Public Land Deer Bowhunt Recap

[cnelk]

After making 4 tips to Nebraska and 2000+ miles later, I learned so much about bowhunting WT on public land as a NonRes.

Here are a few things that come to mind


There are deer trails, doe trails and buck trails
Public land deer are very cagey
Don?t over-estimate a ?quality? deer on public land
Deer will always show up on the wrong side of your tree stand, regardless how you position it.
Always, always know where other hunters are in the area
Riverbottom winds can vary in direction within a 100yds
Be prepared to be disappointed
Be prepared to be frustrated
Deer don?t always travel ?into the wind?
Deer can be very predictable
Deer can be very unpredictable
It very difficult to keep track of more than one deer walking around your stand
Aim low when shooting from a tree stand
You can get away with some movement when deer are near
You can get away with no movement when deer are near
Deer can appear and disappear in seconds

 

[cnelk]

Monday evening I saw a guy wearing red walking about 150yds away right before prime time

 

[cnelk]

I had a trail cam set up where they were headed. And there wasn\'t one guy, but 2
Carrying a ladder stand.

Public land joys

 

[Ol' Arky]

Brad, The area I hunt on our lease borders another lease... I have folks that hunt close to me and had them put up another stand close (250 or so yards) to my powerline stand on there part of the lease during the youth hunt this year... #3 grand son killed his doe while they were putting it up... I learned that I can use them to my advantage... I get there before they do and leave after they do... If they shoot I get ready since they ain\'t that good of shots and the deer they shot at my come to me... If not they my make another deer change direction and come by me... A little clue... While others are back in camp and eating lunch I\'m killing my biggest bucks... The older I get the harder it is to stay in my stand as long as I use to... Now I normally spend a couple of hours a day out of it and wonder how many deer have been there when I wasn\'t...

Public land is harder to deal with since they may walk right up on you and set up their stand right next to you... At least they do here in Arkansas...

Learn to use the other hunters to your advantage and you will see and kill more deer on public land...

Also wt deer are a lot smaller than elk...

 

[bnsafe]

yep, sounds about right for deer hunting.

 

[mainebrdr]

Thanks for keeping us posted on the hunts Brad, I enjoyed the reading.

\"Always know where the other hunters are.\" How in the world can you do that? A lot of acres and a lot of hunters.

 

[cnelk]

Tim, this is how you find out where other hunters are at.
Follow their flagging ribbon right to the stand they set up
The time stamp on my camera showed they came and went in 15 min s I knew it was close.
Once I found the first ribbon it led me to a hunter in the tree stand who was using an Xbow and he was from Alabama.

 

[Old School]

Brad - great post. I had to laugh out loud at your comments - now you know how some of us non resident hunters feel about hunting elk on public land out West. At least that\'s about how I feel about it! Public land and Private land are so different - and when you don\'t have a lot of time to have boots on the ground scouting, it is very challenging to connect. Lots of variables, some which you can control, but many which you cannot.

--Mitch