Public land hunting stories

[Bushape]

Have been watching a lot of "public bowhunting whitetail" videos with "The Hunting Public" being one of my favorites. I know Iowa produces big deer but seems everwhere these guys go from KY to Missouri they are killing 150+" deer so I am starting to question the validity of it all. How about you guys, what kind of public land monsters have you killed??

 

[younggun308]

They do some pretty intense pre-scouting and scouting. When they're spending several days in a row in the same area, they often figure out good setups. Not afraid to burn a few days looking around on the front end.


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[GOODWIN]

Put in the time and it'll happen. They have plenty of that it seems. I'm jealous

 

[Ski]

I don't have any doubt that they're legit. A whole lot of Kentucky borders OH, IN, & IL. 150's on public up there isn't terribly uncommon. I grew up in southern Ohio. My brother still lives there & is a taxidermist. It amazes me how many 3.5yr old 150+ bucks he mounts, many taken on public.

 

[catman529]

A 150" deer is bigger than people realize, and I don't think the THP boys kill a 150" too often, and I don't know if they score any of them either. They do a lot of cyber scouting, and get a little intel from locals when possible. They're also good hunters who hunt full time, and can spend a full week or more figuring out an area. I know them personally and their kills are 100% legit.

I don't want to speak for them, but I think the Deep South is the toughest for them to consistently find good bucks due to the habitat. I hunted with them in MS in January, and there were definitely some really good mature deer there, but with almost no distinguishable pattern and not much to funnel their movement. Warb and I talked about how spending just an extra week or so would have been a huge help in putting the pieces together to kill something. I saw a mature wide 8 point at about 60 yards when I was down there. Still wish I'd had another week myself to hunt there.

As for my public land kills, it's mostly antlerless deer. But I've killed a few good 2.5 year olds, and had a couple of close encounters with older deer. And during the summer, I've seen all kinds of big bucks eating soybeans, so I know they are around. Hunting them is a different story, with Chinese privet and cedar thickets, lots of CRP infested with briars, and odd property lines that make it very difficult to hunt a specific deer.


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[Ski]

A 150" deer is bigger than people realize

The number throws perception off, too, and doesn't tell a complete story of antler size. Not every 150" deer is the same size. After every scored tine comes an added girth measurement, which adds up very fast. Stickers add up gross score, too. Case in point, a 150" 8pt is a monster that would dwarf a 150" typical 12pt.

As for my public land kills, it's mostly antlerless deer. But I've killed a few good 2.5 year olds, and had a couple of close encounters with older deer. And during the summer, I've seen all kinds of big bucks eating soybeans, so I know they are around. Hunting them is a different story, with Chinese privet and cedar thickets, lots of CRP infested with briars, and odd property lines that make it very difficult to hunt a specific deer.

That's something I had to get used to when I moved here 5yrs ago. Those darn privet thickets can flat hide some deer. We don't have those where I grew up in Ohio. Very few cedar thickets, either.

Personally I don't see any reason why TN deer can't have the same potential as up north. I hunt TN, OH, and WI. In all places the bucks seem pretty relative according to age class. The biggest discrepancy is that I see a whole lot more 3.5+yr old bucks up there than I do here. I tend to believe if I saw the same number of older bucks here as up there, they'd be just as big.

 

[clwg97]

I was in college in Missouri for 4 years and hunted public land exclusively. I killed 2 bucks in the 120's and 1 buck that was 135" with my bow. If you scout and find unpressed area there are definitely big bucks on some of the public land. All of these bucks were killed October 28th to November 4th. I hardly ever saw large bucks after the gun season. We did have the 4 point rule in the county, bucks must have 4 points on one side to be considered legal to harvest. Once we went to this we did start seeing more 3-1/2 year old bucks, but people were still shooting basket rack 8's also. Little to no harvest of 1-1/2 year old bucks.

 

[philsanchez76]

I've never seen a buck over 100 inches on middle Tennessee public land. Only 150 + class deer I've seen is one that frequents my backyard during the rut. I've definitely killed plenty of P&Y class does off middle Tennessee public though!

