Brant Hunting - Would you consider this too close? Why or Why Not?

[T-Rip]

Set up for Brant and this neighbor on the flats set up north of my position after I set. I didn't do anything; we hung out and hunted w/out getting upset but what do you guys think?

[Armadillo]

howdy neighbor! lol. I think its rude but if you leave then he gets all the glory

[ducksdogsdownriggers]

Hard to judge distance on a photo.  I prefer to err on the side of giving other hunters plenty of room.  The Washington Waterfowl Association suggests a minimum of 200yds between hunting parties.  

How did your hunt work out?

[Blacktail135]

 Any birds working YOUR decoys might be in "shooting" range of the guys out there in the boat with the mudbuddy motor! Obviously, those guys aren't the mudbuddy boat though. Seriously, 200 yards and closer and it was 6 shots for them....everytime! Hard to tell how far away your neighbors are from here but 200 yards or more is about right. For what I've been told is the dumbest bird on the bay, what I've seen, they sure know how to do a lot of zigzagging through the boats, safely, to get to where they're going. Is that a bird between you guys in the second photograph?

[T-Rip]

Any birds working YOUR decoys might be in "shooting" range of the guys out there in the boat with the mudbuddy motor! Obviously, those guys aren't the mudbuddy boat though. Seriously, 200 yards and closer and it was 6 shots for them....everytime! Hard to tell how far away your neighbors are from here but 200 yards or more is about right. For what I've been told is the dumbest bird on the bay, what I've seen, they sure know how to do a lot of zigzagging through the boats, safely, to get to where they're going. Is that a bird between you guys in the second photograph?

I estimated it to be just under 300yrds. The first pic, gives you the best perspective from my decoys to where they were. I'm not upset, as I want to learn what proper etiqette is on the sound. I just want to ensure I don't do this to another hunter if the role is reversed and I set up last. But if it's ok, then I'll know what is a respectible distance is and hunt accordingly w/out upsetting anyone.

200yds is a good minimum in a marsh environment but 200 yrds on a sea duck hunt or brant hunt would make me uncomfortable.

Thanks for the input-

[singleshot12]

That's the way it is out there now and exactly the reason I gave up hunting Brant a couple years ago. There are only a couple good areas where the majority of the Brant will fly from roosting to feeding. I've seen up to a dozen boats with set ups chained up that close together out there, I hate it!

[jordano]

man that sure looks way within my comfort range to me! I mean how far is that? 200 yards? I don't like another group to be within maybe 500 yards of me that way shots and calling doesn't flair my birds at all...

[h2ofowlr]

You got corked.  Unfortunatly those brant can hear the shooting from a long distance, but will see the movement from a 1/4 mile away with no problem.  If the other boat is a blazing it definately makes it a challenge.  Any that fly will split the difference between the two boats, unless you get lucky on the last day.

[goosegetter79]

Don't know anything about brant hunting but as far as duck hunting as long as they are 200 yds. away I won't complain.

[lokidog]

It would depend to me whether they are honoring your calls and you are honoring theirs.  If you start calling at birds seen first, they should just keep quiet and let the birds fly, even if right over their boat on the way in to your dekes, and you should do the same.  I know this sounds pretty idealistic and probably would not happen in this day and age.... 

I remember when I was about 17, thirty years ago, and some guys set up about 100 yards away in the marsh a half hour after shooting light.  I was pissing and moaning to my buddy about how rude these guys were when I saw a few amllards and started calling.  The ducks swung my way, cupped their wings and dropped toward my spread right over these guys... to my surprise, they let them fly by and we dumped several.  They picked one off on their way out of the area.  Several times that day we each honored the others' calls and we all ended up with a good day's shootting.

[h2ofowlr]

They are brant / sea duck hunting.  Your just waiting for the buggers to fly past the decoys.  Not to much calling.  I did buy a Bill Saunders brant call.  It would swing them, but the like flying the line they pick unless there is a lot of boats and they pick a course right down the middle between them all.  Be ready to take a long or a close up poke at them.

[camano gibby]

Way too close for brant hunting.  Distances that make for a proper buffer zone between sets for duck hunting does not apply for brant hunting.

You have to at least double and sometimes almost triple the WWA 200 yd standard.  Two years ago I was 650 yds from a guy, (gps'd it).  The guy came over and was totally pissed that I had  "corked" him.  Brant don't know where they are going to fly and this jerk certainly did not either.  Just a sorehead who was upset with the poor hunting.

