Too many people, your hunt will get ruined. Stay private, much much better

What's the world coming to?

Guy and Garret you guys must have lost your mind giving up those private spots, both you guy's are nuts, both of you are in store for a lot of disappointment and frustration.

Public hunting sucks!

Always hunted public, just not 100%. Last season I was exactly 50%. Just don't have time, or the interest, for private anymore. Who knows, that could change in the future. But this season, all my duck hunting time will be poured into working on my boats, scouting, and hunting public.

Show them you ain't afraid to work and get the job done!

a weaker individual might be frustrated or disappointed, but an expert gunner like myself will get it done...if you aint hunting public, then you aint hunting

Get ready to have 4 hunts ruined for one good hunt. Public makes me frustrated more than anything and I hunt to get away from frustration.

like I said, public is only for the good hunters, it can be tough on those that are below the curve

Keep it up and Judd will get on here and give you a severe internet thrashing...

Might even get Wal on one of those hunts.

Damn

Agreed. Too many idiots- rather sit in lodge/ cabin, drink wine and eat filets- get up hr before LST- not have to see 6 redneck duck commander idiots who can't call or shoot

public BLOWS

Public is the bees knees. If you think it blows you're doing it wrong.

Problem is you can't filter the IDIOTS around you. Do understand there a vast amounts of water in Tx that are Virgin to many hunters- when I didn't own my own places I put work in and had / still have 4-5 holes PRIVATE inside hour of house to hunt- still hunt couple of them.

If I am hunting big water- my big is 15-25 acre private water.

Idiot factor must be played, like I said it takes an enormous amount of skill and work, I understand its not for everyone

In texas it kind of is. To me there is just not enough public acerage compared to other states up north.
Thats all. Crowd + lack of public pkaces = stress
Having said this, i had some memorable public hunts, just getting too old for this in Texas. Other States, perfectly OK

Naw, it's alright Guy...I won't because just like hunting public, you can't fix stupid and I don't have the patience nor time for it.

You guys taking notes? This one will be on the test.

I've had hunts where other hunters or hunters in our party were claimers, too impatient, shot prematurely, sky busted birds working call/spread, called excessively or like crap, set up too close, shot my dekes/mojos, etc. I wouldn't say they ruined my hunts, but it def made the hunts much more challenging and much less satisfying. Needless to say, it's not very common but it does happen.

An example would be a hunt last season where Hogman and I were hammering the birds hard, we had birds coming into our spread, dropping in our faces, flying right by our heads, basically non stop for well over an hour. We were sitting in a spot quite a ways from everyone else with hunters around us about 200 yards out. We had gotten there after a large group of hunters had set up in their spots, with tons of dekes, chairs, a heater, the works. We had to walk by the them to get to our spot which was a difficult hike thru flooded timber without lights to prevent anyone seeing where we were going.

During the hunt we noticed a second group of hunters that had arrived late and had moved from their original spot to within a 100 feet of where we were sitting. They sky busted darn near every bird that flew anywhere near us or working our dekes and spooked birds with their calling. Hogman made a comment that the guys were sky busting birds out of spite just to keep them out of our spread. I was like nah, I know them, and someone would have to be a jackass to pull some [censored] like that. I sat and watched for a few minutes and I'll be darned if he wasn't right. By that time the calling had gotten to the point it was rediculous so I hollered (nicely) to stop calling and what do they do? Start the craziest calling you can get out of duck call, non-stop.

Sad part was I knew some of the guys and the kids father. I'd found one of the fellas wallet in the parking area the week before and contacted him and returned it and he knew it was me that was doing the shooting. And the other group, I knew one of those guys as well. He'd texted me during the hunt and made a comment about Hogman and shooting so much we were spooking all the birds and that they were there first and we were shooting "their" birds. Keep in mind we were no where near their spot and were easily a couple hundred yards away. Had they scouted, they'd have known that spot gets a ton of pressure from hunters as it's easy to get to. The spot Hogman and I hunted required a long walk lights out thru mud in waist deep water littered with fallen timber and stump holes. It was a hard haul, but well worth it. But they wanted the easy hunt. And that's what they got.



I can do the same on an Xbox.

fwiw..... If you hunt waterfowl or bird watch both the USFW and TPWD uses volunteers to assist avian biologists in conducting waterfowl research out in the field. You'll learn more about waterfowl after a few years doing field studies than a lifetime spent hunting.

That was a nice hunt. Wish I could have been a better shot that day

Not a very intelligent comment- i don't need to hunt public- don't care if u see more birds. We have seen less than 20-30 in a day and scratched out several limits- regularly on private.

Obviously, not doing it wrong.

If you have the resources, why play golf at a public course when u can screen all the riffraff and go to the club.

I don't believe either is better or worst- matter of preference, value of time, and ability to lease or own- which differs to everyone.

I have had same discussions of Private vs public school for kids. Pretty much same conclusion

I congratulate you guys on your hardcoreness and your ability to pat your on backside

No one hunts public for the challenge. It's all for financial reasons.

Please explain.... Im pretty sure that if Guy had put the money he used for his boat towards a lease he could be on a pretty good one. The thing with a waterfowl lease is you can't hunt it every day. Public your options are virtually endless.