ORIGINAL: mauser06

one thing i like about public land is the tracts of it i hunt are large. if i feel like walkin i aint gunna run outta room...if i see other hunters which i feel are hampering my hunt, big deal...i walk to one of my deeper spots. also like the....variety of habitats i can get on public land. i can hunt a pine thicket...or a hardwood flat...or a creek bottom...a mountain side...a maturing cut etc etc...most private land is smaller and you dont get that variety..

i have worse times hunting private land around here than public alot of times. around here private land is generally small..most of it is crops...and if you got permission, so does everyone else...atleast the people i deal with and where i hunt. so to me it may as well be public land.

thats just how MY private vs public goes. i hunt both. i enjoy to hunt both.

just take my advice...if your in a state with a decint hunter population(1 million or so in PA!) get away from the trails. last year i didnt see ANY bowhunters. but i had a squirrel hunter sit pretty much directly under my stand..i had my orange out...he never seen me till i coughed really loud and waved my orange hat...he still didnt go but 15 more yards...another time i had a fall turkey hunter setup across the gasline from me. im halfway up my tree...waved..climbed the rest of the way and he still sat down and tried to call turkeys.... 11 thousand acres and they hunt where im hunting..parked beside my truck only truck parked on the whole road! but thats public land. i know the deer like the habitat close to the road and are in there during the bow season. guess i gotta go a bit deeper this year...or off the trails/gaslines/parking lots..