Hunting Public Land

[sullyy]

Public land for me, and it's crowded at that.
BUT the satisfaction of shooting a nice buck or turkey off public land is so so sweet

[Chris Dillard]

Sipsey
I use the the site Birds Eye View. It is free to use from the aerial shots to CLOSE UP photos. I hunt remote funnels whether they are travel corridors or back door escape routes. I normally hike or bike up to 3 miles to get to my stands. It can get rough, but to me it is truely worth it when you harvest a shooter buck on public hunting land.

[bowhunter1]

Hey guys, does anyone currently hunt Piedmont Lake or Egypt Valley ( the same area ) or has hunted it in the past 2 or 3 years? What is the caliber of deer there and is the hunting pressure high? I am looking for a area where there may not be a hunter in every other tree and throwing that nasty big box store ( deer) pee all over the place ?? Any decent areas in Central to Eastern Ohio Any advice or info would be great!!

[steve rodo]

Just hunt away from other folk's if that's possible.WE have some public land here i hunt at time's untouched hardly used.It's all off the beaten path .The deer will be where you think they wouldn't be.In the thick of the thick .Get on your knee's and look for tunnels in the thick ,Like palmetto bush .Get low to see.

Stay in the stand when everyone else is coming out .Sometime's you will see deer, that you of not seen normally

[Zap]

I hunt both.
Hope everyone has a great season no matter where you hunt.

[Aero320]

We had a farm leased for 15 years that was pretty good. After losing the lease, I started looking around at public land and found that most lakes have public hunting areas. One of the lakes I have fished for years has about 4,000 acres of public hunting. I got a map of the area and drove all the way around to see where it was practical to walk in. ATVs are not allowed and stands cannot be left in the woods (I use a Lone Wolf Sit-n-Climb that is easy to use). I wanted to locate remote areas that could be accessed only by boat. Then I squirrel hunted the areas a month before archery season to find specific spots to hunt. With the absence of grain fields, white oak acorn trees with dropping acorns are the key. This archery season, I have killed two bucks and three does along with a tom turkey using this approach and my Exocet 200. I am 62 years old. Muzzleloader season starts next weekend so I will switch back to fishing.

[georgiaboy]

Public land for me...Ft. Stewart military base. Some great hunting, plenty of deer & hogs. Only drawback is their rules and regs can be more of a hassle than the weekend warrior's!!

[cevans]

Where I live in southern Indiana,,there is 7500 acres of public land in the county I live in,,all hills up to 900 ft of elevation, timber country and some has been pretty heavily cut. How many miles of up and down hills do you want to walk and hunt? The drag is the killer. Lots of big bucks tho to chase and very very few archery hunters . Around my house is 4 tracks with each about 200 plus public land acres each with private land, corn and soy beans, around them. and I must say this year is pretty weird as the deer haven't hit the corn or beans till they are harvested. Doe ( 125lbs) I killed about 10 days ago, had more fat on it than I have seen in years and its stomach was full of grass and only 6 acorns. No beans or corn, so go figure that one too. Public land is where I hunt even in gun season. After the opening day of gun,,you still have it all to yourself most of the time. The rougher the country seems to turn the weekend warriors off anymore. No complaints here on public land at all.

[cevans]

You hunt the National Forest land at all up around Bloomington area? I almost hit a huge buck near Tipton Lake last fall while visiting my youngest daughter. Big deer in them hills for sure.

Martin Co. State Forest. We don't have the deer we used to have. Too many doe tags years on end have taken its tole as DNR keeps wanting to take the herd down. Even on Crane Weapons Depot, the deer count is way down and what did DNR do again this year? Increase the doe tags after a record year last year doe kill,,more than bucks state wide. But,,I still, every year,,put 2-3 in the freezer to eat. I don't take anymore than that as I just think its hurting the deer population that we have left. Acorns around here go to waste anymore. But,,we do have some very smart big old bucks with large racks that seem to weather each hunting season surviving to chase. Its a matter of how hard do you want to hunt? Today,,spent 8 hrs stalking for about 3.5 miles of up and down hills in a section I was in about 8 days ago,,and found my first good scrape line,,every 50-75 ft..about a 3' dia scrape for about 3/4 of a mile. That buck,,burnt the woods up last nite as every scrape smelled and was fresh, as couple of days ago,,we had 2.3 inches of rain. Will go in in the morning and pack a stand over a mile thru that country and hang a stand. Only thing I hate anymore is the drag. I don't hang a lot of stands,,but this is my 4th stand for the year so far.

[cevans]

I have a 8pointer running off public land that ajoins my 40 acres of woods, that has made a scrape of all places at my gate of my driveway next to the county road. Never taken a deer off my property and have them moving thru it all the time. 4 am this morning 4 large does walked down the driveway setting off the motion detector lights as the wife saw them. I finally setup a 17' ladder stand about a 100 yrds from the garage,,but can't bring myself to hunt next to the house. Last 3 out of 4 yrs,,have taken a 225lb or larger buck with racks of about no more than 20" spreads mostly 10's and 12 pointers, and told the wife this year,,i might just kill a smaller one, as the bigger bucks are just alittle tough sometimes to eat. My job was terminated end of April after working for the same company for past 25 yrs and at 63.5 was forced into early retirement. So I hunt every day and am really enjoying this year. But,,again,,the big bucks just don't eat as good as the younger bucks. The big bucks however,,are the real test for all.

[xbowholic]

Arkansas is blessed with "millions" and I mean millions of acres of Public Land; here where I live, it is swamps and thickets galore and some huge bucks are killed every year; a great friend of mine has bowhunted this paticular public land for over 20 years and he has 28 deer mounted and none of them are under 140 and his best is 189 3/8 monster, all coming off public land; I hunt both as I have over 900 acres of private but I love hunting the public land here b/c of the big boys that live and roam there; Arkansas is a great place to live with 5 full months of bowhunting, september thru feb 28 with no breaks;6 deer limit with only 2 leagl bucks that must have 3 points on one side and have a inside spread of 15 inches or more;

[steve rodo]

Ya'll outta come hunt the cohutta's here in ga .It's nothing but straight up and down in places.Good bear and turkey hunting though.

[Bowshott]

Im hunting my private land mostly this year, cause Im not able to go out after work this year like I used to. Up until this year I used to hunt public land week day afternoons. Arkansas has great public land opportunities for archery hunters.

[cevans]

Arkansas is blessed with "millions" and I mean millions of acres of Public Land; here where I live, it is swamps and thickets galore and some huge bucks are killed every year; a great friend of mine has bowhunted this paticular public land for over 20 years and he has 28 deer mounted and none of them are under 140 and his best is 189 3/8 monster, all coming off public land; I hunt both as I have over 900 acres of private but I love hunting the public land here b/c of the big boys that live and roam there; Arkansas is a great place to live with 5 full months of bowhunting, september thru feb 28 with no breaks;6 deer limit with only 2 leagl bucks that must have 3 points on one side and have a inside spread of 15 inches or more;

What do you use to measure that 15" inside spread with before shooting the bucks and how do you get them to stand that still when measuring?

[Chris Dillard]

This is a old thread but one I am fond of because it is how I have always hunted. I had to take off for a little over a 1 year, but am looking forward to hitting the Swan Creek WMA and the Black Warrior WMA here in northern Alabama