I hunt public land almost exclusively so I thought I had a good grasp on hunter etiquette and common courtesy. Turns out I was wrong. This morning I turned onto the main gravel road I was going to park on. I saw a truck pulled off on the side of the road at the beginning of the cutover and kept going to the gate (3/10 mile) from where the truck was pulled over. Soon we see headlights coming across the cutover and they pull 20 yards in front of us and get out. It's around 4:55 so we don't know where they went. We're sitting there discussing where they disappeared to and my buddy says there they are outside your window. Well, I roll down the window to talk and they aren't happy. They ask where we were hunting and I told them we had planned on going out the gated road. They started cussing and talking about common courtesy and said when we saw their truck we should have left and found a different road or came in from somewhere else. Now, I don't park beside people because I'd rather not hunt near someone and get messed up or shot, but they basically said the 1.8 mile road (from the pavement to the back) with a gated road at the 1 mile mark and other smaller logging roads off of it was theirs under common hunter courtesy.
They also said the bird was roosted 250 yards from the gate and now wouldn't gobble as if parking 250 yards from a turkey would scare it. I tell you what will scare it...F-bombs before daylight. Anyways, to keep from getting my tires slashed, I apologized and told them I'd go somewhere else. I didn't know they had the bird roosted and were planning on going out the gated road.

Idiots

I would've rubbed shucks on their door handle

No offense as I don't know the exact lay of the land but I would have been irritated too that you pulled a few hundred yards in front of me through a cutover where I was planning on hunting, especially if I had roosted a turkey the evening before. I wouldn't have F bombed you though and I sure wouldn't have told you there was a gobbler roosted close.

Yea they could go frak themselves. I damn sure wouldn't have apologized and after they cussed me would have started shooting skeet at the gate. I was parked at a gate early this season on the forest. I had been sitting there with my son for 20 min or so when a truck pulls in and the guy started getting his gear on. Fumes started rolling out my ears and i got out to talk to him. I let him know i wasnt real happy but he had a point the rd was over 2 miles to the property line. We both new where the birds normaly stayed and he was wanting to go back in there and hunt past me. To save from showing my ass in front of my son we went on with the guy a little ahead of us. We eventually caught up to him and i told him we could listen together and if birds gobbled decide who went where. We talked a while moving and listening but never heard a bird. We eventually left him with it and called it a day. If i had been with one of my normal buddies or by myself i may have showed my ass.

Had some guys do this same thing this morning in TN. They weren't gonna say a dang word to me, so I stepped out and asked where they were planning on going. He said "along the river". This is a 5-600 acre block and has about a mile of river frontage. Please tell me what's not along the river. Guess they could tell I wasn't real happy, because his buddy said "look, there's enough room for everybody." Told him I guess we would see when they start gobbling. Fast forward to about 8am. They tried to flag me off as I marched right past their dumbasses on the way to a gobbling bird that they setup 400yds across a field from. I just flicked them off and kept on walking. Unfortunately the bird was in the middle of a pasture on private land and wouldn't do anything. I got their tag number before I left the truck, or I wouldn't have been brave enough to pull that maneuver. I'm still pissed off

He didn't have to tell me. I knew the turkey was around there. I saw strut marks on the side of the main rd yesterday. The road was 1.8 miles long and went through woods then a cutover and back into some woods. I parked at a gated road 3/10 of a mile (528 yards)from them. Some gated roads are that distance apart. Does that mean if someone is parked at one no one gets to hunt the other? I think it appeared (and may have been) too close because it was cutover between us. I tried to think how I would feel if I were in their shoes and that's why I apologized and went somewhere else, but for them to suggest that the whole 1.8 mile road and every trail off of it was theirs is a little overboard. And who parks 3/10 of a mile from a gate they plan on hunting behind?

Turkey killer, I mis read your post. I though the gobbler was roosted on the edge of the cutover and you drove through the cutover to the gate.

sounds like a good sale on black Friday everybody going to the Bird

You drove past us as we were walking down the road, the turkey was roosted on the side of the cutover. No we didn't say you couldn't go down that road. And I tried to handle the situation as an adult but when you floored it patbus walking down the road because you saw us. Yes I got pissed.

Long time listener, 1st time caller. Well 1st of all, not a cuss words was said. Next you drove past me and didn't even stop when I tried to wave you down to talk to you. Which is pretty sorry on your part. I'm sorry we were trying to go about it right and not drive across a cut over I knew a bird was roosted on, and get up on him. And your distances are way off it was .3 miles or 450 yards from where we parked to the gate we were going to walk to that ain't squat in the turkey woods especially across a cut over. But if it makes you feel better he did gobbled 3 times and he was flopping at 7:05, he was a nice bird.

Aw cool this one just got better! Way better!

Side bar you parked on his strut marks on the middle of the cutover where else would you have parked, and I couldn't been a real dick and back doored you on the fire break and got in between yall and the turkey and killed him that way........ But regardless alil communication goes along way. I didn't wanna be a smart ass, but you made be that way.

You couldn't pay me to step foot on that goon filled place and I live ten minutes from it...

Just know red 4 door Toyota with Cullman county plates. You won't get any sleep from now on the spring because you'll be wondering if the bird you heard the day before is even still alive. And remember your truck don't mean crap to me now...

This thread is way better now than the first time I read it.

In before it gets removed! Honestly I'd be pissed also if you pulled passed me and parked 500yds from me down the road. But when this happens to me on public land I just leave and go to another spot. I've done my homework and know that I can kill turkeys anywhere out there don't need to fight for my spot. Hell half of my favorite turkey spots in the NF are places I've found after spot 1 or 2 was already taken.