It's probably this place, but every year I see less deer, I think yotees has to do with this, before I saw deer by the road at night and on the fields by my house during the day, this year fields are empty, but I hear howling at night very close to my house... Also black squirrels now dominating in the woods, I haven't seen them before, but now there are more black then grey ones.
I hunt public land exclusively in california...........so my kill ratio is LOW......
But I hunt like crazy anyways.
In my experience you have to get farther from the road then the average hunter is willing to go. Plain and simple.
Get quality maps AND gps so you know where you are and can prove it......
Then get far into those areas that appear small on the map or are far from roads or trails....
I can't tell you how many times I've been set up waaaaaay back in there and along comes another hunter, or worse yet some hippy walking his dogs or something.......
but when you get a kill it's so much more satisfying.....for me at least....
There are a lot of very good tactics listed here. I to have hunted public land. Things that I can tell you, just like a lot of other folks here, is to get as remote as you possibly can. Try to find a remote location that butts up to private.
A good percentage of hunters only hunt till about 10:30, then they get anxious and begin to walk around thinking that they may see or jump a deer. The deer know this, that hunters have a tendency to get restless, and will wait the hunter out. The deer will actually pattern the hunter. So, don't necessarily be the first in the woods. Sleep in and get out there around 0800 hrs. Then set up and hunt the mid day hours.
There is another trick, we do this on private land. We noticed that we had a lot of fresh activity in the fields and trails we were hunting. So we would set up early in the morning. No success. So we tried the evening, still no success. Again, we tried the mid day, with no success. So we got extreme. We decided to go into our box blinds or stands around 10:00 PM and camp out on the fields. When the sun came up there were deer on our areas. What we found out is that, since we had really no other access points to get to our stands, we were pushing the deer when we came in to set up in the mornings. So during the pre-rut and the rut we use this tactic every place we hunt, regardless if we have other access points to our stands. We feel that it keeps the deer more comfortable this way. No car noise in the early morning hours, no car doors, and basically no disruptions to the normal activities of the deer. We have had really great results using this tactic. It does work, or at least it does on private land. We haven't tried it out on public land but if you are in a remote location with little to no human interference, it should work just as well. This is one of the best techniques we use to get our deer.
Hope this gives you some ideas. Good Luck and Good Hunting!
I hunt public land exclusively in california...........so my kill ratio is LOW......
But I hunt like crazy anyways.
In my experience you have to get farther from the road then the average hunter is willing to go. Plain and simple.
Get quality maps AND gps so you know where you are and can prove it......
Then get far into those areas that appear small on the map or are far from roads or trails....
I can't tell you how many times I've been set up waaaaaay back in there and along comes another hunter, or worse yet some hippy walking his dogs or something.......
but when you get a kill it's so much more satisfying.....for me at least....
OH ya, google earth is your friend.......
Looking at your picture, nice buck, not nice muzzle position
Finding a remote location in NY can pose a challenge, the only place I can think of is up North in Canada or the Adirondacks which are also 4 - 5 hours from where I hunt along NY-PA border. I'll give public land another chance, will see still week left till season is over.
or the Adirondacks which are also 4 - 5 hours from where I hunt along NY-PA border. I'll give public land another chance, will see still week left till season is over.
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