Getting the edge hunting public land

[Jered Shofner]

What is your favorite tactic that helps your success on pressured, public hunting grounds?

For me, I've had some great opportunities in the last 2 years using my kayak to access hunting spots most hunters will not walk to.

[Bonebuster]

As Mike Mitten says..."measure success in proportion to your effort".

Getting in to hard to reach areas pays big.

Get a map of public land, and search out possible overlooked areas.

[Crittergetter]

I sometimes like to hunt close to the boundaries. On some of the public places I hunt so many people are focused on going deep into the properties they over look some key areas. I've also jumped a lot of game within 100 yrds of my truck when leaving. Some food for thought!

[eidsvolling]

1. Get out in front of the mob in the dark. Go to one of the lurking spots you found during your extensive pre-season scouting. Wait for the mob to drive them your way. It helps a lot to be very familiar with the terrain, so you can then imagine what the mob mentality will be thinking and doing from any quarter, in any wind.

and/or (mostly "and", if opening day leaves you meatless)

2. Do what crittergetter said. I don't do this nearly often enough. I heard a story a couple seasons ago about a monster that holed up in a ditch alongside the road – it had me dope-slapping myself for not doing it that day.

Just remembered an important part of the first strategy – hauling meat a long way if you succeed. I am stubbornly solo and non-motorized in my outdoor pursuits of all kinds. As a result, if it's on the ground, it's coming out solely through my own efforts.

Lacking the means for a pack animal, I built a very lightweight game cart from an aluminum extension ladder and two discarded 20" bicycle wheels. The axle runs through one of the ladder steps. The handle came off a discarded lawnmower. (Yeah, I'm cheap.) It balances so well, I can pull and maneuver light loads with a single finger.  I can clip the handle to a good waistbelt on a pack if needed. Heavy stuff is really only difficult on very steep downhill routes.

I pre-position and conceal the cart near where I'll be hunting. (Of course, this works best if you're frequently hunting the same general area.) Ditto for a plastic Paris toboggan that I treated to a camo job on its orange surface. The toboggan is for getting the deer carcass to a good trail or a woods road. The cart takes over from there.

[Ulysseys]

I too spend a lot of time in very close spots.  One of my favorite spots is so close I can see my truck parked and have numerous times watched hunters walk clean around it or past it....it just doesn't seem like a spot you'd stop to set up.  Not that this is the only tactic I use but it's one of them.  The key to public land is being versatile in your set ups and having multiple plans in case your go to doesn't work out.

[nineworlds9]

Go farther for longer LOL

[awbowman]

Go in early and quiet.  Set up on the escape routes, far or close.  Hunters make the best pushers

[3arrows]

Think about the places where you have never hunted or been.We find places with our eyes,deer find places with their nose.First time in new area walk the boundary.

[Ric O'Shay]

A long distance from the beaten path really calls for a game cart of some kind. I tend to hunt at least 1.5 to 2 miles from where I park. A strategically placed (read that hidden) pull cart can be a life saver with an animal down.

[Cyclic-Rivers]

Usually when I walk a trail and see a  spot that where the first thing I think Is, "there's no way in heck I'm walking into that stuff", I go in for a  better look.

Usually the deer figure out the hunters pretty quick making them use the overlooked places.

[Jerry Jeffer]

Perseverance, pay attention, put in a lot of time.

[KSdan]

Being an Eastern born/raised whitetail hunter I understand the tradition locked in our head to haul out a carcass.  I have since woken up to the fact that an entire deer can be boned out in 20-30 minutes while being carried out in one trip both in my vest and rear quarters strapped to my treestand on my back.  Add 30 more min of skinning and 5# and I also have the cape.

Hauling out a carcass no longer makes any sense.  My deer "hauling cart" is a 6 oz. knife  and my back.

Dan in KS

[Cwilder]

Forget the deer. I learn the patterns of other hunters that hunt the same areas. Public land is all I hunt I have done very well hunting on public land

[eidsvolling]

Originally posted by KSdan:
Hauling out a carcass no longer makes any sense.  My deer "hauling cart" is a 6 oz. knife  and my back.

