I've been lucky most of the time on public land. I've gotten in a prime spot and had hunters come in an hour after me, just before light. I wave my hat a few times and they leave. I've had dogs run right over me...kinda scarey when someone's blasting from the directiong the dogs are coming from. I've taken advantage of the dogs being run by setin gup on what I considered the most likely escape route. I was right. Nobody said anything about me taking a deer that their dogs were chasing. Two of them even gave me a hand finding the blood trail ( THere was so much blood that from the deer running a cross pattern from the dogs, it was hard to tell which way it went.) I would never knowingly walk on someone elses hunt, and you didn't either. Seeing a bunch of tape can also be from someone trailing a deer. Public land is public. best bet is always to go deep You can still hear their dogs but you see less of the people.

David