Hunting Wildlife Management Areas?

Depends on what you hunt, for a woodcock hunter it is a very good gig, but there is much less hyunting pressure than a deer hunter and I don't have to worry about someone else messing up my area...

Good: (Old Georgia Pacific WMA) Killed limits of mallards more times than not.

Bad:(Sherburne WMA) had people walk in after daybreak with just their guns and setup across from me on my decoy spread.

I like the awkward discussion at the check- in station. Everybody wants to know where the deer are without giving anything away themselves.

I like the NWRs much better. More limited access, and easier to predict where people are. Plus, you have to buy something to get in.

Good- Great for bow hunting, lots of land and not much hunters

Bad- Hunting Jackson-Bienville in a new spot and getting lost at night trying to find way out. Like I did the other day. Its amazing, you think you know the woods like the back of your hand and then one minor wrong turn and you have no clue where you at.

ETA- Another con- State giving up 7,000 acres of your wma that you can no longer hunt. Also, game wardens suck on wma's. Got interrogated like I committed a homicide for having a small apple juice bottle on me back in Oct.

I have hunted the same area for 4-5 years and not seen another hunter. Thanksgiving weekend had a group of six hunters get lost around us and walk all through the woods back and forth until daylight. I left my stand there and went back last weekend and there was an old pile of used toilet paper right under my stand.

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Bad - all of your hard work can be undone in a split second by a complete stranger; if you do kill something remarkable and people find out, your spot is ruined for the rest of the year; you can't build a blind/leave a stand so every day you are starting over

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Yeah, I always enjoy the whole walking way,way,way off the beaten path only to find flagging and empty bottles laying around a good area. You think you are at an area everyone else is to lazy to find, but in reality, there are several others always hunting it, just maybe not the same time you are. Also, like you said, someone showing up while you're hunting. I've never walked upon someone in the morning but have in the evening. Its a crappy feeling. If I see a truck in the area, I move on to another spot, but that doesn't always mean someone isn't in there.

Its pretty heart breaking when you see a dim flashlight off in the distance and it's slowly getting closer to you. You keep telling yourself "it'll go away, they'll veer off to the left or right" but that never happens and they walk right under you. They walk 200 yards past you and set up, later killing something.

I walk so far that I often stay all day. I have seen quite a few bucks just after noon. Very little late morning for some reason.