Public land hunting

[indybassin]

Wondering who else only hunts on public land?

I know part of the reason I struggle with even finding deer is they are heavily pressured by lots of hunters.

[deerman]

Public is pretty tough. Best thing I can say is to drive around and see were the least amount trucks are. Get a aerial veiw and a topo map and do some off season scouting in that area. Good Luck .

Jason

[hornharvester]

Public land hunting is not that bad if you know where to go. Last Saturday 5 of us shot 5 deer on public land and one was a 160 lbs. 10 pointer. h.h.

[bowhunt01]

Hunt middle of the day. Be in your stand just before most guys leave and stay until they get back.

[cambygsp]

I hunt quite a bit of public property.......always been productive for me!

[INDeerhunter]

I hunt public land and I have had trouble from time to time finding deer my self u really have to put in the effort to look at topo maps find areas that no one else is hunting and hunt when no one else is there, hunt weedays if u can mid day evenings etc. take a longer walk in most of the guys I have noticed that hunt where I do dont go in the woods for than a few hundred yards, so I go deeper ! the more places u can find that arent pressured the better u are. Also lookin at areas on a topo map and areial photos plus talkin to the DNR property employees where u are going to hunt u can find areas that u can hunt that most others dont know they can hunt. I managed to kill a 160 lb 9 point this yr on public ground where a lot of guys hunt the openin of gun, very few hunt durin early archery and 2nd archery seasons. Just my experience and 2 cents about it.

[TagTeamHunter]

There was a study post on this forum, awhile back, that showed that most public land hunter stay within 500 yards (or feet) of the nearest road. So get into the the woods away from hunters and there the deer while be (maybe).

[Deleted]

there are no deer on puplic ground in IN. go hunt in illinois

[indybassin]

was messing with the "Where to hunt" page on the DNR site, where they overlay the DNR property on an overhead view. I just found that near what's left of our family farm, there are 7000 acres of DNR land.

I know what I'll be scouting next spring :-)

I like what's left of our farm, but it's mostly fields and very little woods.

[Decatur]

Dec 13, 2009 23:00:43 GMT -5 indybassin said:

was messing with the "Where to hunt" page on the DNR site, where they overlay the DNR property on an overhead view. I just found that near what's left of our family farm, there are 7000 acres of DNR land.

I know what I'll be scouting next spring :-)

I like what's left of our farm, but it's mostly fields and very little woods.

I went to that page, and it didn't have J. Edward Roush Lake (Huntington Reservoir) property marked correctly. The property should go into Wells County along the Wabash River to about 400W, but they have it ending in Huntington County.

[lonniephillips]

We really enjoy hunting the Fish and Wildlife areas around the state, we always seem to see deer and once in a while we harvest 1

[vectrix]

Dec 14, 2009 7:52:32 GMT -5 lonniephillips said:

We really enjoy hunting the Fish and Wildlife areas around the state, we always seem to see deer and once in a while we harvest 1

Any this year Lonnie??

[Squealy]

This was taken on Public land in Lawerence Co....

and this wasn't the bigest one taken from our group and we only hunt Public land....

This one green scored 144"

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[jabba]

I hunt with Squealy a fair bit, and he's right. We kill a lot of deer on public land. We don't do it like some of you guys though. We do a lot of hunting on the ground. Walking. And driving. People sitting in tree stands all day tend to get aggrivated at us, rather than just staying in their tree and killing deer off of our labor.

You got be be willing to out work the other, poor, public land schmucks.

[indybassin]

yeah, i think I'm gonna spend quite a bit of time hoofing it this weekend.

[vectrix]

I did alot of hunting at Wiinemac in my younger days, that is until they started allowing I guess maybe handicap,(not sure) hunters to drive down the firelanes! Nothing like driving 2 hrs and at sunup have a pickup truck drive 30 yds frim your stand.

[tickman1961]

Dec 14, 2009 16:38:03 GMT -5 indybassin said:

yeah, i think I'm gonna spend quite a bit of time hoofing it this weekend.

Go way back and find the nastiest narliest cover you can find and look for beds and the trails leading in and out of the cover. Good time of year to scout for next years deer. Best of luck.

[csquare]

I hunt only public land and have shot several 125" + deer. Got my biggest buck to date this year on public. I grew up hunting public and know several spots. If somebody happens to be in one spot i go to another, which is what i had to do this year. went to 2 spots, somebody there went to the 3rd spot and killed a nice 10 point. I love it see more deer than i ever have on private. over the 20+ years you get an idea of areas that get hit hard and the ones that don't which i use to my advantage. Early bow i will hunt the tops of the ridges cause there is no pressure in bow season, but when gun comes in i head for the bottom of the biggest hills and find a good funnel.

[indybassin]

good info guys, thanks.

Only my 2nd year really focused on deer hunting and I feel like I've learned a lot.

[Decatur]

...and if you're good, you'll never stop learning! ;d