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Private vs. Public Company: An Overview
Privately held companies are—no surprise here—privately held. This means that, in most cases, the company is owned by its founders, management, or a group of private investors. A public company, on the other hand, is a company that has sold all or a portion of itself to the public via an initial public offering (IPO), meaning shareholders have a claim to part of the company's assets and profits.
Explaining Publicly and Privately Held Companies
I think your right about more people hunting private property without question, but there are many reasons a lot of them you mentioned. Now things are probably much the same in many states, but situations may vary some also I am in PA and many feel the the wildlife commission has left the deer heard deplete so low that there are to few on public land to even bother hunting anymore and the.
Private Companies
The popular misconception is that privately held companies are small and of little interest. In fact, there are many big-name companies that are also privately held—check out the Forbes list of America's largest private companies, which includes big-name brands like Mars, Cargill, Fidelity Investments, Koch Industries, and Bloomberg.
A private company can't dip into the public capital markets and must rely on private funding.
While a privately held company can’t rely on selling stocks or bonds on the public market in order to raise cash to fund its growth, it may still be able to sell a limited number of shares without registering with the SEC, under Regulation D. This way, privately held companies can use shares of equity to attract investors. Of course, privately held companies can also borrow money, either from banks or venture capitalists, or rely on profits to fund growth.
The main advantage of private companies is that management doesn't have to answer to stockholders and isn't required to file disclosure statements with the SEC. However, a private company can't dip into the public capital markets and must, therefore, turn to private funding. It has been said often that private companies seek to minimize the tax bite, while public companies seek to increase profits for shareholders.
Public Companies
The main advantage public companies have is their ability to tap the financial markets by selling stock (equity) or bonds (debt) to raise capital (i.e., cash) for expansion and other projects. Bonds are a form of a loan that a publicly held company can take from an investor. It will have to repay this loan with interest, but it won’t have to surrender any shares of ownership in the company to the investor. Bonds are a good option for public companies seeking to raise money in a depressed stock market. Stocks, however, allow company founders and owners to liquidate some of their equity in the company, and relieve growing companies of the burden of repaying bonds.
Key Differences
One of the biggest differences between the two types of companies is how they deal with public disclosure. If it's a public U.S. company, which means it is trading on a U.S. stock exchange, it is typically required to file quarterly earnings reports (among other things) with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). This information is made available to shareholders and the public. Private companies, however, are not required to disclose their financial information to anyone, since they do not trade stock on a stock exchange.
Key Takeaways
- In most cases, a private company is owned by the company's founders, management, or a group of private investors.
- A public company is a company that has sold all or a portion of itself to the public via an initial public offering.
- The main advantage public companies have is their ability to tap the financial markets by selling stock (equity) or bonds (debt) to raise capital (i.e., cash) for expansion and other projects.
By Alex Comstock
For the past two years, I've been hunting almost exclusively on public land. During that time, I've learned a lot about both the positives and negatives of what can happen while chasing whitetails on land that we all share, but above all else, I've learned to embrace it.
Hunting public land isn't easy. Especially if your goal is to harvest a mature buck. You've got to work hard, put in the time, and hunt where others don't want to go. But if you've never hunted public land before, I think you should give it a shot. Don't believe me? Read these three things I've outlined on why you should attempt it, and then think about it again.
Public Land is a Challenge
Hunting public land is 100% a challenge. I don't care who you are or what you say, but wherever you are, public land is going to present some form of a challenge that you may not endure anywhere else. If you are someone who is seeking a greater challenge, public land could be the way to go. Anything can happen at anytime, and even if you have a piece of public land you've scouted and don't think anyone else is hunting where you are, someone could show up out of the blue while you're in the stand, and mess things up.
I love the challenge of chasing mature bucks on public land because I know anyone else could be doing it. Sometimes public land gets a bad rap because people don't want to deal with unwanted competition. But getting it done on a mature whitetail buck that anyone else could have hunted creates a unique feeling of gratitude and thankfulness (more on this later). One thing is for certain, nothing is going to come easy, and very rarely can you waltz in to a piece of unscouted public land, set up in the best looking spot, and have all of the pieces fall in place. It's going to be hard, but trust me, it'll be worth it.
To read more about the tactics I use to hunt public land effectively click here.
It Will Make You a Better Deer Hunter
If nothing else, hunting public land will make you a more proficient deer hunter. Even on highly managed land, or private land that you have permission to hunt where it isn't pressured, a mature buck is a completely different animal than other deer. On public land, he is even more wary, and harder to kill - and this is what can elevate your deer hunting ability.
What you'll learn hunting public land is that you have to cross every T, dot every i, and take everything you do to extreme caution. A mature buck that calls public land home has been hunted before. He knows when something is wrong, and he knows how to survive. And that's either move to where people aren't, or to not move at all during daylight. He knows he can move safely under the cover of darkness, and his number one priority in life is survival. If you can successfully harvest a mature buck on public land, the next time you hunt a private parcel that doesn't receive much pressure, you might think it's easy. Okay, maybe I won't go that far, but you get the jest of it. Through mistakes and failures that are inevitably going to surface through hunting a mature buck on public land, you'll hone your skills, and it'll make you a better deer hunter for the future.
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Want to learn how me and my buddy Tyler were able to figure out how to hunt this buck on public land? Watch this video here.
The Added Gratitude
The feeling of hunting a mature buck on public land, where literally anybody else could be doing the same thing as you, and then actually harvesting him is indescribable. I don't know that I can put into words what would accurately depict how I feel during the precious moment of walking up to that deer.
More than anything, I respect deer, and I respect a mature buck that has dodged death, and survived on public land for three, four, or five years. That animal is the smartest walking creature in the woods, and to know that you were the one that figured him out, or outsmarted him to the point where you could send an arrow or a bullet through him is ultimately gratifying. It's a feeling that I think will always be unique to the public land hunter.
Conclusion
If you've never hunted public land before, I hope I was able to convince you to minimally give it a try this season. Not to say you should give up hunting on your private areas, but add some public land hunting to your repertoire. There's an abundance of different things you can learn while doing it, and you may even turn into a public land hunter yourself.
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