No access to private land? Crown land has plenty of opportunities for hunters willing to do the work

Most hunters dream of having their own hunting Garden of Eden, a beautiful and unspoiled tract of private land teeming with game, where they have exclusive access rights. If only. The truth is, only some hunters—if they’re lucky—have private access, and even then it’s typically for a limited amount of land. Plus, they often have to share it with others. Far more hunters have no access rights at all to private property, so they must hunt exclusively on public land. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, however.

Public land offers some of the finest hunting available, but finding success requires a lot more planning and preparation than it does on private land. For starters, you need to know the rules and regulations about access and boundaries, which can impact where, when and how you can travel. And simply determining where and how to start hunting on vast expanses of public land can be intimidating. The open access also means it can be difficult to find space away from fellow hunters.

At first pass, it might seem finding success on public land would be difficult, but that doesn’t have to be the case. The trick to enjoying good fortune when hunting public land is a lot like eating an elephant—you have to tackle the challenge one bite at a time.