For myself, I am now able to hunt on the private land owned by a friend of my father, and who in the past ten years has become a good friend of mine.  I'm also in a hunting club that leases several hundred acres of land, so my need for hunting on game lands is rather limited.  However, I do have another good friend, Ted, that I like to hunt with who does not have access to those same private lands that I do.  So, when we want to go hunting together, we are forced to go to the game lands.

A recent hunt
This past weekend Ted and I decided to give the game lands of McConnells a try.  We left Charlotte at 4:30am on Saturday morning, and with a 45 minute drive ahead of us we figured that we would have plenty of time to find a nice quiet place to hunt.  When we got to the game lands we saw that only a few other trucks were there, giving us pretty much our pick of hunting spots.  We chose an area that we had hunted before, and were soon on our way into the woods.

I got my treestand hooked up, and had just climbed to the top of my tree, when I heard a couple of trucks pull up to the little pulloff that Ted and I had parked in.   Moments later I heard the slam of the truck doors, and the voices of the hunters laughing and packing up their gear to enter the woods.  I heard one hunter come crashing through the woods not thirty yards behind me, and I could see the flashlight of another as he entered the woods near where Ted was hunting. 

I got on the radio and called Ted.  "What the heck is going on, " I asked him.  His voice was disgusted when he told me that two truckloads of hunters had parked alongside us and gone into the woods where we were already hunting.

I couldn't believe that these guys had had the gall to come hunt where someone else was obviously already in the woods.  And they took no pains at all to keep the noise down.  It was no wonder that we sat in the stands for five hours that morning without seeing a deer.

That afternoon, shortly after lunch, we went to another spot on the game lands.   Again there were no trucks in the area that we were hunting, so we figured that we'd be in good shape to pick the place we wanted to hunt.  After a short nap, we walked into the woods, chose our trees, and settled down for the evening hunt.   Hardly an hour had passed when I, from my stand, saw a pickup truck pull up to the gate where we had parked.  I watched as the hunter got out, got his equipment, and began heading down the logging road that I was hunting on.  As he approached, I turned my head in disgust.  I wouldn't even look at him.  I wanted him to know how angry I was with him.  Again I called Ted on the radio and told him what was happening.  He asked me if I wanted to go somewhere else, but I said no, I was comfortable, and the heck with it.

The new hunter continued up the road, walked past where Ted was hunting, then took his own spot somewhere in the woods out of sight of us.  Not fifteen minutes later, another truck pulled up and parked.  I was furious as this next hunter came walking down the road.  This guy had the nerve to wave at me in my tree as he walked past.  I shook my head in disgust, and called Ted.  I said something about "no respect" loud enough so that the guy had to hear me, but he just kept walking until he was out of sight.

Things quieted down again, and, about an hour and a half before dark, it began to lightly rain.  Things were looking good; we hadn't had rain in almost two months, and I thought that this drizzle might bring the deer out.  Then, twenty minutes before the end of the shooting day, I saw movement up the road to my left.  I raised my binoculars to check it out, and I saw that it was the second hunter who had come in on us.   My anger peaked.  He had walked in on us, hunted a couple of hours, then decided to give up after sitting for an hour in the rain, and with less than 20 minutes of legal shooting left.  This guy was leaving during the best part of the hunt, and in doing so he was also ruining our chances for seeing a deer. 

I didn't even bother to call Ted this time.  What more could be said?  My anger abated ten minutes later when I heard the crack of Ted's rifle, and heard his excited calls over the radio telling me that he had shot a deer.  It turned out to be a big seven pointer, Ted's biggest buck to date, and our day on the game lands had a happy ending.

Game lands etiquette
When hunting on game lands, the first thing to keep in mind is safety.  If I'm going to be hunting on game lands, I'll double the amount of blaze orange that I normally wear.  If I usually wear a vest of orange, I'll add a cap that's visible from all sides.  I'll also tie a piece of orange cloth to the bottom of my treestand so that folks can see it while I'm carrying it backpack style.

What's the very best way to stay safe on the game lands?  Stay away from the other hunters.  It's that simple.  Why on earth would you walk into a spot where someone that you don't know is holding a loaded rifle?  If you can't stay away from others out of respect for them, do it for your own safety.

Folks, if your game lands area is bordered by a public road and does not have a single point of entrance, if you see a truck parked where you want to hunt, hunt somewhere else.  The less intelligent of you out there will use the argument that this is public land, and you'll hunt where you durn well please.  Get rid of that belligerent attitude right now, or get out of the woods.  By hunting where someone else already is, you lessen their chances to see a deer, and you lessen your own chances as well.   The more scent that gets into the woods in any one area, the more likely the deer are to avoid that area.

Consider the fact that you know nothing about the people you have chosen to hunt near.   What if they are jumpy and apt to shoot at the first sound they hear?  What if they don't know how to use deer calls and scents, and thus scare away more deer than they attract?  What if they decide to come out of the woods much earlier than you normally would, and thus again scare the deer away?  What if they have a nastier temper than I do, and rather than simply write about it on their webpage they confront you and threaten you with violence?

A few other minor points.  When you hunt, whether on game lands or private lands, learn to be quiet.  Do your talking in the truck prior to entering the woods.   If you need to tell each other where you'll be hunting, do it long before you enter the woods.  When you exit your truck, gently, gently close the doors.  Don't slam them like you were in the supermarket parking lot, or the next sound you hear may be the snort of a deer who's been alerted to your presence. 

Be quiet unloading your equipment.  Treestands are notorious for clanking, so before you leave to go hunting make sure yours is tightly secured together so that it will not rattle.  Don't load your rifle while you're standing on the side of the road.   Do it quietly in the woods, once you have gotten to your final hunting spot and are securely in your tree.  Climbing a tree with a loaded rifle is never a good idea.

If you're driving down the road and see someone hunting in a tree only a couple of yards into the woods, resist the temptation to stop and ask them if they've seen anything.   I can't tell you how many times this has happened to me.  I never answer the question, since it helps any deer that are left in the area to pinpoint my location.   Instead, I simply turn away.  If you want to ask someone how they've done that day, wait until you are all gathered at the country store before lunch. 

Sometimes, hunters will park at one spot and walk a good ways down the road before entering the woods.  Normally I would encourage you to park as close to where you will be hunting as possible just so that other hunters will know where you are.   Occasionally, when you are hunting with a group of people, this isn't always feasible to do.  In these cases, try to park as close as you can to the middle of where you will all be hunting.

If you happen to enter a spot where you think no one is hunting, but then see another hunter,  the first thing to do is stop in your tracks.  Don't make any wayward movements that might make them think that you are a deer.  Look at that hunter carefully and try to determine if he has seen you or not.  Chances are he has.   Once you are certain that you are safe, leave the area as quickly and as quietly as possible, and find another spot to hunt. 

I've heard recently that some companies are selling little reflective signs that you can hang on trees that say that you are currently hunting in an area.  I think these signs are a good idea, and if you come across some in the woods, please don't steal them.   Instead, recognize that someone is probably watching you, and that you are intruding on their hunt.  Turn around and leave quietly.