RE: Public Land
Most people have some horror stories about hunting public land. I have a couple, but you are correct about trying the off times. I'll never hunt public land on Thanksgiving weekend again. I hunted one secluded oak grove early in the season and took two does. Thanksgiving weekend I ran into a guy who was going to the same area. He was parked near where I usually park so we talked. He told me about a bunch of vietnamese guys running around the day before with AK-47s shooting at everything in sight. I thought he was just trying to scare me off so I just politely asked where exactly he was going and if he minded ifI hunted another grove about 150 yards away. He said he didn't. I never saw him again, but I also never saw a deer. I heard lots of trucks riding on the roads and heard a few shots. There so many people out there the deer weren't moving at all.
The worstfor me happened on an off day. I was hunting in a ground blind on a hillside near some American Beauty Berries. There was a trail at the top of the hill. About 10 o'clock I heard voices coming down the trail. As they got closer their voices were loud and boisterous. I thought, "These guys are drunk!" These two cowboys were riding horses down the trail. I thought that if they just kept moving something might come out after they leave, so I just sat and waited. They actually stopped on the trail at the pointnearest me and started hitting on a whiskey bottle. The first drunk cowboy started down the trail again but the second did not. He actually leaned over in his saddle and puked. Then he got off his horse and threw up again. I stood up and just looked at him about 20 yards away. The whole hillside now smelled like whiskey and vomit. My hunt was over. He yelled to his buddy that he was never going to drink straight whiskey again. Then he saw me standing there with my rifle. I yelled, "That's a great idea!" He hopped back on his horse and took off. It was public land and they had just as much right to be there as I did, but it was very stupid of them to be horsebackriding in the woods during deer season.
You can have a successful hunt on public land, but you run the risk of encountering other recreational users too. They might be fellow hunters and they might not. Some city fool might bring his family out there for a picnic in front of your stand and you really have no right to complain.