Originally Posted by bronko22000

mrbb I sure am not bashing public land. What I was referring to was referring to private land where owners put in food plots in and hunt over them.
There's no such thing on the coal company ground I hunt on. And when I refer to roads I don't mean those accessible by vehicle (some are ATV accessible). What I am talking about are abandoned strip mine roads or old trolley trails. The only exception to this is the elk I shot this year that expired about 200 yards and uphill from a road.
But I tell you this public land hunting does not come easily. Scouting takes a lot of time. Starting in spring during turkey season my main focus is still on deer travel. Then walking learning the lay of the land and putting out trail cameras. And more hiking in the fall looking for rubs and fresh deer sign then more cameras out.
Even with all this effort there have been years where the only deer I saw was the one I harvested after many days of hunting.
A couple tricks I've learned just a few years ago that I will share with you guys.
1. If you're like me and have limited resources (stand locations) after several unsuccessful outings with no luck change your tactics. I shot one of the biggest bucks of my 55 year career by sleeping in because of a light rain and didn't go out until about 11:30 sneaking into my stand about 11:45 and putting my tag on him at 12:30 after rattling and grunting him in out of his bedding area and into bow range. He never expected anyone to be in that stand during the middle of the day.
2. Don't overlook areas close to the highway or main road that has good cover. Most hunters think they have to go far off the beaten path to get a deer. And while many times that is true it isn't always the case. During one of my scouting trips about 4 years ago I found an area within rock throwing distance of a highway (and at 67 years old I can't throw very far anymore!) that was just tore up with rubs and scrapes. This area was full of briars and huge boulders. I hunkered down on my knees between one of these boulders and a nice size tree downwind of a deer trail for an evening hunt and shot a nice 8 pointer as he came in and had his nose buried in a scrape.

Hunting public land can be a pain but it can also be awesome.