I Hunt Public Because It's My Only Option

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Sam Ubl
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I Hunt Public Because It's My Only Option

Unread postby Sam Ubl » Thu Aug 23, 2018 3:39 am

"Do you hunt private, or public? Or both? Why?"

These questions have been asked in sequence many times over. I've heard a lot of answers, but one that stands out the most is the one that seems to be repetitious - "I hunt public because it's my only option."

I wonder, does the option exist to seek permission on private? Maybe that's a better question to initiate conversation.

I actively pursue permission on private lands year 'round. In twenty-years I have never had a season go by without at least one private land option thanks to persistence in asking. In that time there have been occasions where the single piece of private no longer became an option and in those cases public land was my only option, but it was short-term and it didn't hamper my ability to seek out new private options to hunt. To be clear, I've been hunting public AND private lands since I was twelve years old, so I'm not partial to one over another, but I certainly do prefer the option of both.


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Re: I Hunt Public Because It's My Only Option

Unread postby BradC36 » Thu Aug 23, 2018 3:43 am

I'm in the same boat as you Sam, it's great to have the option of both. Based on where I live, and my daily commute, the only real option to get more hunts in is to have access to private ground. I wouldn't give up hunting private just to pound my chest and say "I only hunt public", because if I did I'd be giving away a lot of opportunity to feed my ego.
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elk yinzer
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Re: I Hunt Public Because It's My Only Option

Unread postby elk yinzer » Thu Aug 23, 2018 4:00 am

Hunted mostly private as a youth that was pressured every bit as much as public. Western PA there was kind of a cultural thing back in my grandpap's generation, you just hunted, there really was no posted land. That was rapidly transitioning in my youth in the 90's and then the early 2000's, as the bigger bucks craze took off, and more and more land was posted.

We mostly hunted a property that a lady that was very social basically told everyone and his brother they could hunt there. Even with all the pressure we did well there because there were 27 stands lining the field edge and only a couple guys went deep in. Someone got in her ear and now he has exclusive access. The vast majority of parcels in Western PA are less than 100 acres, so you better be friendly with the neighbors if you wing one. Its just a PIA to me. Leases are popping up on 10-20 acres parcels, it's nuts.

Last few years I am pretty much exclusively public. Where I live now I just have it too good with a lot of huge public parcels within an hour or so, feel no need whatsoever to go knocking on doors and dealing with the hassles. It's not an ego thing whatsoever but I can't relate to guys that hunt leased midwest farms either, so it is something I relate to other hunters about. If I stumbled into a good private situation, I'll go for it, but I am not seeking it out and I sure as heck ain't paying for it.
Last edited by elk yinzer on Thu Aug 23, 2018 4:02 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: I Hunt Public Because It's My Only Option

Unread postby kripp53 » Thu Aug 23, 2018 4:01 am

I agree, I think a lot of guys think public is there only option if their family or friends don't own land. For some guys knocking on doors and getting rejected is almost more mentally tough than hunting public. But you also gotta remember places that hold big bucks sometimes have plenty of land owners that hunt, so the only option might be to hunt the nearby public. You could also get permission to hunt private that doesn't hold any bucks. I've learned from Dan and others on this site that you have to hunt where the big bucks are not where you think they are. Sometimes that's public or private, and access might be limited for both.
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Re: I Hunt Public Because It's My Only Option

Unread postby thwack16 » Thu Aug 23, 2018 4:03 am

I grew up hunting 100% private. A 500 acre farm owned by one granddad and a 200 acre one owned by the other. Both less than 10 minutes from the house and only sharing it with my dad, uncle, and two brothers.

When I went to college I started playing around on some nearby public. That catapulted me into seeking "what's over the next hill" more and more.

Last season, with those same farms still an easy 10 minute drive, I hunted 40 times. Of those 40, 18 were on those farms. The other 22 hunts were split over 10 different pieces of public. So in short, no I don't hunt public because it's my only option. I hunt public because I want to.

