Hunting Public Land - what do you look for?

[nofishfisherman]

I've been one of the guilty ones that head in around lunch time. Normally 4-5 hours is about all my back can handle sitting in my stand so its more of a back break then lunch break. Since it looks like we'll be further away from the house this year we may be staying out from sun up to sun down this year though. I'll probably have to split my time between the stand and the ground just to give me back a rest but I'll be out there ready for anything that is moving.

[nofishfisherman]

Well just got back from my scouting trip. We logged a lot of miles on foot looking for a little piece of land to hunt.

One of my buddies insisted that he wants to hunt a spot he found that was close to the road with easy access. I told him go ahead and hunt it, i'll go find another spot. Not sure what he say in the spot. It had a good field of view and nice trees to get a climber in but there was absolutely zero evidence that a deer had been anywhere near there.

I ended up finding a nice little pine grove on the edge of an old clear cut. The pines form a pretty distinct line between the clear cut and some low land area. I found a tree for myself to climb that sits on the edge of a small low land that is dry enough to walk on but still pretty soggy. I don't have the field of view my buddy does, the longest shot I could take would be may 40 yards but the place is loaded with sign. Numerous beds, a maze of criss crossing trails, and a fresh scrap right on the edge of the pines. best of all no evidence of another hunter being in there before. Based on the flagging tape we found it looks like all the hunters seem to stick to the edge of the clear cut so I figure I should be all alone tucked away in this little low land spot.

[deerminator]

Corn! I've found one WMA where the MDHA planted corn. And better yet, other hunters have left their hang on stands out there so all I need to do is bring my safety vest and some climbing sticks!!!

[nofishfisherman]

Corn! I've found one WMA where the MDHA planted corn. And better yet, other hunters have left their hang on stands out there so all I need to do is bring my safety vest and some climbing sticks!!!

No corn anywhere around except whats in the farmers fields. Although I did find plenty of stands on public land while scouting this weekend, some pretty nice ones to. However, I have no intention of hunting out of them or anywhere near them. I'm not going to knowingly move in on another guy even if I get to the spot first.

I'll find my own spots and carry my own stand. I feel if I didn't have to work for it then I haven't earned it.

[brittman]

nofish - just be careful moving into a bedding area, you may push the deer out and/or change their pattern.

The guys that hunt metro bucks are not happy when newbies set up shop in the bedding areas because it completely changes the deer patterns. Often the newbie only has access to that little area so they have no choice. Still keeping to the edge or finding a way in without disturbing bedded deer is a plus.

[nofishfisherman]

Thats a good point. I set up as far away as I could get and also changed my entry route to avoid trails and the main bedding area.

I'm closer than i'd normally like to be but I do have 2 pine groves on either side of me and the bedding areas are on either side of the groves. So even if the deer are bedded when I come in there is probably at least 50 yards between us with 30 yards of it being dense pine . They might hear me but they for sure won't see me, and lord willing the wind will be right so they won't smell me.

Based on where i saw flagging tape it looks like another hunter walks a path that puts him right through one of the bedding areas. The deer have 2 possible exit routes if someone were to come through there. One would be straight up a steep hill into a relatively open clear cut or the other option is through one of the many trails through the pine grove. If the deer opts for the pine grove they'll find me waiting there.

[deerminator]

I know. This is the first WMA I've ever found with crops. But I guess they are out there!

My stand comment was sort of tongue in cheek. You're not legally supposed to hang stands and leave them in WMAs. Mainly because public land is just that. You can't save a spot for yourself all season long. I actually have never sat in someone's stand but I have hung mine the next tree over if I feel the spot is promising. I feel I've earned the right to hunt that spot if I've scouted it myself. I can't help the fact that someone else was "first" and hung a stand there when they weren't supposed to.

In any case, good luck out there. I think its a lot of fun to scout and hunt public land. There's a lot of it out there in Minnesota.