Why the passion?

[BassBoysLLP]

On the rare occasions when I am successful, I get a rush knowing that any bowhunter could have hunted where I was, but I found the spot and got the kill.

[ Post made via Android ]

This is why I hunt public.

[ Post made via Android ]

X3!

[checkerfred]

How do you guys keep safe hunting public land? I've never hunted it due to that... I'm worried some idiot is gonna think I'm a deer even with orange on. I've heard too many stories of people shooting at sounds and not positively identifing their target. How much orange do you wear?

[ Post made via Android ]

[JoeRE]

In general, I have found hunters are more considerate of each other on public. That's what I have seen everywhere I have hunted public lands WI, IL, and IA. Sure you get the occasional bad apple but there seem to be a lot more rotten apples on private land where the landowner lets a number of hunters on. Some of the behavior toward other hunters that I have seen on private lands is disgusting.

In my experience, hunting quality is way worse on "easy access private" than public land....on the public land I know I can bust my but and walk way back in the sticks to get away from pressure but on the private lands I have hunted I CANNOT get away from lardbutt hunters sitting on their ATVs. At the other extreme I don't like hunting where I have to tell the landowner exactly when and where I hunt because that's a short sighted strategy if I am trying to be successful!

This year, I bow hunted almost 100% public, I sat only once the entire season on a private land spot, and hunted only a couple spots twice in the season. I know I will never be satisfied hunting just 40 or 80 acres of my own land although it would be nice to occasionally have that option instead of a 45 minute walk in haha.

[JoeRE]

How do you guys keep safe hunting public land? I've never hunted it due to that... I'm worried some idiot is gonna think I'm a deer even with orange on. I've heard too many stories of people shooting at sounds and not positively identifing their target. How much orange do you wear?

[ Post made via Android ]

I routinely hunt public lands in WI and IA that are war zones in gun season. I wear just a orange vest, if you look at the odds you are more likely to die in a traffic accident driving to your hunting spot than from another hunter's bullet as long as you are being common sense about things.

[hunter_mike]

How do you guys keep safe hunting public land? I've never hunted it due to that... I'm worried some idiot is gonna think I'm a deer even with orange on. I've heard too many stories of people shooting at sounds and not positively identifing their target. How much orange do you wear?

[ Post made via Android ]

I routinely hunt public lands in WI and IA that are war zones in gun season. I wear just a orange vest, if you look at the odds you are more likely to die in a traffic accident driving to your hunting spot than from another hunter's bullet as long as you are being common sense about things.

Yep, that and I always have my red light on when I am walking in or out in the dark so that nobody mistakes me for an animal.

[keb]

The challenge and doing things on my terms, I'm not kissing someone's rear or putting my family in a financial bind to buy ground or lease ground plus I could not afford it anyway. Every time I got permission to hunt private land it turned into a goat rope with the others hunting it. People naming deer, you can't shot this, this is the right wind, they are bedded here, just stuff they had no idea what they were talking about. I would much rather share my spot with a guy I run into a mile back than most of the people I consider my friends.

The ability to just get in my truck and go, I get goose bumps when I hit a new area and headaches 75 percent of the time when the hunting starts, but it's to much fun to not to play the game. I have taken 4 really good public land bucks, and they are special. I am no master at anything but have some wild adventures.

[ Post made via iPad ]

[checkerfred]

How do you guys keep safe hunting public land? I've never hunted it due to that... I'm worried some idiot is gonna think I'm a deer even with orange on. I've heard too many stories of people shooting at sounds and not positively identifing their target. How much orange do you wear?

[ Post made via Android ]

I routinely hunt public lands in WI and IA that are war zones in gun season. I wear just a orange vest, if you look at the odds you are more likely to die in a traffic accident driving to your hunting spot than from another hunter's bullet as long as you are being common sense about things.

What made me think about it was that I was hunting some private land of a friends. Me and my buddy got there right before daylight and by the time we walked in it was light, so I didn't need a flashlight. I go to set up and hear a grunt.... I'm halfway in the tree... I get set then get a text that I'm 50 yards from our friend... He never saw my orange cap... Just saw a little movement and thought I was a deer. Once I was up the tree he barely saw my orange. If I was on public I'd for sure have a vest on. We are required to wear a minimum of a ball cap size.

[ Post made via Android ]

[hunter_mike]

I stole this from dewey's post:

"I see the animal not only as a target but as a living creature with more freedom than I will ever have."
--Fred Bear

Hunting a big chunk of public makes me feel like for a day I get to have almost as much freedom as that animal I am hunting.

[Bucky]

No rules (other than state laws) and the ability to roam

[cbay]

It's all about the ground. Having to share it is simply a side effect.

[JoeRE]

If I was on public I'd for sure have a vest on. We are required to wear a minimum of a ball cap size.

[ Post made via Android ]

Holly crap, thats not much orange that is required! I see where you are coming from now, I would wear at least an orange vest...I thought most states require that much as a minimum.

[headgear]

How do you guys keep safe hunting public land? I've never hunted it due to that... I'm worried some idiot is gonna think I'm a deer even with orange on. I've heard too many stories of people shooting at sounds and not positively identifing their target. How much orange do you wear?

Gun season you just have to get away to feel safe, there are plenty of places I go bowhunting that I would never go gun season. You just need to a find a place where you are the only one there, then stay there and don't move. First one there last one out is a MUST. You don't want to be walking around close to the start/end of shooting light, it is the most dangerous time, even with a flashlight.

Its really not all the dangerous or crazy as it sounds, statistically speaking you are more likely to get kills driving to your hunting location that you are hunting.

[Brad]

I like public land because you can do what you want as long as you respect boundaries and game laws. Every good piece of private I've ever hunted has had so many restrictions that I darn near need a private attorney to shoot a deer. I can shoot what I want, when I want, how I want. I hunt both but I like knowing that anything I want to do is fair game, and I like having access to as much ground as I want to put the time in on, I feel like a prisoner on 500 acres.

[ Post made via Android ]

[headgear]

The other thing I think about on public land is I might be one of the few or only hunter on that chunk of land with a real shot to take a mature buck. Without the tactics I have learned from Dan and others on this site I would almost have no chance to take a mature deer. I've hunted all my life on public land, and the reality is cruising bucks and even rut activity outside the very peak of the rut is a very rare thing. If you aren't hunting right on top of those bucks core areas you are out of the game. That kind of make or break mentality is something I love, no mistakes, no scent hitting their nose, no 2nd chances.

[dan]

How do you guys keep safe hunting public land? I've never hunted it due to that... I'm worried some idiot is gonna think I'm a deer even with orange on. I've heard too many stories of people shooting at sounds and not positively identifing their target. How much orange do you wear?

[ Post made via Android ]

Hunting is actually a very safe activity when you compare accidents to numbers of hunters. Most accidents are from guys shooting themselves, or someone else in there own party or falling out of a tree. You are 100 times more likely to get killed driving to your hunting property... The reason hunting seems dangerous is cause the Liberal anti gun media spotlights the few accidents there are... They should show the numbers of guys dieing of heart attacks and accidents driving to hunting for comparison.