Public Land for Hunting...Your Thoughts?

[lovestohunt]

Hunters, I would really like your opinion and thoughts on this one.
I have been blessed growing up in Wisconsin where there are plenty of lakes around me for fishing, flooded corn fields for waterfowling, and woods for small game and turkey hunting. My family has our own private access to over 260 acres of a mixture of crop fields, marsh, hardwoods, and willows. This parcel has always produced great hunting opportunities for us. Even though we do not own this land, it has been set aside for our family. One of the reasons I believe it has been so great, is because there has always been great hunting land around ours as well. Over the years, I have seen some of the most productive hunting habitats become sold off or plowed under, only to have houses, milking parlors, more farm land, etc. take its place. I am worried that eventually our parcel will start diminishing to the demands of a small town which is slowly growing. This parcel, like I said, is not ours, but set aside for our family. The owner of this parcel is getting up there in age and who knows what will happen to the land in time. Until that day happens, I plan on enjoying our land as much as possible, however....

I have been considering trying some public land around the state. I have never hunted public land before and I am a little on the hesitant side. I am concerned about the responsibility and the safety factor of other hunters around me. For those of you that do hunt public land, can you give me some tips. Understand, public land in Wisconsin is not like public land in the western states. The parcels are much smaller. (1000-1500 acres is average, 6000 acres is huge). Have your experiences been positive or negative, very crowded, do you see quite a bit of game (deer in particular)? How do you go about finding out the best parts of the public land? How has the demeanor of other hunters been if you run into them out in the same parcel of land? There is a large chunk of public land on my way home from work. My plan is to hunt public after work, and my own land on the weekends. Again, I would appreciate any stories, info, tips, etc. Thanks guys.

[CHAVEZ CHAVEZ]

all i hunt is public,blm,n-forest the land i hunt alot of hunters hunt it, also i remember one time i was deer
hunt'n at a honey hole was walking around looking for sign, it was early morn'n all of a sudden shots went
off looked around a huge muley came run'n out of the tree line the hunters who ever they wereand where thay were i never seen them i hit the ground so fast scared the s*** out of me !this all happened about
100 so yrd's from me the shoot'n all stopped i got up and got the h*** out of there ,got to a ridge on the other side look'n around spotted 4 hunters where i was, come'n out of the tree line none of them had blaze orange on ,that is a must here n CO, they had to have seen me but it didnt stop them from shoot'n
i was just glad a bullet didnt deflect off something and hit me ! alot of out of state huners and res-hunters i run into n theses units i hunt, if i spot a hunter with n 100 yrd's and dosent see me i make him aware of me i carry a piece of orange and wave it back and forth it hasnt failed me yet (knock on wood)
then i get up and move to another spot.it get fustrating some times i will just see to many hunters
but what can u do? so when i find some good spotsto hunt i dont tell anyone. just me and my boys.
just be aware of other hunters u will be o.k. and let them be aware of u if they get to close.

[rooster52]

I am a public land hunter,living in Michigan we have large amount of public land.Though not all good for hunting with some research and scouting , I have found some great whitetails on public land.By walking deeper into the areas than the average hunter I have found some trophy size bucks.I like to find large tracks of roadless areas and plan hiking at least a mile to escape other hunters.I have found most hunters stay within 1/2 mile of a road and tend to push the deer to stay far from the roads.Public land holds some great deer hunting but it is work to find them.

[Brent]

I have hunted both. The thing about public is that normally you have to do more scouting, because their habits can change a little more, especially when there are a lot of hunters in the area. I agree with your idea of public during the week and private on the weekend. I never like to hunt public on a weekend for deer season. i am just as cautious as the next guy when hunting public.

Overall i have had some great times on public, but you need to be able to leg it out more than the average guy to have success most of the time. You need to be able to driver further out of town than the average guy and/or walk deeper into the field.

I believe it was my uncle that once told me 80% of the hunters drive 20% out of their way (out of town), then the other 20% of the hunters drive 80% out of their way. The success rates stays with the amount of driving they do. (80% of hunters kill 20% of the game and equal the success rate, then 20% of hunters kill 80% of the game and have that equal in success rate).

