Courtesy on public hunting grounds?

[Elliott]

This weeked i went out to fir island with my buddy. We got all our decoys set up and was waiting for opening. After a few birds cicled our decoys and were getting ready to land, hunters in another field shot at them. Now i have only been hunting for two years, but that doesnt seem like that is acceptable to me, that if you see ducks going into somebody elses decoys and take a shot at them knowing that it would be a very very lucky shot if you injured one. another thing, i guess they just released a bunch of pheasents in the area too. Because we had at least a dozen and a half pheasent hunters waltzing through our setup, ruining any chance we would have at calling anything into our setup. This also doesnt seem right to me. So my question is, is there any courtesy on public hunting grounds? or am i supposed to let 18 yahoos trump through my decoys, and let the yahoos in the other field shoot at birds coming into my decoys?

[Geno]

Sounds pretty typical for a release site. Fir island and smith farm have a lot of ignorant jerks stomping around. I had similar experiences at both sites and won't go back.

[Professor Chaos]

yeah it sucks, but you either deal with it or go elsewhere.   

[snocohunter83]

Sorry to hear you had that experience this weekend. I was prepared for a similar story when we hunted samish bay this weekend. Fortunately though, we only had one set of guys walking the dike late in the day, but they didn't mess it up too bad. We had birds working our spread and circling 4-5 times before setting in and we were shocked that nobody skybusted. There were definitely plenty of opportunities for them to do so. It was kinda nice for a change. I know i would have been frustrated if I were them, seeing as how all the birds were dumping in our spread most of the day. 

[road.kill]

thats a bummer but not a whole lot you can do about other peoples actions 

the pheasant hunters figure they have just as much right to be there as you do even though you were there earlier. As far people shooting birds working your decoys, theyre just being idiots

[JBR]

Skybusting always has been and always will be one of the biggest frustrations of duck hunting around other hunters.  Some of the shots are absolutely ridiculus to attempt and it ruins opportunities for everyone.  I'm not sure what solution there is for that other to do you best to find places away from others, which in this state, unless you're on private ground is difficult if not impossible.

As for being upset about pheasant hunters, pheasant hunting on designated pheasant release sights, I don't have any simpathy.  Each of those hunters has to pay an extra $40 per person for the opportunity to harvest only 8 birds.  It doesn't even cover the entire (short) season of October and November, as opposed to the nearly 4 month duck hunting season.  Pheasant hunters pay for the right to go out with their dogs and get some birds without having to drive to the eastside and they can only do it on those few designated pheasant relesase areas.  What are they suppposed to do - sit in their trucks until all the duck hunters are finished before they get to hunt?

I duck hunt and pheasant hunt, but I certainly don't pick a designated pheasant release site to set up my decoys and then complain about pheasant hunters ruining my hunt.  Doesn't make much sense to me when you can go to other spots for duck hunting where you're not going to have to worry about people pheasant hunters.  Just my .2 cents. 

[Buschingc]

Thats why I hate hunting State land.....

[coyotemadness]

There is rarely courtesy on public land. Its frustrating. I figure its a good day if shot doesnt rain down on you.

[Snowgoose1]

I don't hunt pheasant on the west side, but very much understand that west side pheasant hunters only have a few places to go.  I just choose not to go to release sites until after the pheasant season closes.  Most of the good field duck hunting isn't until after pheasant season is over.  I think it works fine.  Let the pheasant guys have their turn.  There are far too many other places to hunt ducks.  For the most part of hunting on public land, yes you run in to afew bad groups, but for the most part it sure beats a day at work.  I would say I hunt public land only %20 of the season.

[Elliott]

thanks, that makes alot of sense about the pheasent release sight for sure. but it was more about the skybusters and untimely shots from the pheasent hunters that made more mad than anything else