The only problem with saying hard work will always pay off regardless of the land you are on is that in a state forest you just NEVER know what you may encounter when you go on a hunt. You can' t hang stands and leave them so you are limited to your climber......You may think that you are all set for a perfect hunt and when you arive you find 3 other guys that scouted your same areas and have been up a tree since 3:30 am........leaving you grasping for options at the last seconds of darkness. You also may get to hang your perfect stand in your perfect spot only to have a group out on a nature hike parade by talking and leaving 100 different scents all over what used to be your good spot(happened to me and a buddy) It is possible to see squirrel and turkey hunters shooting guns in your area and walking and talking aloud.

There are just a ton of things on state land that can negate your hard work and scouting. I am not saying that you can' t still get the job done.......I took 2 bucks and a doe on state land last year. 90% of the time on prime private land you don' t have to worry about being disturbed........if you do get disturbed it is probably by the landowner so tough beans.

An average hunter can go years on state land without even seeing a deer(I know more then one guy it' s happened to) put that same guy on property with a large herd and all he has to do is not miss.

My brother is a good example. He doesn' t have a great deer hunting history. He doesn' t spend all year scouting and planning.......he spends all year fishing. He knows the woods and he can get the job done but he just doesn' t see a ton of deer. He was telling a friend from work about this and the guy was laughing his butt off because he couldn' t believe it. He told my brother he would take him out to his farm and let him hunt because he had filled his tags already with a 9 and 10 respectively. The day my brother went out he saw 17 deer and 5 different bucks. He took a nice 8 pointer that graces his wall today. Was he lucky?? no Did he suddenly become a master woodsman?? no He was put in a spot that had a great herd his average skills allowed him to take a very nice buck.


Give a bass fisherman the choice and I am sure they would pick a private well stocked pond full of lunkers any day over fighting through jet skis and party boats on the lake.


Outfitters make a living off this very fact. " Come hunt our land.....We have 40,000 acres of prime unpressured land with 150 and up class bucks all over the place."

People pay thousands of dollars every day for the chance to hunt............LAND. I have seen 12 year old kids on TV shows take bucks bigger then I have ever seen in my life. Put that kid and his game boy out in the state forest and see how many tags he fills.