Public Land Successes so far!

[WeekendWarrior]

Hey guys, so these are some photos of the last couple of weeks off some public land Ill be bowhunting on this fall. In terms of hunting, the pressure is awful during gun season, but that isn't until late november, so the bowhunting should be good. Side effect of the massive gunhunting pressure is that every buck with more than 5 inches of antler gets knocked down and out for the count every fall. It has to be a really, really sneaky deer to make it to maturity. And I mean REALLY. So, I was rather amazed when I got this soon to be 7 or 8 pointer on here, coming in during daylight to my best spot. Fixing for a good year! enjoy, guys. Public land can be so worth the effort .

[Jslotter]

I took on public land for the first time last bow season. My partner and I had a some good encounters late October into early November. Though we never took any deer, we did see some and liked what we saw. We focused on the 40-80 acre size public parcels and never ran into a single hunter up until gun season. This year we are going public land the whole season. Good luck

[WeekendWarrior]

I have access to private land, but its all a matter of convenience. I live pretty deep in the suburbs, and this public land is only 20 minutes away. Much closer than the 45 minute drive to the private land. 20 minutes is close enough I can go hunt after classes, even deep into November despite the short light hours. The deer are much more prevalent on the private land, but then again so are the bears and occasional wolf. No sign of any predators on the public land, and despite less deer and more hunters, the added challenge is a little fun. Its not the easiest. I'm not going to be only shooting 140+'ers. Ill take 1 deer, if that, all year long. But itll be fun, and worth it. Fair chase at its best, man.

[Cut N Run]

Good luck on your public land quest. There can be some tremendous bucks on public land (like the buck in my avatar picture). Two of my all-time top 5 bucks came from public land. You just need to be extra careful because you never know who else might be in those woods and how safe a hunter they may or may not be. I got shot at on public land by an old guy who couldn't half see about 25 years ago, even though I had an orange vest on. It scared me bad enough that I only bow hunt on public land ever since. Be careful & good luck.

Jim