I have hunted public land most of my hunting career. I only used a treestand twice and both times had shots at deer, close. Killed one and the other one was 10 yards away but my powder had got wet in the muzzle loader so I let him walk after snapping 3 caps and dropping my capper! I usually find a blow down or other structure to hide myself in. I killed a 7 point one year sitting in a hollowed out log with only my head and shoulders above the log. The reason we hardly ever used stands is because we hiked about 2 miles in every morning. We got in front of everyone one else and most never hiked that far up in the mountain. The further you go off the trail on public land the better off you will be.