Public Pressure Report
- Singing Bridge
- 500 Club
- Posts: 7162
- Joined: Wed Feb 17, 2010 1:11 pm
- Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/?ref=home#!/pro ... 1329617473
- Location: Logged in - from above
- Contact:
- Status: Offline
Public Pressure Report
I hit the heavy pressure public land for an afternoon hunt yesterday... I cut more big buck tracks on my access trail than I've ever seen. At least half a dozen different buck tracks, and one was off the charts. Thus, I made a rookie mistake on the super-pressure public during a weekend! I set up over a buck bed staging area just off the edge of a swamp- but I was in the hardwoods! I had three fresh scrapes within sight, and big tracks coming out of the bedding area...
While hunting I saw two other hunters walk by in the distance... and a full ten minutes before anything you could consider to be dark, three (3) different trucks came barreling out of the woods on three different woods roads within sight of my stand. These are the hunters that are AFRAID OF THE DARK! They were getting the heck out of Dodge... I never even saw a fawn!
These bucks definitely put safety above breeding- if they don't they are dead. Shame on me for thinking that at this time of the year I could get away hunting in the open woods! Ducks in our area marshes don't fly until legal shooting time has expired after the season has been open for a week... and these bucks are a whole lot smarter than ducks! What was I thinking? Right now, it is PARTY CENTRAL for the deer during the middle of the night. Daylight and a weekend around here = hunters en masse coming out of your ears. To have a decent chance of seeing a buck on a weekend on the SPP (super pressure public) I needed to be just off of the bedding areas in heavy cover.
Of course SOME of the bucks come out of the heavy cover... and are shot! The odds aren't good enough for me to play that game.
How's the pressure in your public areas right now?
While hunting I saw two other hunters walk by in the distance... and a full ten minutes before anything you could consider to be dark, three (3) different trucks came barreling out of the woods on three different woods roads within sight of my stand. These are the hunters that are AFRAID OF THE DARK! They were getting the heck out of Dodge... I never even saw a fawn!
These bucks definitely put safety above breeding- if they don't they are dead. Shame on me for thinking that at this time of the year I could get away hunting in the open woods! Ducks in our area marshes don't fly until legal shooting time has expired after the season has been open for a week... and these bucks are a whole lot smarter than ducks! What was I thinking? Right now, it is PARTY CENTRAL for the deer during the middle of the night. Daylight and a weekend around here = hunters en masse coming out of your ears. To have a decent chance of seeing a buck on a weekend on the SPP (super pressure public) I needed to be just off of the bedding areas in heavy cover.
Of course SOME of the bucks come out of the heavy cover... and are shot! The odds aren't good enough for me to play that game.
How's the pressure in your public areas right now?
- Edcyclopedia
- Posts: 12605
- Joined: Tue Jul 20, 2010 12:54 pm
- Location: S. NH
- Status: Offline
Re: Public Pressure Report
I was at the local Archery shop on Friday (the day b4 Muzzle opens) and the line was deep at the cash registers for hunting licenses!
To date (Archery) has been VLP (very low pressure).
I spent the weeknd at camp and didn't bump into anyone so I would say it's low to moderate, however I stay away from the crowds...
Nov 14th is Rifle and can be rest assured to be busy though!
To date (Archery) has been VLP (very low pressure).
I spent the weeknd at camp and didn't bump into anyone so I would say it's low to moderate, however I stay away from the crowds...
Nov 14th is Rifle and can be rest assured to be busy though!
Expect the Unexpected when you least Expect it...
- Singing Bridge
- 500 Club
- Posts: 7162
- Joined: Wed Feb 17, 2010 1:11 pm
- Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/?ref=home#!/pro ... 1329617473
- Location: Logged in - from above
- Contact:
- Status: Offline
Re: Public Pressure Report
I forgot to add that it remains bow season here... our gun season opens November 15th and the pressure will continue to intensify. About the 12th of November the pickup truck traffic in front of my house begins to be nearly non-stop until midnight or so. My neighbors to the northeast have purchased some beautiful horse coats that are blaze orange for their horses and they are wearing them already... I heard two high-powered rifle shots at dark last night from poachers... most neighbors wear an orange hat to get the mail during gun season... children and dogs wear a lot of orange at that time of the year too.
- jlh42581
- 500 Club
- Posts: 2001
- Joined: Wed Jun 29, 2011 3:10 am
- Location: PA
- Contact:
- Status: Offline
Re: Public Pressure Report
Sounds just like home
- headgear
- 500 Club
- Posts: 11625
- Joined: Wed Sep 08, 2010 7:21 am
- Location: Northern Minnesota
- Status: Offline
Re: Public Pressure Report
The MN rifle seasoned opened here so that means the pressure is at an all time high. I don't think I have a very high hunters per square mile pressure in my area but a gun season this time of the year really thins out the buck population before they have a chance to get any years on them. Its a different kind of pressure I'm not sure many are use to. Very few hunters I know will pass a legal spike, I would rather hunt higher pressure with better mature buck numbers.