Food for thought

[D-hunter]

I agree with staying out of rhere on weekend,but sometimes the people help you . The key is to get inthere before everybody else I live in upstate NY yes there is mor to NY then the city. I ,ve noticed most people that hunt state lanf will not go far off the roadand alot of times they will push deer to u because they are walking and coughing and making all sorts of noise. You do have to be alittle more cautcious and hope everybody else is also .I like to bring a climbing stand withe me to be out of shooting range

[markkaiser421@yahoo.com]

hunting public land i feel that success has everything to do with proper scouting. if your scouting is good then you should reap the rewards of a nice stag. you might find another hunter in you prescouted area but the only thing is it is public land and he does have the right to be there. on the other hand he could be a fly-by one night and gone the next hope for the best(he dont see anything). also he might not be a quality hunter and wont see the big buck. one of the things said in one other reply was hunt deep i believe this to be true. in big plots of land when hunting pressure gets intense the deer tend to move deeper in the woods where there is food and a place they feel safe. i have found that deeper is better during rifle season during archery season is a little different your scouting and keeping scent under control it wont matter much if there is another hunter 100yds away if you do your homework and he doesnt eliminate scent you will reap the rewards. i hunt both private and public land i have 1000+acres posted for my hunting purposes only and half the time i will find a nice buck on public land and hunt that buck more than my own. as far as too much hunting pressure like that one guy talked about when he saw 4 hunters and got scared because of shots fired i never had that problem matter of fact i rarely ever see a hunter. but i do go deep during rifle and get there early and stay all day. last year i didnt hunt rifle because oct.29th i got an 8 point in pa 2 days later i got a 10 point in oh the next morning my doe in oh my season ended there so i took my niece rifle hunting. all the deer were with my bow in a four day span. one was on the posted property and the other two were on public land.

[PSE deer hunter]

I will be bow hunting on public land this season

PS.bow season opens 8,14,06 in GA

[lovestohunt]

PSE:
You are one lucky man. I have to wait till Sept 16th. I need the time though. Just got a new bow and need to dial it in. Shooting it gives me the itch though. Good Luck this year.

[sammyg]

I need help in finding good public land access sites in AREA 13 in COLORADO for BOWHUNTING

[dubyam]

I have hunted public land exclusively for the last decade or so. I bowhunt the Wheeler National Wildlife Refuge along the Tennessee River near Huntsville, AL. I can tell you, from growing up hunting the Apalachicola National Forest near Tallahassee, FL, that there are a few things different about hunting public land. Most of them have been covered already. Scout a lot. Hunt deep. Be watchful. Wear orange. (I even wear orange when walking in and out bowhunting, but I generally cover up in my climbing stand.) A couple of additional things, though. First, I have never, never had a bad experience on public land, although I have avoided a couple. That's the being watchful part. I find that the majority of the hunters you meet on public land are regular guys just like you, or me, and they are out for the same reason we are. I exchange some information with them, and there is even an unwritten rule in the swamp area I hunt that whoever is there will give a general location on a notecard on his dashboard, and then everybody sort of stays off each other a little. I have walked in on someone a few times, and had people walk in on me, too. It's just part of the deal. I whistle like a bird prior to walking into a woodlot where another hunter might already be climbed up, and that generally elicits a response. I just back out and go to another area. Others have done the same to me, no problems. In fact, one guy on his way out of the woods pushed 5 big does past my stand one afternoon, and my stomach and freezer were very thankful for them. Literally everyone I have met has been nice, and we all act like a big hunt club, even leaving notes on what we saw on each other's windshields. The last thing I will tell you is that I hunt pretty deep, and carry all my gear in and out each hunt. But sometimes I get smart, and find little areas that are overlooked, like across from the parking area, a little strip of trees not more than 50yds wide, that runs between the two-rut road and the swamp pond. I started out normally one afternoon, but as I locked my truck, I noticed a little Eastern Redcedar about as big around as a toilet paper tube, had been rubbed pretty harshly, right there in the parking area. I looked around, and found a little deer trail, including some scat, up that sliver of woods. I hunted there that afternoon, and didn't get a shot, but subsequent trips have produced there. Nobody hunts that little strip, I guess for the same reason I didn't. It is right along the road, and runs from the main road to the parking area, so it does not appear to be the best stand site. It is a travel corridor, and has virtually no hunting pressure, so it works well. Hunt deep, hunt hard, hunt smart. Good luck.

[ultimateoutdoorsman]

I am having the hardest time finding good hunting awayfrom the crowds. I have had numorose years where I have been shot at. I remember one time I was with my dad and brother and all the sudden
KA-WAM the tree only about A foot next to us exploded and the stupid Idiot kept shooting we hid behind some logs for about a half hour till they left. we also have had people who just point there guns at us just to scare us. the woods where we used to hunt are filled with pochers and dumpers and with fully automatic crazed teens and adults that go into the woods just to blow apart trees all day. just last week I went up shooting and at one of the spots that we went to shoot there was a doe and a yearling that some one had shot over and over and over and they just left them. all blown to peices. I dont know what to do its not that hard to pick up your targets and caseing's.