Tell me why?

[perry f.]

Please tell me why I can hunt public ground near my house and not see a single person, but I have to arrive early to get a parking spot at the private farm that surrounds my property. Both have some nice deer and both hold some of the same deer.... Go figure :0)

[Duker]

[Rob W.]

I hunt 90% public land these days. I can stretch my legs and very seldom have a problem with anyone. Got some buddies that have all kinds of trouble with private land.


Rob

[lpcjon2]

Thats simple the majority of rich and fabulous type hunters think the term private means big bucks placed at the end of your arrow, and public means to much work and crappy racks for us peasent low grade poor hunters...LOL

[gonzoso]

I dunno, people are weird.  

I hunt a private property, a little over 1k acres.  It is adjacent to 3-4k acres of state game lands which are huge and hold many deer.

I am constantly dealing with guys coming onto the private property and poaching this land which I earned permission to hunt on.  Part of my deal is I am to keep poachers out.  Rifle season is the worst, the only other guy allowed to hunt there almost got into a gunfight last rifle season.

I don't know what is wrong with people that they would shoot a man so they can poach someone elses land in a place where there's thousands of acres available all around.  Within 30 minutes drive there are probably 20k acres of hunting land.

And there's not a lack of deer here, most folks just don't see them, they're wily creatures!

[D]

I don't get it either.  My Dad and I hunt a little over 70 acres and besides my broher and a friend we ae the only ones that are allowed to hunt it.  We put in tons of work in the place over the years.  Let the small bucks walk and usually have two or three good bucks on the property.  The main problem is that there is a large field that joins the road and it gets spotlighted every freaking year.  A number of years ago we found some dead does thrown over the hill with just the damn ears cut off.  Come to find out some highschool kids had a compitition to see who could collect the most ears......

[JamesV]

I once invited a friend to hunt on my club land with me and the wife, 1100 acres archery only. He crossed the fence onto another private club and killed a doe. There was a posted sign where he climbed over. When I confronted him he explained that the best hunting is always behind a posted sign. Go figure

[Trad-Man]

James...
Dosen't sound like much of a friend if he would jeopardize your relationship with your neighbors.

[Pointer]

When I hunteds private land years ago it was in the family so there were alot of people hunting it but my brother and i were the only bowhunters. We took our share of deer. FOr the past 10 years or so its been exclusively public land for me. I can have it mostly to myself if I hike in about a mile. Today I decided to hunt near the truck...lots of sign but within an hour a guy hunting pheasants with his dog came thru and then another guy shotgunning for squirrels..that's public land around here....Next week its back into the woods for me..

[Friend]

***Just few a thoughts***

1.   Typically there are more deer per acre on private land

2.   Typically there are less food sources
 
3.   Typically public land maintains more difficult access due to only permitting  travel by foot

4.   Typically public lands are much larger and require much more woodsmanship

5.   Typically public land is synonymous with tougher hunting

Because of the aforementioned possibilities, I typically select public land hunting to complete my traditional experience.