Some thoughts on non-residents

Dwight Harley

Dwight Harley

Well-known member
I read a lot of griping on some of the hunting and fishing forums about non-resident hunters this time of year, but I have come to the conclusion that the out of staters, for the most part, are responsible, considerate, law-abiding folks who seem thankful for the opportunity to hunt here in Sodak. As far as I can tell, the non-residents aren't the ones leaving trash at the parking areas, driving on restricted roads, shooting too close to farmhouses, blasting signs, chopping up picnic tables for firewood, jack lighting deer and piling out of their trucks with loaded weapons when a pheasant crosses the road. The resident white trash idiots are to blame for most of that behavior. I spend a lot of time hunting public ground and the out of staters I have met have always been pleasant. I think most of the local landowners would agree with me. Of course, it is big news when the game warden nails some guy from out of state with fifty pheasants in his trunk, but I think this kind of offense is a rare exception. And to be honest, that sort of thing bothers me less than finding a pile of beer cans, fifty spent shotgun shells and a pile of shit where some moron took a dump at the WPA parking area. Any thoughts from the rest of you?
 
Not on the hunting side but from a fishermans standpoint, I can say that most of the time it's not exactly the locals but the people just outside say 20-25 mile range. I fish North and South carolina and use to frequently. I see the most crap floating down the river or the lakes etc nowdays than ever before. I think some of it is my fault from a outdoorsman perspective. I take alot of kids fishing and hunting and I make it a point to clean up after ourselves and others when possible. Am I gonna cover a pile of poo? heck no, but I can carry an extra plastic bag and grab the cans and plastics that take forever to breakdown. I use my net to catch more trash than land fish and that my freind is a shame. Most of it comes from those just in driving range who are there only for a visit. I saw a boat of "fishermen" come past at 20 knots while i was anchored and it almost throwed my two sons out of the boat. I pulled up and worked downriver till i found them at a sandbar "fishing" as they saw it. I got the numbers off the boat as i pulled up and saw the driver. I let them know there was a idle by law when a vessel is anchored. I burnt their ears pretty badly about the kids, and let them know when they came past again it better be by idle. Went by later after they left and found a heap of beer cans on the island. My kids picked them up and fussed the whole time about those "men destroying the pretty places". And yes there was a pile of poo right there nearbout the shore. I told a freind about it who was at the landing and he knew one of them -from 2 towns away. He said the were a disgrace to us and i'd have to agree with him.
 
Here's one the books....

A couple of guys I know were building their duck blind prior to the season this year. One afternoon when they came back to the ramp they saw a pile of garbage at an empty campsite and picked it up along with the assorted stuff they picked up on the island where their blind is. Mind you the public boat ramp is in the middle of a public campground. Anyway this guy gets a citaition in the mail for illegal dumping at a cost of $75.00. He calls the DNR to find out what this is about. Well the local park host called in his liscense plate and complained that he came up by boat and placed his garbage in the trash cans illegally because he wasn't camping!!!! WTF is up with that....Seems the campground host was a year round RV'er and they do this for free camping. When reading the bi-laws it states the trash recepticales are for campers use only. Not only is the camp host a moron but who in their rght mind would site a guy fro picking up litter? By the way, DNR said if he didn't pay the ticket he could loose his hunting and fishing prevliges for 3 years! I told him I know what I'd do the next time.

Ed L.
 
My buddy and I were kayaking the Boundary Waters In Northern Minnesota one year and came upon a family that had been at the island we were going to spend the night at..the guy said he left a couple packs of frozen fish there and that the pike were really biting them. We got there after about 6 hours of hump paddling...got out and the ravens had spread about 30 dirty friggin pampers and other assorted garbage all over the place.. Took our little camp shovels and burried the stinking mess as best we could in an area that only has about 1' of soil on top of granite. Found what was left of the frozen fish that the animals hadn't eaten and did catch a pike with one. Slept with one eye open all night waiting for bears...damn pigs anyways...whoops..slander to pigs, sorry.
 
I keep a five gallon bucket in my vehicle and make it a point to fill it up when I park at a public hunting or fishing site. A bucket full of trash isn't going to change the world but it makes me feel better. Sometimes I am surprised and there is no or very little trash, but that is unusual. My kid helps me and I hope I am setting a good example.
 
