Looking for anyone that has hunted Kentucky public ground. Planning a Sept hunt.. Right now its looking like we are heading to LBL. We have some other options but LBL is top on the list right now. That being said, we have not made a scouting trip yet.. Leaving for that in a week. Before we head down, we want to hear what other peoples thoughts were on LBL. Does it get crowded in sept? We dont mind doing the work to find the deer, we just dont want to run into a ton of guys. Last year we went to Maryland.. hunted some public ground.. everywhere you turned there was guys. Dont want to run into that again if we can avoid it. Just looking for some input. Some of our other options are Sloughs Peabody Ballard Thanks
I've thought about KY also, a little farther for me to travel verses MD. I believe the Western part of the state has some good chances/bucks! Where in MD did you hunt, as I'm considering a Sept. 9th archery opener hunt?
Lbl doesn't get to bad at all , I shouldn't say that because that's where I hunt lol. It is public ground so you do always have that chance of finding someone else but I hunted lbl almost exclusively last year and only saw 1 other person in the woods which I kinda expected BC I setup about 400yds of a well used access road. Another place in KY, that I've never seen anybody in, is pennyrile state forest, and that's home to some giants, a good bunch of 160+ deer running around. But its really thick and kinda hard to hunt especially with minimal scouting and I do advise a GPS with you if you go in there.
Thanks for the info! We were on public land in Montgomery County, near ****erson for our Maryland hunt.. I will warn you though, It was miserable. It was like nothing we have ever dealt with before. Guys were on the ground "stalking", guys climbin in trees 20 yards from you... it blew our mind. Everywhere you turned you ran into other archery hunters.. then there was a handful of small game hunters. If you are willing to walk far... and I mean far, you can get away from the pressure, but this is why we decided to try somewhere else for our Sept hunt. Turkey season was just as bad. We are hoping Kentucky works out!
Kentucky has great hunting, Everyone from out of state tends to head to the eastern part of the state for a chance at elk. My family has 70 acres in glasgow and ive had some great hunts there over the years. If your set on hunting public land then LBL is a great spot to set up. I havent been out that way in a few years but my brother has harvested some monsters from that area.
That's what I like to hear. Makes me feel a lot better before I make a 10 hour drive to scout the place out.
Didn't mean to jump off topic, but when I read this I had to comment... Lot's of research and time goes into an out of state hunt and would hate to have an experience like yours too! Thanks for sharing. - I'm looking into the Eastern Shore, which sounds a little less busy for archery at least... TBD Cheers and good luck in KY!!!
When I was at Ft Campbell a year or so ago, Pennyrile was a lottery hunt only. Peabody just opened back up for public hunting back in 2007 and some good land and deer out there. LBL is puoc for archery and lottery for rifle, tons of land there. Pennyrile was an *** pain because of extra rules plus their lottery draw to hunt there. I would recommend Peabody honestly, it's where I got my first deer ever. Good open fields and hardwoods and several areas of water all bordering farmer fields.
You're tellin me! We are just finally getting Ohio and Indiana down after 4 years. Hopefully we can make Kentucky work! Thanks again for all the info everyone! We will look a little harder into Peabody before we head down.
Pennyrile is NOT a lottery, its a public land management area and there are no special rules to hunt it, the only places I know of with "special rules"in ky are ft Campbell and higgison henry. The only problem with pennyrile is its pretty rough terrain for a southern state so a lot of rookies are scared of it.
lbl has 170,000 acres and a fair deer population. It's primarily wooded. Therefore the agricultural bottoms get most of the pressure. I would hunt close to the crops in the afternoon and 1/2 mile to a mile away from them in a saddle during the a.m. Weekdays are best. Not a lot of pressure during early bow season but it is hot, hilly and full of deer ticks. good luck.
Thanks again for the info.. That all sounds good to me! I dont like ticks, if thats the worst we have to deal with, I am ok with that. Looking forward to getting down soon to scout. We have a break from work coming up so we are planning on heading down then.
I turkey hunt in kentucky its a great state deer and turkeys are abundant on the public lands we hunt. The turkey in my avatar was taken in KY this spring.
