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Re: Public Land sightings

Posted: Tue Oct 22, 2013 10:49 am
by Buckfever
carl1191 wrote:Man, some of you guys now how to get it done. I love the challenge of hunting public land, but sometimes its tough sitting most of the day and not seeing a thing. It's been tough for me to get out since having kids. The last 3 years I've only gotten out 5 - 6 times per season. I know from spring scouting that I'm sitting in good areas. How do you guys with families with young kids and work use the limited time that you have and still have success?


I've done a lot of scouting on my days off when the kids are at school and given how limited my hunts are I only hunt the rut on my best sets and that's been it for the last 4-5 years. 9-13 afternoon sits a year. I've just lowered my goals, if I can get a shot at a good buck every three years or so that's fine. If you do your homework and get 5-6 full days a season there's no reason that every couple years you don't pull out a good buck.

My son is a Senior in college now and my daughter goes off to college next year. Trust me you will not regret the hunting time you give up to be with your kids. If anything, you'll wish you spent more time with them.

Re: Public Land sightings

Posted: Wed Oct 23, 2013 12:47 am
by Southern Man
Buckfever wrote:
carl1191 wrote:Man, some of you guys now how to get it done. I love the challenge of hunting public land, but sometimes its tough sitting most of the day and not seeing a thing. It's been tough for me to get out since having kids. The last 3 years I've only gotten out 5 - 6 times per season. I know from spring scouting that I'm sitting in good areas. How do you guys with families with young kids and work use the limited time that you have and still have success?


I've done a lot of scouting on my days off when the kids are at school and given how limited my hunts are I only hunt the rut on my best sets and that's been it for the last 4-5 years. 9-13 afternoon sits a year. I've just lowered my goals, if I can get a shot at a good buck every three years or so that's fine. If you do your homework and get 5-6 full days a season there's no reason that every couple years you don't pull out a good buck.

My son is a Senior in college now and my daughter goes off to college next year. Trust me you will not regret the hunting time you give up to be with your kids. If anything, you'll wish you spent more time with them.


Great statement Buckfever

Re: Public Land sightings

Posted: Wed Oct 23, 2013 1:18 pm
by fishlips
Buckfever wrote:
carl1191 wrote:Man, some of you guys now how to get it done. I love the challenge of hunting public land, but sometimes its tough sitting most of the day and not seeing a thing. It's been tough for me to get out since having kids. The last 3 years I've only gotten out 5 - 6 times per season. I know from spring scouting that I'm sitting in good areas. How do you guys with families with young kids and work use the limited time that you have and still have success?


I've done a lot of scouting on my days off when the kids are at school and given how limited my hunts are I only hunt the rut on my best sets and that's been it for the last 4-5 years. 9-13 afternoon sits a year. I've just lowered my goals, if I can get a shot at a good buck every three years or so that's fine. If you do your homework and get 5-6 full days a season there's no reason that every couple years you don't pull out a good buck.

My son is a Senior in college now and my daughter goes off to college next year. Trust me you will not regret the hunting time you give up to be with your kids. If anything, you'll wish you spent more time with them.


Great perspective. I have a young one now and always have the urge to get out and hunt, but always feel a bit guilty when I do. I love to hunt, but I always worry about missing out on the real important stuff.

That being said, I cannot wait to get him out in the woods. That will be an awesome day.

Re: Public Land sightings

Posted: Wed Oct 23, 2013 2:05 pm
by carl1191
I know exactly how you feel fishlips. I am coming to the realization that my goals need to be adjusted. My oldest will be 4 next year, so I'm hoping to take him scouting with me this next year.

Re: Public Land sightings

Posted: Wed Oct 23, 2013 3:56 pm
by tmoney22
I agree that its hard with two little ones (6 and 2) at home with working 12 hours shifts and normal house projects. The main thing I keep in mind and keep telling my buddies who are not fathers yet is that you can go chase trophies right now cause i have two i see everyday that i wouldnt trade over anything. I pretty much the last two years have been putting my eggs in one basket and utilze my vacation to have a good part of November off and take full advantage of that. I have a brother in law that does a lot of my scouting and reporting to me which helps when i head down to hunt i have a decent game plan. It is also a great thing that i have a very wonderful woman at home that grew up in a hunting family that understands the passion. But anyways enough rambling....family first, hunt second but take full advantage of both.

Re: Public Land sightings

Posted: Mon Oct 28, 2013 11:13 am
by hoyt
First part of season up until I went out on the IR for about 3wks I was seeing from 2 to tops of 20 every hunt. Just got back healthy enough to hunt again yesterday morning..saw 4 and the first time in a morning hunt this morning I hunted a thick ridge where I know big bucks use and didn't see anything. Did find a big fresh scrape right where I saw some very good bucks last season..1st this yr. an a decent fresh rub on next ridge over...so that was good news.
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It was Nov. 13th last season when I saw so many big bucks cruising.