As for seeking permission on private from others, I don't and won't ask. IMO, it puts a landowner in a bad situation when he tells you no due to his family hunting it. Also, lease prices are high, a bit hard to ask for something free when a landowner can make his property taxes(and in most cases, much more) back by leasing.
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Re: I Hunt Public Because It's My Only Option

Unread postby E72 » Thu Aug 23, 2018 4:58 am

I hunt both private and public and always did. I grew up in Western PA late 80s and 90s hunting mostly pressured /shared private land with a bow and rifle hunting large public in the central mountains with friends at their hunting camps. Now in Ohio ,its tough to get permission but not impossible, although if someone allows you to hunt, there is usually someone else hunting there already. My son and I occasionally hunt a 50 acre property that we shared with 2 other guys but recently the landowner gave permission to 2 others. 4-5 years ago we lost two other larger farms we hunted due to the owners passing away. Picked up a couple small parcels since then but the last 10 years, my way of hunting has changed . I used to sit alot of woodlots in the rut near known bedding on these private spots but started to realize I was burning these places out, not to mention pressure from other hunters. It was too hit or miss for me and wanted to go after bucks, hunting / learning new areas each year..... I always preferred turkey hunting on large public land just because you can be more mobile,.... so why not the same for deer. Now Id say I hunt public 75 % of my time public and 25% on private. So if Id have had exclusive access to large tracts of land then maybe I would have never had a reason to hunt public as much as I do now. Time was big factor as well ....having a family with most of the public land being at least 45 min to an hour and a half drive so its hard to keep tabs on the" in season scouting" like I prefer. Now that my son is a little older and I have more time off work...we plan on doing some 3-4 day bowhunt camps with a good tent to limit all the drive time, to and from home. Way harder to get on mature deer on public here but I'm enjoying the journey these days.
So really I think I've been pushed to hunt public more by lack of access to quality private lands but also a change in hunting style and attitude... that a lot of it to be honest, came from watching/ reading about Dan and Andrae and their hunting principles.
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Re: I Hunt Public Because It's My Only Option

Unread postby d_rek » Thu Aug 23, 2018 5:04 am

I definitely need to secure access to more private land. I've heard it can be tough in Michigan, but then again I honestly haven't heard of anyone asking for permission to hunt anyone else's land. Maybe in different areas of the state it's more common for people to ask permission, but it's almost unheard of by me. I suspect it may not be as difficult as some believe. And in any case I wont be worse off if someone says, "no".

Of my circle of hunters everyone hunts private land they have historically hunted and only a few hunt public in MI.

I've personally expanded my hunting to more public land the last few years. The property fragmentation is extreme around me. Not uncommon to have many sub 10 acre tracts of land where people hunt behind their house if they have a woodlot or suitable habitat. 20+ acres makes you a land baron.
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Re: I Hunt Public Because It's My Only Option

Unread postby oldrank » Thu Aug 23, 2018 5:10 am

I feel caged in on private. Generally in my area most private parcels are small. I need thousands of acres.. Do I have private land options. Yes, but they just don't do it for me.
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Re: I Hunt Public Because It's My Only Option

Unread postby magicman54494 » Thu Aug 23, 2018 5:14 am

I hunt public because I enjoy being in the woods and not knocking on doors and begging for permission. I hunted a lot of private years ago. It was always a pain to keep asking and also the revolving door of gaining and losing permission. Some of the private actually had MORE pressure than public.
The farm I rifle hunted for years was bought out by a rich guy who wanted the hunting land so bad that he bought the land and allowed the elderly couple to continue to live there minus hunting rites. I would have success then others would believe the place was soooo great that they would push their way in.
In the end I found it much easier to just hunt public. I headed north because there was lots of land and less hunters. I would probably quit hunting if I had to start knocking on doors again.
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Re: I Hunt Public Because It's My Only Option

Unread postby jhpa » Thu Aug 23, 2018 5:22 am

I hunt public and free access private because there is plenty of it in the areas I hunt and most of the private land gets just as much, if not more, pressure as the public.
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Re: I Hunt Public Because It's My Only Option

Unread postby headgear » Thu Aug 23, 2018 5:33 am

I've hunted some private but they were people I was friends with, still don't really do it any more unless I am invited somewhere. I also like the challenge of public and not having to worry as much about borders, getting permission, losing permission and jumping through hoops to keep access. Now I will hunt in my yard (5 acres) with the kids but that is about it, otherwise its all public and I have more land and hunting spots than I know what to do with. Seems like every private I have ever asked for permission to hunt on had family that hunted it so I am batting 0% anyway.

