southerncross

This past week i spent Thanksgiving with my In-Laws and went hunting as much as i could. The only land accessible to me was public hunting at a lake near by. So me and my brother-in-law decided to go out and try to kill a deer. We were in the woods at about 5 in the morning. We found a wheat field and then we were about to sit down and we saw two guys about twenty yards from us. So we decided to move. We found a spot on top of the hill. when the sun came up, we noticeda dead six point left by some hunters, and decided to tryand relocate again. We found a draw that looked pretty good. We heard something in the distance and it was a guy wearing orange about twenty yards away. So we just decided to call it a day. While leaving we saw three more guys. It was absolutely crazy. I couldn't imagine anyone seeing any deer within 200 miles. I am very appreciative that there is public hunting. It gives everyone an oppurtunity to have a place to hunt. But it is just crazy out there.

passthrough24

It can get pretty crazy out there.....I dont have any land myself and do all my hunting on public land so I am kinda used to it.....It can get discouraging at times but we still manage to get some pretty nice bucks.....

CamoCop

the trick is to scout preseason and find good area's that no one else is going to hunt. from my personal experience, most hunters on public land will not walk far from their vehicle...normally only 100-300 yards. i have places that i hunt on public land that is over 1 mile from the closest spot accessible by vehicle. when the game is pressured like they are on public land, their pattern will change and they will move deeper in the woods.

brushbustin

i usually try to make a few trips to our public land here in east tn to the big south fork to hunt and every time ive been there i have never ran into another hunter.It is mountainous area.not alot of deer there but when u do find them they are big.i could not imagine the public hunting land being like that.Anyways just be safe out there and good luck.

Red Lion

I agree with preseason scouting any land. I regularly hunt different pieces of public land in MN and rarely have any problems seeing let alone having any other hunters any where near me. The first month and a half of bow season, I see no one else. I am in process of researching all public land for hunting relatively close to home that I can access next year, and I have found a lot of WMA land that I was unaware of that I plan to scout next year. I was surprised to find a lot of sizable pieces of land, along with smaller 30-300 acre pieces that seem like good places to scout and hopefully hunt next year.
Maybe if you research what public land is actually available you can open up more for your use.

kevin1

Next time get an aerial pic of the place and locate all of the easy access entry points , then draw a line beginning 500 yards out from them until you have a more or less complete circle . Whatever is inside the circle is where the deer will be since most guys won't go further than that from their truck due to the long drag out . Pay particular attention to areas of heavy brush .

Branson

I agree that public land can be a hassle. Last year I was mainly hunting public land and hadn't done my homework. I ended up getting frustrated with all of the other hunters and ended my season a bit early. For turkey season though, I did my homework and found a few spots ranging from 3/4-1.5 miles away from the parking area. I got my bird and never saw another hunter where I was hunting. It's all about finding a spot that's far enough that other hunters wont go, and that's loaded with game.
-- B

zuren1cs

I have heard that the public area near me is like that on the weekends. I may try to hunt tomorrow (few to people out during the week) but I'm leary of hunting public land in general. There are a lot of good responsible hunters out there, but there are also a lot of crazies that can give youproblems.

ButchA

I agree... I have been to some "popular" public land WMA's and one was absolutely insane! I mean, Jesus... there was so much blaze orange, it looked like a flippin' pumpkin patch! I didn't even want to get out of my truck! But I hiked in a little bit, thenlooked around and went " " and high tailed it outta there!

So, I go way out to the Nat'l Forests to get away from the crowds. Even then, I hike way way way in to where it looks as though I havethe whole 1.8 Million acres all to myself!

Butch A.

Californiadoctor

I hunt on public lands in California and actually do not see many other hunters since there isn't much game on public lands in California. I think we need to maintain some perspective. We are not subsistence hunting in the Ice Age when coming back to the cave empty handed meant starvation and death for our whole family. I enjoy going into the field and hunting. If I see or get something that is great, but if I don't that is alright to since I still had a great day in the outdoors.

Caldoc