If you have a separate muzzleloader season - take advantage of this on public land. You won't find 1/4 the hunters. Also, bow hunt on public land if you do not already do so.

We do, two weeks...

Hmmm..sounds like I need to add a word or two of explanation...When deer hunting..I normally go to the Pisgah National Forest, which is west of me..and up in the mountains...and always feel more like home to me.

But as I think I have mentioned, I have health issue...actually a back problem..back then it wasn't so serious but I got off work late, Uwharrie is closer..and I had be back in the early afternoon the next day...so I had less than a day hunt...Hunting Uwharrie allowed me to cut my time a lot closer...

Mostly these days, when I can get out, I hunt private land or in Pisgah as I said..often with modern rifles, now and then with a bow, or flintlock..

I don't regard the two idiots as typical...but it did happen and is worth mentioning...(if God wasn't busy elsewhere that day, at some point they shot each other..)

I decided to hunt Public land one year and low crawled out with in an hour after day break. Setting on a hill over looking a valley I counted 33 orange blobs around me.
A week later you would probably have a hard time finding any orange blobs in the whole woods.
Still not liking that mess I saved worked 2 jobs for a while and bought my own hunting land.
Biggest problem there is the trespassers but they can be managed also.
Of course a few of the really stupid ones want to go to court so you miss a little time at work.

Al

secret to gameland is to put miles on your boots.

Put a bullet through both shoulders and the buck will go down right there. It may "Snow Plow" for 20 or 30 yards but he won't go much farther.

You have smaller deer, we'll smaller than the behemoths from up north, load that 270 with a hornady 110 gr hp in front of about 57 gr of IMR 4350' they just wad up like a wet dishrag when it hits them, I know this for a fact.
RR

Beautiful front stuffer!!! Love the way that curly maple makes a really nice gun that much nicer!!!!!

My wife lived in Oriental, NC. in 1982. When we first met she didn't like " those stupid hunters". As we dated I talked about my deer hunts. She told me in N.C. they just drove around in the back of pickup trucks while sitting in lawn chairs.

Yep. Have to agree with the above. Lace up the boots and walk a mile from the roads. You'll leave 95% of the others behind you. Bring a pack frame and game bags with you and bone your deer out where it falls. Problem solved.

If you can't walk, get a horse. Leave the ATVs alone because if you can ride one in, everyone else can too and you'll face the same issue you do now.