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Yeah….I’m gonna say it

Egos though are one of the reasons I don't like many other hunters. You guys aside of course! It's weird, it's like paradoxically a defining personality trait of mine and something I try to mostly avoid discussing with other people in real life. My wife will be like, hey meet my friend's husband, you guys hunt, you will get along great! I'm like, holy F, my 3 friends are enough, can't wait to hear about his bow brand fetish and broadhead worshipping and what his thoughts on clover mixes and scent control are. Sounds like a re
Yep. I simultaneously love and hate talking about hunting and interacting with other hunters. When you find a "good one" there's nothing better. Get a Fudd, a 'Neck, or (my favorite) a Flat-Billed Frat Brat (especially if they're an older one) and there's nothing worse.
 
Top pic is a PA public land archery buck.
bottom is a TX fenced private buck.

Which one makes you happier? The answer will vary for all of us. Maybe you can only hunt for X amount of days a year so you pay some money for time. Maybe you can go out daily in public land because your work schedule allows it. Either way. There are good deer out there.
 

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I don't know, I kind of seek out some of the most difficult public hunting around me even though I could certainly do private. I guess it's my way of making it a challenge. I have good friends who do the food plot deer husbandry game, and I can see what they get out all the work (and $$$$) they put in too, but it's just not my game, not now. I like room to roam virtually endless mountain public land and the uncertaintly of low deer densities. The appeal to me of growing and nurturing a deer I "have history with" is virtually zero. I want to conquer that mountain monarch that I scarcely knew existed, slay the ghost.

Egos though are one of the reasons I don't like many other hunters. You guys aside of course! It's weird, it's like paradoxically a defining personality trait of mine and something I try to mostly avoid discussing with other people in real life. My wife will be like, hey meet my friend's husband, you guys hunt, you will get along great! I'm like, holy F, my 3 friends are enough, can't wait to hear about his bow brand fetish and broadhead worshipping and what his thoughts on clover mixes and scent control are. Sounds like a real gem. Whack em and stack em! Haha.
My wife is the same way. My boss hunts you guys should hunt together! Yeah no I’d rather slam my head repeatedly in the front door, thanks.
 
One thing I caution people in these kind of debates js that everyone has there own reasons for hunting. Just because it isnt your reason, doesn't mean its the wrong reason, or even the right reason for you.

I try to spend as little money,time and energy as I can on hunting. Last year was the exception because,one is was all stimulus and two, the property I hunt pretty much requires getting in a tree so here came the saddle and SRT. Buying corn for baiting kinda defeats those goals. I hunt mostly ag ground or public ground surrounded by ag so its just a matter of picking em off before they reach the fields. Finding the big bucks is fun but main goal is filling the freezer. I killed my wall hanger 20 years ago so anything big gets euro'd.

Just wish the guys that bait deer would pay me what I could save them on the feed by catching the raccoons...
 
I only hunt public land.
makes me laugh when:
a public land hunter, hunting over a fresh cut corn field bitching about hunters that bait.
Public land hunters whining about how tough it is.

Advise

stop hunting where deer aren’t.
Hunt for you


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Maybe unvaccinated peeps are considered half people now....?...anyway that is a bunch of money...I'll stick to the public that just costs the gas to drive there....most wma I hunt are minimum 9k acres with some 200k+ and they come with a nice brochure also
I agree. That's way too much money. I'll' keep my free public land I have so much public land an hour in any direction from my house that my only issue is keying in on places to start scouting and hunting. I found out this year all too well the time that's need to hunt public. looks like scouting is an all year thing when hunting public.
 
I found out this year all too well the time that's need to hunt public. looks like scouting is an all year thing when hunting public.
I would have to disagree with that. Unless you are looking at new ground all the time, deer season is almost literally half the year in some states. you can find something else to do thats more productive. After the season ends, about the only things you can learn is some rub sites you didnt see before, the buck you were after or his daddy survived if you found the sheds and where people were hunting or not. There's very little you can learn that will put something on the ground really until a few weeks before the next season starts. What a deer does in April or August doesnt help you kill it in October or January unless you got crop damage permits to kill deer out of season. Might make you a better deer biologist.
 
Prime land south of Orlando is 10K per person annually...
Oh yeah, I get that. Leases are expensive everywhere. But running the OP’s math, it would be 7500 total for 15 acres. We really talking $500 per acre just for the lease?
 
If it is legal, do it. I have NEVER been unrewarded or not had a complete adrenaline rush sighting down on a deer. I have hunted corn, I have also hiked mountains in Alaska and killed blacktails, mountains that very few people have ever been on. Same freaking adrenaline rush!!! If you don't get that adrenaline rush at 4 or 400 yards, find a new hobby.
The first thing we do when we get in the woods is look for sign or a FOOD source (oak tree or corn pile, it is all BAIT). WE ALL HUNT BAIT.

Put all these stones down in these glass houses.

We are dudes, we bust each other's balls. I have been hunting public all year long, my buddy is paying a lease with thousands of acres in Florida, we both are jealous of each other for different reasons. Just get out and hunt where the deer are.
 
Top pic is a PA public land archery buck.
bottom is a TX fenced private buck.

Which one makes you happier? The answer will vary for all of us. Maybe you can only hunt for X amount of days a year so you pay some money for time. Maybe you can go out daily in public land because your work schedule allows it. Either way. There are good deer out there.