 

[Bushape]

I don't want to speak for them, but I think the Deep South is the toughest for them to consistently find good bucks due to the habitat. I hunted with them in MS in January, and there were definitely some really good mature deer there, but with almost no distinguishable pattern and not much to funnel their movement. Warb and I talked about how spending just an extra week or so would have been a huge help in putting the pieces together to kill something. I saw a mature wide 8 point at about 60 yards when I was down there. Still wish I'd had another week myself to hunt there. 

As for my public land kills, it's mostly antlerless deer. But I've killed a few good 2.5 year olds, and had a couple of close encounters with older deer. And during the summer, I've seen all kinds of big bucks eating soybeans, so I know they are around. Hunting them is a different story, with Chinese privet and cedar thickets, lots of CRP infested with briars, and odd property lines that make it very difficult to hunt a specific deer. 


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catman529Wed Nov 10, 2010 10:28 am


Thanks for setting me straight. I love their style and videos. Hunting in southern Tn a rarely see people kill deer as large as what they routinely stalk to within 20 yards.

 

[Devin2009]

The big deer do exist in a lot higher numbers than people think in Tennessee, especially in my part of Maury County. IF anyone has any doubts that deer over 150" are not common, they just need to ride the back roads and glass fields during the middle part of July. They got old for a reason and being seen during hunting season is the main reason. Some get killed each year but the majority don't ever get killed by a hunter due to the terrain being so rough, the old phosphate mine "dumps" and swamp like land caused by the mining defiantly hides ALOT of deer and turkeys, its also a good reason why Maury Co has such a high spring turkey harvest year after year. Most of the public land in the Maury county area was once old phosphate mines at one point or another.

 

[catman529]

The big deer do exist in a lot higher numbers than people think in Tennessee, especially in my part of Maury County. IF anyone has any doubts that deer over 150" are not common, they just need to ride the back roads and glass fields during the middle part of July. They got old for a reason and being seen during hunting season is the main reason. Some get killed each year but the majority don't ever get killed by a hunter due to the terrain being so rough, the old phosphate mine "dumps" and swamp like land caused by the mining defiantly hides ALOT of deer and turkeys, its also a good reason why Maury Co has such a high spring turkey harvest year after year. Most of the public land in the Maury county area was once old phosphate mines at one point or another.

someone told me once that TWRA had the chance to acquire the Monsanto land, but Monsanto left a mess behind the old phosphorous mine, hazardous stuff buried in the ground, didn't grade out the land or anything, so TWRA turned it down. I don't know if this is true or not, but it would have been nice to be able to fish those ponds and hunt the land. It's all privately owned and overgrown with kudzu now.

But back on topic, it's not just old mines that give the deer a way to hide. It's all the invasive plants making huge thickets in the bottoms, and the natural ridge and hollow terrain on the high ground that gives deer the advantage.


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[Devin2009]

The big deer do exist in a lot higher numbers than people think in Tennessee, especially in my part of Maury County. IF anyone has any doubts that deer over 150" are not common, they just need to ride the back roads and glass fields during the middle part of July. They got old for a reason and being seen during hunting season is the main reason. Some get killed each year but the majority don't ever get killed by a hunter due to the terrain being so rough, the old phosphate mine "dumps" and swamp like land caused by the mining defiantly hides ALOT of deer and turkeys, its also a good reason why Maury Co has such a high spring turkey harvest year after year. Most of the public land in the Maury county area was once old phosphate mines at one point or another.

someone told me once that TWRA had the chance to acquire the Monsanto land, but Monsanto left a mess behind the old phosphorous mine, hazardous stuff buried in the ground, didn't grade out the land or anything, so TWRA turned it down. I don't know if this is true or not, but it would have been nice to be able to fish those ponds and hunt the land. It's all privately owned and overgrown with kudzu now.

But back on topic, it's not just old mines that give the deer a way to hide. It's all the invasive plants making huge thickets in the bottoms, and the natural ridge and hollow terrain on the high ground that gives deer the advantage.


I've heard that about Monsanto land as well. Every year some absolute giants are killed off that land, people pay big $$$$$ to hunt that place by leasing it. Williamsport was once part of phosphate mining deal way back, it wasnt minded very much from the look of it.
The company I work for owns about 650 acres that was mined it's full of swampy holes and its loaded with big deer and turkeys are thicker than thick. Its surrounded by 14k acres of the same type of land that a old chemical company owns and the do not allow any kind of hunting at all. It's not uncommon to see 50 to 60 deer in an evening in the fields by the road, the biggest deer I've ever seen was on that land. Rumor is that once they get done reclaiming it they are going to donate it to the state for a wma. I personally dont ever see it happening but it would be nice.


