Dear Abby, a good friend is offering my blinds to friends, should I shoot him?

What to do when a friend lets friends use YOUR blind?

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Pheroze

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Dear Abby

This is a story about a group of friends. I have two friends who have farm properties. I approached them and got access to their land for this turkey season. I set up blinds and game cameras, monitored the movement, and got my boys out on opening day. Two of us connected. I am planning to go out again with the boy who was unsuccessful to try again.

A third friend, let's call him Dick, has invited someone to use my blinds. Dick seems to think that since I have two birds down I shouldn't worry about it. Dick has invited a fellow who has not hunted turkeys before and cannot call, to use my blinds. Dick is not the property owner and does not himself hunt turkeys. He is a hunting buddy in the fall and we spend a lot of time in camp together. The landowners don't care as they know us all.

What should I do with this Dick friend? I don't want to be greedy, and I want to help a fellow hunter. But I want to make sure my boy does not have his chance scuppered by Dick giving the blind to a fellow who will spook the birds. And, it would be nice if this new hunter would call me, no?

Help please.

Sincerely,
Stuck with the turkeys
 
At a minimum, make it known its needs to be arranged ahead of time simply for the safety aspect of walking out to a blind with potentially this 'Dick' and his new hunter. Communication needs to be well in advance, at least the a day before if it were me. Making them plan 24 hours+ in advance may dissuade them, but saftey aspect is imperative to not have an itchy trigger finger pointing at you and your family should they be in the blind you're walking to.

Secondly, if it were me, I may not want them in the areas I have worked or wanting to work. Possibly set up another blind (cheap spring steel pop up?) somewhere (hopefully far away) and tell them they can use that spot without issue and without advance notice.

best of luck...I know its aggravating
 
I would call and work out a schedule - let friend of Dick know that it was you that got the property to hunt and have done all the work thus far.
Set the ground rules for hunting the property - no garbage left behind, pick up any garbage you see, let him know what day/days you plan to hunt and would appreciate no interruption. Offer to take him, heck offer to take me lol
I think a phone call is the way to go, its not about whether its a big deal to Dick, its about you getting to spend time with the kid. Maybe let them know what blind to set up in, not to traipse about the property potentially spooking birds.
 
A liberal sprinkling of these along the access trail should assist.
claymore.jpg


or one of these at the blind entrance to keep the Turkeys out. They are sneaky like Leopards.
3665060445_6fe5c9e227_b.jpg



It appears the Dick has assumed you have taken your quota of Turkeys. Using your blind without asking is not kosher.
When you get to Deer camp in the fall and he drops a deer just help him out by loading it into your vehicle. See if he objects when you drop it off at your butcher. LOL

Since you don't have exclusive hunting rights to the Turkey ranch you are screwed. You will have to play nice, which I know you will.

Good luck with your Turkey hunt.
 
I think you are misusing that word: friend. Maybe "former acquaintance" would be more accurate. None of my hunting buddies - my friends - would do this or make such an assumption. After that, I like Brickburn's ideas; they seem like a good start.
 
SSS as the saying goes. ;)

In all seriousness, someone poaching your location, that you got permission for, without consulting you is not much of a friend. Frankly I don’t think he should be there without you anyway since if anything happens to upset the land owner, he’ll likely come to you and you may lose your permission to hunt there.
 
IMHO Dick has been a dick. I would pull him to one side and tell him not to take the piss and its a one off. It it happens again your gonna get hacked off at him.
In other words its just not the done thing and frankly ungentlemanly behaviour
 
I have lived through a variation of this, Pheroze, and I think you need to make it perfectly clear that he is out of line using your blinds, even though it is a shared property. You probably put a lot of time in to selecting the right spot and to building them just as you like them. In my case, it was goose blinds: real nice, fresh portable willow blinds that got commandeered for someone to gratify his ego by taking non-hunters out...when I went to set them up for a nice speck hunt, the blinds were gone. To make matters worse, the 'friend' hunted on fields for which I had access.
 
I have lived through a variation of this, Pheroze, and I think you need to make it perfectly clear that he is out of line using your blinds, even though it is a shared property. You probably put a lot of time in to selecting the right spot and to building them just as you like them. In my case, it was goose blinds: real nice, fresh portable willow blinds that got commandeered for someone to gratify his ego by taking non-hunters out...when I went to set them up for a nice speck hunt, the blinds were gone. To make matters worse, the 'friend' hunted on fields for which I had access.
Similar thing happend to me with 2 pals. One chap took it on the chin and said he was out of order the other threw his toys around and called me unreasonable etc. Needless to say im close with one and not the other. One gets invited to shot with me one doesn't. If they are true friends they will see the error of what they have done and learn from it
 
If Dick is not the property owner how can he assume he and friends can use the blinds? Without asking permission from the landowner, they are trespassing. Maybe a heads up to the landowner is in order.
 