Gibby

[singleshot12]

Welcome camano gibby    I remember when Brant hunting was a gentleman's sport, I wanna keep that memory so I quit 2 years ago..

[sakoshooter]

200yds is the minimum recommended in the waterfowl regs but is still damn close in a marsh environment. Trees and brush make up for distance but movement and sky busting don't so error on the farther side of that recommendation.

[cryfowl]

I wish people would set that far away from me.  200yds is plenty far no matter where you hunt.  I have had guys at our local marsh row their boat through my decoys and stop less than 40 yards away and start setting up.  Public hunting is what it is. 

[sakoshooter]

I wish people would set that far away from me.  200yds is plenty far no matter where you hunt.  I have had guys at our local marsh row their boat through my decoys and stop less than 40 yards away and start setting up.  Public hunting is what it is. 

Wrong. Public land is what you allow it to be.

[cryfowl]

So you're saying if you drive two hours to get to your hunting spot and someone else is on the "X" you are going to drive the 2 hrs home, or are you going to sit as close to the "X" as you think is reasonable so that you might get a few birds?  Just saying, there are no laws saying how close is too close and I have no right to tell someone else they can't hunt the area I am in just because I want it all to myself.  It comes down to individual hunting ethics.

[jeepster]

i would be very irritated, but there isnt anything i could do about it other than burn hunting hours finding a new spot or just sit it out.

hooray for combat hunting.

[sakoshooter]

So you're saying if you drive two hours to get to your hunting spot and someone else is on the "X" you are going to drive the 2 hrs home, or are you going to sit as close to the "X" as you think is reasonable so that you might get a few birds?  Just saying, there are no laws saying how close is too close and I have no right to tell someone else they can't hunt the area I am in just because I want it all to myself.  It comes down to individual hunting ethics.

For one thing, I get up damn early. If anyone beats me to my 1st pick spot, so be it. They earned it. I'm not going to encroach on them just because I drove 2 hrs. Distance driven or walked or rowed doesn't mean you deserve to hunt a given spot. I'm then paddling for my #2 spot.
Public land means that you can probably plan on sharing the area with a few other hunters. Not sharing the same circliing flock of ducks.
IE: The last day of season on the HUGE Columbia River, my partner and I set up at a spot 5.5 miles from the boat launch. Lots of distance from other hunters. About 9:30am two hunters in a boat motored past our set up and set up about 200 - 250yds up river from us and on the same shore. They shot a lot of shells and killed a few birds. Our hunting just got cut in half since we no longer got any other opportunities from that direction plus the amount of shooting they did screwed up our chances at ducks coming from other directions. Rather than motor over and give em the 'what for' like I usually do, we picked up everything and moved a few hundred yards the other direction and finished up our limits. Ethical is what we did. Unethical is what the other group did.
In this situation the published 200yd minimum wasn't near enough room. They cut us off completely. Had another group done that on the other side of us, we'd have been screwed. Just because there are a lot hunters at a given boat launch does not mean we all have to sit in the same duck blind. Public land means "Get your ass out of bed early".

[singleshot12]

T RIP, I just looked at the pics you posted again and were you even Brant hunting?  It looks like you are using mallard decoys, so you must have been duck hunting and not Brant hunting right? 

[seth30]

Too close, and if they sky bust then your just watching them hunt.  Thats why I will not public duck hunt again!  Forever will I hunt private, and federal land

[singleshot12]

Ya back in the old days (about 3 yrs ago),lol, when Brant hunting was a gentlemen's sport those boys would have had a firm talking to.

[T-Rip]

T RIP, I just looked at the pics you posted again and were you even Brant hunting?  It looks like you are using mallard decoys, so you must have been duck hunting and not Brant hunting right? 

It was Brant hunting, but we didn't have enough actual goose sized decoys so the guys I went with painted up old Mallard blocks. Worked for them the wed. before as they limited over the spread, but our day we just watched the ducks and kept the guns silent hoping for the black geese to gravel up...They never did for us.

I'm planning a trip to Mexico for them next season - should be a BLAST!

[Guzman]

Growing up hunting the Burbank area that would be a ton of room. I have had set ups where your decoys basicaly butted up to the next blinds spread. Not that I liked hunting that way it was just how it was. From what I hear Brant hunting is that way with a lot of people hunting small areas. Just wait another 10 years as there are more people and twice as many people hunting the same area. The 200 yards will seem like the good old days.