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[catman529]

I've heard that about Monsanto land as well. Every year some absolute giants are killed off that land, people pay big $$$$$ to hunt that place by leasing it. Williamsport was once part of phosphate mining deal way back, it wasnt minded very much from the look of it.
The company I work for owns about 650 acres that was mined it's full of swampy holes and its loaded with big deer and turkeys are thicker than thick. Its surrounded by 14k acres of the same type of land that a old chemical company owns and the do not allow any kind of hunting at all. It's not uncommon to see 50 to 60 deer in an evening in the fields by the road, the biggest deer I've ever seen was on that land. Rumor is that once they get done reclaiming it they are going to donate it to the state for a wma. I personally dont ever see it happening but it would be nice.


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[/quote] I would love it if they did that. Williamsport I don't know how heavy it was mined, but I know they did do a lot of work to reclaim it and they did a good job. You don't see or hear of many good bucks killed but it's not hard to kill a deer or two if you know the property. I feel like the turkey hunting was a lot better 5-8 years ago than it is now, but with only 1700 acres you can only cover so much ground and the increase in pressure from Lawrence co probably pushes some birds off the land.


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[Devin2009]

I've heard that about Monsanto land as well. Every year some absolute giants are killed off that land, people pay big $$$$$ to hunt that place by leasing it. Williamsport was once part of phosphate mining deal way back, it wasnt minded very much from the look of it.
The company I work for owns about 650 acres that was mined it's full of swampy holes and its loaded with big deer and turkeys are thicker than thick. Its surrounded by 14k acres of the same type of land that a old chemical company owns and the do not allow any kind of hunting at all. It's not uncommon to see 50 to 60 deer in an evening in the fields by the road, the biggest deer I've ever seen was on that land. Rumor is that once they get done reclaiming it they are going to donate it to the state for a wma. I personally dont ever see it happening but it would be nice.


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I would love it if they did that. Williamsport I don't know how heavy it was mined, but I know they did do a lot of work to reclaim it and they did a good job. You don't see or hear of many good bucks killed but it's not hard to kill a deer or two if you know the property. I feel like the turkey hunting was a lot better 5-8 years ago than it is now, but with only 1700 acres you can only cover so much ground and the increase in pressure from Lawrence co probably pushes some birds off the land.

I've always seen alot of deer when I've gone fishing at Williamsport but I've only deer hunted a couple of times and haven't had much luck. I last turkey hunted up there about 4 years ago and my gosh I've never seen and heard so many turkeys, the only problem I've had is they fly down and go to private. I did sneak to a fence and looked into a field and I counted 16 gobblers strutting and a bunch of hens. That was by the dove fields behind Bluecat lake dam. So I'm sure more was on the place than that flock.

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[gobblegrunt]

My biggest buck to date is 142 5/16 and it came off of a piece of public land.

 

[TDW05]

My biggest buck to date is 142 5/16 and it came off of a piece of public land.

You got that beast back from taxidermist yet?

 

[gobblegrunt]

My biggest buck to date is 142 5/16 and it came off of a piece of public land.

You got that beast back from taxidermist yet?

Nope still waiting!

 

[AlabamaSwamper]

I've been running cameras since 2005

And I run a bunch of cameras from July through February. I may have anywhere from 8-20 out at one time on 1000 acres.

I've never got a picture of a deer over 140" in Tennessee

I've killed 8 bucks 4.5 or older in that time and several 3.5s

They are not very common.

I also score for BTR and have since 2006. I've scored a few over 150" and a bunch from 125-145 in Tennessee.

I hunt Nebraska and will get a dozen on camera in a week some years over 140". There a difference in up there and down here. Big difference

And it ain't people letting them walk. Spend a day at the check station and you'll see that.

 

[AlabamaSwamper]

And I really enjoy THP

 

[Shed Hunter]

150" isn't unheard of at all even in TN on public land. I have a upper 150s buck and have seen several others. The difference between the years I have had opportunities at deer in that size range is 100% related to effort put into finding one. My hunting had been off and on the past few years. Even in some of my slower years I still seen deer of that caliber

The best part is this year I have two weeks of vacation