I have an uneducated view on the topic of growth hormones additives when it comes to private land deer 'management'. Looking at the antlers on the private land buck, it look like definite 'minerals' were added to whatever they were feeding the deer. I remember when I used to go to gun shows after hunting season. There was barely any guns and all the stations where taxidermists, mineral manufacturers, and boat salesmen! They had mounts of 20+ pointers to show off how effective their mineral blocks were. I honestly couldn't see nature producing something like that, look like something created in a lab, it was just not my thing. To each his/her own, but I would pick the buck from public land.
 
It is not my place to judge any fellow hunter that's getting them down legally and ethically. But I get the OP's direction with this. I am blessed to have access to a lot of great public and private land hunting. We cannot bait in NY and to me, I wouldn't do it anyway as it just doesn't seem "sporting" but that's just me. But if you really think about it, the guys who are baiting.... I can't imagine carrying in buckets of bait all over the place, then hoping there will be some left by the time I can hunt the bait pile, seems like a lot of bother to me. I am also blessed in that I don't have to pay to hunt anywhere and I never have and probably never will. One, I don't make the money to afford to do this and B, personally, it isn't worth it. I absolutely love hunting, especially bowhunting and the bigger the buck the better, but my public land hang and hunt bow buck this year was just a lot of fun and virtually no pressure. Meanwhile, on my private land areas.... tons of pressure all around and all the activity is at night according to our cameras. My buddy spends a lot of time mowing trails and we've planted trees, and put up shooting houses and all the nine yards and although we shoot at least one and more like two deer or more every year..... great big bucks??? Not much. We have small parcel woodlots and a lot of private pressure and I'm finding I'm getting more action and having more fun on the public land and letting all the others try to figure out how to hunt super pressured private land bucks!!!
 
I',
Top pic is a PA public land archery buck.
bottom is a TX fenced private buck.

Which one makes you happier? The answer will vary for all of us. Maybe you can only hunt for X amount of days a year so you pay some money for time. Maybe you can go out daily in public land because your work schedule allows it. Either way. There are good deer out there.
I'll take the top all day long
 
I hunt private club ($2000) but also hunt public I see the advantage of both and I enjoy both. So I'm blessed to get to choose where I hunt. I would hunt all public if I didn't have to drive so far to hunt it. But with small kids that want to go its hard to pass up 15 minute drive to private hunting club. Yes we can bate but not very many mature bucks are killed over bate in my opinion. Also the club next to us runs dogs all hunting season that its legal so our deer get a lot of pressure from dogs because dogs dont know the property lines.
 
I grew up hunting public and private in Tn. Killed deer on both equally. No baiting on private up there. Moved to Florida hunted public as I didn’t have access to private land killed deer here too. Got fortunate enough to get invited to become a member at a lease here and don’t regret it one bit. It’s pricey yes but the guys I hunt with are all great dudes(except this one guy, there’s always one jack hole) and we help each other all year.

You can hunt anywhere in the club as long as you maintain a certain distance from someone else’s “spot” or a club stand. By hunting it this way I have had over 75 shot opportunities this year when the other members have barely seen deer sitting over their corn. I do run 2 feeders at my personal spots and hunt them occasionally for hogs. But even in a lease doesn’t guarantee anything. You still have to hunt where the deer want to be. Coming from a public background has made me a much better hunter regardless of the ground I hunt on. I understand the OP’s frustration but at the same learning where the deer want to be will produce more than trying to force them to a certain area. 2 bucks this year and a doe from a private lease and not one came from a corn pile.
 
Yep. I simultaneously love and hate talking about hunting and interacting with other hunters. When you find a "good one" there's nothing better. Get a Fudd, a 'Neck, or (my favorite) a Flat-Billed Frat Brat (especially if they're an older one) and there's nothing worse.
Flat billed frat brat rofl. Ima use that if you don’t mind.
 
Land in WV is pretty cheap. Around 1-3k an acre depending on area. I look at LandWatch.com from time to time, but anything that has the description "great bugout location!" has me worries about my potential neighbors....
 
If it is legal, do it. I have NEVER been unrewarded or not had a complete adrenaline rush sighting down on a deer. I have hunted corn, I have also hiked mountains in Alaska and killed blacktails, mountains that very few people have ever been on. Same freaking adrenaline rush!!! If you don't get that adrenaline rush at 4 or 400 yards, find a new hobby.
The first thing we do when we get in the woods is look for sign or a FOOD source (oak tree or corn pile, it is all BAIT). WE ALL HUNT BAIT.

Put all these stones down in these glass houses.

We are dudes, we bust each other's balls. I have been hunting public all year long, my buddy is paying a lease with thousands of acres in Florida, we both are jealous of each other for different reasons. Just get out and hunt where the deer are.

We don't all hunt bait. And there is a world of difference between finding white oaks and figuring out the deer versus putting out corn and short circuiting the process in order to make the deer come to you.

This is the continuum fallacy which goes something like "a guy with male pattern baldness and one with a full head of hair both have some hairs and there is no hard dividing line between the two, therefore it is the same thing".

There's adrenaline rush and then there is the sense of accomplishment after the fact. I'd wager that folks that hunt deer down without bait would find that more rewarding and more of an accomplishment.
 
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