Jeff, I had problems with the tresspassers on asmall piece of private land I and 4 other guys have access too, its all surrounded by public. I had a double bull blind of mine stolen in there, no cameras, guys sneaking in and filming bucks in there, jogging/biking etc..I put out cameras to try and catch them in there, its all posted very well. I have access to hunt about 50 acres of it. My land owner put a stop to it though, it ended up working out decent. Often the mentality here is, if no ones around, then its ok tresspass because they know very few landowners will actually press charges.

As far as tressing passing on public lands there is no such thing as tresspassing on public lands.. its a free run. Like I said of the thousands of acres I hunt, only sliver of them are private, I hunt the one 50 acre area and another 273 acre area. I don't mind thoughsome of my best hunting areas are public andwell of the beaten path were most wont spend the effort to get too. This country out here is about as brushy and steep as it gets in many areas, and thats where the elk, bear and whitetails grow old. Good example of where I headed here in about 20 minutes ... in behind a locked gate of Federal land that has 20 miles of dirt road that is only accessible by horseback, foot traffic or mountain bike. I am taking the mountain bike in tonight for some scouting/videoing.

peace out, i got bucks to scout.

[quote]ORIGINAL: davidmil

The guy was cutting me off. LOL As far as I knew, I'm the only one hunting in there. I think he's the guy that owns the land next door.
[quote]
This ties right in with my "Scouting Hunters" thread.

all private land here!

For me down here in florida its #1 unless you hunt a club which is pretty expensive most of the time there isnt alot of land that you can just knock on someones door and ask em even in rural parts offlorida.

I personally see more and bigger deer on state land verses my private, not to mention with the exception of the Bow only area's most of the places I hunt I have the whole forest to my self and see lots. but thats just me

Finding Private ground in IL becomes harder every year, and a lot of the Private ground that you can gain permission to hunt has more pressure than most public spots.

You do what you gotta do!

Dan

I hunt public land due to convience after work. I do have a few private small parcels, but not close to work. I get off work @ 430 & in da woods by 445. that way I can hunt several x's a week.

I'll try and find private land to hunt first, if that falls through or if I'm hunting in a new area (without many connections), I'll look at what's avaible for public...

Because Illinois' limited gun seasons result in mature buckson about all public lands. I had private land in Indiana but I just never saw the mature buck numbers. Also I really enjoy the challenge of strategizing around other hunters. Also I am broke from a divorce and have no choice.

In California, it is out of necessity, I hunt 90% public, 10% private, I hate going onto private land here and paying someone $400 to hunt a hog, or into the thousands for deer...In California, there's alot of public land to hunt, I also hunt Arizona alot, they are loaded with public land also...