140" public or 160" private

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Ridgerunner7
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Re: 140" public or 160" private

Unread postby Ridgerunner7 » Sat Jan 04, 2020 12:48 am

I would be happy with either. From my experience hunting both public and permission private in many many states is that it’s not always black-and-white that private is better than public. Not at all actually. When I hunt out of state, there are times I have thousands of acres all to myself. A lot of times the smaller private pieces are more pressured per acre. What I would say, on average is there are more 2 1/2 year-old bucks that get passed on private. I would also say that hunting pressure is more pattern a bowl on private land so it’s easier to make adjustments to hunting pressure. That is been pretty universal. When people hear private land, they think of big giant managed pieces leased up by one or two guys and managed for giant bucks with endless amounts of food and unpressured deer. The majority of the hunters I know are hunting a mix of small acreage private permission land shared with other hunters mixed in with public land opportunities. When I’m hunting public land, I feel more free to maneuver, hunt a buck down, stay on him. When I’m hunting shared small acreage private land you’re trying to kill a mature buck and a very small chunk that other hunters are hunting as well. I find that very difficult Because your ability to maneuver and play the game with a certain buck is limited. I believe both have their challenges. I can honestly say the public I have hunted in Kentucky, Ohio, Iowa, Nebraska etc., my chances of killing a 160 are much better than on any shared private land I have hunted back home. If you’re asking what I rather shoot of 140 in the Adirondack mountains versus a 160 on Mark Drury‘s land, Yes I would take the 140 every day.


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Buckfever
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Re: 140" public or 160" private

Unread postby Buckfever » Sat Jan 04, 2020 9:41 am

Dewey wrote:Never hunted on private land and don’t plan to anytime soon so it would have be the 140” public buck. Can’t I have a 160” public buck? :snooty:


Yeah that's what I was thinking.
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Boogieman1
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Re: 140" public or 160" private

Unread postby Boogieman1 » Sat Jan 04, 2020 10:34 am

Crap shoot for me. You could stick a 140” right next to a 160” in my wheel house and it’s a toss up which I would shoot. Mainly cause there’s diff things that tickle my fancy. What if it was a 140” 6 pt? Personally would pick a 140” swole up 8pt over a 10 or 12 pt 160”. I’m a sucker for a big 8.

On the diff between public vs private it really depends on the situation. I hunt both and have experienced the accomplishment on both. Any deer killed on public is a well earned trophy imo. When I kill a doe on public I get a pride factor that I don’t get on private.

However if a guy is targeting 1 specific buck on any type of “real World” private that is a heck of an accomplishment that few can pull off. Guess, In all honesty u give me either one of those bucks in either condition and I be a happy sob. Don’t matter to me as long as I was the one doing the hunting part.
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Re: 140" public or 160" private

Unread postby jkelley1487 » Sat Jan 04, 2020 6:36 pm

I’d be happy with either on public or private land. As stated before, there is almost a public land snobiness sometimes to anyone who kills a private land buck. I’ve killed on both and elated to do so.

Very few people have it like the Drurys. I don’t know anyone personally who has more than 40 acres to themselves on private. Like others said, the private permission lands for the most part are tiny and multiple hunters on them. Guys will put stands up all over it to claim “their” spots and not a lot you can do about it. As time goes on and hunting land becomes harder to find, it’s almost not even worth the hassle to deal with the private land drama.
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Re: 140" public or 160" private

Unread postby Marshbuster89 » Mon Jan 06, 2020 3:25 pm

140” public any day of the week. I’ve never hunted private and never plan to. The endless amounts of opportunities and different terrains and the simple fact of inevitable failure is much more attractive to me than being stuck to say 80 acres.

If I screw up on public and blow a spot out, it doesn’t really bother me at all.
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BJ99Robinson
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Re: 140" public or 160" private

Unread postby BJ99Robinson » Tue Jan 07, 2020 5:53 am

I would be happy with either, I've never killed one that big before. I came close this year, mid 130's on private.
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Re: 140" public or 160" private

Unread postby SplitG2 » Thu Jan 09, 2020 1:58 am

Given that neither deer is more respectable than the other, either buck would be fine with me. I’d venture to say, at least here in Ohio, that 90+% of private is hit just as hard and Some even harder in a lot of spots as public is.

The whole private vs public thing is no different than the whole compound vs crossbow thing or the whole bowkill vs gun kill thing. We hunt, it’s what we do and no weapon, method or location makes one persons success more respectable than the other.
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DaveT1963
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Re: 140" public or 160" private

Unread postby DaveT1963 » Thu Jan 09, 2020 3:46 am

I have an acquaintance that shoots a 200+" deer every year and has several 300" deer on his wall. He hunts a high fence and pays for this "right." He is absolutely thrilled to show his wall and hero pics. For me, I am humming Shaina Twain's That don't impress me much.... I think everyone will have their own preference on what floats their boat, and neither are right or wrong except in someone else's eyes
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treeroot
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Re: 140" public or 160" private

Unread postby treeroot » Thu Jan 09, 2020 2:30 pm

I would rather have whichever is the oldest. Public vs private doesn't really matter to me. The private around me gets hammered, the public is hit or miss on pressure.


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