A hunter in r/Hunting said he got one of the more ridiculous calls you can get before opening day. According to his post, a stranger had pulled his phone number off the tag on his tree stand and called to tell him he had set up about 50 yards from “his spot.” The hunter said his stand had already been there for about a month, and he had not seen another setup anywhere close when he hung it. So from his side of it, this was not some late-arriving guy crowding somebody else. It was a man who had done the work early getting pressured by somebody acting like public land came with reservations.
What made the call worse was the way the other guy tried to play both sides. The hunter said the caller claimed he did not care whether the stand stayed there or not, but still spent the conversation making it pretty clear he thought it should be moved. That kind of thing tends to irritate public-land hunters fast, because everybody knows the type. He wants to sound reasonable, but what he really means is that he thinks the ground around his usual setup belongs to him whether anybody else agrees or not.
The hunter posted because he wanted to know what other people would do. He was not asking whether he had technically broken a law. He was trying to decide whether to move, stay put, or get ready for an ugly opener. The comments came back about how you would expect. A lot of people told him public land is public land, and if safety is not the issue, then no one gets to claim permanent ownership over a patch of woods because they like hunting there every year.
A few people did point out that 50 yards can be tight depending on terrain, shot direction, and what kind of stand setup each guy is running. But even the more measured replies did not have much sympathy for the caller. The part that rubbed people wrong was not only the complaint. It was the idea of pulling a number off a stand, making the call before opening day, and trying to lean on another hunter like the whole area had already been spoken for.
That is really why the story hit. It was not some giant screaming match in a parking lot. It was quieter than that, and probably more familiar because of it. A guy hangs a stand early, minds his business, and then gets a call from somebody who has decided the woods around him are basically private. On public ground, that kind of attitude is enough to sour a hunt before daylight ever gets there.
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