Public Land - your keys to success?

[Slimpikins]

I remember my pops waking up at 4 a.m on a Saturday morning, driving 45 minutes to our favorite public land honey hole only to sleep in the truck until other hunters had parked elsewhere and then head back to the house. He had two draws that he hunted religiously and the more people saw his truck the less likely they were going to go into the spot. If he had a successful hunt one afternoon, he would be parked there the next morning, not to hunt, but to keep others from stirring the place up more. I remember a few years of 6-8 out of those two draws.

[Hoyt]

I prefer to hunt large tracks of public land and have been doing it exclusively for the last 25 to 30 yrs.

I've always had good success until my age and health starting catching up with me..missed the rut this yr. not being able to hunt last part of Oct. till couple wks into Dec. Killed one little spike in Oct. with my Black Widow PTF. Been getting one or two a yr with recurve lately and a decent buck every yr., but haven't even seen one this season. Still trying..got till the 18th but it's way too cold out there for me the next 4 or 5 days.

[CoachBGriff]

Dan,

I used to hunt exclusively public land.  I mix it up now, but I've had great years hunting public land, and I've had (this year) terrible years.  This year was rough.  I did kill a deer on private land, but had no opportunities on public.  

Stick with it!  I'm sure you'll bounce back.

[DanielB89]

I will always hunt public land. I am just thinking that next year, I will expand my hunting opportunities.

[Bill Turner]

I've hunted exclusively on public land the last 7 or 8 years with the exception of 2 TG sponsored Solana Ranch hunts here in Texas. I love the challenge offered on good public land and have come to grips with how difficult it is to take a good buck, or for that matter a smaller buck or doe, on heavily hunted public property. With that said, I have been successful, but I don't let kills determine if I've had a good/successful hunt. I look forward to each outing and seldom go without seeing a critter or two, and sometimes even get one to venture into my preferred longbow range of 12 to 15 yards. It takes a lot of effort/time to be successful on public land, but to this 67 year old traditional archer its all worth while. Heck, when you hunt as far off the beaten track as I usually do you come to realize the work don't even begin tell you get one on the ground. Enjoy what you've got and take advantage of it as long as you can.  

[Chuck from Texas]

The secret is to get the deer to come to you, I drop by Lowes and buy a roll of yellow caution tape and string it through the woods in a straight line with one end at a lake road or other obstruction then hunt about 40 yds off the other end of it. Deer don't cross caution or crime scene tape and when they are going around it they are lookin back at it not at you. This also eliminates the need for trail markers.
Chuck

[Chuck from Texas]

In case that does not work,go to cabellas and buy every deer attractant sent they have and mix them all together. Dip a sponge in it and drag it in a ever diminishing spiral with yourself in the center. Works great and keeps the tourist away.
Chuck

[Chuck from Texas]

OK if neither of those plans work and you do not like hunting at night this is your last chance. Set an idling chainsaw next to your set up, if you dont have a chainsaw a portable radio tuned to NPR will work.
Chuck

[OBXarcher]

Funny thing here is the public land is less pressured than the hunt club I pay for. Only reason I am in a lease is for hogs in the summer. Can't hunt hogs on public land unless something else is in season.

[Sam McMichael]

It has been a long, long time since I depended on public land for hunting, but I found it fairly easy to find places that were not overly crowded. Going DEEP into the woods was the most successful tactic I found. Luckily, in the area where I grew up, the public forests were quite large, allowing me to find spots that others did not visit. At that time I was an inexperienced kid, just learning to hunt, so never had much success, but the fun was there.  Since I have a tendency to get lost in the woods, I would commonly walk up a fire break until there no more boot tracks, then I would walk a while further and find a location close to the fire lane.

I wonder about game seasons being required for hunting hogs. In many places coyotes have no closed season. Would that count to make hogs legal to shoot?

[DanielB89]

Sam,

here, hogs are legal to hunt all year on your own land, or a lease, but on public land there are seasons.

[RC]

The public land here in south Ga. is not really crowded. I work weekends so that cuts the pressure back some when I hunt during the week. Also I seldom kill a deer or hog less than a mile from the truck unless it is in a very thick area. I am finding some decent close to the road places that are overlooked because they look too easy and everyone thinks everyone is hunting them and no one is.
  One thing I do and this is not a joke. On some of the gated walk in roads I will put little piles of toilet paper all around the parking area. Someone pulls up and thinks this place is hunted to death. The toilet paper is gone in a rain or so. RC

[FerretWYO]

Time. You have to be there at the right time and only time will ensure that.

