hatchet jack,
I'm a nonresident who has drawn and bowhunted that area since ~1990. The public land is not what it once was. With technology and info it has gotten more crowded each year. I even scouted the prior Februarys each of my last two hunts. But once season arrived the remote places I picked got raped from opening day. Both by residents & nonresidents. Nonresidents are fixed in number thank god, but the biggest change I'd say is the increase in popularity with resident bowhunters. The nonresidents who do show up are nearly all tech savy with Google Earth knowledge and hand held GPS's with private ownership chips which results in the deepest public corners now getting pressure. With all this in mind, the deer are pressured well before rut. Best tip we learned was when you get there, patrol the parking areas and note which ones don't have vehicles. Hunt there, even if the land doesn't look as promising on aerials. This strategy is hard to accept, but paid off for us the last two times we drew.
If there are other hunters anywhere you go, leave immediately to seek unpressured parcels. The parcels with good crops get hit very hard over and over, and you can do quite well if you seek out the nearby parcels with less sign, but no hunters.
On a positive note, as Topgun mentioned pheasants were once VERY abundant in that area. However, since then a series of harsh winters has basically extirpated all of them. Don't bother bringing your shotgun for side action! The good part of this is there were ZERO bird hunters blasting around the public ruining it. Those bird hunters won't spoil their private land, but run like hell to the public to ruin it for deer hunters. This is just a fact, but no longer an issue due to no pheasants. Keep this in mind when evaluating parcels. Big grass fields will harbor stud bucks when no bird hunters scour them.
I'll probably cash my points and draw next year. Good luck.
Last edited by Zim; 06-06-2015 at 08:51 PM.