There are some general rules to live by while bowhunting public lands. As a serious bowhunter you already have an advantage, as many public areas that are hammered during general firearms seasons see little traffic during early archery seasons. Still others are bowhunting only, even during later rut dates. Despite these realities, when bowhunting public or heavily hunted private lands I avoid weekends like the plague, for obvious reasons. The only time I break that rule is during exceptionally brutal weather. When the snow flies, temperatures dip into the teens and wind rocks your stand tree, most modern bowhunters are inclined to remain inside watching football. When weather turns nasty, even on a long-awaited weekend, you can count on seeing fewer hunters in the woods, and increased daytime deer movement. 

Find me a regularly successful public-lands bowhunter and I’d bet my best bow that person works harder than the average guy. This can translate into more thorough scouting than the average hunter is willing to invest, spending the time and effort required to canvas every square inch of a public hunting area during the off-season to find those especially appealing spots and instilling confidence that the grass isn’t greener somewhere else, which eventually makes it easier to buckle down and put in that all-important time on stand.

On the best public lands — which are also generally the biggest parcels and sometimes the most rugged — the obvious way ambitious hunters beat their competition is by simply outdistancing them. For instance, near home many of my best mountain stands require a cold, muddy 20- to 30-minute ATV ride before initiating a mile uphill slog to reach the stand itself. This indicates rising earlier to reach stands before legal hunting hours. In other areas, simply traversing a patch of rugged, swampy or difficult ground that the masses are unwilling to tackle can get you into little-touched ground and better hunting.

Darn few hunters, especially rifle hunters with their long-range weapons, are willing to fight into thick cover and swamps.

This is where careful map research pays huge dividends, providing a bird’s-eye view of likely access points, surrounding terrain and insight into how deer hunters will begin each day. It also provides better clues as to how deer might react to daily pressure. You can then pore over terrain details and make educated guesses as to where deer might retreat to avoid this hunting pressure. When dealing with finite areas — unlike essentially infinite areas, it is sometimes relatively simple to decode potential escape patterns with a fair degree of accuracy.

Hunting Smarter

It is often said that young hunters get the job done through pure brawn, while the older hunter learns to find success with less effort by hunting smarter. On hard-hunted public lands I say you must have both, but smart will normally trump determination any given week. Brains come into play after physically determining where on a public hunting area deer are most apt to retreat to, then how you intend to get into that area with minimal effort without being detected. Let’s look at a couple scenarios as food for thought.

In the first situation, while studying a map of a Bureau of Reclamation property open to whitetail hunting on a bowhunting-only basis, you discover a large oxbow created by a sluggish but deep river unequivocally preventing chest-wader crossings. This lobe of land comprises perhaps 2 acres of prime bedding cover with a bottleneck opening that can be covered with a single treestand. This public hunting area provides only two access points: a designated parking area and footbridge two miles south and downstream, another public parking area only a half-mile from that oxbow, but across the river. Viewed in a straightforward manner, you’re looking at a two-mile bushwhack to reach that oxbow opening, while also potentially spooking deer on the way in. But the smart hunter sees this same situation, acquires an inexpensive skiff or lightweight kayak, drags it the half mile, paddles across the river in five minutes and situates himself in that pinch point well before daylight, and deer are none the wiser.   

In the next scenario you’re dealing with three sections of land set end to end and encompassing a stretch of a small, brushy, widely wandering creek. You must walk from there — three miles if you wish to reach the far end of the hunt area; and you’d better pack waders if you wish to wade across that muddy, steep-walled creek. On the opposite boundary of this long stretch of property and the shallow creek it encompasses is a major highway, four lanes with very little shoulder and signage every 300 yards warning that parking is not permitted. But those signs don’t say a thing about having a hunting partner, family member or spouse drop you off quickly, summoned again with cell phone when you’re ready to climb out of your stand. Problem solved, other than the issue of recruiting an early morning chauffeur…

The point is to study each situation with an open mind and a willingness to get creative.

Another aspect of hunting smarter involves setting up where others will not simply because the spot is too ugly or so wholly obvious it just never occurs to anyone to hunt there. This really demands keeping an open mind and actually reminds me a lot of suburban hunting in many respects. Given a large piece of real estate the average hunter is going to automatically dive into its heart, or engage in what I call end-of-the-road syndrome, at least in areas where roads are even available. Follow a public road to its very end during any general deer season and you’ll invariably find a parked vehicle. What about all of that country you passed on the way in?

Allowing Crowds To Work For You

If you can’t beat them, join them. When hunting crowded public areas, especially when work regulates you to weekends only, sometimes you’re better off playing the hand you’re dealt and letting the crowds work to your advantage. This is the ultimate game of hunting smarter because it requires reading the country precisely and accurately predicting how the masses will move into or through it, and setting up an ambush to take advantage of the resulting movement. This also means slipping into your treestand well before legal shooting light to assure you’re properly positioned for the public drive to come, or using clever backdoor entrances to reach stands well ahead of driven deer without becoming part of the general mayhem. This may sound like a big order, but with a thorough understanding of the landscape – gained through diligent boots-on-the-ground scouting and poring over detailed topographical maps – and a touch of putting yourself inside a deer’s head, it can work remarkably well.

While the early morning rush is an obvious highlight (many hunters don’t head into their stands until they can see without a light), don’t forget the late-morning exodus around 10 to 11 a.m. in most woods when most hunters are cold, bored, hungry or in need of a restroom. Midday hours can also be productive, since hunters begin hiking around seeking a better stand site or scouting in general. Then while you’re at it, you might as well stay put for the evening arrival rush around 3 p.m., and the last hour of light when bored hunters who haven’t seen anything begin to climb down from stands to assure they reach their vehicles before dark. Maybe it would just be easier to say that during the weekend bustle, deer might arrive beneath your stand at any hour of the day.

Ambush sites in these situations are 100 percent topographical or barrier-oriented. We have visited this concept in great detail in earlier sections, so this should now come as second nature. In the most basic terms, locate stands in places where terrain, obstacles or natural barriers act to deflect deer through a predictable point. While hunting the so-called October lull, when bucks are just out of velvet and movement slows to a crawl, a bit of activity to stir things up and get deer moving sometimes works. On public lands this can act in the same manner on nocturnally inclined bucks during any season date. 

D&DH is an Amazon partner and earns commission through mentioned products in this article. Here are 5 items we recommend for hunting early-season whitetails on public land:

1. Lightweight Safety Harness for ease of use and less bulk.
2. Doe call for filling the freezer fast in the early season. 
3. Trail marking tacks for finding your stand in the dark. 
4. Lightweight Head Lamp
5. Convenient and easy deer drag