I think a lot depends on where you live and what public is available. If I had mostly private farms for 60 miles in every direction then you might have to get on some private but up in the bigwoods its mostly public anyway and the private is probably over hunted most of the time.
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Re: I Hunt Public Because It's My Only Option

Unread postby Dewey » Thu Aug 23, 2018 5:39 am

I like public because I really enjoy having plenty of land to roam that smaller private acreage could never provide. Guess it’s just the explorer in me and I would feel boxed in and confined being restricted to land with close borders. Best part is the freedom to go wherever I want and never have to deal with the hassle of asking for permission. I tossed around the idea of a lease a few times but it just never felt right to me paying to hunt when I have pretty much an endless supply of great public land to hunt.
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Re: I Hunt Public Because It's My Only Option

Unread postby blackwidow » Thu Aug 23, 2018 6:06 am

I hunt about every different situation you could ask for. I own one farm with my brothers and dad that I hunt. My dad owns a farm that I hunt. My in laws own a big farm that I have permission to hunt. And I also hunt several different public areas. I really enjoy having many different options. The one that I enjoy the most though, is hunting the farm that I own with my family. I really enjoy habitat work and land enhancement. It's nice to see the fruits of your labor yield some favorable results. I also enjoy having the option to build a cabin and have a place to stay at just to get away. And it's a plus that I have about 10,000 acres of public ground within 10 minutes drive from our farm. It's always fun to just go hunt public where you don't have trail cams running and you just go in trying to hunt the sign and get on a big buck.
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Re: I Hunt Public Because It's My Only Option

Unread postby 1bhtr » Thu Aug 23, 2018 6:20 am

I was fortunate that the farm that I started hunting on was 2000 acres of prime habitat in the midwest, it was an active cattle farm and there weren't any other serious bow hunters but it was heavily gun hunted by all of the family members. It was a great place to cut my teeth and always had encounters with deer... After we lost permission on this piece we started in on public and that was an eye opening change... The first opening day on public I had scouted in the summer and saw a large group of bucks, I set up in that area which was a mile back but on the main access trail for people, never saw any deer but had 14 hunters walk by me in the am with flashlights. Learned pretty quickly to find areas others weren't going but there was big learning curve... fast forward to 2014 and my friend and I went in on a 100 acre lease... Turns out that we were staying in a campground with thousands of acres of public but driving past it to get to the lease. We did not renew the lease and started hunting the public around the campground ever since... once you come to the conclusion that you can't control everything on public and do your best to get away from people it can be very rewarding, just as others have said I really have a more spiritual time on the big expanse of public... it just feels like I'm getting away from everything and enjoying the time outdoors...
These days I don't even try to get on private or leases, I enjoy the public to much... most times the habitat in my area is the best on public, lots of diversity of cover which you don't always find on private tracks, especially small ones
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Re: I Hunt Public Because It's My Only Option

Unread postby Grizzlyadam » Thu Aug 23, 2018 8:17 am

I currently hunt 50/50 public private. I have always been blessed to have a nice piece of private land to hunt every year since I started hunting 30 years ago. Things sure have evolved over that time. My private spot was all I hunted for the first ten years or so. It had moderate pressure and was brown it's down type of hunting. I was lucky to see a deer let alone kill one. I remember one year seeing 7 deer all season and thinking it was a good season. That had to do with both that the deer were getting pounded and we sucked at hunting. Hunting was different for me back then I didn't hunt because I wanted to or was really passionate about it. It was just something we did because Dad dragged us out to do it.

Fast forward to today that spot is pretty darn good with myself being the only one there and I am very selective about what I kill and the pressure and monitoring that I put on the herd there. I pick out the biggest buck on the property and that's my target deer to kill there. That is the challenge for me in that spot these days. A handful of years ago I got lucky knocking on doors and picked up another piece like that but with better bucks and more of them, so I set my goals high and achievement is very rewarding for me in that situation.

After my first decade of hunting on strictly private my father passed away and everything changed. I can't explain it but hunting became my life's passion at that point. I totally pulled a 180 and put all my focus on hunting large tracts of public land totally solo, doing it the hard way. Really learning how to hunt and making lots of mistakes along the way. I still hunted the private on occasion just to pop a doe or two for the freezer, but really worked on hunting the public land and became a much better hunter. I was a state land hunting machine for a decade and started getting good bucks down. To this day the biggest bucks I have ever seen have been on public land. And up until last year my biggest buck was a state land kill.

These days I still hunt a lot on state lands mostly early season for freezer fillers and save my private pieces for big buck hunting. I just recently discovered the beast this year and am all excited about the upcoming season with a rejuvenated feeling of the public land hunting machine I used to be. I picked up a lot of incredible info from this place that really put together a lot of the missing puzzle pieces I have been looking for for so many years. So this year I will probably dive into some public spots and chase down some of the old bruisers that would haunt my dreams and fuel the drive I had as a younger grizz.

It seems people hunt public or private for their own reasons and they can vary greatly. Sorry for the long winded post. I don't get the time to sit down and type much these days so when I do I figure I better make it count.


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