Ethical or not

[Mathews]

Posted this on Facebook and WOW were the comments one sided… 

You wait X amount of years for a coveted archery elk tag only for your opportunity at an elk to be ruined by someone out walking around chasing elk without a tag.. 

 

Not arguing the legality of this. Anyone is free to walk around in the woods as they please. 
 

Also not talking about people hiking, driving around etc

 

Is it right for a hunter to potentially ruin somebody else’s hunt by walking around just looking at elk or even scouting for an upcoming hunt?

I firmly believe you should not be out pushing elk for fun while somebody else is trying to fill an elk tag they waiting a long time for. Goes for scouting too, no reason to be out chasing bugles scouting while someone is trying to fill an archery tag. Scout roads, scout water, listen for elk, get up high and glass if you wanna scout. 
 

Thoughts?

[NOTAGS]

I’ve always tried to be considerate , I enjoy being in  the forest during the rut, but I do my best not to jack things up for those actively hunting…  used to  be a thing back when the unit8 cow muzzy hunt started the day after archery elk. We’d be going up on the last day when archery hunters were down to the wire. I guess early  bull gun hunts are about the same with  bow hunts.  My thoughts are you can’t kill at that time if your hunts not open , plus why educate the animals by luring them in , so keep your distance. You can scout from afar by just listening. Jmho

[trphyhntr]

Nah that’s not very cool to do imo. 

[Mathews]

17 minutes ago, trphyhntr said:

Nah that’s not very cool to do imo. 

Man you’d love the Facebook post, I think it’s over 300 comments 

[Flatlander]

I mean, can you fault someone who waited even longer for a rifle tag to be out there trying to find bulls for their hunt?

[Lucafu1]

I wont lie, getting skunked and not seeing a whole lot of rutting action made me think about coming back next year to camp and seeing more of it. Maybe not?

[Roosevelt Mark]

Not cool, but people are so stupid

 

[MogollonMan]

I agree with you. I was up north the opening week of the archery hunts and desperately wanted to go out and chase some elk (no tag). But I'd hate myself if I ended up blowing the stalk of someone in the position you described, I said this exact thing to my buddy. So we just drove some backroads and checked some spots with our ears (which sucked because we heard almost nothing). But we never let out a call or left the road. I figured it was a fair compromise.

[Coach]

I was on an archery bull hunt a couple years ago in unit 1 and went into Western Drug to buy a couple additional elk calls. The young lady behind the counter asked if I had a tag, and of course I said "yes". She was surprised and said almost all the elk call they had been selling were to locals who just wanted to "mess up people's hunts". I was pretty surprised by that. Didn't see any of it going on personally but TBO I barely saw other hunters in the areas I was in.

[Riesop]

Going out to purposely ruin another person's hunt is just wrong.  I'm trying to see both sides.  It would be nice to think that all wildlife is only for us hunters to enjoy but there are a lot of people that just want to get away and see it themselves without seeing other people.  If I ever get drawn for one of these good hunts I know with public land I have to probably hunt a spot that is not easily accessible and will have to pack it out.  If I hunt within a mile of a road I can expect people to unfortunately ruin it.  But it is public land and the public has the right to enjoy it too, thats just the reality of it.

[jdown]

Controversial comment here but this was a lot of the push to ban trail cameras. Guys (guide helpers) checking cams on tanks week before their fhint while guys are sitting tanks on their hunt. 

[Mathews]

1 hour ago, jdown said:

Controversial comment here but this was a lot of the push to ban trail cameras. Guys (guide helpers) checking cams on tanks week before their fhint while guys are sitting tanks on their hunt. 

Checking a camera on a tank during a hunt during prime time knowing somebody else is on it is 100% intentional and should be punishable 

[Flatlander]

8 minutes ago, Mathews said:

Checking a camera on a tank during a hunt during prime time knowing somebody else is on it is 100% intentional and should be punishable 

When is prime time on a tank?

[Riesop]

If I'm waiting 20 plus years to get drawn for a rut hunt there is no way I am sitting water that is that easily accessible where somebody can just come in and check a camera.  Again, it's public land and you have to expect that you'll run into people unless you put your time in and get more than a mile away from the road.  I honestly wish they'd ban sitting tanks anyways.  To many people want to just sit and with the scarcity of water it just causes problems between other hunters.  You waited 20 years to draw, go out and enjoy it and get away from people.

[idgaf]

The elk and other animals are the property of the people.  Free for us all to enjoy. Tag or not being around elk is not really an ethical question.  We are allowed to be out there. Learning an animals patterns and your own abilities, when you do not have a tag, during the rut is a good thing that makes you a better hunter. 

Now that being said, its annoying AF to run into a non tag hunter with a fox pro or one of the 15 helpers to a tag holder checking bugles.