True. But there is a difference between seeing people and seeing the next incarnation of a "Woodstock" rock concert!!! :mad:

I won't deer hunt the nearby public land areas anymore. It's too insane. I read a story once where a guy heard or felt a bullet whizz by his head on public land here in Virginia. When he ran towards the sound to confront the person, it was a father/son duo and the son took a "sound shot" because he heard something in the woods! :eek2:

There is not a game warden, or as we call em here, a DEC officer on earth who could accuse you of hunting from your vehicle if youre not actually sitting in it. as long as you are hunting on land designated for hunting, it doesnt matter if youre sitting 50 yds or 50 miles from your car. why would somebody hike a mile into the woods if there are more deer closer to the road?

In recent years my experiences have borne this out 100% much to my chagrin-I've hunted alot of back there spots which feel "deer-y" to me ,only to see them feeding comfortably on front lawns on my way home. I'm convinced deer , at least in my rural area, prefer the company of people!

I was lucky enough to start finding private land to hunt after several years of public only. These past few years, I can't tell the difference anymore.

Frankly, I've bowed out of rifle season of late in favor of bow & muzzy; I refuse to compete for turf w/ guys when none of our names are on the deed
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I've heard there are fewer guys hunting now, but you can't prove it by me. What concerns me is where we may be headed: either hunt public or pay-to-play (lease) private. Honestly, many land owners here may need that cash to pay their property taxes.

One issue in my locale, and I'm sure in many others, is that the Family farm was sold and sub-divided with most owners posting every tree on their boundary. Unless you can string a few of these 5-10 acre parcels together, it just doesn't seem worthwhile,IMO.

I recently became aware that in my brief 40-something years, the world's population has doubled. That changes things.

Butch, you gotta tell me about those places you are going out west.

This year on the days that I slip away during the week, I don't see anyone. Weekends are definitely busy.

Soon as it gets colder the weekend warrior hunters will thin out.

I don't know who or what you're referring to but I hunt public land and know at some point or another I'm going to run into another hunter or another hunter is going to walk into my area. What pisses me off is those hunters out there who want to get pissed off because another hunter has walked into their area.

This!

I'm hoping that for our approaching muzzleloader season that the temps are below 30 degrees. That seems to keep a lot of guys indoors and the woods around me will be quieter.

:cool2:

George Washington Nat'l Forest

You do see the irony here don't you?

You pissed off, they pissed off. You wouldn't be pissed if he didn't get pissed, vise versa.

This is rather comical.

Your aggravated because he is aggravated at you getting up late and stomping in the woods at first light. I am just sayin.

Get your butt out of bed earlier. Problem solved. All would been settled before daylight.

depending on your set up and access route it can be preferable to wait to first light and "hunt" your way to the stand. I have some spots that going in the dark and bumping deer ends the hunt. If I can glass the area and slip in undetected I have far more success. Just saying it's not always about "sleeping in". I prefer to be in the stand as light rises and will walk a couple miles to access a stand I could get to in a few hundred yards if I just went straight thru the bush. That is the preference but sometimes waiting is better for morning hunts.

I hunt public land up here but i guess ours is more vast and we all pay attention to acitivity in the various areas. The real problem with your scenario would be the placement of a stand within 50 yds of yours! (or vice versa if he was there first). Man around here if you are within a few hundred yards of someone elses area they have established to hunt, your looking for trouble. Pre-season scouting and putting up stands usually identifies who is where and these things get ironed out before the hunt even begins.

I had another hunter who is in my area call me to tell me a buck I was hunting was on his trail cam at a stand location 400 yds from mine on the other side of a large beaver meadow. He was not able to hunt it anymore due to work committments and so he called me to move over if I wanted. By knowing who is who we worked out spots and usually end up working together instead of against each other.

We always joke that if the other guy shoots a good buck we will be jealous, p!ssed off etc. but also happy for the other guy as well. The other thing is we ALL make sure that people know we hunt in the area when they show up or talk about hunting there. As much as we can't stop them becuase it's public there is 5 guys down this area of land who have all worked together to not step on each other toes. People get told it's crowded enough and go find another area (respectfully of course).