Deerless days...

[Pullintoobs]

I was talking with a friend about hunting some public places, he told me he would never hunt public land......
I have a nice island that i hunt and told him that I have never hunted it and not seen at least 1 deer. Which is the absolute truth. He thought I was bs'n him. Now i am not saying i have seen a nice buck every time, but I have managed to see at least 1 deer each time I hunted it, and I have been fortunate enough to get 3 decent bucks off it 3 years in a row. I have not hunted it for 2 years now because I am not so sure it is worth gettin a deer out of there, unless it is a monster. I used to hunt it at least once a week.( which probably explains why I have yet to connect on a bruiser out there)It is an excellent spot rut time ...I have seen as many as 8 different bucks in a day coming up to look for does. Anyone have a spot like this that seems to be a deer magnet? How many times do you hunt public and not see anything. I knew this was a good spot but am wondering if we all have a "goto"spot if any deer were the target?

[76chevy]

have one public spot we call the money tree, every time it has been hunted with the right wind, an opportunity to kill a deer has been presented

the SW wind puts your scent right out over a stripper pit

it is an awesome funnel between strip pits bedding and feeding areas, a rare spot on public that took us years to find and hunt right.

I was talking with a friend about hunting some public places, he told me he would never hunt public land......
I have a nice island that i hunt and told him that I have never hunted it and not seen at least 1 deer. Which is the absolute truth. He thought I was bs'n him. Now i am not saying i have seen a nice buck every time, but I have managed to see at least 1 deer each time I hunted it, and I have been fortunate enough to get 3 decent bucks off it 3 years in a row. I have not hunted it for 2 years now because I am not so sure it is worth gettin a deer out of there, unless it is a monster. I used to hunt it at least once a week.( which probably explains why I have yet to connect on a bruiser out there)It is an excellent spot rut time ...I have seen as many as 8 different bucks in a day coming up to look for does. Anyone have a spot like this that seems to be a deer magnet? How many times do you hunt public and not see anything. I knew this was a good spot but am wondering if we all have a "goto"spot if any deer were the target?

[dan]

Never really targeted "any deer" at least not since I was a young kid... I have always set my goal to shoot the biggest bucks in the area. I have settled on smaller, but not gone out of my way to hunt smaller, or "any deer".

As far as having go to places, yes I have spots that I fully expect action at. But I try not to over hunt them.

[Pullintoobs]

The biggest bucks were my goal too...except it was not happening. I have only in recent years learned that I needed to drastically change my hunting habits. I have never targeted specific deer, always was playing the luck game. I would scout and everything ,set up on sign etc....I would even shoot a deer or two ever year, but never had that nice buck show up where I expected it to. I have shot a few decent ones, but not the kind of bucks I know are in the marshes i am hunting. Not until I found that other site and followed onto this one did I begin to understand and try to apply the stuff I was reading. My confidence has greatly improved to the point that I really expect a nice buck to show. For that I thank all that contribute and share their knowledge on here.

[G3s]

We have a few spots on public land that we know with out a question that we will see deer and probably several bucks a day while hunting there. We have taken some very nice deer from one stand in particular, that for some reason, seems to be a super hotspot. There is no discernible difference in this spot from a topographic, or vegetation standpoint. However for more than 20 years that stand has produced year in and year out.

[Dewey]

I have one spot on public that I call "The Killin' Tree" because it is rare that I sit there and don't have the opportunity to kill a deer. Last year during the rut during a all day sit I had 4 bucks over 130" come past cruising for does and somehow never got a shot at any of them. The hardest part is not overhunting these spots.

People that say they won't hunt public land because there are no deer are just too lazy to put in the hard work needed to kill one there. That's fine with me.........more for us who put in the work.

[76chevy]

here that all the time and just laugh, they are hunting the wrong public or just plain lazy!

I have spent years finding the right spots and learning how to hunt them

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People that say they won't hunt public land because there are no deer are just too lazy to put in the hard work needed to kill one there. That's fine with me.........more for us who put in the work.