[Hoyt]

There's a lot that will help you to be successful at seeing good bucks and numbers of deer on public land.

You may find good big buck sign right next to a public campsite if certain factors are right. Like a big thick cover nobody can get into deep as the deer can right next to the campground. Most people won't hunt it because it too close..but the campground will get real quiet when the hunters leave to hunt and the deer will come out.

Or right next to a main hwy on gated public land where there is no entrance expect through the check in gate Big bucks can lay right next to the hwy with their back facing the road knowing people won't come from that direct. So will turkeys and hogs..but hearing turkeys gobble is tough with all the road noise.

Big sanctuaries are my favorites. Whether they be on the pubic land or across the road or fence. Big section where the deer are not hunted or bothered.

I love to hunt a trail I can see a long ways on and catch deer coming back from feeding on the public land that night and heading back into the sanctuary. Big buck will also come out of the sanctuary later in the mornings and scent check the trial to and from feed to sanctuary for a doe in season. They will usually come out in a quick step or trot, smell around the trail a little an head back into the thick. I guess it's easy to see what's been down the main trail than to run all around trying to locate one.

Also of course you can go where most sane people won't and usually find good success. That may be a long ways on flat country or up and down really steep ridges that others won't deal with. Normally you will have these areas pretty much to yourself or at at worst another serious hunter or two.

Another thing I would do when I was younger and friskier. I'd keep tabs on certain areas I knew held big bucks...but all I was looking for was the first sign as to whether on not deer were going into the area. Like a track crossing a sand road or firebreak. I didn't go into the area because when I did they  would just leave first time they smelled where I'd been in there and it might be two wks before I see another track going in or out. Stay out of the areas you are going to hunt unless you are going to hunt.

One last thing I had good success with is setting up over a trail that went from feeding area back to sanctuary through really thick stuff..like a myrtle flat so thick and close together a man can't walk through, tall saw grass, Palmetto flat, et. You can set up high in a tree right on the edge or just into the thick and see down into it. You can see the deer walking the trails although they don't think they can be seen in there. It's triple good right after it gets burned..then you don't have to get high up to see them and the deer will still use the trails. Guess they don't have sense enough to know their cover is gone.

[hogless]

I found and area close to some houses people were walking right buy.look for thick cover and feeding areas . and don't pay any attention to the leaf blowers the dogs were in fences they bark at deer all the time the deer don't pay them any mind

[Wallydog]

I have a few things I like to do on public ground that makes the hunt easier and sometimes successful. Do your scouting but do it where you think pressured deer will go. Its likely to be real thick and wet land. Swamps are great. Now, scout a funnel near the swamp that holds acorns or whatever the deer will eat in what season. Build 2 groundblinds from the natural foliage in you ambush site. This of course for playing the wind. Now is the hard part. You have to get in there without spreading your scent to where the deer are bedding down. You may as well stay home if you cant do this part. I like to build the ground blinds in summer. Make a day of it and leisurely build that perfect hidey hole. If you can find a swamp and a crop field that are close you have found the holy grail. Between those two and nearer the swamp is where you want to build those blinds. Never tell anyone where its at or ask if they wanna come along unless you really want them to ruin that area for you when you arent around.

In our part of Iowa, the public areas are at best 200 acres of cover and the rest crop land. Everyone accesses on the same routes. What I do is to stay clear of the young treestand hunters. One day I heard a clank kitty corner across a corn field.  I thought, 'great some body just rattled that tree stand.' Then some cussing, then the corn rattled just north of me. A bit later a younger guy walks around the corner with a bow in one hand and a few arrows in the other come and stomp on the ground like a crazy man. Then he looked like he was about ready to wind up and throw his compound into the woods, instead he bent over, picked up what he stomping to death and throw it for all he was worth my direction.  I stood up wondering if I should put him out of his misery, he saw me and went back to towards where he came. What he threw was the broken bottom end of his bow quiver.  Besides getting everything that can be carried gets stolen, episodes like aggressive or sloppy actions are common.  I suggest going where no one can put up a tree stand.  The deer figure out where these guys go real quick.