# 2 Questions?



## Jd1peters (Feb 27, 2008)

I was just wondering if I have a tag for and antlerless deer. And I shoot a button buck because I could not see it from my tree stand. What happens? This has never happened to me before but I am sure it has happened to someone. Do you get fined? Also I live in summit county is there alot of people that bow hunt on the public land or is it mostly gun? I have only been deer hunting for about 5yrs off and on due to no land and I have heard alot of horror stories about hunting on public land. I went once last yr (on private property) during gun season, got a doe and bowhunting once in 2003 (on private property), got a 8pt buck. I am planning on shooting 2 doe this yr for meat and probably going to do it on public land. My girlfriend and I love deer meat. I always give my friends some "buddie steaks" . Don't get me wrong if a 12 pointer walks by me Im not going to pass but I want to do my part to thin out the #s. I think of myself as a selective hunter and more people sould do the same. You can't say anthing though because they are following the law. But if more people let the 4s and 6s go there would be alot more big bucks. You rarely ever see a deer thats 5-7yrs harvested because hunters do alow them to reach maturity. People think "if I don't shoot him somebody else will" True!! but thats not really helping the situation. I wish the dow would have everyone shoot a doe first that would help the over population. We know that will never happen. Just my opionion! Sorry for rambling on!


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## gf319804 (Mar 6, 2007)

I can't tell you much about hunting the public land, I've always hunted private, but I can answer your question about the tags. You can use an antlerless permit to tag in any doe, or a buck with antlers of 3" or less. Button bucks can be tagged in as a doe.


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## Knopper76 (Jul 20, 2008)

Greg is correct ODNR states "Antlered deer are deer with antlers 3 inches or longer in length; antlerless deer include deer without antlers and deer with antlers less than 3 inches in length. So you are ok with taking a button buck on an antlerless tag, as long as both spikes are less then 3"
As far as the Public land hunting goes I stay away from it due to, to many people getting buck fever and shooting at anything that rattles a leaf. So I stick to hunting private land. Hope this helps. Also your best resource is your local ODNR representitive.


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## carxman17 (Aug 23, 2007)

I will agree about publc land during gun season. But during bow season it is alot less crazy. Atleast where I hunt. there are some really nice public places to hunt down here in southern ohio. You could not pay me enough to hit these places during gun season though.


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## Jd1peters (Feb 27, 2008)

Thanks everyone for the help! I think I just found 100 acres to bow hunt on this year and Im stoked!! Keep your fingers crossed. My luck it will probably fall through!


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## flattiesinohio (Sep 30, 2007)

i hunted public land one time and i will never do it again....lol....i had a shot fired and hit a tree just about a foot or maybe closer then when i yelled out load to let them know i wasnt a animal they got pissed.....but i know nothing of during bow sesson dont own a bow!!


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## fshnteachr (Jun 9, 2007)

I got shot at once on public land while squirrel hunting (not purposefully I hope). When I yelled out that I was in their vicinity a minute later they fired again! I high tailed it out of there the other diretion. Crazies on public land! I just wish I could find some private land to use.


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## Still_Waters... (Aug 13, 2008)

Yeah, I've had the "misfortune" of hunting public land for a little over 10 years now, and I can tell you it gets terrible, and any time there's something special going on like deer gun or the pheasant releases you'd better pray before you leave the house in the morning, and cover every square inch of yourself in orange, I'll never forget one time when my Dad came home early after hunting out at Ceasers Creek pale as a ghost, he said he got in early, got set up, and was waiting for daylight, doing everything by the book, well, daylight comes, he's waiting on this pretty heavily used trail banking on someone pushing something his way as everyone starts getting restless when he hears something coming up on him to his side, he looks over to check everything out and of course it's a late starter. So he waves his orange gloved hand to let the guy know he's there, so that he'll just keep on moving as a courtesy. Well, the guy stops dead in his tracks when he sees my Dads hand, so my Dad waves his hand again thinking maybe he just caught a glance of him, well, this is were things take a possible turn for the worse because the guy pulls his gun to his shoulder and slowly raises the barrel in my Dads direction, and just out of pure shock my Dad yells "THIS ONE SHOOTS BACK BUDDY" and the guy pretty much ran off, well after that my dad went straight to the parking lot and saw an ODNR officer and told him what happened, and the officer tells him, "Yeah, he's the reason I'm here actually, we've been getting a lot of complaints about this guy, apparently he's from another country, bought a nonresident license, but didn't think it would be a problem that he was color blind."... yeah, that's the kind of stuff you get to look forward to on public land, I don't know how many times I've been peppered bird or squirrel hunting because people can't seem to remember that what goes up must come down. I will admit though, when you get to a spot and there's nobody there, it's not bad at all, or if your like me and have a good knowledge of the area you can use all those people to your advantage, but honestly it's to the point were I hardly go out any more, just because I don't have the time to knock on farmers doors, or go down to SE Ohio were there's a little more public land so you don't have to be right next to every irresponsible color blind Joe Schmoe shotgun toting idiot that just wants to shoot at something, not saying everyone is like that, cause I met a few guys that I honestly don't mind sharing a field or woods with, but you will run into some crazies, so if you are going to do it, be the guy everyone laughs at for wearing full body orange, cause it definitely helps, some of the time anyway.


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## stumpsitter (Jul 3, 2004)

Well, I'm 50 this year and have been hunting the same tract of public land since I was a kid. I have taken countless squirrels, rabbits, deer, grouse, turkey.....from that same tract of land without one horror story to tell.

Maybe I'm just lucky, and I'm not doubting any of your stories, but I don't find hunting on public property to be that dangerous.


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## Still_Waters... (Aug 13, 2008)

I must admit, not every place I've hunted that was public land was bad, I've been out around what I believe is Venton county and never had a problem, but two places I love hunting by were I live I almost never go out during deer gun or muzzle loader, or any of the pheasent release dates are Ceasers Creek and Spring Valley, it just seems way too easy for an accident, or if nothing else a whole lot of anger and frustration, none of which I want while hunting, I guess if your going to do it then you just need to wear or carry orange to stay visible, and watch your back, and get out of there or move if you start getting uncomfortable with the people showing up around you.


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## fshnteachr (Jun 9, 2007)

I will say, I hunted Caesar's Creek this past weekend and I saw very few people in my area. I went to an out of the way area, but I think it may be a good place to public deer hunt with my bow. Like you all say though, not going to go for gun season.


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