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First year public land-new Ohio resident

kentuckyoutdoorsman

Junior Member
7
0
I got married and moved up from Kentucky last year. At home I have several places to hunt including the family farm (211 acres with 4 people allowed to hunt including myself). The problem is getting there from Columbus is about a 5 hour drive, which makes it hard to manage and leaves my dad to tend to things pretty much by himself. Anyways, I digress. For convenience this year I decided to hunt public land up here in Ohio. I'm 26 and by the grace of God in good health so I'm good with going deep where the lazy man won't. That's what I thought I was doing this past week during gun season. I made it to public land and walked in about 45 minutes-1 hour back. Got my climber up the tree and at daybreak it sounded like a holy war. I sat in the stand all day and had around 12:30 heard grunting coming from behind my right shoulder...(perfect as I'm a lefty). Put the rifle on full cock but left the safety on until I identified my target. You can imagine my surprise when I see a genius covered head to toe in orange step out blowing a grunt call. There was no risk of accident because I was raised smarter than that but goes to show people are dumb. Secondly, the deer didn't seem to want to cooperate much. I'm good with getting skunked if I can learn something. Is there public land to be found where people are too lazy to go or is it that packed? I ask because I thought I'd found some and I was wrong. Does it take a lease to kill nice deer up here?
 

Bigcountry40

Member
4,555
127
No, sometimes I prefer to hunt state land, but you'll have guys like you encountered on the reuglar during bow and gun. It can be very challenging, all honesty you might be happier just hunting Kentucky and not even wasting time on Ohio public, unless you go in with the mind set that probably about 50% of your bow hunts will be ruined on state land.
 

jlane

Junior Member
523
0
dunn nc
If I were to hunt public I would do the complete opposite, I would ride around and locate the most hunted areas and find the escape routes crossing the roads, trails not the heavy ones but the lightly used ones.
Look for thick bottoms, saddles, not open ridges, Look for what most people don;t think about.
Don;t go in before daybreak. let the early risers get in early.
Then slip in a little ways(50/100 yds from the rd) set up and watch what happens after the early guys get bored and start moving around late/mid morning.
These older deer arn;t old for nothing, Their smart, They will slip around and find these escape routes and move close to the road, stop listen and ease thru where they think it's safe to travel crossing the rd.
It may take a few times to find the areas you want to set-up.
Most everyone i talked to about public they have told me they like to go where no-one else goes, good luck with that.
Another good point is find public ground that has privite land across the rd.
These deer know where the safe havens are.
Get a few cheap cameras and set them on the ground brush them in, angled up slightly(briar patches, brush tops, a fallen tree, anything that will not catch the eye of a person, something naturel,(most people will not look for a camera at ground level).
Like I said it may take you some time, sit and watch up and down the road, see where the deer will cross when bumped.
Talk to the locals that drive the roads(people that don;t hunt) They ride these rds everyday,
Ask they where they see deer crossing.
I have private land and i'll set cameras up along besides the rd to see what is crossing and get deer on cam just minutes of getting tractors, cars, school buses,Horse and buggies. etc.
 

ImpalaSSpeed96

Junior Member
561
60
NJ
Honestly, look elsewhere too. Not every public piece gets hammered. But alas, just another reason I stopped gun hunting all together.

 

Bigcountry40

Member
4,555
127
If I were to hunt public I would do the complete opposite, I would ride around and locate the most hunted areas and find the escape routes crossing the roads, trails not the heavy ones but the lightly used ones.
Look for thick bottoms, saddles, not open ridges, Look for what most people don;t think about.
Don;t go in before daybreak. let the early risers get in early.
Then slip in a little ways(50/100 yds from the rd) set up and watch what happens after the early guys get bored and start moving around late/mid morning.
These older deer arn;t old for nothing, Their smart, They will slip around and find these escape routes and move close to the road, stop listen and ease thru where they think it's safe to travel crossing the rd.
It may take a few times to find the areas you want to set-up.
Most everyone i talked to about public they have told me they like to go where no-one else goes, good luck with that.
Another good point is find public ground that has privite land across the rd.
These deer know where the safe havens are.
Get a few cheap cameras and set them on the ground brush them in, angled up slightly(briar patches, brush tops, a fallen tree, anything that will not catch the eye of a person, something naturel,(most people will not look for a camera at ground level).
Like I said it may take you some time, sit and watch up and down the road, see where the deer will cross when bumped.
Talk to the locals that drive the roads(people that don;t hunt) They ride these rds everyday,
Ask they where they see deer crossing.
I have private land and i'll set cameras up along besides the rd to see what is crossing and get deer on cam just minutes of getting tractors, cars, school buses,Horse and buggies. etc.

Field and Stream had an article a few years ago basically stating a lot of what you said about hunting close to the road on escape routes. I have never tried. During the rut I agree with driving around and seeing where the other hunters are at, but during gun I just can't make myself do this on state land.
 
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kentuckyoutdoorsman

Junior Member
7
0
Some state land is not well marked, and the key is to keep it that way.

Aside from going online and printing out a PDF map of various public land is there any other resource to find these honey holes? I don't mind putting in the work in the off season, I'm just tired of not killing nice bucks(translates to not killing bucks period because I'm not going to kill small deer that haven't reached full potential). Furthermore, there's something to be said about killing a decent buck on public land vs. private.
 

Bigcountry40

Member
4,555
127
Aside from going online and printing out a PDF map of various public land is there any other resource to find these honey holes? I don't mind putting in the work in the off season, I'm just tired of not killing nice bucks(translates to not killing bucks period because I'm not going to kill small deer that haven't reached full potential). Furthermore, there's something to be said about killing a decent buck on public land vs. private.

Typically shown by another hunter, sometimes there will be a patch down the road from the main block of public land. This deer was killed on public land and I am very proud of it, probably wouldnt kill anything smaller than this on public land personally. state land buck.jpg