Do you hunt public land too?

[BJE80]

With all the work/money/effort everyone on a site like this puts into their land; do you hunt public land as well at all? Why or why not?

 

[bueller]

I do. I like the change of scenery. I also like to "explore" and walk/stalk large parcels, we only have 40 acres of private. Also I can hunt public within 90 minutes of my home while our land is 3+ hours away.

 

[j-bird]

Nope! Public ground in my state can be hard to come by (IN is 95.5% privately owned). Public ground also tends to get a little crazy. Also the nearest public ground to me would take me 45 min drive or more to get to. I hunt my place and on rare occasion a property my folks own - that's it.

 

[tooln]

When the orange invasion took over I stopped public land. Just way to many idiots out there that will shoot at anything that moves.

 

[chummer]

I have thousands of acres of public land within 20 minutes of my place. One year I drew a doe tag for one of the areas so I thought I would give it a shot. I sat one evening and had three different hunters walk by within 50 yards, two of them were 100% camo. That was all I needed to see have not been back since.

 

[biglakeba$$]

I would quit gun hunting before going on public land.

Never have tried archery on public but no desire to ever do so.

 

[BJE80]

I will hunt Managed Forest Land that is close to my cabin. There are probably over a thousand acres of public access MFL land within 10 min of my place. I typically go on one that is 320 acres that is only 5 min away.

I am a little bit suprised of the level of dislike of public land by some.

 

[kabic]

I have gone a little. When I have it is usually during the week. I have never gone during the weekend or on a holiday because I worry it would be too crowded.

 

[bwoods11]

Not for deer. Once in awhile I will try it for pheasants or head up north and hunt grouse.

 

[Terrific_tom]

I have gun hunted public land in Bayfield County for 28 years. I bought my land 10 years ago, I continued going up to Bayfield County for gun season because of tradition and enjoyed the challeng of Big woods hunting. After last years gun season and how the DNR left the herd get to such low numbers up there I probably will not be going back up. I will hunt my land for gun season. I will be going up there this fall to try and reduce the wolf population by one.:D

 

[biglakeba$$]

I was shot in the back of the head on public land by another duck hunter sitting about 75 yds away. Did draw blood from my ear.
Another public place, a guy shot 2 slugs through our decoys.... Yes slugs. I am guessing the idiot thought he could scare the ducks up and take a 150 yd shot at them like all the other morons that hunt from shore....

That was enough for me. Frickin lunatics, I have had enough of them.
Quite likely you wont ever find me on public land hunting anything ever again. Had my fill of it years ago.

 

[bueller]

Another reason I hunt public land is because the second gun season in IL takes place after the 9 day WI gun season has already closed. I'll take more time in the woods and the negatives of public land hunting over sitting on my a$$ at home any day.

 

[Turkey Creek]

I hunt public for waterfowl on occasion, but generally as many have all ready stated it becomes a circus and that is just not the environment that I enjoy hunting in.

 

[Jameson]

Pretty much all that I hunt these days is public land. Don't own any of my own hunting land, and the private parcels I have permission to hunt are small and not very fun for hunting. Living near the Minneapolis metro I don't bother hunting the smaller public parcels near the metro, unless really all I'm trying to do is walk the dogs or get walk myself. Getting away from the metro, and into very large parcels of public land has really improved my hunting experiences. For ducks I still hunt closer to the metro and deal with hunters very close and have kind of gotten to the point of laughing at it and enjoying the thrill of having shot rain down on you.
Another aspect of public land hunting is the special hunts for parks with limited dates and hunters. These can be even more insane as the obsessed trophy hunting crew can do some ridiculous things in the quest for antlers. And the hunts may also have many inexperienced hunters who don't have private land to hunt and don't hunt public land where they actually get opportunities.

 

[fuldraw]

Yes
My son and I hunt a lot of public ground in central and northern missouri.
There is to much poaching where our farm is .we see a lot more deer in a weekend on public than my brothers see in a whole season at the farm:(and that's with 11 acres of plots 33wsg on 703 acres of timber 2 ponds 1 lake and a wet creek
Before 09 only private ground and or managed hunts if I was drawn .

 

[Steve Bartylla]

I hunt public land every year. Why? Because it allows me to keep the little private land I generally have access to in WI fresher, it gives me a couple more mature bucks to chase, in case I don't have any or things go south on the private ground I hunt, and because I enjoy the challenge...and, I suppose part of it is because it makes me look good on the professional side of things, but I would (and always did before I even considered an outdoor career) if I never did this for a living.

I've hunted public lands in a lot of different states, outside of WI, as well. I probably shouldn't say this, but I really believe public lands get a bad rap and have a lot more good bucks on them than people realize. Now, I'm talking bow hunting. I haven't firearms hunted public ground since I was in college. firearms is a different story.

As most, if not all of you know. I hunt some dream ground (about 50% of my hunting each year occurs on land I manage tightly and greatly limit hunting pressure on it to the point most wouldn't consider it hunted at all, including myself). I'm not going to lie and pretend I don't enjoy it, as I enjoy the hell out of it. At the same time, I'm not going to pretend that killing great bucks there isn't a lot easier than even killing a decent one on the public or small private grounds I hunt the other half of season. When I kill a decent one on those grounds, I feel like I did something a lot more special than when I kill a great one on the tightly managed grounds. I enjoy the public grounds for the feeling of accomplishment.

 

[Natty Bumppo]

Here in the northwest corner of Mass. hunter densities are low, and there is a ton of public land…massive and numerous State Forests. If I drive a short 40 minutes I can get up into the Green Mountain National Forests of Vermont, where you can walk and hunt all day and never see a soul.

I like to get out and hunt Larry Benoit style after bow seasona; putting in long days tracking bucks from dawn to dusk. Can't do that on my little 150 acres. But on the public land, especially in VT, you can really get out into the Northern backcountry woods. I do it because I like to test myself…I like to hunt how my Gramp hunted back in the day. No gadgets, no cell phone, no scents, no ridiculous crap filling up my pockets that some commercial convinced me I needed to have to be a better hunter. I just hunt. I take my rifle and ammo, a lunch, some water, a knife, matches, map, compass, and a tow strap. I'm getting excited just thinking about it….

 

[Jameson]

If you get a chance, hunt the elm creek park reserve. Right around the hayden lake area. We use to sneak in there as kids and hunt those huge bucks. Great area!

Applied for that hunt this year with 2 preference points. Unless my application gets screwed up some how I am in the hunt!

 

[sandbur]

I hunt some public land every year. I have seen a couple of decent bucks in central Mn. on those lands.

I really like to go up in zone 1, carry a stool into a location and sit and watch the edge of a swamp, beaver dam, or a bottleneck during rifle season.

I just enjoy the peace of sitting there and reading my book. I do NOT do this on opening weekend. The second week of season in zone is especially nice. Very quiet except for a few locals in morning and evening. You might hear one or two shots at most per day.

 

[SD51555]

I hunt some public land every year. I have seen a couple of decent bucks in central Mn. on those lands.

I really like to go up in zone 1, carry a stool into a location and sit and watch the edge of a swamp, beaver dam, or a bottleneck during rifle season.

I just enjoy the peace of sitting there and reading my book. I do NOT do this on opening weekend. The second week of season in zone is especially nice. Very quiet except for a few locals in morning and evening. You might hear one or two shots at most per day.

1 or 2 shots a day? Sounds like opening weekend where around my place.