Public Land: What To Look For?

[<DK>]

I am new to BEAST Hunting and currently about to lose local private property and in the future my secondary private property. I am going to search and scout public lamd next off season. I wanted to get some tips on what to search for starting on the PC for picking a place to start. Iv heard people say many times make sure it's at least 1 hour from any city and asking friends is always good.

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[<DK>]

1 - Is there a cutoff for certain amount of acreage? What's too small of a place?
2 - Will my conservation dept have info on amount of animals harvested from that area?
3 - Is there any thing specific I should be looking for when I start searching on PC or scouting?
4 - Rifle Season: I should always have a private place to hunt, but what kind of things will I expect?
Obviously most of my questions will be geared more towards people scouting just as much or more than animals. Any advice will help. Total newb when talking public land.

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[Jackson Marsh]

Steep hills that are hard to access with limited parking/roads. Bottom access dissuades some hunters from hiking uphill to hunt. Swamps/marshes that are hard to access in knee boots.

Make sure the land is in a location that is known for big bucks (if that is what you are looking for).

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[Jackson Marsh]

If hunting hills, look at a topo, if it appears someone took an egg beater and whipped everything up, it might be a good area to look at.

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[<DK>]

I here dan talk about going couple miles back, which is fine. If the idea is going where others won't go, so should I be scouting places towards the middle of large properties?

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[<DK>]

And also what's the best ways to handle hunters either walking close to you or vise versa

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[stash59]

Some states actually give an estimate on the number of hunters using a HUNTING UNIT. If this number is lower than usually the number of hunters using public is lower too. Combine this with lower population areas. Hard to access country. Steep,wet,super thick or long distances to walk and you can find some gems.

[stash59]

I here dan talk about going couple miles back, which is fine. If the idea is going where others won't go, so should I be scouting places towards the middle of large properties?

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Or overlooked areas even close to parking.

I have some Montana buddies that hunt overlooked public land bordering town. They get some huge muley bucks that often frequent the city limits where there is no hunting. They catch these CITY bucks chasing does out in the public that's open to hunting.

[cbigbear]

1 - Is there a cutoff for certain amount of acreage? What's too small of a place?
2 - Will my conservation dept have info on amount of animals harvested from that area?
3 - Is there any thing specific I should be looking for when I start searching on PC or scouting?
4 - Rifle Season: I should always have a private place to hunt, but what kind of things will I expect?
Obviously most of my questions will be geared more towards people scouting just as much or more than animals. Any advice will help. Total newb when talking public land.

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Let me first say - the main key to any public land is that is has the caliber of buck you are looking for. All else just affects the way you go about hunting him/them.

1. No/Yes - if the place receives any pressure then the larger the better. If it has overlooked spots the size doesn't matter. Nothing is too small unless recovery off the property would be an issue.
Example a 10 ac crp patch with few climbable trees maybe worth hunting yet a 500 block of timber with 15 hunters isn't worth hunting.

2. Most do. If I remember right you're in MO, I found their DNR to be very helpful. Just remember if you called & found out what CA produced the largest buck last yr so did 10-12 other people!!!!!

3.Overlooked spots - no climbable trees, water, steep ridges, poor access, water access, restricted hunts, restricted weapons, non-published public land, etc. Once you've narrowed areas follow the directions on the beast for locating bedding.

4.Rifle is crowded in every state on public land, but as with all areas there will still be overlooked spots. Example muzzleloader only CA's.


Best way to handle other hunters - go where they don't/won't go.

[justdirtyfun]

Here are a few tips
Hill country.... Look for predominant wind and ridges/points aligning for beast style bedding hunts.
River bottom style ground....find oxbows that can give bucks a well protected pocket to bed in,again wind is important.
Farm fields... Lone trees out in a field can be honey holes for a buck. Points out into fields are worth a look.
Access /parking areas...if you drive past a part of property to get to parking, that is usually the overlooked spot.

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