Just wandering how many of you are limited to hunting on public grounds. It looks like I am going to lose a couple of good spots next year (farmers selling off land). If I can't replace these areas I will hunt the public ground that is close to the house. I have never owned a GPS before, butI am thinking it might be worth the investment.

i love my public land. theres a ton of food, not that many bow hunters and it's very diverse. lots of edge, a swamp, hiking trails, a creek, oak forest, ponds, clover fields and tons of apple trees. but come gun season it gets pressured hard. you should go to terraserver-usa.com. great site. i use the aireal photos and typo maps to get a look at the grounds. photos i believe are from 94' or 96' but it still gives a decent idea of what you have to work with. I'm thinking of getting a gps too. i can plot my trails, scrapes, rub lines and suck as way points and go to terra server. i then can print out the land with or w/o grid lines and then plot my coordinates. this can give me a picture of how the bucks/doe are moving or selecting beds/feeding sites due to wind, pressure or other factors. the more you know the better off you'll be harvesting a deer. good luck this season bro.

Do you live in town or in the sticks. I personally think the farther you can get from the city the better your chances on bagging a deer are. All the areas close to the city get bombarded by city hunters which usually push the deer into nocturnal routes. I think public land can be a great place to bag some deer.

Public land only here. I have to work around squirrel hunters, pheasant hunters and their dogs, other bow hunters, hikers, bikers, campers, weekend warriors, etc. Good luck to you. Depending on where you are, you might need it.

I am about 35 miles east of Cincinnati OH.withtwo state parks with in 15 - 20 mins. from my door. I know gun season is huge around this area, but was hoping to be able to get some good earlyseason bowhunts in. I will begin scouting in February for next season as I got lucky this year and am already tagged out.

It is pretty sad to see these farmers having to sell their land off,I know they will be compensated well but it is still sad to see it happen.

That sucks about being tagged out. Also if you got the green I would go with a lowrance Ifinder hunt gps. They can do just bout anything. They however can be somewhat confusing to operate if you havent become familiar with it. Let me know if you need anymore info on this gps. Also go to lowrances website and i think they have a virtual gps you can play with to see if you like it.

Man I feel for you. I'm in danger of losing my little farm now. The owner's sun is a big gun hunter, and we had a little run in last night. He was a real prick...I was polite and let him rant, and then went back and took down my stands...gun season starts tomorrow. I had already heard that he is pressuring his old man to rescind the permission he's given to other hunters. I'm really bummed because this is a decent place, with potential for big bucks, AND because it's about 10 minutes from work and home...I can get a couple hours of hunting in every night during the week. Public land scares me, but it may be my last resort. [:'(]

i don't have any good private land for deer around me but i'm going to start hunting on some public land that isn't too far from me. i missed bow season. since it's gun season now i have to put up with the dog hunters and everything. that's always fun. i would like to get a gps for public land but i haven't yet. garmin and lowrance are supposed to be pretty good.

I'm not limited to public land anymore , but I'll never understand why folks think that they'll automatically do better on private land . Some of my best hunts have been on smaller public parcels , and nearly all of my worst have been on private land . Sure , the larger and more popular publics can be crowded , but many times you can go to a smaller , less used one and have it largely to yourself . Once the guns start banging all land is about equal , but with diminishing numbers of bow hunters public land can often be better than private . Use a topo map to look around where you live and I'll bet that you'll uncover some forgotten little gems out there . Remember , it doesn't have to be big to hold a big buck .

I have about a 1 1/2 mile square area of private ground around my house that I hunt, but I still go and hunt public area alot, especially AFTER gun seasons, by then the average bow hunter gives up! There are a lot of really nice bucks on public land. Oh by the way I live in ILLINOIS