How far do you walk?

[MrCrappie]

Over an hour and mile & a half into flat public land with all my gear at 3am is a helluva lot of work for me, but I plan on doing it 2 days in late October and 5 days during the rut. Am I hunting harder and not smarter? Is it worth it?

Just wondering how far your walk is to your stand and the farthest you'll actually walk to hunt.

[Archerysniper]

I have stands behind the house that are 3/4 of a mile walk, yeah I could ride the wheeler but I don't like spooking deer either. When I hunted public land a lot I always went at least a mile and half in and it always worked for me.

[bottom-bouncer]

as litle as possible. most of the land I hunt is private wich helps it is also all agg land so the deer are used to machinery and noise. A couple of my spots I will give whoever is hunting there a ride to the bottom of the stand and then ride away the deer do not seem to mind infact they wiil often stand there and watch me go by them. When I was hunting public my mind set was always go were others wont and it seemed to work.

[CrowRiverRat83]

I've bowhunted public land for about 8 years now. When I was new to the sport, I stuck fairly close to trails, parking lots, etc. I seen a lot of deer in those spots, but NEVER any bucks whatsoever. The past few years Ive tried going in farther, with not a whole lot of change in success. Although last year I spotted a small, probably 6 point buck. So close in spots can work, just as long as the woods are not completely over run by hunters. Just look for thick cover and acorns!

[Cheetah]

Going in at 3am seems excessively early to me. That is like 4 hours before shooting time and you probably sit on stand for quite a while in the pitch black if you aren't lost somewhere. If you go in on a logging road or something, that's a bit different, but still quite a bit earlier than I would ever consider.

[jnorm1984]

On the private land I hunt I walk anywhere from .25 to .75 miles. On public land hunts I try to stay under the 2 mile mark. I think if you have a good laid out plan for you long walk you should be in good shape. This is when you will notice the difference in having light equipment, and packin along only the items you need.

[walleyecheeks]

I have done the samething when I was younger. Thought the further I go, the more deer I would see. NOT TRUE. I have learned from trial and error. I spend more time scouting and reading the woods. The land I hunt now, which is state land, I only have to be a 100 yards off the road. My advice is to get a PRIM map from the DNR and go to google maps and look for natural funnels. Once you find your place that looks good on the map, take a afternoon and scout. This has saved me countless hours hauling heavy bulky equipment through the woods when it isn,t necessary. Also when you shoot a deer that far out, it takes twice as long to get it out.

[Scoot]

On public land, I use the 1/90 rule: get one mile behind you and you leave 90% of the people behind. I like your approach! One thing to watch out for is the back side of one place can be the front side of another-- hoofing it five miles from a road can sometimes put you far enough into an area to be much closer to another road from the other side of it. I've hiked several miles into areas out West to get away from the crowd only to find guys on four wheelers coming from the other direction. They were illegal- not legal to take wheelers on the trails they were on, but they still got there with little effort. Getting away from people who are too lazy to put in a lot of effort is a big deal.

That being said, like was said above- there are some great spots very close to the road sometimes. Look for little spots that get overlooked by most people. Little spots that are overlooked and are natural funnels are all the better.

[Bear55]

My spots range anywhere from 200 yards to 1.5 miles. Other times I take a canoe anwhere from 100 yards to a half mile down river or across a lake. Going way back does not often lead to a lot of deer sightings but the ones you do see can be in the shooter category. I also don't go way back just for the sake of going way back, I alwasy scout the areas first and only come back and hunt if I see the sign I am looking for.

[Bear55]

Going in at 3am seems excessively early to me. That is like 4 hours before shooting time and you probably sit on stand for quite a while in the pitch black if you aren't lost somewhere. If you go in on a logging road or something, that's a bit different, but still quite a bit earlier than I would ever consider.

I can't speak for MrCrappie but for me a 45 minute walk in the fall might take over 2 hours when you are going in with a ton of gear for an all day sit. If you are hauling in a stand and have to setup in the morning it can be even longer. I don't want to break a sweat and try to go as slow and quiet as possible so I don't blow too many deer out of the area. 3am is pretty early but I have left at 4am before.

[Getanet]

Two years ago they banned ATVs on the public land we hunt. We still walk about a mile back to where we hunt. The problem isn't the walk in, it's the walk out if you're successful in getting a deer. Deer carts help, but it still takes a lot of time and effort to push them out, particularly on any incline.

If anyone is in the market for a deer cart, spend the extra money and get one with the longest handle bars possible. Otherwise you'll be walking all hunched-over and your back will be killing you after about, oh...20 feet.

[Scoot]

If anyone is in the market for a deer cart, spend the extra money and get one with the longest handle bars possible.

