Three friends of mine planned to spend a day duck hunting at Elliot wildlife area. Thanks to the Colorado Department of Wildlife and people like Ducks unlimited they have three duck blinds that you may reserve through Colorado Department of Wildlife. It took some coordination, but we got a reservation for a Monday. My friend Dallas made sure he had the reservation number. So the Monday in question; we left the house at 2:30 AM. Yes, 2:30 A.M! We arrived in Snyder at 5:30 A.M. We had exactly one hour to get the blind, set up the decoys for the first shot.
But, a day of duck hunting at Elliot State Wildlife Area, turned into an ethics lesson. We spent at least 15 minutes getting to the blind; when we got there other hunters were, in our blind. They claimed we had the wrong blind; it was dark enough we stumbled back far enough to see that no we did have the right blind.
If you think about the fact you have six armed men, who got up in the middle of the night, all wanting the same duck blind. Anger and actions could get out of control in a hurry. As our hunting lands decrease, situations like this will continue to grow whether you are duck hunting or elk hunting. What do you do, when you have acquired permission to hunt and other hunters are trespassing?
It seemed Dallas used the walk to the sign, showing we did have the right blind, to cool down. Dallas made a point with the hunters in our blind that we did have the right blind. Then he pulled out his Proper Reservation and sign in sheet out making a show of it. We firmly stated we needed to be in the right blind, if a game warden came and checked our reservation.
Dallas told the hunters because of our reservation and sign in, which they needed to, pick up and leave. Dallas did not give them time to reply, he just turned around and started positioning our gear. This was a wise decision because it left no room for argument. Dallas said very little, he just kept insisting on the Law. This also kept the tension as low as possible, because there were no accusations or cursing. Realize as populations grow there will be more demand for limited hunting spots, therefore when there is a conflict it is best to insist on our legal rights, but do all we can to keep our emotions and voice level.
By the time the hunters picked up their decoys and gear, we had missed the first half hour of hunting. Needless to say all our tempers were frayed and short. It was also clear we would be hunting in close proximity to one another , so it would be easy to let resent build allowing verbal jabs to surface. The hunters were from Parker Colorado. Quiet Vince with a slow drawl, smiles and says; “I never liked Parker anyhow.” We all had a good laugh over that one. That joke set us up for a good day of hunting despite the bad start. Sometimes we need to just laugh and get on with what we enjoy hunting! More importantly, without humor it is easy for resentment to grow into a grudge.
One thing we did not do well as I wish; we needed to write down more facts to give to the Game Warden. We did not get the hunters name or address just their city. During the day we had made several trips to the parking lot and we never wrote their license plate number down. We never thought to check and see if they had properly signed in. We did not write down the exact time, or exact order of events, so our recall was not detailed. The importance of doing this became clear, as we were packing up to go home; the game warden flew into the parking lot. Insisting someone had shot after legal hours. We had observed the exact time of our last shot, so he was satisfied we were not the shooters. But he hurriedly checked our licenses’ and the ducks we had harvested. Because, we did not have it written down we had nothing to hand the game warden and it did not get reported. Plus having the facts written down would have given the game warden facts to follow up on our concerns.
As we were verbally kicking our self for not bringing our morning difficulties to the Game Warden attention; we overheard the hunters next to us describe the hunters we had a run in with. How they had taken the blind they had reserved as well. Also, they had shot a duck and left it lay and left the blind a polluted mess. It hit home to me as anti-hunting sentiment grows, it is important that good hunters report the bad apples, so their bad taste is removed. As sportsman struggle for land to hunt on, it should be the privilege of those who obey the laws and respect the land. Lastly, game wardens should be seen as allies, in our efforts to keep hunting for the next generation. So every effort of honest sportsmen should be made to self-police our fellow hunters. Game Wardens will have less work to do if we learn to control emotional situations by sticking to the facts and writing them down.
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