Public land hunting

[BSK]

Although I had seen the same research conducted years ago in PA, with the same general findings, just wanted to reiterate to those who hunt WMAs, get away from the roads!

Here is some recent research from north Georgia WMAs concerning hunting pressure:

"The average distance between hunters' stands on Georgia public hunting land and the nearest road open to motor vehicles was 247 yards. Jackie Rosenberger of the University of Georgia Deer Lab used GPS to track 58 volunteer hunters on two north Georgia WMAs to study hunting pressure and deer movements. She found 90% of hunting pressure occurred on only 51% of the WMA land, with low or no hunting pressure on most of the remaining lands. Hunters preferred areas nearest to roads and avoided steep slopes, inadvertently creating deer sanctuaries in more remote and rugged areas."

Although TN's public lands see considerable hunting pressure, they pale in comparison to the hunting pressure on PA public lands. Yet research on PA public lands not only found the same "hunter created sanctuaries" existing everywhere that was more than a quarter mile from an access road, but also found survival rates of GPS-collared deer that used those inadvertent sanctuaries during hunting season was 90%.

 

[buckbstr_1]

Thanks for the information. I have been hunting public land for +35yrs. Always put the hiking boots on and get away from easy access. The only issue is getting your deer out of the woods. I am considering on-site butchering and walking out with a bag of venison.

 

[redblood]

I truly believe some of the larger more rugged wmas have considerable less pressure than smaller more fragmented private lands, mainly because most dont allow atvs and many hunters are out of shape and lazy. ATVs, in my opinion, are the worst thing to ever happen to deer hunting and have closed more gates that the average farm kid!

 

[JCDEERMAN]

Thanks for the information. I have been hunting public land for +35yrs. Always put the hiking boots on and get away from easy access. The only issue is getting your deer out of the woods. I am considering on-site butchering and walking out with a bag of venison.

That's the way to do it. After doing numerous elk like this in the mountains of CO, a deer feels like a half sack of potatoes carrying around.

This is of no surprise to me, but good to see the actual numbers. I would bet the same is even MORE so on most private lands. On private lands, folks have their shooting houses, ladder stands and just "favorite" places to go in general. I know that's the way it is on our place and would venture to say that 60-70% of our place does not get hunted by the heavy majority of hunters. Myself and maybe one other hunter (very rarely for him) on our place venture to the "undisturbed locations".

 

[Grnwing]

Interesting report and great information. My observations and experience would certainly go a long with the 2 studies. When hunting public land, I always consider where other hunters will access and what area's they will hunt. On the WMAs I frequently hunt, I have lots of spots that I can go to and base a lot of that on what the recent hunting pressure has been and who seems to be focused on a particular area. If I find a stand or fresh sign of someone else hunting an area, I will move on or adjust my strategy based on how they are hunting an area and what impact their travel route to their stand may have on the deer. Sometime that has me walking a mile + or other times it has me hunting 50 yards from one of the main WMA roads, both have resulted in bucks going on the wall. When it comes to public land hunting the added variable of another hunter has to be considered and taken into account when you want to consistently be successful. When hunting out West or down in the Everglades, simply going further seems to increase my game sightings and ultimately my success; however, in Tennessee and a lot of the smaller WMA's(<5000acres) patterning the other hunters and finding areas they won't go tends to lead to a lot of success.

 

[BSK]

This is of no surprise to me, but good to see the actual numbers. I would bet the same is even MORE so on most private lands. On private lands, folks have their shooting houses, ladder stands and just "favorite" places to go in general. I know that's the way it is on our place and would venture to say that 60-70% of our place does not get hunted by the heavy majority of hunters. Myself and maybe one other hunter (very rarely for him) on our place venture to the "undisturbed locations".

Ever since we began experimenting with food plots back in the mid 90s, I've had family members that won't hunt anywhere BUT food plots. Don't really know why. But of the 70-odd older bucks we've killed in that time period, how many have come from a food plot? 2 1/2 and 3 1/2 year-old bucks, a fair number. But mature (4 1/2+) bucks? None. NEAR food plots, yes, but IN food plots, none.

 

[Shed Hunter]

Survival rates in areas I hunt on public land-even the pressured ones are very high with mature bucks.

there are some remote areas I watch where I can almost count on the deer being there next year-and a bunch of them too

 

[BSK]

Survival rates in areas I hunt on public land-even the pressured ones are very high with mature bucks.

That does not shock me. By the time a buck has a couple of years of survival on public land under his belt, he is a survival machine - a true professional at it.

 

[medwc]

While I agree,,, I will say 2 of my best spots on Ft Campbell and one spot on LBL are barely legal distance from the road. I look for spots where I almost never see hunters parked and scout just off the road. Found a few honey holes that way.

 

[megalomaniac]

The oldest buck I've killed in south MS was less than 100y from a major high traffic 2 lane highway. Caught him coming from his bed just off the highway. It was a place noone hunted because it was 'too close to the road'.

Old bucks are going to whereever they are not going to be disturbed. That's usually the most inaccessible locations, but it is also the easily accessed but overlooked spots as well. When I'm invited to a hunting camp, I always pick spots right next to camp or spots that border a public road. Those are usually the most overlooked places on a heavily hunted private lease.

 

[BSK]

The oldest buck I've killed in south MS was less than 100y from a major high traffic 2 lane highway. Caught him coming from his bed just off the highway. It was a place noone hunted because it was 'too close to the road'.

Old bucks are going to whereever they are not going to be disturbed. That's usually the most inaccessible locations, but it is also the easily accessed but overlooked spots as well. When I'm invited to a hunting camp, I always pick spots right next to camp or spots that border a public road. Those are usually the most overlooked places on a heavily hunted private lease.

