Was out chasing elk last season in Nov. Foot of snow on the ground and I was perched up high, watching some cow elk traveling up towards a saddle on my right. As the elk approached the saddle, all strung out, I spotted a hunter far below thru my binos, about 700yds below. The hunter was obviously pushing the elk and had his rifle raised, peering at them thru his rifle scope. Then the bastard starts scanning with his rifle and stops with his rifle pointed directly at me! I ducked behind the deadfall and waited about 5 minutes, the peeked over the log. The hunter was gone and later I went down to where he was hoping to give hima piece of my mind. His tracks led downward and it appeared the hunter was heading for a trail that lead back to the road about 3 miles away. Later that day I ran into another hunter who said the hunter who scoped me was some idiot from a nearby southern MT town.

What would you fellas have done in my situation? Hollered back? gave him the bird?

maybe you should cary a little sighn that says dont point that at me. return fire and claim self defence?

that sucks man just teach all the kids you know not to do it and weed that shit out with time.

double post .

I had a similar situation a few years back. I was deer hunting here in GA and a fellow who was hunting the property line, most likely he was going to shoot deer on our property, scoped me when I walked out on the gas line. I later found out the guy was the county sheriff. Needless to say he was not re-elected.

BUY SOME &%#& BINO"S!!!!!!
I HATE IDIOTS WHO THINK A SCOPE IS FOR SEARCHING.

Being scoped by a local hunter in big country seems to me to be a fairly common occurance. If the distance is great, you state 700 yards in your case, I wouldn't let it worry me much. I'm sure we all get scoped a great deal more than we realize.

Some folks just don't consider binoculars a requirement, they use their scope.

What I fined odd is that you state you initially ducked behind a deadfall but later went to confront the hunter. Did you believe he recognized you as a human on the scoping event or that he was 'glassing' and trying to discover what type of beast you might be?

I generally don't do anything when 'scoped', it is a non-malicious event as I see it. If I'm clearly visible, wearing hunter orange, and the scoping goes on for a long period of time I get a little nervous but again, if the distance is great I don't feel in immediate danger.

If the other hunter were to fire upon me, and I believe he has positively identified me as a human (hunter orange and/or in plain view) and I am positive of my location (not inadvertantly trespassing) I may feel obligated to return fire for self defense. If I am fired upon in what I'd consider a mis-identification I'd make significant attempts to make my location and species known but I would not return fire.

Scopes are made for aquiring a sight picture on something you are thinking about shooting, NOT for just gazing around the country side.

Yes, a lot of us probably have been scoped a lot more than we care to think about, but that still does not make it right.

Binoculars were designed for veiwing the country side, and in our modern time good quality, light weight binoculars are not that expensive.

There will always be someone however that just won't carry binoculars, and will throw up their rifle to look at stuff. JMO.

quote:

Originally posted by DKing:

If the other hunter were to fire upon me, and I believe he has positively identified me as a human (hunter orange and/or in plain view) and I am positive of my location (not inadvertantly trespassing) I may feel obligated to return fire for self defense. If I am fired upon in what I'd consider a mis-identification I'd make significant attempts to make my location and species known but I would not return fire.

First, you would have to hope the other guy isn't a very good shooter. -TONY

I beleive here in Texas it is a misdemeanor criminal offense scoping any human and a felony if you scope a police officer of any jurisdiction.

I always figured it should be a felony no matter who was scoped.

That's happened to me several times.

I make a big show of putting my scope on the offending hunter, taking off my glove, and with a big florish, taking off the safety.

They always put their rifle down.

Garrett

It used to happen a bit too often when I hunted out of state, wasn't just me that got scoped either but everyone else. The guys doing it were primarily the locals who were not the wealthiest types and few seemed to have binoculars much less a spotting scope.

A few years back this happened to my brother during deer season. If I was in his situation I wo9uld of shot somebody. We hunt a powerline cut on public land. My brother has in a depression sitting down. You could see him from the waste up. He was wearing ablaze orange jacket hat and gloves. He is a big guy too so lots of blaze ornge fabric. I has about a half mile down the cut and I could see him. A guy walked down the access road that runs through the middle of the cut. He gets about forty yes I said forty yard from my brother and puts his rifle up right on my brother. My brother hit the dirt and called 911. The guy did not just take a quick scan he had the rifle up for about 30 seconds. Again this was at forty yards. The sheriff was nowhere even close to where we were hunting. My brother was not in a position to get a good description. The guy turned and just calmly walked away. If anyone points a high power rifle at me under 50 yards for more than say 3 seconds I would shoot the crazy bastard. That was the last year we hunted that area.

In SC its called pointing and presenting and its a felony.

The elements of pointing and presenting a firearm are (1) pointing or presenting; (2) a loaded or unloaded firearm; (3) at another. S.C. Code Ann. § 16-23-410 (2003).

South Carolina Code Annotated section 16-23-410 states: “It is unlawful for a person to present or point at another person a loaded or unloaded firearm.â€

When I glassed this fella scoping me with his rifle, we stared at each other for a good 30 seconds while he pointing directly at me before I ducked behind the log I was peering over. And I had an orange hat on!

MattG

This old Easterner hesitated before weighing in on this discussion -but being an Irishman he always rushed in where angels fear to tread!

Of course, I agree with you guys out in big country that a pair of binoculars are necessary equipment - and that the rifle scope should not be used to scan the country. Please understand that in eastern deer woods, a pair of binocs are not standard equipment as I tell you the following incident from my youth (when dinosaurs roamed the earth)

Very early in the morning of a deer hunting season in our NY Catskill Mountains (No,I hasten to tell you Westerners that they are not "mountains" by your standards and I have heard enough of your insults about our "mountains" but let me tell this story my way, OK?) I was working my way up a slope when I spotted a very dark spot at the foot of a tree. ( NY's black bear season coincided with deer season in the Southern Zone of NY) I brought up the rifle and took a look through the scope. (Look, guys, this was about 6:30 in the morning and still practically dark) I saw at once that it was a man huddled to stay warm, rifle across his lap. (Legal shooting began at 7:00AM) (In those days "hunter orange " was not a requirement I hasten to say) I kept the scope on him just a bit too long - because he looked up -and right into the scope lens. I saw his dawning look of horror. He became alert at once and jumped up and even dropped his rifle and waving at me. I walked up the slope and made profuse apologies. He seemed to accept my apologies - but when I was walking out that night I passed his camp and it was evident that he was pointing me out and I felt my ears burning. Heck! I still feel my ears burning these near 60 years later!

It is not a new problem. It's scary, but cool heads need to prevail. It's tempting, but you don't shoot back, and it's probably best not to engage.

I've stepped behind rocks or trees and scoped the offender back. I'm not particularly proud of that. Whether you are the first or second man to scope, you've still violated a key safety rule. I've given enough non-verbal signals for the offender to know I wasn't happy. As described by Gerry, a mistake can happen. The main thing is, put something between you and the fool that would stop a bullet, quickly.