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Re: Ethics of public land in high Hunter density areas
Posted: Wed Jan 24, 2018 2:55 pm
by UofLbowhunter
PK_ wrote: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.
I agree with hunting heavy pressured areas near primetime outside of the rut!! Im finding more and more that most of the stand littered public land is only pressured hard for a short pierod of time, mostly fire arm seasons, the rest of the time alot of places are light to maybe moderate pressure!
Re: Ethics of public land in high Hunter density areas
Posted: Wed Jan 24, 2018 4:04 pm
by whitetailassasin
wolverinebuckman wrote:whitetailassasin wrote:I hunt Michigan public land as well and this is how I hunt areas with high hunter pressure. Is there a mature buck worth going after in said area? If there is then I scout the hunters stands and access points and look for the overlooked area, or I simply locate the buck. Hunt accordingly. If there isn't a mature buck I know of being there, I scout another piece of public that has less pressure or one that's holding a buck worth my tag.
When I listened to your beast podcast, you mentioned climbing down those cat tail trails and taking a deer in his bed when he stood. That is phenomenal!
Question, if you had to pass a stand 40 yards back on the last tree before the run, or you knew you could slide in another run and kill that "tag worthy" buck in his bed, knowing that hunter could be in his stand, do you still go in to kill that buck, or hunt another buck?
40 yards away? That's a bit close to hunt when another hunter is in bow range. But I will say this, if another hunter is out of the game and I know it, I'm killing that buck when I know I can or I have the chance. I would never attempt to kill a deer in bow range of another hunter in the area, but I have no issue outsmarting the hunter to kill the buck im after. Some may not like this approach, but if you hunt public land you realize that your chess match is also with the other hunters chasing the same bucks you are.
Re: Ethics of public land in high Hunter density areas
Posted: Wed Jan 24, 2018 4:54 pm
by wolverinebuckman
whitetailassasin wrote:wolverinebuckman wrote:whitetailassasin wrote:I hunt Michigan public land as well and this is how I hunt areas with high hunter pressure. Is there a mature buck worth going after in said area? If there is then I scout the hunters stands and access points and look for the overlooked area, or I simply locate the buck. Hunt accordingly. If there isn't a mature buck I know of being there, I scout another piece of public that has less pressure or one that's holding a buck worth my tag.
When I listened to your beast podcast, you mentioned climbing down those cat tail trails and taking a deer in his bed when he stood. That is phenomenal!
Question, if you had to pass a stand 40 yards back on the last tree before the run, or you knew you could slide in another run and kill that "tag worthy" buck in his bed, knowing that hunter could be in his stand, do you still go in to kill that buck, or hunt another buck?
40 yards away? That's a bit close to hunt when another hunter is in bow range. But I will say this, if another hunter is out of the game and I know it, I'm killing that buck when I know I can or I have the chance. I would never attempt to kill a deer in bow range of another hunter in the area, but I have no issue outsmarting the hunter to kill the buck im after. Some may not like this approach, but if you hunt public land you realize that your chess match is also with the other hunters chasing the same bucks you are.
Yeah, 40 is a bit close, but I think you are right on about out hunting someone on the same buck. To me, if someone is going to sit back and wait and I can go in and do, I'm going in. I'm out there to hunt. They could make the same move, if they wanted.
Re: Ethics of public land in high Hunter density areas
Posted: Wed Jan 24, 2018 6:58 pm
by Ack
headgear wrote: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.
The buck in my avatar did the same thing.....walked right under an abandoned stand on his way into my mobile setup.
Re: Ethics of public land in high Hunter density areas
Posted: Thu Jan 25, 2018 12:32 pm
by ghoasthunter
the rule I always hunt buy is first come first serve so if I get their first its my spot for the day and ill be waving my light at you in the dark as you walk in but I normally don't find stands in spots I pic if found one yesterday a buck was using a bed in rut then would go up the hill and cut a shelf I prepped a tree down the hill from scrape another guy has a stand 150 yards away where a bunch of rubs are up hill from scrape that guy probably never seen a deer from that stand had a great view but bad thermals.
