I went out with my bow after deer opening day, last Saturday.

I knew that there would be plenty of other hunters around since the opener was on a weekend. My strategy included that fact, and I set up between 2 well established deer highways near the end of the State Park that the critters run to when people show up.

I got in an hour before shooting time, and was sitting quiet with half an hour to go. I was very excited about my setup and the venison I hoped to be loading into the car within hours.

Then, about a half hour into shooting time, these 2 idiots come tromping right down one of the deer trails making a ton of noise.[:@] I whistled to them so they know I'm there in case my luck was bad enough that they were planning on sitting down near me. They never acknowledged me, but did make a turn and ended up leaving the area on the other deer trail. [:@]

Great. Now the best part of the day for this area is past, and both trails stink like dumb tardy humans. But wait, it gets worse. About 2 hours later, a guy comes by with his 10 year old kid and sits down on a log about 40 yards from my stand. [:@]This just isn't my day.

They were quiet enough that I didn't hear them until they were just about to their destination. I didn't make any noise this time. I figured my hunt was pretty well blown anyway, so I thought it would be fun to watch them for a bit and see how long it took them to notice me. I thought it was pretty cool that the guy had taken his kid out. I thought, "That'll be me in a few years."
Then, within 2 minutes the guy lights up a cigarette directly upwind of me! [:@]I just laughed to myself, but deep down I was pissed. I guess there really weren't any deer around by then anyway, but it still got to me.
About 15 minutes later, the kid finally noticed me, and they politely and quietly snuck back out the way they had come in.

I ended my day getting harrassed by squirrels and almost getting pooped on by a Red-Tailed Hawk.
He would have gotten me too, but he forgot to play the wind.

Who knows? Maybe I got all of my bad luck for the season out of the way in one hunt.

Been there...........done that.

Hunting public land is a different world. I have had similar experiences to your's so many times I have lost count. Some of the areas I hunt are an hour away as well. Nothing like driving 2 hours round trip and spending a whole day+$30 in gas just to have idiots ruin any chance you have at even seeing a deer.

I can't even count how many times I have been all settled in and actually excited because no one was even near me...........only to get ultra pissed off when a truckload of morons comes strolling into the woods a half hour after daylight...........WTF??? If you can't get out of bed any earlier then that just stay home. Don't ruin everyone elses day because of your laziness.

That is another reason scouting and planning for public land is frequently a waste of time. I have spent many hours scouting and trying to pattern deer on public land only to have it all flushed down the drain by guys sighting in guns or driving ATV's all over the place or just walking through every square inch of woods right before and even during the season. Some people just don't understand that deer get educated very fast and you can't just give away your presence and expect them to keep coming back.

I have a friend that INSISTS on driving his truck through the field that the deer feed in every night just because he is lazy and won't walk the long way in from the other side. EVERY night when he pulls in the deer scatter and snort and run with white flags waving goodbye into the woods..........then he grabs his stand and goes into the woods thinking they are goona hang around for him to kill. Needless to say he never gets a deer and needless to say I don't hunt with him anymore.

Sounds like Pa No state gamelands

with outfitting, leaseing, and developing, its only going to get worse.

Bulzeye, maybe you need to get further in!

I learned awhile back that there are public lands and then there are public lands .

Use an aerial photo site like TerraServer or others to locate smaller , less well known public parcels . Many times you'll have anywhere from 20 or 30 to several hundred acres all to yourself . At the very least you won't have the swarms that the larger ones do . Scout these hidden gems from above for funnels and other promising features without stinking them up , locate probable points of entry , and lock in their location for your GPS to find . I also like to figure out the probable points that other hunters might use so that I can "use them for drivers" if they do arrive .

The topo feature pinpoints stable water sources and elevation changes that might form a funnel , and defines the probable vegetation or lack of it . In most cases it also highlights the small publics as well as the large ones so that you can get directions to it from a mapping site later , and clearly defines the parcel's boundaries so that there can be no "Hey ! You're on my land !" I once solved just such an encounterwith a detailed topo map downloaded from a site that showed the landowner who challenged me that I was not trespassing after all . You can't argue with a GPS !

Ah, a perfect description of what I typically run into on a daily basis.