If Dick is not the property owner how can he assume he and friends can use the blinds? Without asking permission from the landowner, they are trespassing. Maybe a heads up to the landowner is in order.
We are all in the same circle of friends. It's really between me, him and the fellow being invited along.

I dropped the hunter an email so we can chat. I figure I will just cut Dick out of the discussion, and it will probably get sorted.
 
@Pheroze The simple fact is that you negotiated access and set up the blinds. If something goes wrong with these guys and you have not made it clear beforehand that they are acting entirely independently of you and your ability to control their shooting activities; the property owners and local police will hold you at least partially responsible for their actions.

I believe that need to have a talk with this guy and make it clear, in writing, to all parties; that you disclaim any and all responsibility for the actions of this acquaintance and his friend because you will be unable to directly supervise their activities on this property.

I suggest that the written advice should follow the strict chronology of your approach to the property owners, setup of blinds and shooting activity under your supervision; with reference to your initial safety assessments of the blind sites and safety precautions taken for each shoot. That way, you will establish your credentials in the matter and provide anecdotal guidance for safe use by this acquaintance and his friend BUT without incurring direct liability for yourself or creating unnecessary offence. It will also provide the owners with a benchmark for assessing the safety of any other approaches by turkey shooters.

As someone who ran a club shooting complex for 14 years, with the help of others, I advise that:

you have, in effect, by setting up two turkey blinds, created two part-time shooting ranges on that property. It is essential, in my opinion, that you act to absolve yourself of any liability in regard to independent and unsupervised (by you) use of those blinds.
 
Last edited:
Dear Abby

This is a story about a group of friends. I have two friends who have farm properties. I approached them and got access to their land for this turkey season. I set up blinds and game cameras, monitored the movement, and got my boys out on opening day. Two of us connected. I am planning to go out again with the boy who was unsuccessful to try again.

A third friend, let's call him Dick, has invited someone to use my blinds. Dick seems to think that since I have two birds down I shouldn't worry about it. Dick has invited a fellow who has not hunted turkeys before and cannot call, to use my blinds. Dick is not the property owner and does not himself hunt turkeys. He is a hunting buddy in the fall and we spend a lot of time in camp together. The landowners don't care as they know us all.

What should I do with this Dick friend? I don't want to be greedy, and I want to help a fellow hunter. But I want to make sure my boy does not have his chance scuppered by Dick giving the blind to a fellow who will spook the birds. And, it would be nice if this new hunter would call me, no?

Help please.

Sincerely,
Stuck with the turkeys
If he does not own the property, does not hunt turkey then he should not be inviting people to use your stuff as he does not own it. if I were you I would wait until deer season when he does hunt and invite some people to use his stuff. It will get the point across quickly I assure you
 
He is not a friend any more unless you have the talk & he apologizes profusely & throws himself on the mercy of the court !

We have this in the guiding business, from I walk into special place & burn it so fresh pick is there for game to guys using my blinds or bait site for leopards/Hyena we baited up & Boars in Aussie on horse baits .

Boss hated it when I had secret horse baits, just leave a few horse in nice spot & not cart to bait sites !
 
One of the things I've learned over the years about "hunting spots" is that different people have different thresholds for what is allowed and what isn't. It could be nothing more than a misunderstanding. Explain it to Dick.
 
I believe that need to have a talk with this guy and make it clear, in writing, to all parties; that you disclaim any and all responsibility for the actions of this acquaintance and his friend because you will be unable to directly supervise their activities on this property.

Good point. I should make sure there is documentation of "use at your own risk" if he uses my blind!

One of the things I've learned over the years about "hunting spots" is that different people have different thresholds for what is allowed and what isn't. It could be nothing more than a misunderstanding. Explain it to Dick.

Dick is a fellow who means well but can be blind to how his exuberance is grinding gears. I agree that it is good to assume the best intentions until proved wrong.

I ended up having a good exchange with the proposed hunter, and he is not going out this weekend. I offered to take him out if he wanted. I will probably take my blinds down if my boy gets his bird even if I don't get another one. If not, I will post a waiver of liability in it! :P Elmer Fudd:
 

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