Hunting Public land

[brokentoe]

#2622

I support hunting on public lands, where are some of the best places around your areas. I make it a yearly tradition to do some extreme bowhunting Texas style, on Amistad NRA near Del Rio,Texas. I’m old school with my long bow and wooden arrows but I get the job done, and love every minute of it.

[purehunter]

#11391

So far, I have ONLY hunted public land. Wait, I did hunt some antelope in Wyoming on private land. Wyoming is checkerboarded with private land so I paid $50 for a “trespass” fee. That was only once though. I live in Kalifornia and the county I live in is 97% public land (BLM, USFS, LAWP). The tags are hard to draw but the archery D-6 tag you can get every year but you DO have to do your research. This area has almost NO roads so you have to backpack hunt and be prepared to pack your deer out of steep terrain. Hence, not many hunters. Not too many people want to backpack hunt 4-7 days at 7500-10000 feet. It’s hard enough that I don’t think I’m going to be able to hunt it much past 50 years in age.

I’ve been to Colorado for elk (cow and bull) and there are some gems there too. But, I got my elk at over 12,000 feet and miles from a road. THAT was tough. I had a partner or it would have been excrutiating.

Purehunter

“Hunt it, kill it, grill it!”

[SteveMcD]

#11478

Here in Southeastern New York State we have a lot of State Park areas that are “Bow Hunting Only” for the entire 3 months of deer season. It seems that most Compound Bow Hunters abandon their bows for bang sticks once the firearm season kicks in, so those bow only bowhunters tend to have free run of many 1000’s of acres for ourselves for the later 2/3’s of the season. hard to beat and the deer are either unpressured or move into the area due to neighboring areas being open to firearms.

[David Petersen]

#11562

Steve — In that case I may have to come visit this fall! 😆

[T Downing]

#11579

I personally love public land. I have spent the majority my bowhunting career hunting on public land. As a blue collar bowhunter, public land is the only way. Due to this, I fight tooth and nail to protect it whether it is wilderness public land or our precious roadless areas here in Colorado. I believe that our nation’s public lands are absolute treasures, places that must be protected for this generation and generations to come. Long Live Public Land! T

[SteveMcD]

#11636

Dave… as Alex will tell you. When everyone hears “New York”. The mental picture is always Times Square or Harlem. But, New York State has tons of State Parks & State Forests, a couple of them larger than some states! Of course these are “mountain” deer which are tougher to hunt than the corn fed variety, but like any Whitetail, find the food source and you find the deer.8)

[William Warren]

#11719

NC has 1000’s of acres of public land. 90% of the deer I have taken came from public land. Find the right access point and you will not see a soul, even during gun season.
NC has a variety of terrain from mountain to coastal low country and whitetail and black bear thrive in these environments. Like Steve says, find the food source and you find the deer or bear.

Duncan

[Patrick]

#11758

SteveMcD wrote: When everyone hears “New York”. The mental picture is always Times Square or Harlem. But, New York State has tons of State Parks & State Forests, a couple of them larger than some states!

Guilty as charged.:oops:

And nice hat Duncan!

[William Warren]

#12296

Thanks Patrick, it’s vintage 1975 beaver felt.

[Chris Shelton]

#12341

Public land is my home, I have hunted both but find that I absolutely hate fences, the grass always seems greener on the other side. So I find a place without them. 55000 acres of state forest should do fine:lol:, And suprisingly dad and I only hunt probably about 2 square miles of it!!! The hunters out in Western MD, are lazy, and ruthless. Anything with antlers during gun season dies. Because of our buck only season. And they dont really have time to grow up and do any good for the heard. So dad and I made a pack, to “try” our best to only take a mature deer. So far I have done my part, someone else, hmm, hasnt.

He finally gave in and after missing “the one” shot a young guy, but boy was he big.

Anyway. After spending a couple years chasing these big boys in the appalacians you tend to learn a few things. . .

Rule #1 is definatly the most obviously overlooked. You need to go where noone else goes. And you definatly need to think outside the box with that. Anymore that doesnt mean hiking 10 miles back, because everyone seems to think that way . . .

Sorry breakfast is ready I will finish in a bit:lol:

[Chris Shelton]

#12370

alright much better.

Finding food is great, but I have found that when you are hunting 55000 acres and probalby half of that is oaks, and the other half pine, and they decide to drop at the same time, there is no way you can successfully hunt food. So I choose to hunt heavily used trails. I am talking when dirt is showing in the middle of a leaf storm, lol

What I do is either sit on heavy trail intersections or slowly move along them. Generally speaking there is usually another about 100 yards down and up the mountain from the one you are on. And almost all of the deer I see are down the hill from me. What I then do is get up ahead and either move down or if during the rut I will try to call

That is about all that I do, and with great success. I can find the deer, now all I need to master is getting in range. Gonna finish reading Ashbells Stalking and still hunting, and practice the methods of groundhogs and hopefully be ready for the fall season . . .

[Reg Darling]

#12501

Other than a piece of land my brother-in-law owns virtually all my hunting is on public land –Allegheny National forest and the several State Game Lands that adjoin it. I do need to check out hunting in NYS more–every county has many tracts of state forest ranging from 30+ acres to thousands scattered all over and as Steve said, many are bow or bow and muzzleloader only.

