I feel your pain and sorry to hear they blew your hunt. I hunt out west alot on the public and have had some of the same luck. The thing that gets me is fellow hunters who have lost or never had a code of hunting ethics. Thats what burns my butt. I'm like alot of fellow hunters who cant afford to pay a thousand dollars to hunt private land. So I have to deal with the not heads. One trick that seems to pay of is to set it out. I get there early and stay late. when the other hunters go to lunch they push deer my way, and the same when they come back for the evening hunt. If you can do an all dayer and pattern the deer it can pay off for you.
I have a story to share that happened last year during gun season. Set up early and planed to stay all day. Blind set up on a hill across a valley with taller hills. You know out west you can see for miles, this truck pulls up to the road 3/4 mile away and here they come. when they got close i flashed my red light at them and then my white light, they stopped and disappeared . When the sun came up I had one straight across from me. that pissed me off, but i can hunt my side of the valley and I could watch what he was doing. A little while later I look out my back window of the blind and I have to other hunters seating right behind me on the other side of the valley. All hunters where with in 100 yards of me. I lost it and packed my stuff up with as much noise as I could make. I thought about a couple of choice words to say and started out of the valley. I packed heavy for my all day set and as I marched out of the valley with all my gear I took a break and a doe appeared and I shot her. Then two other does appeared right by my truck. So I waited for them to come down in the valley and I shoot at my second doe. A double and when I was done dragging the deer to the truck the other guys came out with nothing. Lesson learned never leave your concealed carry in your truck. It does not way that much and it nice to have in stick situations......
I have a story to share that happened last year during gun season. Set up early and planed to stay all day. Blind set up on a hill across a valley with taller hills. You know out west you can see for miles, this truck pulls up to the road 3/4 mile away and here they come. when they got close i flashed my red light at them and then my white light, they stopped and disappeared . When the sun came up I had one straight across from me. that pissed me off, but i can hunt my side of the valley and I could watch what he was doing. A little while later I look out my back window of the blind and I have to other hunters seating right behind me on the other side of the valley. All hunters where with in 100 yards of me. I lost it and packed my stuff up with as much noise as I could make. I thought about a couple of choice words to say and started out of the valley. I packed heavy for my all day set and as I marched out of the valley with all my gear I took a break and a doe appeared and I shot her. Then two other does appeared right by my truck. So I waited for them to come down in the valley and I shoot at my second doe. A double and when I was done dragging the deer to the truck the other guys came out with nothing. Lesson learned never leave your concealed carry in your truck. It does not way that much and it nice to have in stick situations......