- Singing Bridge
- 500 Club
- Posts: 7162
- Joined: Wed Feb 17, 2010 1:11 pm
- Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/?ref=home#!/pro ... 1329617473
- Location: Logged in - from above
- Contact:
- Status: Offline
Re: Public Pressure Report
Edcyclopedia wrote:
Nov 14th is Rifle and can be rest assured to be busy though!
Things get real busy when gun opens up here too...
-
- Site Owner
- Posts: 41588
- Joined: Sat Feb 13, 2010 6:11 am
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HuntingBeast/?ref=bookmarks
- Location: S.E. Wisconsin
- Contact:
- Status: Offline
Re: Public Pressure Report
Hard to answer that question cause I hunt more than one area, but the area I hunt the most by my home I would ay has roughly 30 per square mile on the weekends during rut. I am sure it is over 60 during gun season.
- Singing Bridge
- 500 Club
- Posts: 7162
- Joined: Wed Feb 17, 2010 1:11 pm
- Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/?ref=home#!/pro ... 1329617473
- Location: Logged in - from above
- Contact:
- Status: Offline
Re: Public Pressure Report
dan wrote:Hard to answer that question cause I hunt more than one area, but the area I hunt the most by my home I would ay has roughly 30 per square mile on the weekends during rut. I am sure it is over 60 during gun season.
Good point, Dan- I hunt multiple counties and sometimes have many hours between areas. The pressure I'm speaking of is closest to home.
- Singing Bridge
- 500 Club
- Posts: 7162
- Joined: Wed Feb 17, 2010 1:11 pm
- Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/?ref=home#!/pro ... 1329617473
- Location: Logged in - from above
- Contact:
- Status: Offline
Re: Public Pressure Report
headgear wrote:The MN rifle seasoned opened here so that means the pressure is at an all time high. I don't think I have a very high hunters per square mile pressure in my area but a gun season this time of the year really thins out the buck population before they have a chance to get any years on them. Its a different kind of pressure I'm not sure many are use to. Very few hunters I know will pass a legal spike, I would rather hunt higher pressure with better mature buck numbers.
we have the "brown its down" mentality here too. When you have 60 + hunters per square mile, and only a few bucks will be taken in that square mile at best... if a buck walks out in gun season... spike or not...
'nuff said.
-
- 500 Club
- Posts: 1115
- Joined: Thu Mar 18, 2010 2:02 pm
- Location: TWO RIVERS WI
- Status: Offline
Re: Public Pressure Report
My son was on public this past saturday in clark county. One other truck on the 3 mile logging road. I am headed there tuesday should be very low pressure for the weekdays ahead.
- Singing Bridge
- 500 Club
- Posts: 7162
- Joined: Wed Feb 17, 2010 1:11 pm
- Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/?ref=home#!/pro ... 1329617473
- Location: Logged in - from above
- Contact:
- Status: Offline
Re: Public Pressure Report
ttsbuck wrote:My son was on public this past saturday in clark county. One other truck on the 3 mile logging road. I am headed there tuesday should be very low pressure for the weekdays ahead.
Sounds like some great hunting ahead- i'll be putting some hours behind me soon to reach an area with lower pressure too.
[ Post made via Android ]
- whitetailassasin
- Posts: 3404
- Joined: Tue Sep 25, 2012 12:34 pm
- Location: Michigan
- Status: Offline
Re: Public Pressure Report
Dad and i ventured out, I seen 5 guys coming in the morning, and at the evening hunt one of the two tracks was opened up by the dnr and there was about 10 vehicles and 5 camper's, and one DNR officer. We were scunting...scout/hunting we packed in and were checking the fresh sign and local pressure. You can definetly tell that gun season is coming quick..ps I don't think the rut is in full swing yet, been seeing does walking by themselves, not being dogged and have seen younger bucks walking aimlessly..even jumped two bedded one was 10am the other was 2pm.
-
- Status: Offline
Re: Public Pressure Report
I voted below average simply because a lot of my spots do not recieve much bowhunting pressure. I have some spots that get more than others though. Now gun season they get hit pretty hard.
- headgear
- 500 Club
- Posts: 11625
- Joined: Wed Sep 08, 2010 7:21 am
- Location: Northern Minnesota
- Status: Offline
Re: Public Pressure Report
It can be hard to pick a number, I do have spots I know see 30+ hunters per square mile, other spots I am pretty sure I am the only hunter in that square mile. If I go up north I might have 3 square miles to myself, it is paradise in a way but much much harder hunting with low deer numbers, wolf and gun pressure and seemingly unlimited places for the bucks to hide out.
- James
- 500 Club
- Posts: 1530
- Joined: Sun Feb 21, 2010 4:17 am
- Location: Western WI
- Status: Offline
Re: Public Pressure Report
I have about 25,000 acres of federal public land right by my house and probably another 10,000 acres of state that joins up to it. I drove the perimeter yesterday morning to see where the pressure is at. I counted 20 trucks. I thought that was pretty high for a Monday, but it is firearms season right now.
YouTube Channel - https://youtube.com/@JimmyHunts
-
- Advertisement
Return to “Public Land Hunting”
Who is online
Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 19 guests