Unfortunately, I no longer have access to private land. I used to hunt private land in the past but the old lady that owned it died and the family sold the land. I also bought access to other private land but the company that owned it decided to lease their tracts of land to hunt clubs on a yearly basis. All of my hunting now is either on our state's wildlife management areas (WMAs), state forests or national forests. It's not bad hunting, but on the WMAs I deal with competition and hunt clubs, and on the state and national forests I deal with travel times and hikes. Not bad hunting if you can deal with those things. I've found I much prefer the travel time and hikes over competition.

Where I hunted this season was an hour and twenty minute drive from my house, and a 1.25 mile hike from my truck to the end of the logging road, and another 150 yard hike through the woods to the swamp I hunted. Small price to pay. Over the course of the season, I never heard another shot other than mine. I only encountered one other hunter on this particular tract the entire season. And either heard or encountered birds on every trip.

I like this tract of land. Lots of deer, lots of rabbit, lots of squirrel, some quail and woodcock, and some deep woods turkeys.

Now that turkey season is over, two weeks of spring squirrel season is next. So time to put a few in the freezer. Then it will be days at the range making sure my Hawken is sighted in, and working up a load for my new Knight Mountaineer and Blackhord 209. After all, muzzleloader deer season is 5 short months away.

[Linked Image from i.imgur.com]
https://vcdl.org/