Whats your standard?

[CaptainMusky]

What’s your standard when you hunt public land? Its not all about putting birds in the game bag. I like to shoot birds too but not at the expense of ruining my hunt or someone else’s hunt. Hunting pheasants isn’t the cutthroat business world or driving down 494, its supposed to be relaxation and pleasure.

No offense, but if you really believe in the above statement, you shouldn't be so upset when others cut you off or when you encounter other hunters in the areas you hunt.

I hunt public land about 90% of the time and yeah it gets frustrating the amount of pressure that some areas face. Last Saturday we were hunting some new areas we had never been to before. On the map they looked like an 80 acre parcel, yet as we get walking they turned into being something closer to 400 acres because obviously the map was outdated. Anyways as we were out there we encountered other hunters. No idea where they had been, where they were going or whatever. We only flushed one bird but there was room enough for everyone and I am quite confident we were walking behind someone else, but due to the topography we couldnt see these hunters until we had already committed to a plan.

I really wish there were more options for public land hunting like has been discussed here before with walk in programs, etc. Until then we are all going to have to deal with others out there.

[Tom7227]

I was out last Friday. I hadn't hunted public ground in Minnesota for quite a while. I had the DeLorme Minnesota Atlas from 2001, a 2003 copy of the CCI Minnesota Highway and Recreational Atlas, and a one page map of public hunting put out by the MWA years ago. As suggested in a different post I went on line and added the DNR data onto Google Earth via this link - http://www.dnr.state.mn.us/wmas/index.html .

As I zeroed in on the chosen area on Google Earth I saw a number of WMA's that weren't showing up on my map books. I then went to the PRIM map area and saw that they really are the only up-to-date place to get paper maps. A visit to the DNR Store in St. Paul got me a compete set of PRIM maps for the souther half of Minn for about $34.

Obviously there's a lot of new spots in the past 5 or 6 years. If you want to know where to go the best thing to do is to update your maps. That will help spread folks out a bit.

[CaptainMusky]

I was out last Friday. I hadn't hunted public ground in Minnesota for quite a while. I had the DeLorme Minnesota Atlas from 2001, a 2003 copy of the CCI Minnesota Highway and Recreational Atlas, and a one page map of public hunting put out by the MWA years ago. As suggested in a different post I went on line and added the DNR data onto Google Earth via this link - http://www.dnr.state.mn.us/wmas/index.html .

As I zeroed in on the chosen area on Google Earth I saw a number of WMA's that weren't showing up on my map books. I then went to the PRIM map area and saw that they really are the only up-to-date place to get paper maps. A visit to the DNR Store in St. Paul got me a compete set of PRIM maps for the souther half of Minn for about $34.

Obviously there's a lot of new spots in the past 5 or 6 years. If you want to know where to go the best thing to do is to update your maps. That will help spread folks out a bit.

Awesome! Thanks for the tidbit on that Google Earth items there. I missed that previously. Aside from a PRIM map, a plat book is good to have. I have one for the county I mainly hunt in, but again, it is only as good as when it was last updated. This way I can track down landowners as well so that is nice.

[chub]

Chub, you should have saw it on monday. The refuge is one of my favorite places to hunt with 45000 acres and birds that only get hunted for a month it seems like each year I find a new honey hole there. Next year if you get out head closer to appleton if you get further into the refuge there is less traffic even on the opener. Adam

Couldn't possibly have held many more guys the day before LOL

I usually get out there quite a bit, but this was the first time during the first day or two.

It is a fun area to hunt.

[BLACKJACK]

What is your definition of crowding a hunter? 400 acres? 200 acres?

SORNO, My problem was on a less than 80 acre wildlife area, if it was 200-400 acres, no problem. But then when you start adding a third or fourth group of hunters, they will start bumping into each other. And a lot depends on the habitat and how rough it is and the layout of the land. All scenarios are different. A person needs to use good judgement.

Sounds like I struck a nerve with you, maybe you're guilty of crowding other hunters??? Whats your standard?

[sparcebag]

BlackJack I'm walking a few Public areas today lookin for deer sign,I dont bird hunt this year.

Now that theres a bit of snow,I'd like to ask you if you see a area with a decent showing of sign for deer & public.Could you email me??

I'm thinking the areas I've been hunting I'll see little if any sign cause I dont see deer anymore!

My areas are all north & south of Atwater. Thanks

[SORNO]

Originally Posted By: SORNO

What is your definition of crowding a hunter? 400 acres? 200 acres?

SORNO, My problem was on a less than 80 acre wildlife area, if it was 200-400 acres, no problem. But then when you start adding a third or fourth group of hunters, they will start bumping into each other. And a lot depends on the habitat and how rough it is and the layout of the land. All scenarios are different. A person needs to use good judgement.

Sounds like I struck a nerve with you, maybe you're guilty of crowding other hunters??? Whats your standard?

No nerve was hit, I just want you do know where I am coming from. In my county, from Tom7227's post, I have 10 total WMA's of those 50% of them are less then 100 acres and one you can't hunt on. Not every area of the state has as many large public hunting lands as your area. (steele county) We have a lot of hunters around this area so you either need to find private land to hunt or go where other people have been or are at. Do I believe the guy may have cut you off in that field, yes. But he may have thought that you walked that corn field edge already and thought he would try going thru it after you. I just want you to see both sides of the story. I know this subject upset you because you posted about it in three different areas of the board. I have waited for hunters to go thru an area before and when went in there and hunted after them, maybe they were going to work the field again after they hunted another area but I dont' see this as crowding someone when they already walked thru the area and they are a safe distance away. Like you posted it is how the land is laid out. There are more hunters in my area then there is public hunting land.

[Tom7227]

The DNR has added a new feature that I found recently. You can look up a WMA on the page by knowing the name:

http://www.dnr.state.mn.us/wmas/a_to_z_list.html?map=/usr/local/www/docs_maps/wildlife/wma/a_to_z_list.map&qlayer=wmas&qitem=unitname&qstring=/^A/&mode=itemnquery

Once you get to the one you are interested in you can then click on a box toward the bottom where you can rate the condition of the facility and the condition of the habitat. There are also small blocks were you can enter a comment.

It would appear that the DNR is attempting to gather info from users about what is in good/poor shape and suggestions about what could be done to improve things. Given the money situation it seems to me that they're doing what they can to keep things going.

What can/have you done as your part? Have you submitted comments? If you see trash do you pick it up when you go to a public hunting area? Have you worked with a local group to improve a WMA?

I guess that all the P------ & M------- in a website may provide some releif but being proactive may produce more results. See my thread entitled "would this work" a bit further down in this forum and see if you can come up with some ideas.