. Other than being to lazy to build my own salt, why would I need to do that? If I want to sit salt, I will put out my own. End of thread.

Not even close to the same thing. The only reason he put the client there was because of the salt. There was no water, saddle, fence crossing, etc. No matter how early you get up, it’s never cool to take someone else’s work. Lazy.

If it was 50 or 1500 makes no difference. Why would I feel entitled to someone else’s work?

I don’t blame Massey. He sat a salt his guide told him to sit. As a guide, to Place a client on a salt that another hunter/guide put out is just lazy. Being a freeloader and using someone else’s efforts to run a business is deplorable. The only reason there is a blind there is because there is salt. So the opportunity only exists or is greatly increased because the salt is there. Chad could have gone up and dropped his own salts out there. He could have put one right where his truck was parked. I just don’t get why anyone would think that it’s ok to use someone else’s work that way. I agree, first come first serve is the accepted etiquette and the letter of the law. But I’d still wouldn’t sit in another man’s tree stand, lay in his duck blind, pass shoot birds going to someone else’s setup, or otherwise cheat someone out of their effort. I’m really surprised how many people think it’s cool to that.

So if you came across a man made salt lick in the woods, with a blind next to it, you’d set up a blind right next to that and sit it? No water, no tank, just a salt lick. That’s the spot you would pick and would be all surprised if the guy who made it got pissed?

Merry Christmas Doug!

I’d probably be scared too if I hunted from other people’s blinds.

1. Yes, I have. 2. If he took the time to put out 80 salts, he and his clients have the right to hunt over 80 salts. Do the work, get the reward. 3. If I hauled the water to that spot, then yeah, dam right I am going to hunt it. And yup, I am going to be pissed if some other dude shows up and plops down a blind. I really don’t get all the bitching. If one guy can put out 80 of these things why don’t other people just put out their own? There is nothing that special about salt and a camera. Several people on this site have done this hunt successfully without mooching off another man’s work.

I mean, we could talk about all kinds of people who live off the work of other people without ever accomplishing anything for themselves. I just figured we’d leave it in hunting terms.

So if I roll up on a camp with no one in it, am I welcome to grab a drink from the cooler and jump in the sleeping bag?

Anyone with any kind of courtesy doesn’t sit someone else’s salt. That’s some low, lazy BS. If this was a whitetail and that happened, they would be roasted. The fact that Chad is trying to profit off the work of another man’s back is stealing plain and simple and it tells me everything I need to know about his character. Zac didn’t need to stay there. He didn’t need to confront that asshole. That should have been Russ. It should have started and finished with the paid professionals who started and prolong this dick measuring contest. The hunter’s were just pawns in their childish rivalry. But that could have gotten real ugly, real fast.

Shockingly Heffelfinger follows the same logic that Newberg and Rinella do that somehow miraculously influencers have no impact on hunting pressure or opportunity loss. Ironically he was plastering pictures all over Instagram from the Meateater and Newberg Christmas parties. Nice to know that our PR dollars are being put to good use.

I listened. I really like Matt’s point about social media leading to hemorrhoids. Seriosuly though, a lot of good points out there. I find it baffling how these influencers refuse to acknowledge that their productions lead to hunter crowding and loss of opportunity. I also didn’t realize previously that Pitman Robinson dollars were spent by adjacencies on advertising. That makes me want to throw up.

1. Private property rights end at the property line. 2. I don’t think anyone is contesting property rights. What is being contested is the rights to the wildlife on the property. If the owners of the ranch don’t want hunters on their ranch, that’s fine and it seems AZGFD is willing to accommodate that. Owning the dirt or the grazing rights doesn’t entitle anyone to the wildlife. 3. I didn’t see anyone propose saying what they could do on their land. However, there are plenty of laws about what we can and can’t do on our own property. The government tells me when I can have a fire, how tall my house can be, where I can put it on my lot, etc. All because my choices, even on my property, impact many other people. This isn’t any different. 4. There are lots of people working on corner crossing right now.