Dan in KS

Hauling out a carcass makes a "tiny" bit of sense in the states that require it to be done. Massachusetts is an example:

"10. Check Stations: Within 48 hours after killing a deer, the entire carcass (the animal may be field-dressed) must be presented to an official check station, by the person who killed the deer."

   Hunting and Tagging of Deer


New Hampshire requires it for bear:
"(p)  Any person who kills wild bear pursuant to this section shall, within 12 hours from the time of taking, notify a conservation officer and, within 24 hours, exhibit the whole bear or the following body parts of a bear for tagging with a numbered seal by a New Hampshire conservation officer or fish and game personnel:
(1)  Entire carcass, skinned or quartered, excluding viscera;
(2)  Legs and feet;
(3)  Intact skull;
(4)  Hide; and
(5)  Sex organs, including teats from females so that a positive sex determination can be made."

 NH Bear Season regulations

Maine goes even further:

"Condition of animal presented for registration. A person may not present a bear, deer, moose or Wild Turkey for registration unless it is presented in its entirety, except that the viscera and rib cage of the animal may be removed in a manner that still allows the determination of the sex of the animal; and a moose may be dismembered for ease of transportation, and the lower legs, head and hide of a moose may be removed."

 Registration, Tagging and Transportation Information

[LB_hntr]

Fantastic Thread!!!
I love the knowledge on this site and this thread is a perfect example of people offering rock solid, proven advise.

 I hunt 99% public land as well.
Look at google maps. Find where the deer wont go. Then find where the deer want to go. then find where they are coming from. then find the pinch points that put them in bow range.

hunting pressure make this a whole lot easier in my areas. Hunters flood the powerlines and two tracks for 100 yards everywhere. This 100 yard area parrell to the roads becomes a "deer no go area" or a " deer go late (baiting allowed here) area" This helps me narrow down the travel patterns of deer.

One of my favorite methods during the gun season when we have 800 thousand gun hunters hitting the woods in Michigan is to use google maps and find "loops". a loop in a road, roads that parell, etc basically anything that will let hunters easily access all or most sides. Then I hunt right smack in the middle in the thickest stuff that has good trail intersections. I get on stand atleast an hour before first light and don't leave until after dark. the hunters push deer to me all day long. Awesome tactic. I have even had the dnr call my house because a hunter reported me as possibly missing because he arrived to hunt the area in the morning and my truck was parked before he got there. it was there when he left, it was there when he came back in the evening, it was there when he left at dark and it was there the whole next day. He figured something happen to me. I was just doing all day sits and in before him and not out until after he was gone at night. My wife told the Dnr "my husband is just sick in the head and sits in the woods all hours of the day and doesn't come home until way after dark"

[KSdan]

Yup- Exceptional states for sure. Yet even your NH bear only require the parts. In the exceptional case I use my Ameristep Non-typ backpack cart.  Point still stands. . .  70 years of deer hunting in our family and it leaves me scratching my head why we almost killed ourselves hauling deer out of northwoods cedar swamps all those years! No more dragging or carting for me.

[eidsvolling]

If you reread the NH regulation, you will see that the only thing you can leave in the woods are the viscera. You can skin it and quarter it, even cut the feet and legs off,  but it all has to be presented except for the viscera.

[Sam McMichael]

It has been a long time since I depended on public land for hunting. However, like a bunch have stated, remoteness is often very helpful.

Most "casual" hunters will not stray far from an easily accessible road. So by getting deep into the forest, you can be more or less alone in the woods.

I remember as a young teenager, some of my friends and I would often spend the midday riding dirt roads just to see the "dudes" from Atlanta "hunting" within feet of the road. Sorry to offend you Atlanta guys who know what you are doing, but in the 60's there were a lot of clowns who came from the city once or twice a year. The point is to emphasize getting away from these guys. They are dangerous, perhaps more so during gun season than bow season, but problematic nonetheless. We do occasionally have archery accidents but not often. Archers don't take very many "sound shots".

