The Outdoors

By Scott Rall, Outdoors Columnist

Every morning, I get up about 5:30-6 a.m. and open my garage door and share my morning coffee with three Labradors that keep watch for anything and everything that might walk by. Seems like only in the last week or so when I open the door it is no longer light outside. This is a sure sign that the pheasant hunting season will soon be upon us. The opening day of the pheasant season this year will be October 12.

Last year Minnesota sold just over 70,000 pheasant stamps. This is a stamp that hunters (license purchasers) need to buy and all of the proceeds of the stamp are used to improve pheasant habitat across the state. The interesting thing I recently read in Outdoor News about this was of the 70-ish thousand stamps purchased, only about 50,000 of those purchasers actually went pheasant hunting. About 20,000 folks purchased the stamp I was told primarily to support the conservation of pheasants even if they don’t actively hunt them anymore. I found this pretty darn cool.

I shoot almost all of the birds I harvest in a year from publicly owned land. These are made up of Wildlife Management Areas and Waterfowl Production Areas. There is a very large portion of the hunting public that relies on these public lands almost exclusively for a place to chase roosters. Without these citizen-owned lands, there would be almost no place for the rank-and-file hunter to go.

With so many people using these lands, it is pretty easy to understand there will be a certain amount of contact with other hunters and this can sometimes result in some conflicts. Some of these conflicts are a result of hunters who should know better, but a few are a result of new hunters who just completely understand the etiquette of sharing public lands.

What follows are my rules for sharing public hunting lands with others. You cannot temporally assert sole claim use of public lands under any circumstances. Others have the same rights as you, but everyone needs to heed a few common courtesies. The first is kind of the first come first served option. If I show up at the common parking area and there are three other trucks there, the right thing to do is to move on to a different spot. On opening day, I have seen cars and trucks in parking lots at 6 a.m., even though the season does not open until 9 a.m. If it is a really big spot I will stop and ask that person, or persons, where on this big spot do they intend to go. I will make arrangements to hunt in a different location on that spot. If it is a smaller spot this option becomes void in my opinion.

The one thing I do not abide by is when I stop to ask the other hunter where they intend to go and they say they are saving the spot for 10 other guys who intend to show up 10 minutes before legal shooting time. A spot is kind of held by the folks who are actually there and not by one member of a large party claiming the whole spot by themselves.

Some spots are big and over the course of a morning you might run into another hunting group that you did not know was there. Never cut off or walk in front of another hunting group in order to “steal” the spot. This puts you right in their line of fire and can result in a firearms accident. No bird is worth an injury or fatality.

When you get frustrated, keep your mouth shut. Hollering or yelling at another hunter or hunting group, no matter how much they might deserve it, will not improve the quality of your outing, and quoting the famous words of my dad Marv Rall, “Nothing good can come from that.” Sometimes you just need to walk away.

A few other things to remember. Never clean your birds in the parking lot on public lands. No matter how good a job you do cleaning up, my dog will come and eat every feather and bit of entrails, no matter how small, the next time I stop there. Clean your birds elsewhere. One of the last ones is to clean up your messes and those of others. How a person who calls themself a sportsman could ever leave their garbage and cans lying around when they leave is beyond me. Leave the spot better than you found it.

I think that each and every acre of public hunting land is precious. We need to treat them as such. We have been successful in adding new public lands in Minnesota over the past 40 years. There are more and more places to go. If the public lands you hunt are too busy, look at a map and find a few new ones that might not have as much traffic.

I for one would rather hunt in a spot with fewer roosters and less traffic than to add myself to the horde and hunt in a spot with more traffic than Interstate 494 in rush hour traffic. The rush will be over after the third week of the season and quieter times lay ahead, but the rush of the opener requires more patience and larger amounts of understanding.

Start practicing that now and you will be ready for the biggest hunting day in Minnesota.

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If you have any questions, reach out to me at scottarall@gmail.com.