The biggest problem I have hunting Fla's public land is people leaving stands in the woods. Ladder stands especially. Although one is as bad as the other if you are going to lock it to a tree in a good spot and leave it till you die then let your next of kind inherit the spot..that's how some think. Just because they lean a ladder against a tree in the woods that area becomes their's till it's gone.
What irritates me is I may have been hunting that same spot for yrs. and take my climber out every time I hunt it. Actually I don't take it out every time but I do take it off the tree and hide it till I come back in area to hunt again. There's just so many good spots on public land and people will put as many ladders as they can drag in during the summer. I've had it happen. Three guys started hunting the same area and the next yr. every spot had a steel ladder stand locked to a tree. They put in about 10 per person and they also lock their climbers to a tree and leave all season.
When I come upon a good spot and want to hunt it and there's a ladder stand or any kind on or in the tree..how am I to know they didn't get killed in a car wreck on the way home from putting it up and will never hunt the stand? I think it should be a law that the stand becomes part of the tree when you leave it. If you don't get there first you have no rights to the area.
There's some public land areas in Fl. that have ladder stands every 100yds. around clear cuts.

I been picking them up on my way out and putting them in the trash where they belong, allong with all those "bread crumbs" and other tacky litter crap people tie on trees around here.

Public land hunting etiquette, is like locks! They keep honest people out!
I doubt that I could go back to public land hunting!
Being a shift worker, I hunt a lot during the week. When I did hunt public land, I'd see a lot of evidence, of many "weekenders" trampling the place!

Public land is tough, no doubt about it. I hunt a public place that is 975 acres and I'm lucky that it gets very little pressure except during gun season...which I don't hunt there. For archery and ML, the place is almost all mine. I have a lock on stand that I leave in a tree there, but I know that others have used it...which is a risk I take. There is another stand not far from mine which I have never seen used so I don't feel bad about mine being that close. However, if I walked in and saw that person there, I'd quietly turn around and find another spot. I disagree with earlier comments that said if you see someone else has a stand in an area that you should avoid it. Like I said, this other stand has been in the same tree for several seasons and I have never seen it being used. Who knows what happened to the owner. It's in a prime transition area which I don't think should be "reserved" just because someone put a stand there. My stand is in the same area, but I don't consider it my area.
I'm very fortunate that I have recently come across to 3 private places with just over 400 acres total which I have exclusive rights to. That came after knocking on a lot of doors and doing a lot of research. It finally paid off.
Best of luck,
Craig

i always take down my flagging tape/markers when i'm finished hunting. however, if i caught someone taking down my flagging tape/markers before i'm done hunting.....well that someone would get a first class azz whoop'n!

First come first served is the rule and always has been . I often find it amazingwhen some "Joe Super Hunter" scouts a public , hangs a stand days or weeks ahead of opening day, and then have the nerve to try to run off a guy who gets in and sets up before the first one gets there . It's called "public" for a reason , get there first or move on.

What I do is scout for smaller , less well known publics that abut private property , especially posted ones . Very often these little hidden gems , many under 100 acres , get little or no pressure at all . Very often you find yourself the only one who even knows that they exist , and deer just love an unpressured spot. On more crowded publics I get in well before anyone else , go in deep to prescouted spots that put me where the lazier guys will drive the game to me , and then just wait in my web for the flies to come to me .

Ya don't say. I normally leave it under your windshield wiper if yer still sit'n there and toss your McD bag in the back of the truck. If I'm going in I tie it all to the steps on your stand when I get there.

I'm with ya. They head out of the city one weekend and leave their "bread crumbs" and trash all over the woods then show up an hour after day light hollering around about all their effort, commitment and wanting to hand out some big city can of "whoop ass" for hunting ten minutes from where I live in the same spot I've been killing deer for twenty years because it's their "secret" spot.

Nice to see that you're keeping our woods clean , Jack , I do the same.
Stop back by HI when you get a chance , I miss your wisdom and ascerbic wit . The link is in my sig if you need it .