Turkey season opened this Saturday morning. I didn't go out. I had gone out to scout on Thursday morning, good old One-two-eight Ridge. The ridge is named for the morning I counted 128 hens, jakes, and gobblers come off an extensive roost tree studded finger draw back when we had been blessed with 6 great hatch years in a row.
Shortest access is right off the highway, but requires serious effort to climb an incredibly steep hillside and pass RIGHT under the roost trees. Another alternative access route actually requires a couple of short reaches of technical rock climbing with finger and toe holds in crumbly limestone/sandstone matrix (fun, right? And in the dark - bonus points for style). But scouting is easy, just drive up, park on the edge of the right off way in the dark and roll down the windows to listen.
I was sitting in the dark, nursing a cup of strong black coffee and nibbling the crispy edges of a still hot apple fritter. A few early commuters driving into Rapid City for work passed by in the dark, their headlights ruining my night vision. One had just passed when their brakelights lit and tires squealed. His backup lights came on and he came back up the road in reverse and high speed. The guy parked across the road and came piling out of his pickup obviously agitated. He didn't even look for traffic as he came charging across the road shouting and shaking his fist.
He said someone had already sneaked up in the dark a week ago and had spotlighted the birds, shooting a bunch of hens and gobblers out of the roost trees, leaving them to lay on the ground. I was still trying to wrap my head around his angry approach and the words out of his mouth when he then said he recognized me. He asked if he was right, was I the guy that hunted up there with the old fashioned gun and the funny clothes. I admitted that I was known for wandering around up there in 1760's fashion and a flintlock. He said he owned the land directly north and that he had seen me up there many times and that he'd noticed I never so much as took aim toward the private land, or shot towards his house. The deer were so often in the meadow between the ridgeline and his house. I never considered that an ethical shot, even if it would have been legal to shoot within that distance of occupied buildings.
He calmed down some and I offered to get him in touch with the game warden in the area. He allowed that he had spoken with one and mentioned the name of the officer I had in mind. I told him that I had called the same man several years earlier when I had found baited treestands all over the ridge. The man said he had spoken with the warden during the ensuing investigation, offering help and even encouraging him to use his gazebo to sit and watch the treestands in comfort if that would have helped. He and I shook hands and I apologized for the lack of ethics or morality in the hunting community, he apologized for jumping me like he had.
Days later, I am getting past the aggravation to my personal hunting plans and I have moved onto several bigger questions:
1) Is it just me? Is it something about how I choose land to hunt that seems to coincide with poachers, cheats, and the ethically retarded?
2) If it is not just me, is this a local issue? South Dakota is very much "old west" mindset and there is a growing resentment to the rule of law since it is perceived as coming from "gub'ment" when in reality, we the people are the government and game laws protect OUR OWN resource and without which, we'd have NO GAME FOR ANYONE.
3) If it is not just a local thing, is there much effort in addressing this in the true conservationist movement? And by true conservationist, I mean those on the front lines, putting money and sweat equity where their mouths are. Namely, the publications of NWTF, RMEF, Ducks Unlimited, Pheasants Forever, Mule Deer Foundation, Boone and Crocket, Pope and Young, Izaak Walton League, Trout Unlimited, Bass Masters, Sports Afield, Outdoor Life, National Wildlife Federation, and yes - Primitive Archer, etc, etc, etc.
Can I ask everyone to go to the magazines they get and scan the last three months issues for articles about ethics? I want just a rough poll from you, just post how many magazines you receive and how many instances in the last three issues there was an article or editorial pushing ethics. I admit this is anything but an exhaustive, nor even scientific in it's approach, but it's an itch I feel like scratching. I feel our community here is a bit more ethical than the run of the mill simply because we have all made a conscious effort to lean into a craft that has anything but instant gratification. And those that then take these hard won tools out to the field have now again chosen the most difficult route.
For example, I receive two publications. Both have had articles/editorials in the last three issues, so they would be reported as 2 for 2.
