I really enjoyed Jason Samkoviak's traditional podcast episode on public land hunting. Right on the money! He describes the enjoyment of having 1000s of acres to move around on and the challenges of packing a stand, equipment...etc. It's a good boost to listen to. He points out how much a hunter learns because of the unique challenges vs private land sits. I do hunt ea  September in Wyoming on private land but the remainder is public land.
I did not kill a buck on public land with my bow this yr or for a while actually. We had a long spell of very poor deer numbers in the area I have the most access to from our camp. With a slight recovery in deer numbers and almost no hunting pressure (except for the doe gun season they added right in the middle of archery season), I have been seeing some good bucks. I did shoot a buck on a rainy morning but appears that I had an arrow shaft failure and didn't recover the deer and had a close encounter with a monster when it was still too dark in the morning.
Here are some photos of public land hunting in my neck of the woods.
 
 

   

One of the biggest challenges is staying warm and being able to cary clothing. Kuiu has really lightened my load!! A pile of equally warm wool probably weighs double or triple what kuiu weighs. I get a lot of advice on my backpack, from guys who hunt the 10 acre private patch of woods.
 

Ted, Those are some nice pictures. I do almost all of my hunting on public except for a couple hours in the evening and occasionally in the morning on a local farm ,I'm trying to keep my permission to hunt by doing some work for the farmer.I don't for see me ever having my own ground to hunt,not just for financial reasons but also I like the idea of having thousands of acers to roam and its there for everyone to do the same if there willing to do the work,not because I have a fat wallet that I get to do it.

Great thread Ted! I started hunting bald eagle forest in pa and have seen some really nice buck! Caught a couple of really nice ones on trail cam this year. Very minimal hunting pressure especially when you get back off the road!

Forgot this one. The camera was set on video. So this is just a screen shot.  
 

 

Bears always find my cameras and tree stands. This one looks like he was trying to figure out how to climd a tree with a Lone Wolf. The reflections are two bright-eyes I stuck in.
 

 

What is the name of the podcast?
I need to start trying to cultivate some public land areas. I've been spoiled by excellent private land hunting for many years. Logging and encroachment have really taken their toll on my traditional areas.

Here is the link. Great stuff!!

http://tbwpodcast.com/

Listening to it now. Definitely enjoying.

I think I need to try one of those sleds now!

My only gripe is his rant against compound and crossbow shooters.
As long as it's legal and the deer population isn't being decimated, I honestly don't care if other folks want to hunt with a Howitzer. A Howitzer is heavy and can only be set up in so many places. Just avoid Howitzer accessible places.

I don't feel it's beneficial for anyone to be so outright hateful towards another persons choices. We are all hunters and for the most part are all driven by a love of the wild places. Sure, the lack of skill and consideration displayed by many guys I run into out in the swamps is annoying, but at the end of the day, i know I have 60,000 plus acres of woods here which are very very difficult to travel any distance through. If I can't find a place where the 100 Yard Club can't find me, it's probably time to give it up anyway.

I know I can't word these things as eloquently as many of you, but hopefully I manage to convey the basic idea.    

QuoteOriginally posted by swampcrawler:
Listening to it now. Definitely enjoying.

I think I need to try one of those sleds now!

My only gripe is his rant against compound and crossbow shooters.
As long as it's legal and the deer population isn't being decimated, I honestly don't care if other folks want to hunt with a Howitzer. A Howitzer is heavy and can only be set up in so many places. Just avoid Howitzer accessible places.

I don't feel it's beneficial for anyone to be so outright hateful towards another persons choices. We are all hunters and for the most part are all driven by a love of the wild places. Sure, the lack of skill and consideration displayed by many guys I run into out in the swamps is annoying, but at the end of the day, i know I have 60,000 plus acres of woods here which are very very difficult to travel any distance through. If I can't find a place where the 100 Yard Club can't find me, it's probably time to give it up anyway.

I know I can't word these things as eloquently as many of you, but hopefully I manage to convey the basic idea.      

I definitely don't have anything against compounds and actually my wife and both kids shoot compounds as do 3 of my hunting buddies. But to compare traditional bows to compounds it may sound like I am knocking a compound but I'm just comparing more than knocking.
But crossbows!!!!!  I'm not gonna lie...I hate the weapon and it serves zero purpose and all of them should be rounded up and burned. So yeah I definitely don't like crossbows! The thought that in the next decade crossbows could be the dominant weapon used in archery seasons make me want to take all my kitchen knives out of the drawer, Walk outside and stick them in the ground handle down point up. Then climb on my roof and belly floppy right on the knives! Did mention I don't like crossbows!!!

