That's my experience Livbucks.Hunting pressure is minimal on the public land s where I live.Mainly because these areas are litterally hundreds of thousands of acres.most of the private land not open to hunting are small areas are the deer don't just hang out in there because they get hunted hard by the few people that are allowed access.We have many big parcels of private property open to the public but they get hammered.I'll take the vast areas of public land any day over any private property.I don't seean overabundant amount of deer on these public areas because there's no one moving them and the food sources change constantly.however,I know they're there and if I stick with it,I always score.

Thats a fair question.

When I say "open to the public" I'm talking about land that is hunted by many without their seeking permission and no landowner has ever raised an objection. In most cases, I suspect the hunter doesn't even know who owns the land. We all know of and have likely hunted such properties. No yellow signs no welcome mat either but more impotantly a long history of anyone and everyone hunting there freely without express permission and without objection by the landowner.

Around here there's a lot of land that fits that description. Not as much as years ago but still plenty of it.

I'm sorry BT but I'm just flat out too lazy to scan pics and put them in photo bucket which has been slow as molasses on a day like today.
The last five or six bucks I shot were on private land open to hunting.Do you guys consider public land as SGL's,DCNR and such?

I consider public land as SGL's,state forests and even land owned by big timber companies that have never been posted.In some areas of the state,public land is a rare commodity so those areas problably get hammered alot worse than the private land.Around here,we have more public land than private land so the pressure is less on the public land.

Same here Doug.We also have water company land nearby that I call public land.

I get weirded out going to places that are known to be open land, but I don't know who owns it. I did that fairly often years ago, but I have a tough time bringing myself to do it anymore. I know some good spots I just don't have the guts to go and hunt. Plus a lot of times that land get HAMMERED.

These 2 bucks were taken from heavily hunted private ground, with all the surrounding ground also heavily hunted and mostly not posted.

Wow Rybo! Neat Buck!!! How long is that brow tine?

nice PA bucks there.

i hunt public land in jersey... kinda like vietnam...

That long brow tine on the one buck is probably the result of the buck injuring and splitting that beam while it was still in the early stages of velvet growth. I say that with some reservation though since this buck has a rather long brow tine on the left antler too. This could be just an odd antler configuration but I am leaning toward the injured beam being the most likely cause.

When a buck splits the beam it isn’t uncommon for it to then grow a double main beam though one beam frequently doesn’t get any points on it. I just had a rack in my hands today where the main bean was split early in the velvet stage and it grew a main beam with no points. The brow tine though had three points developed off of it.

R.S.Bodenhorn

I have the exact same computer desk Ryan.
This was a dumb post huh?