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Anyone in central MD have public lands recommendation? How have your season been?

HuumanCreed

HuumanCreed

Well-Known Member
SH Member
Joined
Aug 21, 2020
Messages
2,678
Location
Westminster Maryland
2020 is my 3rd year of whitetails and first with saddle. Season was unsuccessful but I fully enjoyed the saddle method and am fully converted. Due to a blessing of another baby girl, I was only able to spend 3 days in the wood. But that's ok because I got to spend time with little Mabel who sleeps in 3 hours interval at night....

Since my opportunity was extremely limited, I decided to only tag a 6 points or more until last hour of the last day when everything is open game. This wasn't the year to shoot the first deer that I see. I dont regret the decision even after passing on a few doe and spike, just being in the wood was enough.

Anyway, I sticked to never before hunted local public lands within 25 minutes drive just because I just didnt have time to scout large area, basically scouted all 3 location in one day. So the 3 places I hunted and encountered:

Hanover Watershed CWMA- 1 spike and 2 doe
Maring CWMA- Nothing....
Sawmill CWMA- 2 doe

I should have a lot more time next season as things will be more managable at home. But enough with the whining, I just wanted to reach out to the more experienced Maryland public lands hunters. How has your season been? Is there any place you would recommend? I'm not asking for your hidden gems or oasis, just if you know of good whitetail population in an area and how far from the parking lot I would need to go. I'm going to expand my range and thinking of going in deep, not spend the night but a good walk. I heard Pretty Boy and Soldier Delight were good, just dont have any experience going that far in, but if that's where the deer are, that's where I'm willing to go. Thank you for your time!
 
I haven't hunted the 3 that you hit but I know someone that hunts Hanover and gets into big deer all the time. What was the time of year that you hunted? There are big bucks on plenty of public in central MD. Some can be close to parking. Some are a hike. Some are dumb luck. It's going to depend on the time of year you're going after them and how hard different properties get hunted. Soldiers Delight requires an extra permit to hunt and different zones are open at different times of the year. The permit cuts out a lot of pressure. As you should be familiar with the reservation system, that also limits some pressure. I don't know what your work schedule is like but you'll find far more success if you can hunt during the week and especially if you can string together a few days in a row during the week.

It might take you a few years to really get the hang of it, but focus on a couple areas and start stringing together some knowledge. Get out there between now and before green up and (where legal) scout all you can. Find the trails, hang cams, look for rubs, get boots on the ground and learn. *I say where legal because at Soldiers Delight you have to stay on the marked trails when deer season is not open. Plenty of the WMAs you can only scout on Sundays unless you have a reservation until all seasons are closed.*

Check out Liberty. It's bow only, tons of land, and plenty of deer. Biggest deer I've ever seen almost ran me over just 150 yards off the road on one chunk there.

Both these deer are off public land in the last few years. I've seen plenty similar to them and some bigger. Including the studs in the trail cam pics I never caught up to. If you can, get after them early in the year when everyone is complaining about the temps still being in the 90s and are sitting on their couches.

Feel free to message me. I'm certainly not gonna clue you in on my spots lol but I'm happy to help lead you in the right direction or tell you if I'd avoid a spot. Good luck
 

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I hunted the Saturdays of End Oct to the beginning of Nov. Work regular 7-3 job so weekends was only thing available to me, and I did hunt on Veteran's Day. I might try what you suggest and string in a few day together, like Fri-Sat. Cant leave the wife to handle all the kids herself too long. I was happy with early season because the weather wasnt that bad.

Nice bucks! Now I'm pretty hopeful for next year. Did you leave those trail cameras on public? I'm thinking of getting a few cheap ones and doing that. I'll message you with a few questions if I can think of any. But thank you for your input!
 
This was my first season bowhunting, likely unsuccessful in terms of deer harvest (unless I can turn that around on the last day of season on Saturday) but very successful in terms of saddle practice, scouting, and learning more about how to find deer. No reccomendations on locations frome since I'm in the same figuring it out stage myself, most experienced hunters will probably hold their cards pretty close so the best you can do (and what I plan to do) is to go for a bunch of scouting hikes in the impending off-season.
 
HuumanCreed said:
I hunted the Saturdays of End Oct to the beginning of Nov. Work regular 7-3 job so weekends was only thing available to me, and I did hunt on Veteran's Day. I might try what you suggest and string in a few day together, like Fri-Sat. Cant leave the wife to handle all the kids herself too long. I was happy with early season because the weather wasnt that bad.

Nice bucks! Now I'm pretty hopeful for next year. Did you leave those trail cameras on public? I'm thinking of getting a few cheap ones and doing that. I'll message you with a few questions if I can think of any. But thank you for your input!
Click to expand...
Yeah, I leave my cams out all year in spots where I don't think many people go. I've done it for about 3 years now. I've had 1 stolen but I didn't lock it so I asked for that one. I either put out cheap ones or cell cams. I figure with a cell cam I have a decent chance of getting a pic of the person if they're going to steal it. I lock all of them now and I try to put them like 10 foot up in a tree angled down as you can probably tell in those pictures. Both of those cameras have never had a person on them. That info is almost more valuable than the info I gain on the deer.
 
HuumanCreed said:
2020 is my 3rd year of whitetails and first with saddle. Season was unsuccessful but I fully enjoyed the saddle method and am fully converted. Due to a blessing of another baby girl, I was only able to spend 3 days in the wood. But that's ok because I got to spend time with little Mabel who sleeps in 3 hours interval at night....

