Poll: Is it "bad form" to post the name of public land destinations on the internet?

[brancher147]

I am not encouraging folks to give away public areas, and I know THP does all they can do to keep from giving away exact locations. But getting people interested in hunting and in hunting public land is a very important thing to do and I applaud THP for doing it. I know it is not an easy thing to do, and they are putting everything they got into it. I hunt near where they hunted in Southern Ohio, and I know that area does not need any more pressure, but I am sure I could go back and find bucks and find good places to hunt. People that try to track down their or anyone's locations do not really worry me because someone that needs to do that obviously does not have it all figured out yet, and is not a real threat to me or to any experienced hunter who can pick up and find new areas if need be.

That being said, I have seen areas I hunt been mentioned online, and actually had a ridge I hunt named specifically in NA Whitetail, and it does have negative effects, and is why I have not hunted that ridge in 2 years. But I picked up and moved on. I do not condone posting exact public land destinations as a result of this, but I do think it is ok to mention general areas and public land in a general region. But I do not post WMA names or any specific details.

No they don’t. And that is why people keep calling them out. I love those guys. Love their content but they could absolutely be more discreet about locations. They will learn just like the whitetail adrenaline guys did and honestly the WA guys played their cards much closer to the chest and it still came back to bite them.

Yeah, I shouldn't have said it that way. I don't know that they do all they can do to keep from giving away exact locations. I have just noticed gps coordinates will always be blurred on phones and they don't mention WMA names. I just figure they try pretty hard to keep from giving away locations, maybe they don't. I am so far from trying to figure out their exact location maybe I am just not paying attention to little things they may give away.

[backstraps]

I didnt read through the replies...
But for me I dont like mentioning an area I hunt. Sometimes I feel like im being selfish in a way however I still wont do it anymore

Im also where If someone else post a thread talking about or asking for advise on an area i hunt,I won’t reply to the thread to keep the attention lower

However one on one private message etc I share my actual spots all the time with strangers which I know turns around and bites me

[PK_]

I am not encouraging folks to give away public areas, and I know THP does all they can do to keep from giving away exact locations. But getting people interested in hunting and in hunting public land is a very important thing to do and I applaud THP for doing it. I know it is not an easy thing to do, and they are putting everything they got into it. I hunt near where they hunted in Southern Ohio, and I know that area does not need any more pressure, but I am sure I could go back and find bucks and find good places to hunt. People that try to track down their or anyone's locations do not really worry me because someone that needs to do that obviously does not have it all figured out yet, and is not a real threat to me or to any experienced hunter who can pick up and find new areas if need be.

That being said, I have seen areas I hunt been mentioned online, and actually had a ridge I hunt named specifically in NA Whitetail, and it does have negative effects, and is why I have not hunted that ridge in 2 years. But I picked up and moved on. I do not condone posting exact public land destinations as a result of this, but I do think it is ok to mention general areas and public land in a general region. But I do not post WMA names or any specific details.

No they don’t. And that is why people keep calling them out. I love those guys. Love their content but they could absolutely be more discreet about locations. They will learn just like the whitetail adrenaline guys did and honestly the WA guys played their cards much closer to the chest and it still came back to bite them.

Yeah, I shouldn't have said it that way. I don't know that they do all they can do to keep from giving away exact locations. I have just noticed gps coordinates will always be blurred on phones and they don't mention WMA names. I just figure they try pretty hard to keep from giving away locations, maybe they don't. I am so far from trying to figure out their exact location maybe I am just not paying attention to little things they may give away.

To be fair some of it is unavoidable if you are trying to film your hunt you have to show the terrain. But when they are in a spot you have been before it is just very obvious.

[First Sit]

I selected bad form since a lot of eyes see it online which rarely leads to anything positive. However I think large areas can be talked about to some degree such as large national forests.

[justin84]

When i first joined the beast i saw your username and thought "shoot another guy who hunts dewey marsh" i use to hunt there a lot when i was a student at University of Stevens Point

Same here!

I voted "don't care"...most public areas aren't a secret and as we all know, most of the good spots are overlooked or too hard to get to for most people.

[Brian1986]

I don't know how much it matters if someone posts a name of a piece of property. That being said I am not going to advertise where I go to hunt. But with the amount of information available on the internet with the maps, aerial photos, apps like OnX, and historical data posted by the DNR, there isn't any area our there that is going to be a secret to any hunter who know's what to look for. Perhaps if a good hunter mentions a place and has success there on a big buck it may draw more eyeballs? Ha, in some cases it may make people stay away! I watched the THP guys hunt the property in Ohio this year. With all the pressure on that spot they documented, I wouldn't want to go there.

[creepingdeth]

Dont particulary care...if someone asks, north or south of town

[tgreeno]

You guys can hunt all my Montana public spots you want

[Lockdown]

I love THP, but showing the exact aerials of kills is probably not a good thing for anyone. I applaud their willingness to teach, but it doesn't take long to ruin a spot when you have tens of thousands of followers. My buddy told me he easily found exactly where Joe killed his buck during the public land challenge.

That said I don't think most people are talented enough to pull off a kill in these spots, but they're talented enough to scout them in season...