Re: Public Land sightings

Posted: Tue Oct 29, 2013 2:35 am
by headgear
I just plain don't see a lot of deer, one I hunt the bigwoods with low deer number and like Dan mentioned if you are hunting older bucks you aren't going to see a lot of deer. I might only see two or three shooters a year and it probably takes me 15-20 sit per buck. Some years are much better, other years are worse but it kind of averages out.

Re: Public Land sightings

Posted: Tue Oct 29, 2013 7:22 am
by hoyt
Had 4 come in this morning right at 8:00am..but wind was blowing just opposite of what what forcast and they vanished.

Re: Public Land sightings

Posted: Wed Nov 13, 2013 1:43 pm
by ihookem
Now I don't feel so bad not seeing many deer on public land. Thought I was a bad hunter. I have sat 8 times in the Northern Kettle moraine and saw deer 3 times, so, 37.5 % of the time this year. Up north in Price and Sawyer co. I sat 9 times and saw deer once, or 11% of the sits. Not too good but I am hunting Kettle Moraine more and more. It's 14 mi. instead of 243 mi. In all my hunting down here has been dismal at best over the years but percentages are way up this year.

Re: Public Land sightings

Posted: Wed Nov 13, 2013 4:01 pm
by MN Legacy
I'VE had good luck on seeing deer. I have one WMA that I hunt I'VE seen alot of deer and some good bucks. However after the MN gun season things change and the deer tend to get skittish.

[ Post made via Windows Smartphone ] Image

Re: Public Land sightings

Posted: Thu Dec 12, 2013 11:48 am
by oldrank
Id say i avg deer sightings every 4 sits.... i never hunt the same stand 2 in a row.. always movin around with the climber...

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Re: Public Land sightings

Posted: Thu Dec 12, 2013 12:03 pm
by Ghost Hunter
I saw a lot of bucks at Holla Bend this year. I had two good ones close to me on one morning hunt an one evening hunt. The evening hunt buck came out just at dark in some thick stuff never offered a shot at about 20 yards. He was a eight point with good mass tall rack. The morning buck came out of a honey suckle bed on me not fifty yards off the road. He was a solid ten point about 18 inches wide with good mass an good tine length.
He caught me sitting down. He came off the bed about 8:30 an offered a brief shot. If I had been standing at that time an saw him when he came into view. I might could have got a shot off. Seen him again the next day at about 80 yards.

I saw deer about 70% of the time.

Re: Public Land sightings

Posted: Fri Feb 07, 2014 1:33 am
by wiscodeerslayer
I saw deer a little over 50% of the time on public land. Most of the land I hunted was small tracts usually only hunted by duck hunters. I saw 3 bucks between 125-150" and never saw anything smaller which was a nice surprise.The 150" I saw probably half a dozen times on his feet during early daylight. I never got a shot at any of them but it was pretty reassuring to me knowing they were there. I normally hunt during the week in the a.m. because I work 3rd shift and I know that gives me a big advantage in terms of deer activity. Also saw a 160-170" buck on a different piece of property that I usually reserve for rifle hunting, but broke my rule and bowhunted it because I knew where he was bedded and thought I could outsmart him. Needless to say, that didnt happen. I changed up a lot of my tactics this year and that seemed to work for me. But again, my biggest benefit was being able to hunt weekdays on virtually untouched land that everyone seems to overlook.

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Re: Public Land sightings

Posted: Fri Feb 07, 2014 3:01 am
by basspro05
I normally get about 6-10 sits per year, but I want to probably double that this year.

I would say I averaged seeing about 6-7 deer total, but I would say 25% of the time I see deer. But that was before I found the beast.

Re: Public Land sightings

Posted: Fri Feb 07, 2014 3:25 am
by Edcyclopedia
Dewey wrote:Last year I had one of my best seasons on public land for bucks. Saw 21 bucks in 33 sits. Of those 21 bucks at least 1/2 were shooters. My longest streak not seeing any deer was 3 days. Saw at least one buck every day from Oct 31-Nov 11. I don't usually keep track of antlerless sightings because I am rarely targeting them but on average I would say I see one every 3-4 sits.

The trend the last few years is that I am seeing more bucks, especially shooter bucks and much less does and fawns likely due to hunting buck beds more often than not.

So far this year in 5 hunts I saw 3 bucks. Of those bucks I killed one 10 pt, bumped one slob bedded in deep marsh grass and the other buck was a 6pt coming out of his bed.

[ Post made via iPhone ] Image


I'D SAY SO!!! Wow!


I see deer on average 1 out of 3-sits.
Bucks 2.5 and older may only be a couple a season (if I'm lucky)
2013 season i had 4- mature buck sights and 1-large Bear (my best season ever for this)...