Non-Resident Deer Hunt in the Blue NW

[Shorthair]

I'm driving alone back to Nebraska next week to hunt deer as a non-resident for the first time. Seems pretty weird. I've been in California for 9 years already so it shouldn't. Graduated Lincoln East in "82, ended up living in Saline county for 14 years before moving west in '03. I have permision on the same 2 parcels of land in Saline/Seward county that I used too, hopefully all to myself. If I get desparate I will try some of the public ground in Saline/Lancaster county but that stuff gets beat pretty hard. I've got at least 7 days to hunt before i would be forced to start back "home" to San Diego. I'm pretty pumped. I never had this much uninterupted time to hunt deer when I lived in Nebraska. Back then I deer hunted around my 3-11 work schedule and never really took time off for deer. Ducks/Pheasant around Grafton was where most of my time off was spent. I'm told deer are a lot thicker than they were when I left in 2003. Any comments, thoughts, suggestions, directions, ideas or prayers for success would be appreciated.   

[pfinn]

Stick to the private land if you can, I've tried hunting a lot of the public land in that area, and have had poor luck and worse experiences. My experience is that they get overrun with people who are inconsiderate at best.

I've heard really mixed things this year from bow hunters. Some have said it's the slowest year in a decade, while other have seen good movement. I know my trail cams have all been empty.

Talk to people who work the land, they usually know the deer patterns pretty well. My only other suggestion would be to stay in the field as long as you can!

[Shorthair]

I do plan to hunt longer and harder than I ever did when I lived in the area. I will be packing a lunch and staying at it dawn to dusk as long as I can stand it. It has been so long since i have been able to just sit in some peace and quiet I don't think it will be to hard to entertain myself in the field for a few days.