[ghoasthunter]

with the limited amount of opportunities i get every year and that number is going down i dont even tell people the zones in nj. i tell people how i do it and what i look for but thats it. there was a guy called bow hunting fiend on you tube that posted his locations on you tube. i know 3 clubs that now drive his mountain every six day last year they killed 15 rack bucks up there. thats on 3000 acers and i doubt there are 20 bucks up there. i scouted it this year and found no sign of any good bucks. i think i only tell maybe 2 or 3 friends the actual locations of my kills. nj does not have the type of woods that hold true safe zones for bucks too get old everything gets hit on drives during our 6 days of gun followed buy a month of muzzle loader. 95% of the mature bucks run onto our overwhelming amount of private land and stay there till spring. if you find a honey hole on the east coast dont tell your own mother or it will be lost. in a 160000 acres of land in my area there are maybe only 150 acres that i call a safe haven on public buy end of season.

[Lastcast#1]

Id say no as well. Pictures are your greatest threat as far as posting goes. Big deal, name the area. Fact is the number of hunters is deteriorating every year. I want people to use public land, the more the better. Not wanting a general area mentioned, I get it, and I only speak about my locations with one other human myself, but mentioning an area doesnt nescessarily fuel up someones tank and make them a ravaging serial killing beast thats going to take all your good spots. I dont care one way or the other. Fact is the majority of hunters I see hunt the same spots every year.

If I run into a dude in one of my spots then I maintain thats a person I may want to meet.


Chad

[Aces11]

I don’t even post on social media any pictures of deer I shoot. I have a lot of time, sweat and money invested in finding my spots and don’t want to give anything away. Maybe I am over paranoid?!?!?

[Emrah]

I’m definitely the minority here but I have no qualms about telling fellow hunters anything. Heck, I’ll even tell them what tree to sit in. Because guess what, all those deep, hard to get to, honey hole type places already have a half a dozen guys (at least) hunting it. There is no public place I can trek deep into that isn’t already discovered. The difference for me is (and I’m definitely a minority here) I’m after deer. Any deer. Meat on the hoof. I care little to nothing about big bucks or bucks of any size for that matter.

What I’m struggling to understand is why some of you guys go to such extremes about not disclosing where you shot a big buck. I mean, that buck is dead. It’s in your truck. No one else is going to shoot your buck again. So why the secrecy? I get that another buck will probably move in and take his place, but there are a ton of places where that buck could be. What am I missing here?

Emrah

[tgreeno]

I’m definitely the minority here but I have no qualms about telling fellow hunters anything. Heck, I’ll even tell them what tree to sit in. Because guess what, all those deep, hard to get to, honey hole type places already have a half a dozen guys (at least) hunting it. There is no public place I can trek deep into that isn’t already discovered. The difference for me is (and I’m definitely a minority here) I’m after deer. Any deer. Meat on the hoof. I care little to nothing about big bucks or bucks of any size for that matter.

What I’m struggling to understand is why some of you guys go to such extremes about not disclosing where you shot a big buck. I mean, that buck is dead. It’s in your truck. No one else is going to shoot your buck again. So why the secrecy? I get that another buck will probably move in and take his place, but there are a ton of places where that buck could be. What am I missing here?

Emrah

Why are you going to deep & hard to get to spots, to meat hunt? You can do that at the field edge? Or on a hardwood ridge? And the problem with giving up a spot is: even if you kill a good buck out of it. It's still a good spot and a new buck will most likely take his place. You area hunting for good areas, as much as good bucks. You can kill bucks out of the same areas for years.

[Boogieman1]

I’m definitely the minority here but I have no qualms about telling fellow hunters anything. Heck, I’ll even tell them what tree to sit in. Because guess what, all those deep, hard to get to, honey hole type places already have a half a dozen guys (at least) hunting it. There is no public place I can trek deep into that isn’t already discovered. The difference for me is (and I’m definitely a minority here) I’m after deer. Any deer. Meat on the hoof. I care little to nothing about big bucks or bucks of any size for that matter.

What I’m struggling to understand is why some of you guys go to such extremes about not disclosing where you shot a big buck. I mean, that buck is dead. It’s in your truck. No one else is going to shoot your buck again. So why the secrecy? I get that another buck will probably move in and take his place, but there are a ton of places where that buck could be. What am I missing here?

Emrah

For myself, I go and enjoy my time in the timber to get away from people. I specifically look for stuff nobody else wants or has thought of to hunt, I certainly don't wanna do something to bring the million man march to my woodlot. When the avg Joe sees a pic of a big buck that says where it was killed I believe they think there is one behind every bush and this is the place to be. They don't know any better so they tell everyone they know and come next year that place will look like the Walmart parking lot on Christmas Eve. Now I would be forced to find somewhere else to enjoy my time. It doesn't really matter to me if a new buck moved in or not. I'm not in the business of rubbing elbows. There can be a world class buck on a overrun parcel and you know what, they can have it! I would rather take the 2 acre patch of weeds 1/2 mile down the road away from all that nonsense.

Let me give u a real life example! This knuckle head in my county stumbled onto some public land that nobody has ever thought to hunt. The deer have never been hunted and were ignorant to the ways of the hunter. This guy dumped a sack of corn and shot a giant the next morning. He of course posted on fb along with the location and also stated come on down I got pics of 5 bigger ones, there's plenty to go around. Do u know how many deer have been killed there since that fb post? Zero that's how many and that was 7 or 8 years ago. Willing to bet that ole boy is singing a diff tune these days.

Personally don't see a need to put anyone (excluding family or close friends) on deer. Why can't they struggle and figure things out like everyone else. Why should they get a golden ticket when clearly if they are asking they have put zero effort into it.