[The Pennsylvanian]

Go deep, as in further than most hunters are willing or able to go. Most won't venture more than a 1/4 mile from the parking lot. Go in a half mile or more and you should be good. Just don't expect to be alone, even then. There will always be somebody around on public land.

Going deep isn't always necessary, follow sign. I once killed a nice buck that was within shooting distance of a heavily used parking area. Just follow the sign, it tell you where to hunt!

 

[The Pennsylvanian]

Same
Who wants to drag a deer a mile anyways

No one, start packing rhem out. Soooooo much better! I've packed out every deer but one in the past 4 seasons. The only I haven't died within sight of my out my house, less than 200 yards.

 

[The Pennsylvanian]

Look the thing about public is pressure, but not like you'd assume I mean. Yes, it's gonna have people all over it, but deer are used to that. What I mean is your own pressure, you need to jump around, sitting the same exact stand could and sometimes does produce, but you will increase your odds by being inconsistent. You also need to think outside of the box, just because you see a stand doesn't mean you need to go find a different game lands. Hunt where you think no one else would dream of sitting. I have quite a few big bucks ive found over the years that most would not believe where I found them.

I killed him last year inside 200 yards of my house less then 80 yards from a public parking lot to public land.

This one..

He was, I kid you not 10 yards off of the highway on gamelands, I got real close to this one but botched the shot..... I felt very stupid sitting there until he walked on by....

All of these were so close to the SGL parking lot, I watched 11 people park and walk the opposite direction to start hunting. I also listened to on fella have a conversation with himself about getting there so late, he was polite at all...... lol

I have quite a fee more.. but the point is, you have to start getting comfortable with not having the picture setup with the picture perfect killshot. Subconsciously, I believe most guys want that hunting show experience, it possible to find but it's not something that'll be consistent, because it's everyone's land. I can tell you that since I've been hunting spots most would call me idiotic for, I have had some encounters with big bucks. Putting them on the ground how ever, I'm still working on consistency there. Lol. I been fortunate to fill tag for 6 years straight hunting this way. I'm no where near what I'd consider a good hunter, I've just gotten good at hunting weird spots on public!