What are the the ethics here?

Agreed Royzo - my buddy had a confrontation with 2 guys and a gal and when he came back that night, they had pulled the logs out of a crossing and he ended up with a tatoo of the steering column on his sack. In fairness though, my buddy had mounted his rifle to catch neck wires because he thought they were crazy enough to do that....
 
I don't know that you did the right thing because if it is Crown land, it is public use. Some folks around here will come in and squat on the land and think that they own it. I generally don't get confrontational but I wouldn't let somebody run me off the land either. Of course a little bit of common sense applies, if I see somebody setting up a stand I don't go and set up next to them but if somebody was blocking access to a big chunk of public land, thinking that they can block other folks off is another thing completely.
 
For me, it's been about 50/50 whether the "meet and greet" will be a good experience or slightly awkward. I'm a pretty nice guy...one of the nicest I know of in fact...if the folks I bump into are as nice as I am we usually have a BS about what our plans are, what we are after, roughly where, duration, etc. When these type of meetings take place we both part ways happy and knowing that we aren't going to bust up each others hunts. According to the internet, what I am about to say next is wrong but here it goes anyways - many of the good meetings I have had with folks involve people that are not local, often from the Edmonton or Calgary area.

I have never really given much thought to my reactions when the meeting is not cordial. But I guess I just do what some others suggest and act simple...Whether private land or crown it usually always goes something like this: "Hi, I (we) have been hunting here for XX years." At this point, I know how the other party is wanting things to go so I typically just respond with an "oh yeah" and might comment on the weather before continuing on with my plans.

Granted, if I show up in 2nd place (which is rare) and it is just a small area I will simply move on but I don't take kindly to folks trying to block access or stake a claim to vast areas of public land.
 
hoytcanon said:
I have run into this situation a few times... one led to a physical altercation where the police got involved... no charges pressed, but it was basically a mess... some people set up their motor homes in such a way that they blocked a boat launch to an area we have hunted for 30 years... when we arrived at 7 am, they were all sleeping, I lightly knocked on the trailer door of both vehicles and requested that they move enough so that we could slip by... the first group obliged, the second fella was full of beer, p!ss and vinegar and refused... I did my best to squeak around and Jack knife the boat down the slope, but when I swung the front of the truck, it knocked over their camp table... the guy got belligerent and ended up pushing my teenage son, so I threw him down the slope into the river... he tried to attack up the slope, but a light push sent him back for another swim, after which he settled down, until the police arrived... after hearing the stories the police officer suggested that he would press charges all around and let the court sort it out... I said we were not interested in charging anyone, we just wanted to go hunting. The other fella was eating crow by then... so the officer told them to pack up and escorted them away from the area blocking egress... we were in the bush, portaged two lakes away for 7 days... and the whole time I was convinced our vehicle was going to get vandalized... but it was fine when we returned... basically the situation was a sh!t show and I highly recommend avoiding a similar scenario.
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To me, you didn't do anything any reasonable person would have done. I have never in my life been in a physical confrontation, but the moment someone were to assault a family member, I really don't know how I'd react, but at that point all bets are off, and I'd have very likely done the same thing.
The only time I have been anywhere close to that was on a trip to pick up a new kitchen faucet at canadian tire. My wife is black, and we were on that aisle looking through a few boxes that didn't have a display on the board. I was about 20 feet from her and noticed an elderly gentleman about to walk by and stop and stand over my wife who had no idea he was there. I watched from a distance as he put his hands on his hips and started shaking his head from side to side and let out a big sigh. I looked over at him and asked him if there was something I could help him with. He said it back to me. I responded by asking him what he was doing standing over my wife with his hands on his hips shaking his head.
At that point I walked past my wife who was still kneeling down and got up real close to him. He said he was adjusting his hearing aids.
Right after he said that, I said in a bit louder voice that what he did was unfair to her and to me. Then I got really angry and a group of people were gathered paying attention to what was happening. I took one more step to close the distance between us and said you had better leave us alone and go find yourself something better to do. I was angry enough to think about doing harm, but he was elderly. Pretty much as soon as I told him to leave, he scrammed out as fast as he could walk. I will do a lot for those I love am I haven't had to do more than talk so far in my 44 years.
 
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Gatehouse said:
There's no such thing as claiming an area. Use common courtesy, communicate to stay out of each others way if you can, but it's public land and public waterways, so just use it as you wish. Lots of people like to try to stake a clamn though.

Just don't be an a$$hole. Everyone should remember that and there shouldn't be any problems.
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Agree 100%. Always a good idea to be on good terms with others sharing the area as the day may come when you might need a hand or help to get out of a sticky situation. Make friends not foes is the way I see it.
 
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