Re: Ethics of public land in high Hunter density areas
Posted: Thu Jan 25, 2018 4:53 pm
by wolverinebuckman
headgear wrote: 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.
This ticked me off this year. Found a spot where there where two trees that would work for my climber, one was right over a great marsh transition line run, the other was 20 yards off that run in the middle of the hardwoods.
Some rusted falling apart ladder stand was dangling padlocked to the transition line tree, obviously for some years.
Re: Ethics of public land in high Hunter density areas
Posted: Fri Jan 26, 2018 5:20 am
by elk yinzer
Same here in PA where treestands are allowed to be left on public. It really hacks me off people are allowed to leave their junk in the woods and claim spots.
I get that people say move on, but sometimes these properties aren't all that bad, especially if you are just looking to tag does or any decent little buck and not hunting for monster bucks. I say work around the guy, shoot them, and be sure to leave gutpiles right under the guys' stands.
Re: Ethics of public land in high Hunter density areas
Posted: Sat Jan 27, 2018 11:11 am
by gjs4
The worst run ins I’ve had on public have always been bird hunting. Duck hunters stoop to new lows every season.
Re: Ethics of public land in high Hunter density areas
Posted: Sat Jan 27, 2018 4:12 pm
by Jonny
gjs4 wrote:The worst run ins I’ve had on public have always been bird hunting. Duck hunters stoop to new lows every season.
Yep. Upland bird hunters WITH dogs are just brutal. I swear when they add a dog their ego just skyrockets. Have met a few nice ones, but I avoid any truck that has dog cages on the back. Never ends well
Re: Ethics of public land in high Hunter density areas
Posted: Sat Jan 27, 2018 11:46 pm
by headgear
It also doesn't hurt to know when other guys hunt the area, I have one spot down a river to an island where I saw a nice buck out of range one season. I went back prime time and saw a stand that wasn't there earlier in the year so someone else is hunting the area and the bucks worth shooting probably know this too. So now I generally hunt it early season and hit other spots prime time. Still have to do some more scouting though, might be a couple of other spots worth hunting on the far side away from the other guy.
Re: Ethics of public land in high Hunter density areas
Posted: Wed Jan 31, 2018 4:02 pm
by ihookem
If I like a spot where there is a hunters stand close by that is the first spot I hunt in the year if the wind is right. You will most likely beat him and maybe get a deer out of there. This will also burn out the area and leave the other hunter wandering why he aint seein no deer. After they have hunted the stand 5 times after you did ,They will likely leave the area after totally burning out the area and likely wont come back.
Re: Ethics of public land in high Hunter density areas
Posted: Sat Feb 10, 2018 8:22 am
by jhbarbwire
Usually I don't want to be hunting where someone else is.
But if I do want to, it's just a matter of whether they're there or not.
I'll pretty much ignore an empty stand.
If the guy is in it, I figure it's best for both of us if I stay away.
(Don't tell anyone, but when I was younger, I would actually shoot deer from other people's stands.)
Re: Ethics of public land in high Hunter density areas
Posted: Thu Feb 15, 2018 2:36 pm
by Octang
jhbarbwire wrote:(Don't tell anyone, but when I was younger, I would actually shoot deer from other people's stands.)
When I was younger I was actually kicked out of someone else's stand on their private land when I unknowingly misjudged the border, and they showed up to hunt. That was embarrassing.
Re: Ethics of public land in high Hunter density areas
Posted: Fri Feb 16, 2018 9:55 am
by jhbarbwire
Octang wrote:When I was younger I was actually kicked out of someone else's stand on their private land when I unknowingly misjudged the border, and they showed up to hunt. That was embarrassing.
Haha, I bet!
Re: Ethics of public land in high Hunter density areas
Posted: Mon Feb 19, 2018 12:45 pm
by GoInLight
This topic makes me think of the buck Dan killed after walking by all the other guys set up on night sign. I’m sure there we’re people unhappy about that, but that’s public land hunting.