Ansel,

It sounds as if most of the guys replying have had some bad luck. I live in deep southern ohio. One of the most overlooked hunting places in the state. We have great hunting, public or private. We have one of the most stable deer, squirrel, deer, turkey, and grouse populations in state. Bowhunting here is pretty good.

Unless you go to public land during firearm season, its pretty quiet. The thing that makes hunting in the county i live in so great is that everyone thinks that all the other counties are much better and the leave my county go to other popular counties, like athens, muskingaham, guernsey, ect......

And most farmers will let you hunt if you ask them (but like most places you run into a few mean people, you cant avoid that anywhere) but the key is the gift of gab. Just shoot the breeze with them and get to kno them. I hunt private property, but I always find a farm every year to hunt on. I find farmers every year that want rid of deer so bad they want you to come out with a rifle and spotlight them.

Everyone has been complaining about not seeing deer, but every year I see plenty of deer and I see my fair share of bucks, and at least on truly big one every year. What makes hunting where I live so great is not many people hunt hard every day because the terrain is to rough (steep hills, brushy and thick as hell with lots of briars) and they hunt one week a year.......gun season. Typical lazy appalachians. Its there if you want to get out and look.

Ansel,

by the way, why ohio? Michigan has some good deer hunting and some brutes running around? Dont mean anything by it, just curious?

I live in Medina County and Bowhunt. I have found that many people will let you hunt on their property. Here there is very little hunting pressure while bowhunting. I have never had an encounter with another bowhunter. There is medium gun pressure here also.

Public land is tough anywhere seems like,I did alot of hunting
in deleware wildlife area this year.I saw some big bucks on pheasant
opening morning,everyones dogs sent them running fast,looked like
opening day gun season.

Hey proline how is the presure in and around mount giliead
to get permission on private land??We gonna start getting
our land ready to move in January. Thanks

MASHUNTER...If you ask around, you can find good places to hunt. Not a lot of pub land around here. Delaware is OK...but crowded.

You can find farms to hunt around here. GOOD LUCK!

Thanks Guys,
I thought this was dropped back long ago and was surprised to see it surface again. I guess I missed a few days here and there.

125 Thunderhead,
I'm not sure why I was thinking about Ohio, I guess it may be I am always looking for some exciting bow hunting and know that there have been some nice bucks taken in OH. I was also thinking that maybe it was not hit as hard as WI, IL, MN, IA.
I'll admit I was a little put back by the responses here and seeing how I'm at least 8 hours for the state line (I'm in the U.P.), without a local contact I thought that it might be to far to gamble and make a special scouting trip.
Hunting in MI is Okay but our buck doe ratio is pretty messed up and the average age of the bucks are really young. I'm not trophy hunting but wouldn't mind having more opportunities on a nice one with my bow.
Thanks Again,