Time to walk away question

[Boogieman1]

I get in where I fit in, both have advantages at times and both plain stink at times. For me the key is finding either when the others give up or the tiny pieces no one thinks to hunt. Not all private is 10,000 acre choice plots, in many cases when u figure the number of hunters per acre its worst than public. Mix in the fact private they can cruise around on atvs and such it gets into a whole diff mater of a idiot screwing the pooch.

Unless you have an absurd amount of money to throw at it u are gonna face your share of challenges in ethier case. Best to just make your piece with that from the jump or your in for some serious disappointment. From a guy on both sides of the fence the grass isn't worth a crap on ethier. Need some of that high quality greens like they got in CandyLand!

[Bigb]

I hunted both for a long time and now withe two kids under the age of 4 I don't have time to scout like I used to. Plus living 3 hours from where I like to hunt doesn't help at all.

I mainly hunt private now because I have access to a decent spot and like I mentioned before my time is limited with young kids. My spot is only about 200 acres and gets a fair amount of pressure during the rut from me and a couple buddies. We have though put out about 35 stands in the past 7 or 8 years so we have a lot of spots to hunt so we don't burn out spots. I truly enjoy hunting there and thats all that really matters to me. We know how to hunt and normally we kill a couple bucks a year 130" to 170". Being mobile sure does help with scent but if you have a lot of stands and know when to hunt them you can still kill a lot of big deer. I still scout a fair amount for new spots on this farm and always seem to find a spot to add a stand but I've walked this 200 acres probably 100x and learn something new every time and how the big bucks move.

Until We lose the land I'll probably stick with it. I truly enjoy hunting there and learn something everytime I'm out. I'm just as happy if I kill a big deer on public as I am on private. I'm also just as happy seeing one of my hunting buddies walk up on a big buck as I am walking up on one I shot. I find a lot of joy hunting with people and really don't enjoy it as much hunting alone.

[hunting_dad]

As others have said, you don’t have to necessarily choose one or the other. You can hunt both as your situation dictates. I hunted private for many years and we sold our last chunk several years ago. For me it was very liberating once I started hunting the public land if that makes sense. I realized how much I had been limiting myself all those years. Yeah I had success but was missing out on the adventure. On top of that, I have the opportunity to hunt way more land and different habitat on public than I ever did on private. Pick whichever feels right as your season goes and enjoy yourself.

[Bowhunter4life]

No reason to fully walk away as other I’m sure have said. (Didn’t read through everything) if it hasn’t produced for you and your spending your entire season there then your only hurting yourself. I love having many different pieces to hunt. Moving around to different pieces of public and hunting has really became one of the things I enjoy the most cause every hunt you feel as though your going into something completely new and you just have that excitement of not knowing what could be there vs a property you pound out hunt after hunt and it isn’t producing your quickly lose confidence and that leads to sloppy hunting only further hurting your chances at succes.

Check out some other public if you have it around and see what you come up with. Find several spots to hunt and don’t put so much into one area. I believe you will find that it keeps that spark lit and makes each hunt that much more exciting.

[dewayne]

If the private land has been productive I'm not sure that I would abandon it completely. Public land can be fun but there other challenges that you will not encounter on private. If possible I could keep them both as an option, I grew up hunting private and have been hunting public for the last 10 years and would like to have some private land to hunt.

[Scratchman]

Sounds like a great spot for your back pocket.