Ethics of public land in high Hunter density areas

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Boogieman1
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Re: Ethics of public land in high Hunter density areas

Unread postby Boogieman1 » Wed Jan 24, 2018 4:53 am

wolverinebuckman wrote:
Boogieman1 wrote: Then I would shoot a deer elsewhere and spend the rest of the season following the guy around and sit in the tree next to him smoking cigars.

:laughing-rolling:
Hey, how's it going. See anything today? Me either, don't know why.


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Re: Ethics of public land in high Hunter density areas

Unread postby PK_ » Wed Jan 24, 2018 4:56 am

I still-hunt bedding areas but I try to do it outside of primerime outside of the rut. Highly unlikely to ‘ruin’ someone’s hunt or get a buck killed by another hunter.

As far as people being upset who cares. Any buck you kill on public land is a buck someone else would have wanted to kill.

I generally try everything I can to be respectful but guys who put up a bunch of illegal stands and get territorial, no I go out of my way to inconvenience them and drive the point home if given a chance.

I always leave something on their stand if I find it left out illegally, just to let them know I found their setup and don’t appreciate it. I used to have a bunch of business cards from an LEO for this very purpose.
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Re: Ethics of public land in high Hunter density areas

Unread postby wolverinebuckman » Wed Jan 24, 2018 5:15 am

Boogieman1 wrote:
wolverinebuckman wrote:
Boogieman1 wrote: Then I would shoot a deer elsewhere and spend the rest of the season following the guy around and sit in the tree next to him smoking cigars.

:laughing-rolling:
Hey, how's it going. See anything today? Me either, don't know why.


Sorry I'm running late this morning, couldnt find my keys. You hungry? I brought us some Donuts


And just a heads up on this afternoon's hunt, I have to break down about a half hour before dark, kid's got a game tonight. I'll try to be quiet, this rickety old climbing stand can make that tough.
:lol:
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Re: Ethics of public land in high Hunter density areas

Unread postby dan » Wed Jan 24, 2018 5:30 am

I DID NOT READ THE RESPONSES, But will answer your original question. Hunt where ever you want its public. If I had a permanent stand on a piece we shared I would not blame you for hunting next to it if we did not have any agreement.

With that said though, if your scouting is leading you to other peoples stands, crowded density or not, your probably not looking in the right areas. Most of the guys I know whom are highly successful on pressured land are successful cause they hunt the 10% of the land that everyone else over looks.
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Re: Ethics of public land in high Hunter density areas

Unread postby UofLbowhunter » Wed Jan 24, 2018 6:07 am

dan wrote:I DID NOT READ THE RESPONSES, But will answer your original question. Hunt where ever you want its public. If I had a permanent stand on a piece we shared I would not blame you for hunting next to it if we did not have any agreement.

With that said though, if your scouting is leading you to other peoples stands, crowded density or not, your probably not looking in the right areas. Most of the guys I know whom are highly successful on pressured land are successful cause they hunt the 10% of the land that everyone else over looks.



I agree with this 100%. I have not killed yet on public land but everything i have found scouting puts the big bucks out of range of permanent stands i scout past.

One of my most recent scouts i was following a well used buck trail on a thick transition line from a scraping area to bedding areas, kinda secluded, the trail suddenly start fading and splitting in multiable trails off this edge. It really made me think :think:, WHY, so i broke of the trail in the open woods within 60 yards or so was a new looking double ladder stand. I was just asuming the bucks where busting off this trail when they detected hunter presents and skirtted the area unseen through super thick cover! I was right!! I have seen this time and time again when scouting!

My ethics are if there there first, i give them there space, if not its mine to hunt! Some people are just rude and think they can do what they want to but thats just the way it is on public. If i got to deal with somebody i just would rather go else where!
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Re: Ethics of public land in high Hunter density areas

Unread postby First Sit » Wed Jan 24, 2018 6:36 am

Michigan has a ton of public why limit yourself to 40-80 acre areas? Are you willing to drive 1-2 hours to hunt or are you hunting within 20 min of home?

Its public, hunt how your going to hunt if you found a good spot 70 yds from 3 stands hunt it. Sometimes good areas are right near where a lot of hunters hunt because the areas over looked but offers everything to attract a mature buck. Whitetails esp mature bucks are really really good at avoiding hunters yet being in close proximity to them. I know of a couple bedding areas hunters line up along but big bucks still use it they just use it in a way that they avoid the other hunters.

If you see a lot of stands in an area that doesn't mean its heavily hunted esp if it looks like they are all owned by 1-3 guys. They might not even hunt it until gun leaving it unpressured all early bow. They could also be decoy stands meaning a really good area is nearby but they dump stands all over to give the illusion its way over hunted to keep others out. This works and keeps good hunters out too. It could also be many hunters and it could be over hunted. You see EVERY variation of this on heavily pressure public.

All I can say is trust your scouting if your seeing big buck sign theirs a reason because a big buck is there or was there you then figure him out.
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Re: Ethics of public land in high Hunter density areas

Unread postby TrucklessYooper » Wed Jan 24, 2018 6:54 am

First sit, I am just looking for areas close to home to fill doe tags and maybe end of season buck tags. I take a week long rut trip to the large national forests north of here for “big” bucks. As far as trophies go, I don’t discriminate bucks. I’m happy shooting anything. I’ll pass on bucks only if I have a freezer of meat already. A trophy to me is the memory of how I accomplished the hunt.

I enjoy shooting and even more, eating deer.
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Re: Ethics of public land in high Hunter density areas

Unread postby First Sit » Wed Jan 24, 2018 8:26 am

TrucklessYooper wrote:First sit, I am just looking for areas close to home to fill doe tags and maybe end of season buck tags. I take a week long rut trip to the large national forests north of here for “big” bucks. As far as trophies go, I don’t discriminate bucks. I’m happy shooting anything. I’ll pass on bucks only if I have a freezer of meat already. A trophy to me is the memory of how I accomplished the hunt.

