Preface----I live in Rural NC....where public hunting land is not the "norm". The closest I know of from here (and only because I asked on here, one day) is over an hour from here. I literally know NOTHING about public land hunting in NC.

Also...here....it's fairly easy to find a woodlot or a farm to hunt. With above average deer densities (in our state)....finding privat ehunting lands is usually a few (if not one) stop-and-knock scenarios away.

So....you guys who hunt most public land.....do you do so:

1. Out of necessity. I can't gain access to private land to hunt. I've tried.

2. I would rather hunt public land....as it's the road less traveled. I could hunt private lands....but it's too competitive and crowded.

3. Other reason(s).

I hear a lot of people talking about hunting public land....and I wanted to ask "why"?

Here in Wisconsin its tough to get permission to hunt private. I do have permission on several farms, but to keep them fresh I hunt a lot of public too... I scout heavy in the off season and learn many bucks on the private and the public and go after the best 1st and switch around a lot so as to not educate my target animals.

I hunt the public landthat I do, mainly because it consist's of 1400 acres, much more than any private tract of land inmy region would have. Also, because it is bowhunting ONLY, and it's only 13 miles from where I live. I have a couple of private spots, but they are onlyabout 5 acres in size.

Ditto Early In.... Its 2,000 acres bow only and is only 15 minutes from my house... My land is approx. 500 acres and is 45 minutes from my house.... Also, local private land is extremely hard to get permission on. 90% of the land owners hunt themselves or have kids that do and they don't want the extra pressure.

I like hunting the public land that I hunt. There's about 1600 acres (3 spots - 400,400,800) within 20 miles of my house and it is barely hunted during bow season and not too bad during ML/shotgun seasons. There is even more a little farther away. Plus, the farther I walk in even less chance of another hunter back there. There is actually more public land to hunt than I have time to hunt LOL so I scout and hunt mostly those 3 spots.

I do have private land to hunt, some behind my house and some about 20 minutes away in another county. I generally hunt the private land on the sundays that "sunday hunting" is allowed on private land only and that is majority in the other county. I hunt the private land behind my house some afternoons because of the ease of use and I can leave my stand up after a afternoon hunt and hit it in the morning too.

I like hunting public land and the public land I hunt 15,000 acres, bow only except for a two day quote hunt and its in the QDM program. Oh, and its 15 minutes from my house.

Because I am not paying an outfitter 3000.00 to hunt in my own state.

Finding land here in Northern Virginia is like finding a needle in a haystack. There are a few hunt clubs but they usually have no openings and cost a couple thousand to join. The military base that I hunt on is just minutes from my house. I also have a real hard time asking people to hunt on their property, I just feel guilty asking if I feel someone will say yes when they really don't want anyone hunting on their property. So it is a combo for me, hardly any private land to hunt, and I don't like begging people for anything.

Because I have to. I have 3 small private places to hunt, I usually hunt them a few times during the year, but for the most part I'm on public land.

Jeff in MI hunting public land use to be the norm back in the day. Most counties in NLP are almost all public 70/30% on average. In the UP there is a ton of land. It was not until the shift to the SLP that hunting private land became so popular. I do not know what other states numbers are, but a full 15%(MI DNR) of the hunting takes place on Public land in 2007.

85% Private
15% Public

Where is the pressure at here

To answer you post, because there is a lot of it