Excellent post Mega. Most hunters don't want to get too far from a road, but aren't "crazy enough" to hunt right next to the road. So guess where the old bucks stay...

I know I've told this dozens of times, but it bears repeating: three of the oldest and largest bucks I've killed from my family property were within 150 yards of camp. Why would I hunt there? Because nobody else does.

 

[TheLBLman]

The oldest buck I've killed in south MS was less than 100y from a major high traffic 2 lane highway. Caught him coming from his bed just off the highway. It was a place noone hunted because it was 'too close to the road'.

Old bucks are going to wherever they are not going to be disturbed. That's usually the most inaccessible locations, but it is also the easily accessed but overlooked spots as well. When I'm invited to a hunting camp, I always pick spots right next to camp or spots that border a public road. Those are usually the most overlooked places on a heavily hunted private lease.

The Mississippian has this figure out!

When I have more time, will elaborate more.
On SOME public lands, I've found almost the exact opposite to be true from the study cited.
In other words, so many people seek out those most "remote" locations, that much more easily accessed locations, closer to roads, actually become the little-hunted older deer sanctuaries.

Also, much public land acreage is less hunted than much private land acreage,
and I've found this to particularly be the case when comparing many public lands to many over-priced hunting leases.

I'm making no case for either public or private lands in terms of one offering more opportunity than the other. There are some big differences, but those differences may be less about opportunities and more about hunter preferences (such as hunting from a permanent enclosed tower on private property vs. packing a climbing stand into public property).

 

[Rakkin6]

While I agree,,, I will say 2 of my best spots on Ft Campbell and one spot on LBL are barely legal distance from the road. I look for spots where I almost never see hunters parked and scout just off the road. Found a few honey holes that way.

Yes sir you are correct, but I will say that it is area dependent. I know a lot of times I will walk a pretty good ways back into my area. I just bring a game cart with me has far has I can and cache it. Take one wheel off of it and cache it somewhere else in case someone else stumbles upon it. That way I am not dragging for 1/2 or 3/4 of a mile. Good thing for me now is I am 100% disabled and I got my approval from the DPW Fish and Wildlife Manager to use my ATV instead of having to walk in now. Obviously gotta be smart about it. But in certain areas it's going to come in handy like getting to the north side of AB03 from Angels Road. Wouldn't use it to walk in 1/4 mile.

 

[CrossVolle]

Yes sir you are correct, but I will say that it is area dependent. I know a lot of times I will walk a pretty good ways back into my area. I just bring a game cart with me has far has I can and cache it. Take one wheel off of it and cache it somewhere else in case someone else stumbles upon it. That way I am not dragging for 1/2 or 3/4 of a mile. Good thing for me now is I am 100% disabled and I got my approval from the DPW Fish and Wildlife Manager to use my ATV instead of having to walk in now. Obviously gotta be smart about it. But in certain areas it's going to come in handy like getting to the north side of AB03 from Angels Road. Wouldn't use it to walk in 1/4 mile.

Know a few buddies that have made that trek and said its pretty brutal with a stand and equipment. But have a legit chance to see the deer of a lifetime if you get lucky.

 

[tree_ghost]

The 3 largest bucks I have taken were all living in a spot the average hunter would have laughed at if you would have pointed them in that direction. The one consistent variable that I have found to make a mature bucks lay up in a section of timber during the day is lack of human intrusion…those spots come in many shapes, sizes, forms, and fashions of habitat but all of them lack human scent

 

[Mescalero]

I would think the "roads" would include the primary foot travel access corridors on the WMA by or through which hunters hike to get to spots within the interior. Not so much noise, although there could be some, but definitely hunter scent left as they walk through those corridors tipping off deer to hunter presence. I'm becoming convinced that hunter access to the interior of the property through the middle is the worst kind of access, whether it be by foot or ATV travel. I just wonder how far off that hunter travel corridor one needs to get? I'm sure aside from wind direction and other natural factors, the number of hunters using that corridor that morning/evening and the relationship of that corridor to the location of other hunters on the property determines how far one needs to move away from the foot path or ATV trail.

 

[tree_ghost]

I'm becoming convinced that hunter access to the interior of the property through the middle is the worst kind of access, whether it be by foot or ATV travel. I just wonder how far off that hunter travel corridor one needs to get?

That's the million dollar question…

 

[Rackseeker]

I hunt public land 95% of the time. I have private land I can hunt but its harder for me to kill mature deer on those private tracts. I love large tracts of rough public land, the steeper the better. Mature deer relate to the steeper terrain in the areas I hunt here in TN and a couple other states. In my opinion the steeper terrain offers a mature buck better places to bed because the thermals and wind are more predictable and constant in those areas. Also they can see and flee from approaching threats easier in that kind of terrain. But it is much harder to find good stand sites without being winded compared to flatter terrain.

 

[tree_ghost]

I hunt public land 95% of the time. I have private land I can hunt but its harder for me to kill mature deer on those private tracts. I love large tracts of rough public land, the steeper the better. Mature deer relate to the steeper terrain in the areas I hunt here in TN and a couple other states. In my opinion the steeper terrain offers a mature buck better places to bed because the thermals and wind are more predictable and constant in those areas. Also they can see and flee from approaching threats easier in that kind of terrain. But it is much harder to find good stand sites without being winded compared to flatter terrain.

I've got an area I'm hoping to look at in the fall that caught my eye because of some of those very terrain features your describing above.

 

[Bushape]

Living in NW Alabama I have always wanted to approach Pickwick WMA from the river. I am sure this isnt an original thought but there has got to be a large portion of that area that a man would have all to himself.