Remember you might be hiking in 3 miles, but someone with access from the private might only have to go 100 yards. That's the issue I run into.
Sent from my SM-G973U1 using Tapatalk
This is exactly one of
My greatest challenges on public here too. The adjacent private property owners/users have a clutch deal buttressed up to public but sometimes that can be a problem for them to depending on the type and kind of pressure coming from the public land.
I say try to find the densest areas within those sections of terrain you notice is forcing deer movement that is away from pressure or somehow under the radar of pressure and try setting up along the thick transitions of cover within those areas and where you can access them. Sometimes looping around
or going past a likely area like
@DroptineKrazy described and hooking or looping back around from a different location can be the deciding factor.
Also what will the deer behavior be when you plan on hunting there? In other words? Are you trying to hunt bed to feed or feed to bed or rut? It has a bearing on where you should try to set up too.
Look for the travel corridors where it is thick and steep or thick and wet, and where you can access those travel corridors without busting out deer or crossing where they will be coming through them.
Sometimes those travel ways everyone is using can be used as a blocker and an attention concentrator. Thick cover or tangles where a nice buck is watching that roadway may be an ideal set up to get too before he does in the morning.
Finally, sidehill travel in pressured areas picks up a lot during the season.