public land vs private land

bigtim6656 · 11-23-2008, 03:54 PM

Do you guys find it harder to hunt public land then private land.
Last year i was on private land i saw lots of deer had a doe and two buck in range i missed the bucks the doe busted me. I saw as many as 30 deer in a day and 20 at once. i saw deer every hunt but one.

This year i have saw deer 8 times two time when hunting the other times when walking out or driving to or from my spots.
Both times i saw deer i saw one deer only. Now this land is the best in the area not heavily bow hunted. Lots of food water and deep rough areas for them to hide.

Is private land just better or what.

Seems everyone in my area is seeing less deer this year but seems to be a big differnts to me.

MdDave · 11-23-2008, 05:04 PM

kinda backwards around here... i hunt private jus because i KNOW every tree on the properity... the first day of rifle season there will be at least 10 guys on this lil 100 sum acres ... now 10 minutes down the road there 10,000 acres state land an im not kiddin when i say there might be 10 cars in the parkin lot.. makes no sense... but dont ask me why i wont go to the state ground cause i really couldnt give you an anwser..!!

rybohunter · 11-23-2008, 05:47 PM

You can't say one is better than the other unless you are comparing specific pieces. Some private is better than any public land ever. But some of the "worst" public land, could be 10x better than a crappy chunk of private.

nissan300ztt · 11-23-2008, 06:53 PM

Well I normally hunt public land because where I live in northeast PA the private land is all being developed for shopping malls and what not. But we have one of the largest game lands in PA 5 mins from my house. Its 37,800acres and some nice size deer come from it.. Just a pain getting in there so most guys dont hunt it. And Im a bit more adventurous. And one of the most successful areas I hunt is gameland 127 off interstate 380..Its a hike to get to where I hunt, 55 minute hike walking moderatly paced as to not spook game. So Ive hunted private land once and seems like the big deer are 5 pointers or smaller. because population seems to be controlled a bit more.

Washington Hunter · 11-23-2008, 06:56 PM

Depends on the land.

I've been out three times in the last four days.

So far I've seen two does and a 2x2 from my stand.

I'm hunting private property.

StruttinGobbler3 · 11-23-2008, 07:16 PM

Like others said, depends on the land. Public land can't produce like a well managed, several thousand acre private plantation. Then again if you're willing to work harder than the average joe and get down deep in public land, there are some monsters out there to be had. Just takes more work to find them. Now I hunt all private, just because we own it and manage it rather well, so there area pretty good number of nice bucks out here.