This season has been one hell of a rollercoaster ride for me, with tons of ups and downs. One of the most important "downs" ive had this season is i lost permission to hunt my two best private land parcels. So for a majority of the season ive been forced to hunt mostly local public lands. Thankfully, i was able to tag out early this season on a decent buck back in october. That being said, i still have 1 buck tag and 3 doe tags burning holes in my pocket! i have not had too much success on the public lands ive been hunting. Ive seen some deer, but no good shot opportunities have presented themselves. Now the orange army has completely destroyed the habitat in the once(somewhat) peaceful woods, i havnt seen a thing. What would your tips be to find deer on very heavily pressured, somewhat small(600-1000acre) public lands? And its not just hunting pressure. These lands get pressured by hikers and mountain bikers all year long with an extensive trail system that covers almost every square acre of the property. So going to where people havnt gone is not so easily achieved. I was thinking hunting property borders closest to houses/developements? Any insight would be appreciated Sent from my SM-G930V using Bowhunting.com Forums mobile app
My dad and I hunt lands just like you have described here, look for places that are overlooked by hunters, for us it's right by the road people think they need to go in far and don't hunt there, also look for their escape routes onto private land this is how we have had a lot of success on public land. Best of luck ! Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
High pressure areas are more about finding where deer will be before the crowds, then figuring out where they will go once the crowd arrives. Sometimes you'll find a traditionally awful spot that turns to lightening in a bottle during gun season because the orange army pushes everything toward that spot. Either that or find a spot so pressured that the deer dont care.
Alenhard had a good tip of staying shallow, but I've found that that works better early on in the season. I hunt the same types of public ground you described and after rifle season I try to get closer to the bedding and really only hunt evenings. After gun seasons and daylight saving I have a hard time getting ahead of the deer as they've already headed back well before shooting light.
Go down... Nobody wants to drag a deer uphill.... Sent from my SM-G930V using Bowhunting.com Forums mobile app
