Hi I’m Adam Lewis and welcome to Deer IQ and our High IQ TOPICS series. This is different than our normal, curriculum podcast episodes, and are stand alone topics that go along with our High IQ videos on YouTube. They are shorter, and supplement our normal podcast in this way with direct tactics to help up your deer hunting game. In this episode we’re going to look at 5 BIG mistakes many public land deer hunters make, and these are ones that absolutely ruin hunts. You really need to avoid them, and we address them here, and how you can have much greater success by doing just that. 

Before we get into the nitty gritty details of that, a couple things real quick, especially if you’re new here.

1. First, you’ll notice we have an IQ ranking system where beginner is 1-IQ, Intermediate is 5-IQ, and 10-IQ is our advanced content. This is true for our podcast, as well as our blogs and videos, so you can best get content to meet you where you're at. This is a 10 - IQ  episode which is pretty detailed.
2. Second, I invite you to subscribe, rate this podcast, and check out all our other content -  videos and blog. We even have a FREE journal that goes along with our curriculum based podcast. If you take deer hunting seriously, and really want to fast track your growth, I invite you to check that out. 

And, stay to the end because I have a few takeaways and challenges for you that you’ll really benefit from - you won’t want to miss that. 

Ok, now let’s look at the 5 biggest mistakes public land deer hunters make.. 

Hunting public land is the “in” thing to do now, with popularity rising out of necessity (decrease in private access), the draw of its challenging nature, and the meteoric rise of YouTube channels and exposure they have brought (thanks Hunting Public!). Yes, shooting a deer on public land is quite an accomplishment, but this craze is resulting in many areas becoming over-pressured, making finding deer and especially mature bucks extremely difficult. I’ve primarily hunted public land since 2010 with better than average success, especially since those early years where I learned from some brutally hard rookie mistakes (hunt-busting blunders I see all too often from other hunters). So, if you want better success hunting public land for whitetails, here are a few of the big mistakes I’ve learned that you absolutely need to avoid.

1. COMPETING. The big variable that is so hard to account for in public land is other hunters, who can mess up your hunt at any moment. This factor makes it very hard to plan around, and potentially very frustrating. On top of this, the reality is there are better spots than others, and this scarcity (or perceived scarcity), creates intense competition over a few prime spots within a public land area. Although some spots are indeed better than others on the map and in person (if hot fresh sign is here, or if everyone has been seeing a big buck glassing from the road), unless you are the first person to hunt it this competition quickly makes these spots deer ghost towns. So, if you’re seeing a bunch of guys in one spot at the parking lot, a cowpath like trail going into a section, or trail cameras present in a particular “hot spot,” it’s best to just avoid these as they are already ruined once you see this and you are wasting your precious hunting time. Avoid the draw to compete over a spot, and reframe the scarcity mentality in your mind. There are other good spots undiscovered, and those are the ones you need to find. 

1. HUNTING WHERE HUNTER SIGN IS. This is like  #1, but let's take it a bit further. Let’s say you’re scouting a new area and start seeing some good deer sign. You’ve put forth a bit of effort e-scouting, hiking back ½ a mile or more off the road, and now you’re into some good sign - rubs and scrapes. It just looks like the spot to be, but then you notice something - hunter sign. Sometimes this is subtle, but should not be ignored. Maybe it’s a fresh treestand (from the current season), boot tracks, a trail camera you overlooked, or fresh cleat marks where someone climbed and hunted a tree. Whatever these are they indicate it has been hunted recently, and it’s important to know that once you see this, the jig is up. Don’t rationalize that the spot may still be good (an emotional tendency when we see deer sign and also invested time and energy in the spot already), because most likely the deer sign was made before the hunter sign, and the odds are it's already been messed up by another hunter. If this is the case, you should cut your losses, as the deer making that sign has turned nocturnal or moved on. So should you.

1. ASSUMING “DEEP” IS BIG BUCK HEAVEN. This past season I met two hunters in a parking lot making a ton of racket as they prepped for their morning hunt. When I asked them where they were headed, they braggadociously said “way back, in that swamp…” and I could tell they took great pride in the idea of “going deep” (as if they thought they would receive some sort of prize for that alone). This is typical nowadays, and due to press the last 15-20 years (largely in magazines and now podcasts), the secret spots of yesterday have been exposed. Once exposed, by definition they aren’t a secret anymore, and those islands and deep swamp hangouts are destination locations for every hunter. I call this the Disneyland Mentality, and it results in every hunter heading to the same spots. And with the invention of apps that show you these easily on a GPS map, they are very apparent to everyone. 

