Unit 10 Public Land

[MANDINGO1100]

Im a resident of Easton PA, Right across the delaware river, and drive through DMA 10 to and from work...

Am planning on archery hunting starting in January 2010, and was very suprised to see the amount of Public land available in New Jersey. Does anyone hunt the public WMA in unit 10 that can give some pointers.

Like anywhere Im sure the public land gets a lot more hunting pressure then private land throughout the state. but are these area overun with hunter.

Looking through some of the hunting digest I saw that in unit 10 somewhere around 25-30 deer killed per quare mile last year. To me that number sounds amazing and if the public land has 1/10th the deer population the private lands have I would have to say that NJ will be a great place to hunt..

Thanks
Dingo

[H&R slugger]

i honestly think they bs with the harvest numbers up there. been hunting in hunterdon co. (zone 8) since i was a kid, and back then there were actual heards of deer that would come by you. the line at the check station was 20 cars ( all bucks ) deep. now you hardly hear any shots, see any deer, and there is zero line at the check station. i have seen the decrease in the heard up there year after year. plus they built so many houses. i think they want people to see the kill numbers, plus the unlimited doe BS, ( which i think has really taken its toll ) and make people want to hunt there so you can kill all the remaining deer. most of the deer up there seem to live in peoples back yards, and the small pockets of unhuntable woods that remain in between developements anymore. take a drive through the neighborhoods up there in the summer, and just look at all the fenced in flower beds, and young trees ringed in fencing that the homeowners plant. i used to have people actually tell me to sneak around the side of there house and kill every deer in there backyard. 1 lady actually wanted me to walk in the front door and shoot them from her kitchen window. its almost time for me to find a new place, it just isnt worth the drive anymore, its a shame cuzz thats were i cut my teeth hunting deer.