No Quality Habitat
public lands in the Midwest are
located near a river or water source.
Many say that the numerous public
Ask any hunter an ideal place for a
lands available to hunt do not contain
hunting property and along the Rethe quality habitat necessary to hold
publican River in Nebraska or the
deer. If you know anything about deer
Missouri River in Nebraska, Iowa,
hunting, you should know that a buck
South Dakota or Missouri will probably
doesn’t care what the habitat looks
be one of their top choices. These
like. If it has food, cover, and water,
rivers provide fertile soil and the
he will be there. Finding good public
moisture necessary to grow quality
land that meets those requirements
food and provide adequate cover.
requires research. A good place to
start are aerial maps. Google Maps or
any other online mapping services are
great tools and are often provided for
free. These maps are simple to use
and give you a good idea of the type
of habitat and terrain found on a piece
of public land. While aerial maps can
give you a good start, nothing beats
putting boots on the ground. There is
nothing like seeing a property in
person. Many terrain features and
subtle habitat changes can’t be seen
from online maps. If there is a way to
view the property in person, it should
always be done. What a property
looks like in a picture may not even be
close to what it looks like in person. A
property that may look to have only a
few stand locations may actually have
many. A property with what looks like
minimal cover may actually have
abundant cover. February is a great
time to scout public land. You won’t
disturb any other hunters and any
There is plenty of public land along
deer you run into will have long forboth of these rivers and others that
gotten the encounter by opening day.
provide quality hunting. Finding good
Look for pinch points, oak trees and
public land is not as impossible as
other food sources, as well as possible
some make it out to be, it just takes a
stand locations. It takes some
little work.
walking, but it will be well worth it in
Pressure
the fall. When looking at public land
maps or scouting in person, you
Probably the most common reason
should also look for water. Most
hunters choose not to hunt public land
is pressure. I can say for a fact that
public land, at least in the Midwest, is
not as crowded as everybody says. It
may be a different story in places like
Wisconsin and Michigan where hunter
densities are high. Again, it comes
down to research and getting boots on
the ground. Some areas may be hunted more than others. In that case, you
can stay and accept the challenge that
comes with hunting pressured deer or
move to a different property. From
personal experience I have seen a
WMA that had 8 people hunting a 200
acre area and no more than 3 were
ever hunting at the same time. Again I
wouldn’t call 8 people on 200 acres
overly crowded, but to each his own.
So if that is too crowded for you, not 5
miles to the west on an even better
WMA, I hunted all season and saw
only three other bow hunters. Yep,
that’s right. We had 250 acres of
public land all to ourselves. That is
more land than most hunters will ever
be able to afford. There was not a
single Saturday morning from October
through December that we saw
another hunter. Crowded, I don’t
think so. Of course, when you don’t
control who hunts a piece of property
it can be frustrating. Not everybody
hunts the same as you, practices good
scent control or uses smart hunting
tactics. You may even encounter duck
or pheasant hunters. But I am sure
each of you has dealt with an unruly
neighbor on a piece of adjacent private hunting property. We will never
be able to get away from those who
choose to hunt in the, let us just say,
untraditional ways. You will
encounter it on private land just as
much as you do on public land. Each
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