I’m not sure how the guys I encountered did that morning, but from how they acted in the parking lot I wouldn’t want to be anywhere close to them (their noisy and non-conscientious habits told me that spot would be blown out quickly). So, I typically avoid these spots, even if they look incredible on that app. Remember, if you see it, so does everyone else. Overlooked is key, not deep. I took two public land bucks this year (Michigan - 10 point, and Missouri - 8 point) and both of these were in easy to access areas. The Michigan location literally had 8-10 trucks on the other side of the road, all accessing the same Disneyland location in the middle of that section (from 2 sides so they were oblivious to half of the other hunters accessing it). I’m confident they were having little luck and running into each other as they all competed. Meanwhile I was seeing several Pope and Young class bucks across the road in an overlooked area. 

The Missouri buck was taken just 1 hour into my first hunt (evening), and the access was just 200 yards from a well-used campground in late season (after the big gun season push). It was one of dozens of areas I e-scouted and had pinned, but it became evident this spot was very overlooked, and probably was most of the season. This made it a prime location to hold the last of the pressured deer, including another shooter I saw from the road that morning. Going deep may be that dream location, but steer clear of this assumption unless it proves itself so. 

BREAK: Like this podcast so far? If you do I invite you to follow, rate and leave a review of our channel, and maybe share this with a buddy who may benefit - that really helps this podcast grow and its greatly appreciated. And if you’re a public land hunter, and struggle to find deer, are always having hunts messed up by other hunters, and just find it difficult, you aren’t alone, but we have a Free Pressured Public Lands hunting guide - 8 New approaches to beat the crowds and find success, just for you. ONe of the approaches is avoiding the Disneyland Mentality we just discussed, but there are 7 others we go into detail about, and it includes a bunch of public land experts and their input. It’s really good and helpful. You can download it at our website and the link is below. Check it out! . Ok and now back to the #4 mistake of public land whitetail hunters.

1. HUNTING BAD SIGN. One of the biggest tricks hunters fall for when they are scouting different locations is hunting bad sign - particularly old sign. This happens because many hunters don’t know what fresh sign looks like, or think it is fresh when it actually isn’t. This leads to hunters setting up on a scrape or rub line, and spending precious days waiting to no avail only to wonder “what happened?” This offense occurs a lot and worst yet, is repeated over and over. So, unless sign is very fresh - deer are currently there to the point you feel they are watching you, you’re wasting your time. This is where trail cameras give you a reality check, but you need to get good at determining what fresh sign is. If that poop ain’t steamin and the tracks aren’t super defined, keep looking. 

1. HUNTING IN THE OPEN. Unless trail camera or visual observation tell you a deer is showing up in daylight, you shouldn’t hunt open locations. An open location is somewhere you can easily walk, and easily see more than 10 yards. Only young deer will typically show in these locations in daylight, or in very low pressure areas, which typically is not public land. From my experience, deer on pressured public land do not expose themselves or leave heavy cover, even when transitioning to or from food in twilight hours. To have success, you need to think from the deer’s perspective, and what would keep you alive, not your human perspective of what would be best for you to shoot them. 

Another part of hunting in the “open” is regarding your setup - are you visible where you hunt (tree or ground)? Do you stick out like a sore thumb (skylined), or not have LOTS of cover surrounding you to break up your form? On pressured public land I’ve observed deer literally looking up and scanning trees to try to find hunters because they are “trained” by all the arrow and bullet projectiles that have been launched at them. (I avoid popup blinds altogether, as most public lands won’t allow you to leave it long enough for deer to get used to it, and you’re basically telling deer “avoid this area, a hunter is here”). On public land you need very good concealment of some sort, and should get as high as possible if in a stand or saddle. 

This year I shot that mature Michigan 10 point (mentioned earlier) ten feet off the ground, which was painfully low for me. However, I had extremely good cover being in an overgrown oak tree - so much cover I only had a few openings to weave an arrow through. Due to this, nothing picked me off, even with dozens of deer that came within bow range, but with less cover I would have been at least 20 feet up or more if possible. 

There are many more things to avoid, but if you can steer clear of these five big hunt-busters on public land, your success rates will climb faster than a coon hounded by a bluetick. 

Ok and NOw for you High IQ takeaways and challenges.

1. Analyze past hunts for any of these trends. How many have you been guilty of (be honest)?
2. What is the biggest 1 thing you can change to improve your hunting based off this list?
3. Signup for our Newsletter below, so you don’t miss any of our new and great deer hunting content, we’re just getting started here folks, and also find us on instagram @deerhunteriq and join our private Facebook groups so you can interact with other serious DEER IQ hunters. 

And I’ll see you on the next Deer IQ High IQ topics podcast.