Have You Encountered Hunters At This Time Of The Year?

[dfreuter415]

Now that hunting season is upon us, I'm sure that there are a number of stories about having encountered hunters while on the golf course. I'll start it off...

My friend John and I headed out to play a little golf one cold day at a local course.  As we approached the par 3 fifth hole, we saw what appeared to be Canadian geese sitting near the pond.  These geese, however, were not moving very much.  As we got closer we noticed that the geese were actually decoys, and upon further review, we saw a man with a rifle sitting in a tree stand.  Apparently, the owner told his friend that he could come in, since there were not many golfers because of the weather, and try to thin the gaggle of geese.  We quickly headed to the sixth hole, and only heard a shot or two when we got to the back nine.

[cipher]

Now that hunting season is upon us, I'm sure that there are a number of stories about having encountered hunters while on the golf course. I'll start it off...

My friend John and I headed out to play a little golf one cold day at a local course.  As we approached the par 3 fifth hole, we saw what appeared to be Canadian geese sitting near the pond.  These geese, however, were not moving very much.  As we got closer we noticed that the geese were actually decoys, and upon further review, we saw a man with a rifle sitting in a tree stand.  Apparently, the owner told his friend that he could come in, since there were not many golfers because of the weather, and try to thin the gaggle of geese.  We quickly headed to the sixth hole, and only heard a shot or two when we got to the back nine.

That does not make sense.  I cannot see how this would be allowed for one.  Is this course in the middle of nowhere?  There is usually some kind of restriction for how close you can be to homes.  Also, I assume you mean a shotgun?  I have also never heard of hunting geese from a tree stand.  Am I missing something?

[Fourputt]

Back when I first started playing my home course we had an interesting issue.  The northern boundary is a string of horse properties, with one to three acres of land each. (but semi-urban, not rural, although at least one of them was the farm which all of the land around used to belong to)  At one of them, the owner used to put out decoys in his yard to bring in geese, and he and his buddies would sit in lawn chairs in his back yard and "hunt" geese.  I never heard a shot, but we did find goose shot pellets on the 16th and 17th greens (movable obstructions ) during autumn golf.  Sometime in the early 90's the city of Lakewood (a Denver suburb) annexed that area and that ended the "hunting" there.

[Lihu]

PA/MD is noted for that type of thing happening.

Most of the hunting in CA is up North. It's better near the OR border. If we decide to go hiking with a gun or bow down here, tags are available, but we need to go into the mountains where there are no golf courses.

[wils5150]

pretty sure you have to be 500 ft from a dwelling. I used to let a couple of guys goose hunt a pond on the golf course I just set the hours when they could come. I used to do some bow hunting behind my maintanence building

[WUTiger]

I haven't encountered hunters as a golfer, but I did encounter hunters during a Marine Corps reserve artillery shoot down at Ft. Sill, Oklahoma. This artillery battery had the old 8-inch howitzers (mid-1980s) which fired 200 pound high-explosive shells.

My forward observer team and I were 1,000 meters north of the artillery gun line, in part to make sure no one blundered into the impact area (where the shells land). It's kind of like a super-large golf practice range, except you're dropping in 200-pound shells rather than 7 iron shots.

Right before morning firing began, this pickup truck full of quail hunters rolls up and parks by the observer blockhouse. I come out and tell the men they need to leave, because they're in a restricted area because of the shoot. They probably had driven off-road to avoid the no-go checkpoint further up the road.

The hunter leader says they're not in the Army (neither were we!) and tells us to mind our own business. These guys drive off down the road, just as the guns are ready to fire. We clear the gunline to fire, and suddenly see the quail crew, on line, walking into the impact area! They had circled back and parked off to the side of the road in a low spot.

We get on the radio and call a check-fire, just as we hear two howitzers roar in the background. We watch as the shells drop in with major flash and bang about 800 meters in front of the hunters. The quail boys stop - two drop to the ground. Then they get up, sprint back to the truck, and take off.

The guys were well outside the bursting radius of the shells, but bad things could have happened if they had parked sooner and gotten deeper into the impact area.

[Lihu]

Nowadays, there are lots of signs clearly posting these little restrictions. :~( Did you tell those hunters they are on an active firing range? They probably thought you were just "harassing" them. I guess they learned otherwise.

[Fourputt]

I haven't encountered hunters as a golfer, but I did encounter hunters during a Marine Corps reserve artillery shoot down at Ft. Sill, Oklahoma. This artillery battery had the old 8-inch howitzers (mid-1980s) which fired 200 pound high-explosive shells.

My forward observer team and I were 1,000 meters north of the artillery gun line, in part to make sure no one blundered into the impact area (where the shells land). It's kind of like a super-large golf practice range, except you're dropping in 200-pound shells rather than 7 iron shots.

Right before morning firing began, this pickup truck full of quail hunters rolls up and parks by the observer blockhouse. I come out and tell the men they need to leave, because they're in a restricted area because of the shoot. They probably had driven off-road to avoid the no-go checkpoint further up the road.

The hunter leader says they're not in the Army (neither were we!) and tells us to mind our own business. These guys drive off down the road, just as the guns are ready to fire. We clear the gunline to fire, and suddenly see the quail crew, on line, walking into the impact area! They had circled back and parked off to the side of the road in a low spot.

We get on the radio and call a check-fire, just as we hear two howitzers roar in the background. We watch as the shells drop in with major flash and bang about 800 meters in front of the hunters. The quail boys stop - two drop to the ground. Then they get up, sprint back to the truck, and take off.

The guys were well outside the bursting radius of the shells, but bad things could have happened if they had parked sooner and gotten deeper into the impact area.

Maybe should have let them go.  They'd be at the top of the list for the Darwin Awards.

[Lihu]

Maybe should have let them go.  They'd be at the top of the list for the Darwin Awards. :no:

Yeah, those quail hunters were missing something. Cheney probably finished them off subsequently. :-\

[octabogey]

I haven't encountered hunters as a golfer, but I did encounter hunters during a Marine Corps reserve artillery shoot down at Ft. Sill, Oklahoma. This artillery battery had the old 8-inch howitzers (mid-1980s) which fired 200 pound high-explosive shells. My forward observer team and I were 1,000 meters north of the artillery gun line, in part to make sure no one blundered into the impact area (where the shells land). It's kind of like a super-large golf practice range, except you're dropping in 200-pound shells rather than 7 iron shots. Right before morning firing began, this pickup truck full of quail hunters rolls up and parks by the observer blockhouse. I come out and tell the men they need to leave, because they're in a restricted area because of the shoot. They probably had driven off-road to avoid the no-go checkpoint further up the road. The hunter leader says they're not in the Army (neither were we!) and tells us to mind our own business. These guys drive off down the road, just as the guns are ready to fire. We clear the gunline to fire, and suddenly see the quail crew, on line, walking into the impact area! They had circled back and parked off to the side of the road in a low spot. We get on the radio and call a check-fire, just as we hear two howitzers roar in the background. We watch as the shells drop in with major flash and bang about 800 meters in front of the hunters. The quail boys stop - two drop to the ground. Then they get up, sprint back to the truck, and take off. The guys were well outside the bursting radius of the shells, but bad things could have happened if they had parked sooner and gotten deeper into the impact area.

Lol though they weren't hunters I had a similar experience while in Africa a few years ago. The army and some local military drove right through the middle of a hot demo range. They were apc's but it still woulda been a bad day for them. Btw happy birthday brother!