Well,

I bowhunt almost exclusively on public ground.

The area I've been hunting the past two years is mostly Federal big timber. In the past two seasons, I've yet to see another hunter during bow season. But, once the first gun season opens up—the area is pretty much "shot" until late December/January.

As for how to best hunt public land—it depends. Where I hunt, it's big rolling ridges and draws of nothing but timber. No fields, and very few low areas. I've found that the deer are a bit harder to pattern—simply because they have so many "natural" travel routes that they may or may not use on any given day. One thing is for sure, a good heavy mast crop certainly makes the hunting easier.

Like someone stated earlier—some of the best bowhunting I've done in my area was in locations that the gun hunters overlooked—thick choked out "bottoms" and thickets that no one else wanted to hunt—or simply thought wouldn't hold any deer.

I'd say if you're not familiar with an area—spend as much time as possible learning how to "read" a TopoMap—then spend as much time as you can studying the terrain of the area you're considering hunting. I just recently had a friend from Georgia decide to come up and hunt with me this next Fall. I decided we'd try an area that I hadn't stepped foot in for over 12 years. Spent a few weeks in looking over a Topo of the area—and by the time we actually put feet on the site in March—I had a "plan" of how to scout the area. With only two days for my friend to scout prior to his trip up in November—had I not reviewed the Topo beforehand—we likely would have wasted a large portion of that weekend stumbling around trying to scout the 2500+ acres "blind."

In the end, in two days, we saw over 31 deer. Used the "keys" from the Topo to dial in on some consistent areas and were able to develop a good plan for this Fall.

Depending on the size, terrain and previous experience in a given location—I'd say a TopoMap is a public ground hunter's best friend!