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Old 09-08-2010 | 04:44 PM
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7.62NATO
Nontypical Buck
 
Joined: Nov 2009
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From: Virginia
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Originally Posted by Doubled 150
I've killed good bucks off public land and private land.

For me, it is more rewarding to take a good deer on land that I own because of the work I put into it. It's funny when I hear people say you have to work harder to kill a trophy on public land. I guess that depends on what they consider work.

When I hunt public land, I'll look a satelite image of the area to get a general idea where I want to go. I may scout it once or twice prior to season. Then, I grab my climber, look for sign in the general area I chose to hunt and hunt. I'll fine tune my setup with each hunt and hopefully get a crack at a good one. I guess I would consider "work" on public land as walking in a mile and a half and having to drag your deer out since you usually can't take motorized vehicles on public land.

I consider the things I do on my private land to be harder work. Planting food plots in the spring and fall. Mowing some of them a couple times in the summer. Fertilizing them. Overseeding some of them. I manage cover, mineral stations and cameras. That's year round work. Then taking a nice deer off your property, that's a good feeling and more rewarding.

.....in my opinion, of course.
I think that the point is that, in general, the hunting pressure on public land is very high. In some places, extremely high...it can look like a pumpkin patch. Since this is the case, more bucks are killed per season because no matter where they run, there's a high chance there will be a hunter. The ones that do make it season after season and are big enough to be considered "trophies", are going to be smart. VERY smart. And very hard to outwit and kill. Probably much more so than a buck of comparable age on private land where the only person hunting it is you.

I hear you on the amount of work you put into food plots, etc, but I'm not sure it's relevant to the intent of the original post.
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