Do you have any tips for hunting private land in Minnesota?
Filed under: Hunting Tactics
I recently started hunting due to a few new friends who would call it their second religion. I didn’t grow up with hunting being a part of my life so I missed out on a lot of educational situations. This year will be my first year on my own and I will be trying some public land that is primarily marshland.
My question is – Are there any tips or techniques that I can use to get some meet in my freezer on public land? More specifically public marsh land? The area I am thinking about is the Carlos Avery Wildlife Management Area just north of Minneapolis, Minnesota.
I have only ever hunted private land, where the permanent stands had been built to use. Obivously there are huge differences between public and private land. I just don’t want to spend all of MN’s archery season sitting in a place that deer never travel to in a marsh.
Any tips or help would be greatly appreciated!
Jeremy
Jeremy,
I’m thrilled you started hunting! I use the same techniques for hunting public and private land. I always attempt to identify the best sources of food, cover, and water where I’m hunting. This includes sources of the resources on neighboring properties that might influence the travel patterns of deer where I have permission to hunt.
Remember that the best source of food, cover, or water may only be used at night or not at all depending if deer associate that area with danger. If there’s much hunting pressure deer, especially mature deer, may not use fields much during daylight hours.
Deer often spend most of the daylight hours in cover. Most hunters focus hunting near sources of food. This seems to be especially true on public land. I suggest using Google Earth first and on the ground scouting next to locate the preferred source of cover where you wish to hunt. Cover in your area may be on dry hammocks in the marsh. If that’s the case, consider finding a stand/blind location between the cover and food.
Remember that being able to approach, hunt, and exit a stand without alerting deer is extremely important.
Finally – pay attention to where other hunters are hunting. Often deer can be patterned by understanding how they respond to other hunters!
Enjoy creation,
grant
