Hunting thick public land can be a pain, but when you are successfull the sense of accomplishment is awesome. I have been forced to hunt some thick as hell public stuff for the past several years. Here in south Mississippi seeing 60 yds is a blessing, most of the time its more like 20 yds. I can offer a few words of advice that I hope will help. You said food was everywhere, but deer are like kids, they like certain foods over others and will readily gravitate to those foods first year after year only eating other things when that food source is gone. For instance in my part of the world wild persimons start getting ripe about Sept/Oct. A deer will walk past 15 food plots and 25 oak trees to eat one persimon. Also in any normal year our white oak trees will be the first to produce acorns. Deer will snub their noses at all other acorns until the white oak acorns are gone. If you find a patch of oaks, and their are two white oaks producing in the middle of 100 acres of red oaks, you better hunt the white oaks. Also, a mutch more reliable way that I have found to consistently kill deer on pressured public land is to hunt the terrain. Find an area that you know the deer are using, and use the terrain to your benefit. Pin point the funnel areas and hunt them hard. Deer are naturally lazy creatures and if given the opportunity will walk the easiest path. This may mean walking 20 yds out of the way to cross a fence where it is broken down, or walking 30 yds down a creek to cross where it is not as wide. One last point and then I promise I will shut up, is to not be afraid to hunt small often overlooked areas that don't get as much pressure as others. Get a map out and see if you can locate these areas. 2 acres, 3 acres, 10 acres, and take every precaution to cover your scent and leave no trace behid. Deer in heavily pressured areas are much more prone to spooking at the least little thing.
Mike