Any complaints I might have about non-resident hunters has nothing to do with them being any worse then residents in the field. I've seen them both act the same. I've seen vehicles, including RV's, from both in and out of state with guns pointed out the windows, I've seen mixed groups actually run in front of me on public ground to cut me off. I've also met many that were just fine. I bet more trespassing happens during deer season when mostly locals are hunting then the rest of the year. I like to deer hunt but at times it gets scary even on private land.

I'm not sure if it happens much up by you but here it seems the thing to do is drive out in the country and dump garbage on the first homeless gravel road. I'm just guessing but I don't think they come from out of state to do that. No matter where you go I believe locals almost always treat the land worse then visitors do. Seems strange that they would dump on land they live near and use more often.
And, although I use the term myself sometimes, I think the term 'White Trash' is too exclusive for what I see happen.

Tim
 
My dad always told my brothers and I to leave a campsite cleaner than it was before we got there. We did.

I have always told my sons the same thing. When we go trap shooting on public land, (hand thrown) we always police the area when we are through. The empty pigeon box is almost always full of shell boxes and spent shells left by others. We don't get all of the trash but it is always cleaner than when we got there.

In Southern Iowa, when we hunt deer, we walk in to our ambush sites. We do not drive on the property except for getting out the deer we shoot. If we find a gate open we leave it open, if we find it closed, it is closed when we leave the field. This is what I was taught and what I have passed on.

I have been told that the worst gate offenders, those who drive fields looking for deer, without permission, and those who leave gates open, are younger locals. The worst offenses being committed by coyote hunters.

I have also noticed that groups that do deer drives seem not to care if they trespass or mess up other people's hunt. There is a small patch of excellent cover, maybe 40 acres between two properties my group hunts. The owner's party loops through where we are hunting so they don't spook deer from his 40A patch. In the process they are trespassing past areas where people from my party are hunting. It has happened twice. If it happens again I think they will be told that we will cross their property on the way to our hunting sites. ( I have not said anything before because until I talked to my cousin, and the owner of the other land we hunt on, I did not know that they did not also have permission.)

If we all keep reminding each other, in our groups, to be, well...... moral, and can convert others, it will be better for everyone.

Bob
 
Dwight,

My main HP (huntin pardner) and I havebecome freinds with a local game warden in far eastern Montana. Which is about 1,000 miles from our place. He told us he hardly ever has trouble with out of staters that most of his problems are from locals who shoot hen phesants, don't obey limits, tresspass, etc... Unfortatnley for us and fortunate for him the game warden we know has been promoted and now works in western Montana.

My best,

Don Shearer
 
I have trapped many years out of state, for the most part things have been good. But there have been a few times that I have been ripped off as many as 40 traps in a day. I feel many of the locals don't like the out of state trappers since they feel they are taking there animals. Running lines where there is a Road Right of way can really make for a nice out of state trip, but if one local gets a bug for you your done.

While hunting out of state I always seem to meet some wonderful folks, I had a vacation home in NM and over the years I made some good friends while hunting.
 
the only thing that burns me worse ( and its happened to me twice ) was returning to the parking lot after a walk in hunt at a reserve and finding trash in the back of my truck!!!! It looked like someone had emptied the contents of their truck into mine ! Beer cans mostly.
there are usually only a few vehicles there in the morning, maybe 6 to 10 people. I make it a point now to take down licence #'s, and be seen doing it. Had 4 guys ( 20 somethings ) ask me what I thought I was doing, I told him several local LEO's had asked me to in case I came across anyone " illeaglly dumping on federal property " again. They sure left in a hurry that day.........


NDR
At a local mall one day , parked , was getting out and woman parked next to me was changing some rug rats diaper on the trunk of her car.She looked at me like I had just walked into HER living room. When I came out the diaper was wadded up on the ground under the driver side door of my truck. I picked it up, opened it, and placed it load down on the windsheild with a note that said " you dropped this ".
 
When I used to go to Colorado for elk and deer the locals were always trying to steer outsiders to poor areas or to locations with no accessible property. It got to where I would ask for some directions from locals just to hear there BS and see how outlandish it could get. Like the time I stumbled onto two locals packing out elk quarters at 10 AM on opening morning. There last load for the two of them and antlers too. When asked how far in they killed the big sucker, they said "about 5 miles in, over the second ridge". Uh huh. Right. And momma didn't bounce me on the head THAT many times.

Funny thing is, the locals were the guys hunting around the roads and the out of staters were the ones getting back into the hills. So there was little true conflict, just locals not wanting outsiders taking "their" animals.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top