Sometimes I hunt behind my house(part public, part private). Sometimes I hunt a parcel of private land where I have permission. More often than not, I hunt in a nearby national forest. I like to walk around, and there's not as much room to do that on private land. I saw more deer on private land this year, but that was due to an unusually long dog season here. I only saw one deer on public land after dog season started, and after about two weeks of it, I stopped seeing deer on public and private land. I did kill an unusual number of coyotes this year.

All of my life i have hunted private land. The conservation owns about 400 acres that borders usand they turned it into public land so i will be hunting public land for the first time in my life this fall. Maybe this spring if they open by then

public-firearm(with family) private-bow(alone)

public

I meant to say big racks!

If your gonna hunt public, you might wanna take a 10 or 15min. walk past the open road. You'll be amazed how many animals you see. I hunt a public area, where a road goes around 3/4 of it. Many road hunters just drive on the road thinking they'll see somthing. But most of them scare the deer and elk deeper into my area. Hence I reap all the rewards and they go home empty handed.

I hunt both private and public. I feel more confident on private land and would say my chances are better at scoring on a mature buck there. I like hunting public cause it feels like more of a challenge and theres a ton of it around my area. That and it gives my private land a break and me more deer to chose from.

I hunt almost exclusively on public land in WI. There is a lot of public land here, so if you're flexible and open minded, you can find good hunting. One tip is to be on top of your game with regards to sportsmanship. Play by the book, and be considerate of other hunters. Report anyone who is blatantly breaking the rules. Adjust your expectations. Focus on making a good effort and enjoying your time afield.Sucess will come with patience, persistence and quality effort. The game is there, in high numbers in most parts of the country. If you stay with it, you'll get a kill opportunity eventually.

Many on this forum advise you to go way back in. I've tried that, andoften run into other guys that have the same idea. Now I look for promising spots close to the road, and scout out a number of them. Then, if you bump into another hunter it's easy to bail and go to another spot. If you commit to going way back in and then get goofed up by another hunter, you've wasted a lot of effort. There is usually just as good cover, terrain features anddeer activity right near the road. Deer aren't afraid of roads.

Pressured deer tend to be highly nocturnal. You have to get lucky, one has to make a mistake. I've had good luck on public land hunting at oddball times. It might pay to observe some lunar information about game activity times. I've also had good luck with some oddball type tactics. Try still hunting, most deer hunters don't, and it's possible the deer could make a mistake in how they react to it. Move right into a suspected bedding area. Try some estrous scent way early in bow season. Try rattling or calling in an oddball place or time. Anything to provoke a deer into making a mistake. One cool thing about public land, you don't have to worry about screwing with the deer because they are already screwed with to the maximum extent. You have nothing to lose.