I think I'm getting this public-hunting-thing figured out.

I hunted in 2 different spots today, both for the first time. I had to setup a tree for my stand, and I didn't want to do it in the dark, so I wore my snow-camo and setup on another trail on the groundwhere I'd seen some scrapes a couple weeks ago. About half an hour after sunrise, I had three does within 20 feet of me. It was cool being so close to them, but it sucked a little because they were too close. I couldn't move without getting busted!

After lunch, I went to the spot I wanted to setup for a big buck I had seen in the area and thought might be traveling through here. It took me about 45 minutes clearing shooting lanes and branches so I could climb the tree and hang my stand, and I use strap-on treesteps, so that took some time as well. From about an hour after I got situated till dark, I had 5 deer, all does, and 2 turkeys within 15 feet of my stand. That's the most game-animals I've had in bowrange in one day ever on public-land.

The point I wanted to make was that what I did different in these setups as oppossed to times in the past was to look for secondary trails. Secondary trails are those really lightly traveled trails you see a little off to one side of the 'main' or well-traveled trails. I started thinking that the more well-traveld trails might be the ones deer are using at night, and they use these secondary trails to go in the same direction as the main trails in the daytime, but have a little more cover and not as much chance of 'traffic'. I'm sure this applies more to public lands than private because there's so many more people in the woods, and most of them are walking up and down the main trails they see.

Just wanted to ramble a little, and share what I thought I figured out. I had a great day in the woods today. Hope everyone else did too.