Public land pressure

[jakesdad]

For those of you who hunt public ground, what kind of hunting pressure do you usually run into? And what states would you say are better or worse than others?

[Happy]

Only hunt two states but all the ground I hunt is pressured hunting club or public.
My observations are that pressure is highest the first two weeks of season and weekends. After that interest dies of off and only the die hards are at it. I tend to only hunt weekends when I have time to get deep into the woods and away from people. After the first two weeks I start getting serious and taking time off in the mornings. Yeah the birds have been harassed a good bit and generally have moved a little but it still beats having a group of hunters flooding the area as soon as I start working a bird. I will also say this,
a lot of the guys I run into later in the year are decent guys and respect is dealt all the way around. Not so with the opening week crowd. I could tell some funny stories about them.

[jakesdad]

Are you hunting in the south?

[USMC0331]

Public land In several areas of SC is a joke. The last 2 weeks is best as stated above.

[Happy]

Northeast, Wv and Md.

[Gooserbat]

A lot of variables. A few to pay attention to are.

Weekend vs week days
Proximity to a city
Opening day, early season, late season
And turkeys just being turkeys.

[Kylongspur88]

I like hunting PL because it give me lots of room to roam. On the PL I hunt in KY opening weekend is a nut house. I usually hunt private ground that weekend. The first week tends to be busy as well. After that crowds start dying down. By the last week I may have a few thousand acres to my self. This is especially true if gobbling slows down. Some of my best PL hunts have been either mid week or in bad weather.

[Gobble!]

The one piece of public I focus on is ~9,000 acres. Once I get back far enough it's basically private. Only ever run into 2 guys in the 7 years I've been keying in on it. I will bounce around to other parts of public. I've noticed weekends suck and as others have said after the first two weeks pressure let's up. Key is getting away from everyone or doing something different than everyone on a pressured bird. Killed one 60 yards away from four parked cars one day 10 minutes before noon when we need to be out of the woods. He had already been shot once. He couldn't stand hearing another bird gobble and came right in, gobble call on public wasn't smart but time was up. Hit him with hen calls about 2 hours earlier and he wouldn't work.

[Double B]

My experience is the same as others, opening week/weekend, lots of hunters, lots of birds.  Later in the season pressure lightens and birds may become more responsive.  Through the week is best if you can get out.  Pre-season scouting and roost listening can greatly improve your odds.   I'd rather hunt one hot bird by myself than go after several with a parking lot full of trucks. Good luck!

[CtRider]

My buddy and I are pretty die hard and have a public land honey hole that gets a lot of pressure. We always get to our state land spots super early and Last year on opening day, on a Wednesday, in the rain, we got beat at 2:45am! Sometimes it's best to let the pressure die down and come back later. We ended up calling some birds in a week or so later.

My buddy has also had a guy walk through his decoys at that spot so I'd agree with the early season guys not being as courteous. We've seen as many as 5 trucks parked at this spot that's only a couple hundred acres at most.

[Happy]

This kinda reminds me of the old saying about a young bull and an old bull standing on a hill overlooking a field full of cows. The young bull says to the old one "let's run down there and breed some of those cows". "Nah" the old bull replies. "Let's walk down there and breed all of them". Point is to save your effort for when it matters. One of the most important things I have learned came from watching other predators. If you watch a young fox or hawk hunting if your observant you will notice something. They chase everything. They bounce from one critter to the next. No patience and a ton of energy. When they are successful it's through sheer persistence and a little luck.
Compare that to an older predator. They bypass a lot a prey until they see a high percentage opportunity. They analyze things and put themselves in the right position to strike quickly and efficiently.
Less effort/higher chance of success. I by no means have it all figured out but a lot can be learned if you pay attention.

[slwayne]

I live in SE Michigan and hunt public land exclusively.  I have 3 or 4 state recreation areas within a 1 hour drive from my house but most of my hunting is done on a 4,000 acre public parcel that is just 15 minutes from the house.  The way our license system is set up if you want to hunt any of the public parcels that I hunt then you need to enter a draw.  Our 6 week season is split up into four separate hunts (three 1 week hunts followed by a hunt that covers the last three weeks of the season).  Each hunt has a quota of 500 licenses.  I always apply for that final 3 week season.  I primarily hunt weekends but will also do a weekday morning hunt, especially if I am getting near the end of the season and haven't filled my tag.  In seven years of hunting these various public parcels, primarily on weekends, I have never encountered another hunter in the woods.  I did run into another hunter in one of the parking areas two years ago.  I tend to study Google Earth and try to find the most inaccessible areas of the parcel and concentrate my efforts there but I also sometimes hunt in areas that are only a 10 minute walk from the nearest access point.  I have actually had more issues with bird watchers, dog walkers, mushroom hunters, etc. than other turkey hunters.  Don't know if the lack of pressure is due to the fact that I am hunting late season or just a general lack of hunters.

[ddturkeyhunter]

I am from MN and our season is only seven days, so not a lot of time to just let some days go by. My first turkey I ever shot was on public WMA. At that time we only got five days, and the zone I was hunting only allow five hunters every five days. My first turkey I ever shot was shot on a 100 acre WMA with two different hunters hunting the same WMA, so have been used to pressured hunting. But of all the states I have hunted so far FL, OK, WI, SD, WY, florida is the most crowded on there Public land. I am not one for hunting close to road if I can walk five mile to get away for the crowd I will do it. Thats what I thought I was doing in florida the first year I was down there, but later found out I was walk to a road half mile in from different direction. the second day down there a person shot my old foam jake decoy. I now feel sorry for people that live down there that have to put up with that each year if they don't draw a Qutoe lic. Most other states I hunted you cam most times find some corner to hunt that you are not bothered. Except last year in WI my season was best time for the mushroom hunters. That did not work out when you have famalies going through woods all day yelling. BUt after all the bitching I will be going back to florida again this spring to do it all over again, thats why they call it HUNTING; because you have to hunt for the right spot to TRY turkey HUNTING, LOVE IT. BE SAFE

[fallhnt]

I hunt 4 states in the Midwest on public. No pressure at all.

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[idratherb]

Come to Pa and set up a french fry stand and you'll be rich....