Since my opportunity was extremely limited, I decided to only tag a 6 points or more until last hour of the last day when everything is open game. This wasn't the year to shoot the first deer that I see. I dont regret the decision even after passing on a few doe and spike, just being in the wood was enough.

Anyway, I sticked to never before hunted local public lands within 25 minutes drive just because I just didnt have time to scout large area, basically scouted all 3 location in one day. So the 3 places I hunted and encountered:

Hanover Watershed CWMA- 1 spike and 2 doe
Maring CWMA- Nothing....
Sawmill CWMA- 2 doe

I should have a lot more time next season as things will be more managable at home. But enough with the whining, I just wanted to reach out to the more experienced Maryland public lands hunters. How has your season been? Is there any place you would recommend? I'm not asking for your hidden gems or oasis, just if you know of good whitetail population in an area and how far from the parking lot I would need to go. I'm going to expand my range and thinking of going in deep, not spend the night but a good walk. I heard Pretty Boy and Soldier Delight were good, just dont have any experience going that far in, but if that's where the deer are, that's where I'm willing to go. Thank you for your time!
Click to expand...
I chased a hammer around at maring during early bow season. I've hunted loch raven, maring, gywnnbrook, mckee beshers, patuxent river state park, psvp Mercer area and a couple Charles County spots. They all hold deer and some great bucks. I got my 2 for the freezer during early muzzleloader and missed 2 great bucks with the bow. I hunt alone most of the time so I pass often but if you put in the scouting you can kill as many as you need
 
This is my first year back in Maryland after being up and down (or down and up) the East Coast for the military. I settled into the Baltimore area and spent a lot of time mapping out the public areas on various apps then going out and putting boots to ground to check it out.

I have heard great things about Prettyboy Reservoir and seen the pics to prove it. The 3 reservoirs (Prettyboy, Loch Raven, and Liberty) combine for some of the largest huntable public land in the state, let alone the central area. Loch Raven is closest to my house, so I spent a lot of days popping into the different managed hunting sections to look for sign and good spots. Throughout the season, I saw a few larger bucks that tended to skirt the safety zones and off-limits areas, but there is some sign that they pop into the hunting areas from time to time. If you don't care about bucks as much, there are LOADS of doe all over, and you can take as many as you want during archery season.
 
hokiehunter373 said:
No, they really clamped down this year and you're only allowed 15 with the bow lol unless you're in a suburban zone (unlimited) or region A (2)
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Only 15 haha. I do most of my hunting in Baltimore County where the deer are fairly abundant. Not that I was anywhere close to the 15 antlerless limit this year. I was out at Loch Raven again on the 30th, plenty of Deer survived for next season.
 
Adrena123 said:
@Bigterp and I are from MD. Don't miss our "Saddle Hunter Meetup" in the spring. We cancelled last spring because of covid but this year looks good.
Mostly all Md guys so you should be able to get a lot of info.
Click to expand...

Should be out in the spring. I'm new to saddle hunting this past season, been doing a lot of DIY and tweaking. Hoping to convince my wife that saddle is the way to go for next season, would definitely be interested in a meetup this spring. I think I saw @Bigterp was from the Essex area, probably not too far from me.
 
Jaeckthesnake said:
Should be out in the spring. I'm new to saddle hunting this past season, been doing a lot of DIY and tweaking. Hoping to convince my wife that saddle is the way to go for next season, would definitely be interested in a meetup this spring. I think I saw @Bigterp was from the Essex area, probably not too far from me.
Click to expand...

Yeah he's on the other side of the tunnel from me, I'm in howard county
 
I'm in Westminster. I never hunted reservoirs before. So i'm looking at maps of Liberty and Loch Raven. I'll be honest, I cant figured out a strategy to how to approach the hunt. I'm going to try scouting the area first. But at this point I got no better plan then walking around aimlessly looking for signs. I have hunted terrains that are mostly woods surrounded by farms, I dont' have any experience with large body of water and how deer travel or live near them. Everyone is saying there is abudants, so I'm going to try to do some learning. But I see alot of pennisulas and water edges, how do I understand 'choke points' in term of reservoirs?

Oh, When is the next Maryland Meet?
 
HuumanCreed said:
I'm in Westminster. I never hunted reservoirs before. So i'm looking at maps of Liberty and Loch Raven. I'll be honest, I cant figured out a strategy to how to approach the hunt. I'm going to try scouting the area first. But at this point I got no better plan then walking around aimlessly looking for signs. I have hunted terrains that are mostly woods surrounded by farms, I dont' have any experience with large body of water and how deer travel or live near them. Everyone is saying there is abudants, so I'm going to try to do some learning. But I see alot of pennisulas and water edges, how do I understand 'choke points' in term of reservoirs?

Oh, When is the next Maryland Meet?
Click to expand...

I’ve been learning a lot myself. Honestly, a lot of Saturday’s I would just pick a few spots, drive out, and park at the one with no other vehicles in the parking area. I swear every time I randomly went in, I saw a bunch of deer. Then, my first time back, not a single deer. So I tried to mix it up based on superstition mostly. Whenever I didn’t see any deer, I’d spend some time looking for sign to try and better understand their habits and movement in that area, and whether there was tons of sign or just seeing them before was a fluke. Definitely learned a lot this year.
 
Has anybody on here tried hunting at Susquehanna State Park? I know there are plenty of deer in there, but I know its a busy park with lots of hiking trails.
Just wondering if it's gonna be a waste of time with all the hikers?
 
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