You also mentioned your hunting after work for a couple of hours. If a majority of those hunts are afternoon sits… might try some morning or all day sits if your schedule will allow it. I can think of a couple of places I never see deer in the evening .
Access and wind, probably stating the obvious but if your scent blows in ahead of you, done deal.

I have not hunted public land in over 30 years but back when I did, there were two ways to get on unpressured deer. If you could get away from other hunters by hiking in away from access points (I walked 2.5 miles away from the closest gate) that was the best scenario. Or, stay really close to the roads/access points where other hunters didn't hunt. Now, all of this was on a WMA in FL that was loaded with deer, but we had phenomenal success on some really nice bucks. That WMA is long gone unfortunately.

Try to stay away from the obvious places. The better looking the spot, most likely is getting hammered. Hunt the edges of thickets in some kinda overlooked corner somewhere. My favorite combo to hunt is thinned pines bordering thick pines or cutover but it works best when there is little pressure. I dont hunt public so it might be impossible to find such a spot.

Daylate makes good points about getting away from evrybody - but u need some sort of drag system if u shoot one way n there
When i turkey hunted wma - i got there early amd walked long way n to get away from everybody - had bunch success - turkey are way easier to get out 😀. I thought i would take multiple turkey a year off that wma for rest of my life - but like Daylate’s wma - this one no longer exists

With my parents or family that hunted or had land my best friend and I taught ourselves to hunt on public land in high school, eventually with a few good aldeer members here we ran into along the way who are now dear friends of mine. What you're experiencing is the usual among your average hunter hunting public land. The book "Mapping Trophy Bucks" by Brad Herndon is the best resource to learn how deer use terrain IMO, but if you really want to change your hunting world join a club. The $900 we coughed up for our first club wasnt fun or easy for us at the time, but it changed our hunting life and was well worth it.

Excellent point about getting away from other hunters. If you see any sign of people go elsewhere.

It sounds pretty typical for public land. Unless you are willing to work your ass off scouting and going deep or into undesirable places (think of places you would least like to drag a deer out from and start there) you will have very little luck seeing anything worth killing. I'm a bit surprised you haven't gotten lucky and seen more does, but some people just miss deer that walk right in front of them, so I bet you've had more deer than 3 cross near you, they can be pretty darn sneaky.

One year I bowhunted about 25 sits on the local wma all during the week so not much pressure, and scouted a good bit after nearly every hunt. I was determined. Found good buck sign, even saw a few in the flesh while scouting.

That whole year I had an opportunity one time at a legal buck and it wasn't even a good opportunity, so really it's like I never had a chance. Saw tons of deer, but getting something within bow range that's legal and ready to die is extremely hard on public land.

That exact same book is what I used to kill my first rack buck. I read it again about every 3 years, great resource

I’ve got that book as well. Been several years since I read it. Guess I need to look at it again

That makes me feel better. I appreciate it

yea, i have a ton of deer on my cameras. And i find lots of sign when i scout.

I've just got to crack the code some how.

Yea i get that. I've hunted all day in the same spot only 3 times this year.

Twice i've done just morning sits

And twice i had to reposition due to wind changes from morning to the afternoon.

I did kill the only doe i've harvested this year in the afternoon back in november tho

Thanks, that's good information.

redcoat which public land are you hunting, Blackwater, Perdido River, FL side or Perdido River WMA, Alabama side ?

Yea, i read that alot about going far out. The local wma I hunt is pretty roaded up. You can't walk a mile in any direction without hitting a road. There are some far out places I see on the map, but no edges i can see. No cutovers. Like its just big woods. Perhaps they are out there.

Perdido river on the alabama side

I'll check out the book. as for a lease. I may think about that next season. IDK. I live in Pensacola and already pay an out of state license for alabama because the hunting opportunities are better for public land. no quota hunts. I'm 30 minutes from perdido river on alabama side. I didn't draw the FL side quota but im 10 minutes from there

I hunted Perdido River WMA before it was a WMA, It was called Bellfontaine Hunting Club.

I'll send you a message later this evening about where I had the most success.

That would be awesome. Appreciate it.

If you are using a climber, make sure you get up 35 feet or so. That helps alot. I rarely get winded when I am that high up.

Couple things I have noticed. In every single club I have been in, there are places the guys won't go hunt. Guess where the deer go? Where they don't go. I have set up on places and watched them drive by and laughed, because I would see deer there. Guy on our lease killed a deer within 50 yards of our sign in, on a field I made, before we had to move the sign in. Saw a buck there too. At the end of deer season last year. No body sits there. Ever.

Something I discovered last year that might help. Noticed this during the rut. I had a cell camera set up, sort of off to the side of a couple different pine thickets. There were 2 hardwood fingers with a very small creek in them, and the deer used these fingers alot, because I had pic's of them. But when a buck came thru, I always checked the huntstand app to see which way the wind was blowing. 9 times out of 10, the buck came in with the wind at his butt. What I learned was he was coming in to get downwind of the pine thickets to scent check them. Often this happened later in the morning too, when other hunters were long gone.

I watched a buck come out of a pine thicket yesterday morning on our lease. Southeast wind. He was headed northwest. I was in a climber right off the road too. Right by a road into one of our stand sites. He went behind where our stand site is. So if you can set up downwind of a pine thicket you know deer bed in, and get more downwind than a buck, watch the upwind side and see if you don't see one come in there scent checking it.

Are you scent free on the days you go to work and leave and hunt?