Carts can be helpful, but about 95% of the time they don't hold a candle to carrying out game on your back. Unless you're pulling it out through very flat, very open terrain, a good pack will outperform a cart every time. For deer I carry a Havalon knife and three medium game bags in my pack. If need be, I can take out a deer in one trip, but having a hunting partner or making two trips is preferable most of the time.

Game carts have their place, but they are like a 3/4 wrench and frame packs are like a crescent wrench. Oh, and poorly made or designed packs are next to worthless- get a decent one that is designed for hauling. The two best options for most apps are, IMO, a Kelty Cache Hauler and the Alaskan Frame Pack. No need for any bag of any kind on them to haul. Also, if you shop around you can find both of these packs for a very reasonable price.

Getanet, if you're interested in a little more specifics, feel free to e-mail me at: [email protected]

[TruthWalleyes]

If your hunting public land...the farther you have to walk the better. There are not many people that will work extremely hard for their hunt. IMO the easy access hunting areas i avoid completely, find the rugged, hilly, large, and tough walking terrain in public land and your efforts should be rewarded.

I also hunt private land in SE MN, and there are some REALLY long walks involved there! Many times i haven't shot because i know how difficult the drag would be from there. :)Sounds like you've got a good spot.

[bigbucks]

I would say anywhere from a couple hundred yards to probably a 1/2 mile. Most of those places I can get a truck just about right to wherever a deer would fall. Mostly if I'm walking any distance, it's because there isn't a good place to leave the truck where I'm confident it won't turn deer away. I hunt almost exclusively private land. I guess there's a couple spots we hunt that we're about 75 yards from the truck & it's in full view, but that's a backyard, little different scenario there.

[InTheNorthwoods]

I walk as far as I need to in order to get to the areas where I expect to see the deer that I am hunting. I don't think there is a magical distance, or that one way is better than the other. If you are going deeper into the woods solely for the purpose of getting further off the roadway, I think you're wasting motion. However, if that is where the sign is, and that is where the best cover/food/etc. is, then that is where you need to be.

In order to make it easier to get "there", if there is a reasonable trail or path to get back into the woods I like to use a game cart (or sled if snowy). I pack would be a reasonable alternative, but I prefer not to carry all that weight if conditions allow for me (or hunting partners) to share the weight and use a cart or sled to transport gear.

[Pooh]

im gonna have to go with walleyecheeks on this one. Its not how far you go, I live in centerl MN and walking a mile is almost out of the question. most state land that is half ways decent to hunt is in small parcels. 40-50 mayby 120 acres. So walking a mile isnt feesable. Unless I go farther north, then we are talking sections of state land, but deer are fewer and farther between. Plus then there are logging roads and four wheeler trails to walk down. So going a mile isnt a bad walk.

Most of my stands arent more than 1/4 mile from where I park. I found a nice spot yesterday that is just off of a minimum maitenance road. Its not more than 125 yards to my stand from the truck, and the land is only 40 acres. Im not saying that going farther isnt a good idea. Im saying that you dont always have to go that far.

[DHost21]

I have a few stand sites picked out on public land. They are all about 1 1/5 to 2 miles out. Pretty hard places to get to but I have a few big guys back there that dont get touched. Depends on what you are looking for. For the most part you can see does and smaller bucks closer but you have to work for the big ones and it is rewarding. The nice part about where I am hunting is there are walking trails so I can take a bike a lot of the way there. It is still hard biking but a lot faster than walking. Strap everything to your back and go it works pretty slick

[paceman]

I don't walk very far. I have a few stands that are out to about 1/2 mile. Most are around 500 yards. I hunt all private.

[BuckKiller]

30 feet into the woods off a busy highway and I always see deer. Not worth walking a mile when I can hunt right across the road from my cabin

[Twins 57 Fan]

321 steps

[muskiemanAD]

We hunt a pretty big and well known WMA in SE MN. We used to hump it a mile or so deep and saw deer and shot some. Well fsat forward to a few years ago and we hunt near roads and parking spots and our deer sightings and kills have went up. When you have crowds let them push the deer to you!

[Finlander]

As little as possible! I hate getting all sweated up walikng to the tree stand! I have one treestand that is only 30 yards from the road that has 3 major trails converging there and it's only 100 yards from the farm house.

The deer are use to noise from the house as I watched them many times look towards the house when there was noise from there and they just kept on browsing along!

[musky hunter]

I'm looking for a deer hunters cart for the very reason: I like a mile walk but need a little help getting the gear in and out. I know lots of places where a two wheeled cart would make hunting practical.

[snapcrackpop]

but the game carts are noisy and a PIA if you have brush or fallen logs.

I had mine modified to lower the center of gravity and then shortened the cross-braces to raise the handles.

[Finlander]

You can make your cart quieter by filling the frame with yellow foam filler.

I think its called Great Stuff. I have done this to my trestands and they are alot quieter than when i bought them! Instead of a "clang", it makes more of a "thud'!