[David Petersen]

#12654

To return to Brokentoe’s initial question about good places … my affection for quality, unroaded, unspoiled, uncrowded, truly wild public backcountry land is so intense, and so many hunters today treat it like a garbage can and motorized destruction-derby park, that I no longer tell anyone I don’t know any good places until I determine they don’t use an ATV and have a strong respect for the prey, the land and how hunters must conduct ourselves in order for hunting to deserve, in the public eye, to survive. I have always been flabbergasted that a majority of hunters instantl hit the panic button when someone yells “The antis are coming!, or when NRA screams “The liberals are after your guns!” yet absolutely don’t give a flying hoot that our public lands happy hunting grounds are literally losing ground daily to stupid rushed energy development, logging practices that were proven ecologically destructive decades ago, and a thundering assult my motorized abuse. To have good hunting, we need animals to hunt and places to hunt them. To have wild animals in both quantity and quality, they need habitat. Their habitat is our habitat. Let’s not just use it. Let’s fight to keep it. I tried to avoid the bait of this thread and not go off on a rant, but there it is. As a whole, hunters’ priorities are all screwed up. Dave

[Clay Hayes]

#12710

http://www.backcountryhunters.org 😉

[William Warren]

#12722

May be a rant Dave, but it’s the truth. Although, the size of my old stomping gtounds is small by comparison if you gain entry that no one else has it is wise to keep it secret.
As for ATV use the Wardens in my area are just as busy trying to catch people illegaly riding on public land that is clearly marked as foot traffic only. The ATV’s usually enter from private land.

[SteveMcD]

#12904

Agree.. we all need to be outspoken steward’s of the land and the environment. We have a lot common ground with non-hunter’s on this one as well.

[hbasajaun]

#13655

hello,my name is herald,I’m a new user,sorry for my english,I’m a spanish traditional bowhunter,I once hunted in public lands in idaho. I thing this hunting is beaotiful because in spain there isn’t any public land

[SteveMcD]

#14732

Good Point, Herald! And welcome!

[Jesse Minish]

#17542

About 99% of my hunting is public land and although I agree with most of what Dave said by far the best hunting I have is in or close to logging units.

[William Warren]

#17789

hbasajaun wrote: hello,my name is herald,I’m a new user,sorry for my english,I’m a spanish traditional bowhunter,I once hunted in public lands in idaho. I thing this hunting is beaotiful because in spain there isn’t any public land

Welcome Herald! I have been to Spain and I wondered if there were any bowhunters there. I mostly saw the country from the train but it was an amazing country to see. I wish I could spend more time there learning of the hunting and fishing there must be. We went to Madrid, Salamanca, and Vallodolid.
Are there many bowhunting opportunities there?

Duncan

[Lunar-tic]

#18493

I do a lot of public land hunting even though I have access to some small private acreages. I fear that some day thats the only land us blue collar types will have left to hunt on. I don’t think much of Outfitters trying to buy up all the private tracks of land and then charging some outrageous amount of money to kill an animal. They’ll not see a red dime of my hard earned money. I’ll hunt public land and enjoy the property that I pay for with all the licenses I’ve purchased over the years.

[George D. Stout]

#19603

We have over two million acres of public hunting land in Pennsylvania. I have nearly 20,000 acres close to my home.

And FYI…a bit of trivia, Beaver Stadium in State College Pa, home of the Penn State Nittany Lions, is the fourth biggest city in Pa. during a home game 8^).

[hbasajaun]

#20202

Duncan wrote: [quote=hbasajaun]hello,my name is herald,I’m a new user,sorry for my english,I’m a spanish traditional bowhunter,I once hunted in public lands in idaho. I thing this hunting is beaotiful because in spain there isn’t any public land

Welcome Herald! I have been to Spain and I wondered if there were any bowhunters there. I mostly saw the country from the train but it was an amazing country to see. I wish I could spend more time there learning of the hunting and fishing there must be. We went to Madrid, Salamanca, and Vallodolid.
Are there many bowhunting opportunities there?

Duncan
hi,duncan,Spain is a good place for hunting.There are many opportunities for bowhuntig but all land is private acreages.in this forum you will see the spanisbowhunters
http://www.cazandoconarco.es
good luck

[Bert]

#20277

Welcome to the site hbasajuan- Herald- Here in western Washington state there’s plenty of public land, but access to it is getting more restrictive and costly for us blue-collar guys. It thrills me to no end to get all set-up in a perfect location and have a couple mountain bikers come screaming by (No, I didn’t- but the thought, I admit, did fleetingly cross my mind!). Perhaps that could be the start of a new sport- with some kind of paintball blunt involved- voluntary on both sides, of course!
In Spain, do you have to get the landowners permission and pay a fee to hunt or are there some simpaticos that will let you hunt for free?
Thanks and good hunting- Bert

[hbasajaun]

#20508

jajajajaj,in spain the hunting is a business,and very espensive 😥

[Bert]

#20587

Yes, I’m afraid it’s getting that way here too, what with ever increasing taxes and ‘fees’ and privatization, ‘grants’ of exclusive hunting lands. Nothing worse than the peasants hunting on the King’s Royal Properties- great to be returning to the feudal times, ain’t it?!
Where’s Don Quixote, Sancho and El Cid when you need them?

[MontanaFord]

#20682

Probably 95 percent of my hunting consists of public land hunting. Between state-owned and USFS, we have a lot of public land here in western Montana. Eastern Montana has tons of public land as well, probably a lot in the form of BLM. I’m fortunate to live somewhere that I have so much access to so much good hunting. There are some areas I look at from miles away and think, “I bet there’s some good hunting over there. I should get in there and check it out.” But there is so much area between where I’m at and where I want to be that I could never hunt all of it properly. It would take me a lifetime to hunt just a small portion of the mountains here in Montana.

Michael.

[Author]

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