I enjoy shooting and even more, eating deer.


Gotchya. The National forests in the NLP has much lower hunter density than the areas in the South from what I've seen. I annually hunt in those areas for Grouse and woodcock and don't come across a lot of deer hunter sign. I hunt in the southern part for Turkey and will be scouting deer this year there. Last time I was up in the NLP was last weekend of sept and I didn't see a single stand while hunting upland. I did find a few rubs in bedding areas on trees the size of my leg while woodcock hunting! I might have to check that area out this year and make the drive to deer hunt it :think:

As far as does go they will use a wider range of areas compared to mature bucks. All season esp late in season you can hunt young oak areas those can really attract does all times of hunting season and even young bucks with the occaisonal decent one. Primarily you will see does and 1.5yr old bucks.
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Re: Ethics of public land in high Hunter density areas

Unread postby wolverinebuckman » Wed Jan 24, 2018 12:26 pm

TrucklessYooper wrote:First sit, I am just looking for areas close to home to fill doe tags and maybe end of season buck tags. I take a week long rut trip to the large national forests north of here for “big” bucks. As far as trophies go, I don’t discriminate bucks. I’m happy shooting anything. I’ll pass on bucks only if I have a freezer of meat already. A trophy to me is the memory of how I accomplished the hunt.

I enjoy shooting and even more, eating deer.


Do you have any HAP lands nearby? I got turned on to one not far from me in Monroe. 80 acres in hilly ag land. No more than 3 hunters at a time. I got covered up in does and fawns. Had some daytime trail cam pics of 1.5 and 2.5 yo bucks. Good meat spot, I'm going to be looking to find a couple more of these close for the site bag. The more properties the better!
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Re: Ethics of public land in high Hunter density areas

Unread postby Twenty Up » Wed Jan 24, 2018 12:56 pm

To be honest I've only once had a guy walk up on me while on a quota hunt and even after shining my light towards him they still had one guy setup within 100 yards of me. That was hunting a spot a friend put me on...

If I'm hunting a spot I scouted, I've never seen another hunter. May seem hunter sign walking in, but haven't seen another hunter in the stand but once.
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Re: Ethics of public land in high Hunter density areas

Unread postby ihookem » Wed Jan 24, 2018 1:01 pm

" Good meat spot" Made me snicker. You may have the best of both worlds , Truckless Yooper. Hunt the areas close to home and go to
" Da U.P." for da biguns. Just enjoy the sport. As for me , I very seldom see hunter sign where I see a lot of deer sign. I have 27.6 mi. scouting a 5,000 ac. marsh and found just one hang on that has been there for several years ( in a pretty good spot too.) three screw on pegs and a tree with several R.R spikes in it that was almost buried , so it's been there a while. I do see ribbons, and glow tacks but almost always in the hardwoods.
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Re: Ethics of public land in high Hunter density areas

Unread postby TrucklessYooper » Wed Jan 24, 2018 1:19 pm

I haven’t looked into HAp lands yet. Good idea, I forgot all about them.
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Re: Ethics of public land in high Hunter density areas

Unread postby TrucklessYooper » Wed Jan 24, 2018 1:20 pm

I haven’t looked into HAp lands yet. Good idea, I forgot all about them.
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Re: Ethics of public land in high Hunter density areas

Unread postby headgear » Wed Jan 24, 2018 1:23 pm

It's a tough call but I say hunt it, 90% of the time I find places to myself but a few spots I liked had stands in them and I wasn't going to let that stop me. I found so far I have never seen another hunter but I don't have the pressure of Michigan, I also found some of the stands are abandoned the guys never come back for them, especially if they are in harder to reach areas. One of the biggest bucks I ever saw ran right under the other guys stand when I was just 35 yards away so sometimes it can pay off.
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Re: Ethics of public land in high Hunter density areas

Unread postby checkerfred » Wed Jan 24, 2018 2:06 pm

hunter_mike wrote:I am going to go against the grain a bit here. I hunt a couple small parcels and see some of the same things you have mentioned. I have found some good consistent buck bedding areas that are only 100-200 yards from where there is all kinds of hunter sign. I think these guys see the obvious buck sign in the area and set up shop and just hunt the crap out of the spot. But they are not in the game as far as I am concerned. They are too far from bedding to kill anything and they are hunting in an area that is in between where I can access and where I can kill a buck.

I am not going to NOT hunt the area just because they are nearby and if I have to walk right through their setup to get to a kill spot I will. Its a bummer and I am sure they could get angry about it, rightfully so. Now ideally I like to find a way to go around these guys, one so I don't anger anyone and two so they don't see me hunting somewhere and follow me. Once again, I don't like walking through someones setup but I have done it and I will do it again in a scenario where I already have a plan that involves walking through right where they are set up. It would be different if I was just scouting along with no destination in mind, then I would try to avoid their setup. But when I have all the proper scouting in place, I am not going to let a guy in a tree stand sitting right in the middle of my access route stop my hunt.


While I agree it’s public land and anyone can go anywhere, even through your setup if you leave it out there, I wouldn’t access the area if a vehicle is parked in the access. Or if I did hunt the area and I ran up on them going in I definitely wouldn’t just keep going past. I think that would be seriously inconsiderate. He was there first. I’ve ran up on a few people before and I’ve quietly backed out. I actually met one guy and became friends after I ran up on them. Some people don’t have respect these days though. I’ve seen multiple accounts on local groups were someone ran up on another hunter and then caused problems like they owned the land, or they went past the person even though they saw them. I’m a huge believer in being respectful.


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