My experience in hunting public land is that many hunters will show up in the prime locations on opening day. I've found the best spots are escape routes, hard to reach locations that lazy hunters won't walk to, or unexpected locations such as just off he main road. I have a spot on a game land in NC that is 100 yards of the main road leading to the area. I've killed two bucks there and have seen deer 90% of the time I hunt this location. Its so close to the road, no one else considers it.

When hunting public land, you not only need to scout the deer, you need to scout the other hunters.