I agree to what you are saying to an extent, deer are harder to come by on public land. But, I have to strongly disagree to your calling out private land hunters as not "true hunters" I work every day just like all of us, and by far do not have a "cushy" job, working every other weekend. I have been lucky enough to hunt my own private little heaven for about 5 years now, but it sure as hell wasn't handed to me! I would go out as soon as the season was over, (around the end of Jan.) and start knocking on doors asking for permission to hunt. If I did not recieve this permission from an individual, I would ask them if they knew of anyone who might consider the idea. This takes alot of hours and alot of gas. I would guess that I did this for the better part of 2 off seasons, around twice a week before I finally found a piece of property to hunt. Also, I agree with NORTHJEFF when it comes to "padding the pockets" of the owner. I am not talking money either, I am talking about giving the owner some help, by fixing fence, cutting down some unwanted trees, help put up some hay, giving them venison that you have taken. I haven't had any venison for the past 3 years because I always make sure the owner is taken care of first. I kill a deer or turkey, and pay for any processing myself, which is a VERY small price to pay to have this piece of property. and, believe it or not, just stopping by to say "HI!" in the off season is a big hit! Not to talk about hunting either, just to see how things are going! My personal cross to carry for the owner is that he requested a Sunday paper to read on the days that I am able to go hunting on Sunday. No problem! So please don't bash private land hunters just because they may have something that you may not have. With a little work,(or alot) you may end up with the "honey hole". In my opinion, around here,( N.W. Mo.) the death to really good hunting are the big time hunting clubs that pay giant money to farmers to lock up their property, not the private individual. But that is a whole different story.