Public land hunters
West Virginia
Who's hunting public land this year? Are you employing any new tatics? Share and discuss whats worked for you.
I hunt public in OH. And I am trying a new tactic.
I dread lugging my tree stand with all of my clothes attached. Hooking up the the stand, dressing, then climbing.
Repeat when the hunt is over. UGH!
This year I got a bow hunting ghillie suit, a hammock chair and a Heads Up decoy.
I will set up with the hammock chair, disappear with the ghillie and the heads up will disguise my drawing movement.
SOunds good in theory.....can not wait to apply.
I hunt Summersville WMA. Seems walking farther than others or hunting overlooked places is the ticket.
I would ditch the decoy. I tried it on private land and the deer turned inside out
babysaph- tell me more about your experience with the decoy. I.E what was your set up ect.
Dekes are use out west on elk, prong horn and whitetail with reagular sucess. I would assume (there that word is again) it would work here..?????
I used a bedded doe decoy in OH on public ground and I was amazed how it held a bucks attention. It was late season, may stand had zero cover; hence the reason for the decoy.
This small buck came in and checked out the deke, He walked around it checking it out as a drew and let down 3 times deciding on shooting or not; I passed....
I hunt a heavily hunted area so my results may be different. I used it like you plan to and even from treestands. I have never ever had any success with them. Never had success with rattling and all that stuff you see on the outdoor channel that seems to work out west. The deer I hunt are very spooked by calling and decoys. I try to just ambush them without alerting them. Then again I may be doing something wrong.
I found a spot deep into public land with the most deer sign ive seen yet. I believe its close to a possible bedding area and i worried about how to access it undetected. Its a long walk and i tend to pack on the heavy side. I thought about hiding my climber some how, maybe in some brush halfway up.
I hide my treestands all the time.
Strange thing is; I never had any luck with grunting or rattling n WV.
But in OH; just across the river in Washington Co. I have called in several bucks with rattling and grunting.
It was so apparent how they reacted and came to the calls...just like you see on tv.
Same as SundayinWV for me. I have been mostly hunting the ground the past few years.
I have not hunted public land for years around Richwood because the deer population nearly vanished due to repeated mast crop failures. However, I have been seeing a few more deer when I am in the National Forest the last couple years.
Prior to that I bounced around from tree to tree with portable stands depending on the food sources, deer trails, and rut sign. It was some of the greatest times of my life.
My father and friends started hunting over apples at permanent stand sites in the early 70's. I did the same with him through the 80's until we got mules and started packing into remote areas.
Getting away from bait piles reduced the number of does we saw but greatly multiplied the number of big buck encounters. So, that ended our hunting over bait pile days.
Times were golden until the mast failure years I originally mentioned. I am thinking that it is time to get back into the National Forest and bounce around in a portable again.
It's getting better again in some places for sure. I was thinking the same thing. Time to start bowhunting it heavily again in certain areas. God Bless
WVMULE,
I love the story of getting away from baiting. Unfortunately, almost all of our youth associate deer hunting with cornpiles, acorn rage, and ComeHere Deer.
If somebody wants to backpack 4-5 miles into the Cranberry wilderness to bowhunt, you would have to be crazy to backpack 50 or 100 pound of corn that far.
I went out just like Saxton did and bought a Ghillie suit and plan on hunting off the ground more this year both public and private. Its hard to find a good tree with good cover as most are straight up. I also plan on using a decoy as well this year after 3 encounters last year with 3 nice bucks and 1 being in the 140-150 range in Jefferson Co. Biggest buck I had ever seen here and I believe with a decoy the odds might have been different. I plan on hunting off the ground more simply being is I can change at anytime with any wind changes. Its always fun when you try new tactics because you never know what can happen. And yes I have rattled in several smaller and decent bucks in Jefferson co as well. A lot of that depends on the buck to doe ratio on how the bucks will respond to rattling.
To each there own. I don't knock other methods as long as they are legal. For me, I crave adventure, and that is what I get when I head off into places I have never been and adjust my tactics based on sign. I may not be as successful as others but I am having fun doing it and I feel it has helped me learn.
