I guess this is a bit of a rant but as much as anything it is an effort to learn why people do some of the things they do. Running a day lease operation has been, for the most part, an enjoyable experience for me. I've met many great people and found a new appreciation for bowhunters. As a class of people, bowhunters are just a pleasure to deal with.
As you can imagine, we get folks with all different levels of experience. Some that are excellent judges of deer on the hoof and those that don't know a 10 year old deer from a yearling. We get all kinds.
When hunters arrive we try to give them a short orientation on what to do or not do and what to shoot or not shoot. Most play by the rules when it comes to game that can be taken but we occassionally get one that is just going to break the rules regardless. We have a "minimum" standard for bucks and have in place a fine for bucks killed that do not meet this minimum.
Anyone can make a mistake and I can live with that. I've only had to impose the fine once in the 8 years we've had the place. That guy really disappointed me as we had discussed the night before what kind of bucks to shoot or not shoot. I even showed him pictures of some "non-shooters" and he was adamant that he would never shoot such a deer. The next day he comes into camp with a yearling 6 point! When I asked him what was it about that deer that made him think it was a shooter he said, "Nothing. I traveled down here all the way from New York and I was not going home without a deer. I just did what I had to do!" I said, "Okay, fine. Now I gotta do what I gotta do - you owe me $500 and you need to pack up and leave!" Geez - what's with guys like that? And I have through the years found several "borderline" bucks that were shot and left because the hunter didn't want to face the fine.
We have "pull ropes" in all the tree stands and ask that the hunters tie them down when they come out of the stand. Of course many never do, so the wind blows it up into the tree tops and tangles it up. The next hunter comes along and has to climb up and pull the rope out of the limbs and climb back down to tie his bow on before he can climb back up to hunt.
Then, he'll find the last guy there also forgot to buckle the safety belt and it fell to the ground. So he has to climb back down and get the belt, assuming the critters haven't carried it off, before he can start his hunt! It just can't be that hard to buckle a belt or tie down a pull rope can it?
And what about the guys that think they have to jack with your feeder timers? We tell them what time the feeders are going off but they just find it necessary to tweak it to their liking. We have hunters that come back in and say their feeder didn't go off, so we have to go check it out. More often than not, someone has jacked with the timer and it's throwing way before or after it should. Or it's out of corn because the last guy set it to throw for 30 seconds 6 times a day!
We have several box blinds in place with shoot-thru mesh on the windows. Hardly a weekend goes by that I don't have to replace the mesh on at least one blind because the guy there last saw it necessary to cut it off rather than shoot through it!
Okay, I guess I'm through whining now. Carry on.
Trailboss
As you can imagine, we get folks with all different levels of experience. Some that are excellent judges of deer on the hoof and those that don't know a 10 year old deer from a yearling. We get all kinds.
When hunters arrive we try to give them a short orientation on what to do or not do and what to shoot or not shoot. Most play by the rules when it comes to game that can be taken but we occassionally get one that is just going to break the rules regardless. We have a "minimum" standard for bucks and have in place a fine for bucks killed that do not meet this minimum.
Anyone can make a mistake and I can live with that. I've only had to impose the fine once in the 8 years we've had the place. That guy really disappointed me as we had discussed the night before what kind of bucks to shoot or not shoot. I even showed him pictures of some "non-shooters" and he was adamant that he would never shoot such a deer. The next day he comes into camp with a yearling 6 point! When I asked him what was it about that deer that made him think it was a shooter he said, "Nothing. I traveled down here all the way from New York and I was not going home without a deer. I just did what I had to do!" I said, "Okay, fine. Now I gotta do what I gotta do - you owe me $500 and you need to pack up and leave!" Geez - what's with guys like that? And I have through the years found several "borderline" bucks that were shot and left because the hunter didn't want to face the fine.
We have "pull ropes" in all the tree stands and ask that the hunters tie them down when they come out of the stand. Of course many never do, so the wind blows it up into the tree tops and tangles it up. The next hunter comes along and has to climb up and pull the rope out of the limbs and climb back down to tie his bow on before he can climb back up to hunt.
Then, he'll find the last guy there also forgot to buckle the safety belt and it fell to the ground. So he has to climb back down and get the belt, assuming the critters haven't carried it off, before he can start his hunt! It just can't be that hard to buckle a belt or tie down a pull rope can it?
And what about the guys that think they have to jack with your feeder timers? We tell them what time the feeders are going off but they just find it necessary to tweak it to their liking. We have hunters that come back in and say their feeder didn't go off, so we have to go check it out. More often than not, someone has jacked with the timer and it's throwing way before or after it should. Or it's out of corn because the last guy set it to throw for 30 seconds 6 times a day!
We have several box blinds in place with shoot-thru mesh on the windows. Hardly a weekend goes by that I don't have to replace the mesh on at least one blind because the guy there last saw it necessary to cut it off rather than shoot through it!
Okay, I guess I'm through whining now. Carry on.
Trailboss
but I'm afraid it's only gonna get worse with guys like this, because these idiots are breeding and making more idiots just as bad if not worse!!
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