I've been scouting more public here recently. I like the fact that some of the areas are big enough to get away from others, and the only rules (as far as deer management) that I have to abide by are my own. I can shoot whatever I feel like as long as it's legal. It doesn't take a booner to make me happy, but the private places that I hunt have rules to protect younger deer. I won't shoot a young buck on private anyways, but it's nice to have the option if I feel like it on public.

QuoteOriginally posted by LB_hntr:
 

QuoteOriginally posted by swampcrawler:
Listening to it now. Definitely enjoying.

I think I need to try one of those sleds now!

My only gripe is his rant against compound and crossbow shooters.
As long as it's legal and the deer population isn't being decimated, I honestly don't care if other folks want to hunt with a Howitzer. A Howitzer is heavy and can only be set up in so many places. Just avoid Howitzer accessible places.

I don't feel it's beneficial for anyone to be so outright hateful towards another persons choices. We are all hunters and for the most part are all driven by a love of the wild places. Sure, the lack of skill and consideration displayed by many guys I run into out in the swamps is annoying, but at the end of the day, i know I have 60,000 plus acres of woods here which are very very difficult to travel any distance through. If I can't find a place where the 100 Yard Club can't find me, it's probably time to give it up anyway.

I know I can't word these things as eloquently as many of you, but hopefully I manage to convey the basic idea.        

I definitely don't have anything against compounds and actually my wife and both kids shoot compounds as do 3 of my hunting buddies. But to compare traditional bows to compounds it may sound like I am knocking a compound but I'm just comparing more than knocking.
But crossbows!!!!!  I'm not gonna lie...I hate the weapon and it serves zero purpose and all of them should be rounded up and burned. So yeah I definitely don't like crossbows! The thought that in the next decade crossbows could be the dominant weapon used in archery seasons make me want to take all my kitchen knives out of the drawer, Walk outside and stick them in the ground handle down point up. Then climb on my roof and belly floppy right on the knives! Did mention I don't like crossbows!!! [/b]

If I may ask, what exactly is it that you don't like about them? I personally find a crossgun to be more of a handicap than an advantage! Yes they are fast and have a trigger, but the things are huge, heavy, slow as molasses for the 2nd shot, and still limited (in the hands of anyone with any hunting ethics) to 40 or maaaaybe 50 yards. The biggest advantage to them is being able to launch a bolt without the movement of the Draw, IMO. They still require some degree of tuning, practice, and skill to deliver their best performance.

I definitely don't mean to be argumentative here or offensive in anyway, I just don't understand how the equipment chosen by another person can be so bothersome.

QuoteOriginally posted by John146:
Here is the link. Great stuff!!

 http://tbwpodcast.com/  

Thanks!

[/QUOTE]I agree with what you say about xbows. Given that this is a tradbow forum with strict rules about not having conversations about crossbows I will just say this. In my opinion it is a weapon that was solely created so that people could kill animals easier with less practice or skill required. It cheats the learning curve needed to be successful in the archery season.
But again keep in mind this is only my opinion and worth nothing in the grand scheme of things. But I am at a point in my life where I don't feel I need to be in the "we all stick together camp" when it comes to xbows. To put it bluntly I think the xbow is the answer to the people that expect to have what others do but don't want to work for it. And will take any short cut to get there. A combination that does not belong in the woods. [/QB][/QUOTE]

I can definitely understand where you're coming from.

Well as I said earlier, I definitely enjoyed the podcast and plan to catch up on at least most of the past ones. Very cool project you have going and I plan to keep up with your adventures!

I love the tough but rewarding hunting on Public land. It is lots of fun but there is also a big push towards public land hunting in general and it is becoming more popular. Part of it is bragging rights. Regardless it is impacting public lands and will continue to do so.

I've had enough of this "shoot whatever you want" garbage!  Many bow hunting leaders are to blame for this mantra and it's because they're sold out to technologies almighty dollar. Sure other technologies can have a place but not an archery season....and if I hear one more person make the argument that a crossbow is no more effective than a hand-drawn bow I think I'm going to go crazy! Please use your head! No it's not a 30-06 but really!

One thing I do have against them that most people don't mention, it is the safety factor. Think about it, you were looking through a scope and pulling the trigger, psychologically it's a lot easier to make a terrible mistake with this type of equipment that it is to go through all of the steps of drawing a bow to shoot. I've started wearing blaze orange on public land in Oklahoma at all times because of this and being more careful with my movement during dark and dawn/dusk