[Rob W.]

I think it is best to realize that every situation is different. What works for public land here doesn't work well for the next state or even the next county.

A adapt and overcome approach with a big bag of tricks and tactics puts meat in the freezer.

Around here I see very few hunters until the guns go off. Until recently I also had late bow season but now the guns go until the end. That gives me about 6 weeks of good hunting and the rest hunting crazy spooky deer and dodging orange hats. I hunt that first 6 weeks hard. When other guys are complaining about heat I hunt. After a long work day I hunt.

Another thing I make sure of is having backup plans to my backup plans. Even my spots that I don't usually see people are compromised some years. That's where all the late summer scouting goes into effect and I quickly take note of wind direction and get my maps out. Having every spot mapped helps to remember them all and decide on one with the prevailing wind in mind.

The next thing to consider is that guy parked in your area isn't always the enemy. I have made my way back to the truck early just to be there when the other guy comes out. A little politeness can still go a long way in this world. I have ended up making friends and hunting certain areas more effectively this way. I'm not saying this is always the case but at least you have a better understanding of what and who you are dealing with. The people that aren't worth dealing with can usually be lead astray with jedi mind tricks.   :D  

Another thing that has helped me around here is a boat or canoe. I have spent many days even in gun season with the woods to myself just because I got up way early and paddled to a secluded spot by canoe. I also like the ability to return to the canoe for a hot lunch on those all day hunts and scouting/hunting canoe spots is so much fun.

Lastly, I think the #1 thing that has made me better at hunting public land has been going to the ground. I'm a completely different hunter than I was a few years ago. I travel light, adapted quicker to changing conditions, hunt more spots, and leave less scent in the area. All that leads to less stress when dealing with public land.

[elkbreath]

Great thread!  Always enjoy reading the perspective of you guys in the east.  I have a feeling that what you and I consider pressured animals and areas are entirely different things!  Making your experiences with it all the more valuable to me.  

Rob, so true about the enemy thing.  Usually in the places I hunt, the guys I meet are worth a handshake!  I've made a couple friends thus way.  Plus, my plaid and stick are always most intriguing to them.   . I also feel it vital to have a huge bag of tricks and lots of flexibility. If there are people in my spot or the elk are dead quiet, I don't wait, get moving to another likely spot.  Come back another day.

Since 90% of my time is spent hunting elk in Wyoming, my experience isn't exactly the same.  If I see or hear a hunter in a three day period I tend to think my spot is ruined and move on.

Primary considerations for me are similar to yours though.  Proximity to roads-often only takes a half mile to get away from most guys.  Though I'm usually in at least three.   I have had some dandy spots next to highways on lonesome stretches where nobody is pulling off.

Out of the way spots-elk hunting is quite communal for most guys, meaning the further you get from the gathering areas, the better.  For instance, campgrounds, parks, lakes by roads, etc...  One of my most consistent spots has nothing going for it. Can't get an rv or even a trailer any where near there, no fishing, no mt bike trails or hiking trails, no attractions.  Also, it's about two hours on unimproved dirt roads and the place I park is just barren grass and a sparse stand of trees.

Maps-like you whitetail guys, if you can read a map and pour over them, you're going to find these spots.   Another of my favorite spots is a blm tract out in the grasslands.  From google earth I could see that there was a swath of timber a couple miles into blm from where a road crosses the corner of this parcel.  A long hike down and into and out of a rock canyon, then across some prairie, and suddenly I found myself overlooking a little piece of elk nirvana, with water cover grass and timber abounding. From the road it appears like  it's all barren desert.  Over the years I've shot deer elk and turkey in there!

Hunt downhill.  Nobody wants to carry an elk back up.  

Hunt in the middle of the day. We kill enough elk in the middle of the day that we consider it prime time.  We have a saying that elk die just after lunch.