I would say private land is harder than public land. On private land deer arent accustomed to intereaction with people as much as public land. If A private ground deer smells human odor they know something is up and should not be there. On public ground the deer see people more often and get used to human interaction to a certain level. I am by no means saying public ground deer are dumb because of this. Trust me I hunt public ground only with my bow, but private with my rifle. I usually only hunt one or two weekends on private ground per year and it seems like ive gotten busted more on private ground. Just my opinion though.