© By Othmar Vohringer
I have often heard “There are no big bucks on public land”. Nothing could be further from the truth then that statement. Just because you don’t see any big bucks during hunting season doesn’t mean that they are not there. The bucks are there you just have to find them.
In order to find the big bucks forget scouting as you normally would. Instead scout for other hunters and what they do. Learn as much as possible about the other hunters habits, where they park their trucks, what routes they take to their stands, where they place the stands and finally what times they are coming and going.
Write your findings down on an aerial or topographical map and you soon will see a pattern appearing on the map. There will be areas that are absolutely void of any hunter presence and these are most likely the places bucks will go when the hunting pressure starts to build up. To get to these places deer use escape routes. Check these hunter free islands out and then determine on hand of the topography, availability of cover and the structure of the land how the deer get to these hunter free islands.
Come opening day you should have found several escape routes that the deer use to evade hunters. Set up stands along these escape routes that get you within easy bow range of deer. Then on opening morning be in your stand long before every other hunter arrives. Sit quietly in your stand and be prepared to see action as soon as the other hunters enter the woods.
Scouting for other hunters on public land has been so successful for my hunting that I never bother anymore trying to figure out what the deer are doing. I concentrate all my efforts on the other hunters and how I can use their movements to funnel deer past my stand. People are creatures of habit, doing the same things over and over again, so this tactic works any time of the season and anywhere.
I’ve arrowed my biggest public land buck, a respectable nine point, in a Illinois State Park just 40 yards next to a hunter parking lot in a thick bramble bush where no sane hunter ever would look. I discovered the buck hideout returning to my truck after another morning seeing nothing but squirrels from my treestand and loosing all hope of ever killing a buck on public land. It had snowed a bit all morning and on returning to my truck I noticed fresh deer tracks going between the parked trucks and leading into the thicket. These tracks had not been there when I arrived shortly before daylight. I followed the tracks, found the hideout and set up a stand. Three days later I went back to that stand and the rest is history as they say. That was almost 19 years ago.
Since that day I have become fond of public land hunting and outsmarting other hunters. I enjoy the look on the face of other hunters when I drag a deer out of the woods where it was believed they don’t exist.
I have often heard “There are no big bucks on public land”. Nothing could be further from the truth then that statement. Just because you don’t see any big bucks during hunting season doesn’t mean that they are not there. The bucks are there you just have to find them.
In order to find the big bucks forget scouting as you normally would. Instead scout for other hunters and what they do. Learn as much as possible about the other hunters habits, where they park their trucks, what routes they take to their stands, where they place the stands and finally what times they are coming and going.
Write your findings down on an aerial or topographical map and you soon will see a pattern appearing on the map. There will be areas that are absolutely void of any hunter presence and these are most likely the places bucks will go when the hunting pressure starts to build up. To get to these places deer use escape routes. Check these hunter free islands out and then determine on hand of the topography, availability of cover and the structure of the land how the deer get to these hunter free islands.
Come opening day you should have found several escape routes that the deer use to evade hunters. Set up stands along these escape routes that get you within easy bow range of deer. Then on opening morning be in your stand long before every other hunter arrives. Sit quietly in your stand and be prepared to see action as soon as the other hunters enter the woods.
Scouting for other hunters on public land has been so successful for my hunting that I never bother anymore trying to figure out what the deer are doing. I concentrate all my efforts on the other hunters and how I can use their movements to funnel deer past my stand. People are creatures of habit, doing the same things over and over again, so this tactic works any time of the season and anywhere.
I’ve arrowed my biggest public land buck, a respectable nine point, in a Illinois State Park just 40 yards next to a hunter parking lot in a thick bramble bush where no sane hunter ever would look. I discovered the buck hideout returning to my truck after another morning seeing nothing but squirrels from my treestand and loosing all hope of ever killing a buck on public land. It had snowed a bit all morning and on returning to my truck I noticed fresh deer tracks going between the parked trucks and leading into the thicket. These tracks had not been there when I arrived shortly before daylight. I followed the tracks, found the hideout and set up a stand. Three days later I went back to that stand and the rest is history as they say. That was almost 19 years ago.
Since that day I have become fond of public land hunting and outsmarting other hunters. I enjoy the look on the face of other hunters when I drag a deer out of the woods where it was believed they don’t exist.
1 comment:
Public land like Crown land in Canada holds a lot of deer that all hunters would lke to see. The issue is to find them and understand where and how to harvest them. Some information not free can help. You get what you ay for and for free info you pay nothing check this page
http://www.for-sale-locally-northbay.com/fsl/Deer/Deer_Hunting.htm
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