Which state has the best whitetail season?

[Benny Nganabbarru]

My mate and I were wondering which state has the best whitetail season, in terms of quantity. We read of some guys taking one deer per season (a wonderful accomplishment in anyone's books) and some guys taking a dozen or more. I imagine the bigger tallies include more does. I understand you need to buy a tag for each deer. Also, which state has the longest season for whitetail? Thanks for helping my curiosity!

[Bob B.]

Hey Ben,

Likely you will get much better responces in a while.  That said, in South Western Wi the DNR is trying to kill every deer.  We are allowed to kill 4 a day.  You may shoot many bucks if you wnat, you just must shoot a doe first.  So it could go Doe, buck, doe , buck.  that is  aday.  Tomorrow, go do it again!  It is terrible in my opinion, but I will not get into that ... to easy to get flame thread started.

I will enjoy reading responses from others.

Bob.

[Bowwild]

In many eastern U.S. states whitetail deer harvest regulations are quite liberal. In most of them you can take at least two deer or more per season. Usually, one or both can be an antlerless deer while only one can be antlered. Some states allow the taking of multiple bucks per year.

You'll find the best overall age structure (read older bigger bucks) in states with more restrictive buck regulations. In states where hunters can take many does but only one buck (like here in KY) there are more older bucks in the population.

Per square mile of deer habitat, KY is usually ranked number 2 in the U.S. in terms of Boone & Crockett bucks with 50+ per year making the BC book.  However, these big deer are still rare finds and even more rare harvests, especially with archery gear.

Some other famous whitetail states have other reasons why large deer are commonplace. Most have to do with the length and timing of the firearms season. If the firearms season is brief (IL) or timed later than the rut, bucks survive to an older age.

Our season is very long starting on the 1st Saturday in September and ending the 3rd Monday in January. The license fee is $130 for general hunting and $60 for the deer tag. The tag allows two deer to be taken over most of the state. The tag can be used with whatever equipment is legal during the particular time of the year: Archery, Muzzleloader, Handgun, Rifle, and XBow.

[stickbowmaniac]

Here in Louisiana it's 6 per season.3 bucks and 3 does per person.

[Benny Nganabbarru]

Thanks, gents. Very informative. Please pardon my lack of knowledge or "feel" for the topic, but I always enjoy learning bits and pieces.

[Arkansaslongbow]

Here in Arkansas, the deer herd is estimated to be at 1 million plus; we have alot of deer but only certain parts of the state allows one to kill a "trophy" buck; never a problem to see 25 to 40 deer a day in south Arkansas but they are small; average doe down south is 60 to 70 pounds, average doe up north Arkansas, 75 to 85 pounds; we have a 5 month season, oct 1 thru feb 28 with no breaks and you are allowed to kill 5 deer with only 2 bucks allowed;

Come to Arkansas and I will be glad to show you around..............  

[pitbull]

Ben, here in OH our archery season runs from 9/25/10 to 2/6/2011. We are only allowed one antlered buck per season. Then depending on which zone you are hunting, urban areas, controlled hunts, and by which date, you could actually take a total of 18 deer. It would take quite a bit of time and travelling to accomplish all that. We do have quality deer here due to 1 buck and a liberal doe harvest. Plus the cost of non-resident license and tags is much less than most mid-western states.

[D Harris]

In Rhode Island you can take 11 deer this season, all with the bow if you wish.

[jtwalsh62]

Tenn 3 doe a day 3 bucks for the season

[centaur]

In Wyoming, we can only take one buck, but in some areas you can take as many whitetail does as you buy tags for. I just looked at leftover tags for my home area, and there were 882 tags left for whitetail does, so if you had the money, you could fill a few freezers. Depending on area, our season starts Sept 1 and runs until about mid December.

[LeverActionman]

In North Carolina you get 2 antlered 2 hunters choice and 2 antlerless tags and you can get unlimited antlerless tags but you have to buy 2 at the time and no daily limits.I think some states just want to make more money off hunting.

[Earl Jeff]

I can tell you who doesn't  :mad:  I live there

[Stinger]

Here in some counties of Northern Virginia you can hunt an early urban archery season, then the regular season and finish up with a late urban archery season.  This year you can legally bowhunt from 4 September through 26 March - 7 months!  Now, the urban archery seasons are doe only.  The normal bag limit east of the Blue Ridge Mts is 6 per day and a total of 6 per year - 3 of which can be bucks. But, on private lands and some authorized public lands you can obtain bonus permits for does that are pretty much unlimited.

[tah-gah-jute]

the way indiana is set up you're only allowed one buck per season,but antlerless deer limit is done by county not statewide.so you could kill 8 in one county go to next county and kill 8 more and so on and so on.some counties are a limit of 8,some 4,some 3,some 2 and some 1.so if possible by moving from county to county you could take at least 100-200 antleress deer.

[Lucas K]

Kansas has a fairly good managment plan in place. The archery season starts Sep 18 and runs through the 31st of Dec. A hunter is allowed a single buck for the season and can purchase up to five anterless tags. That said the Dept is trying to maximise the amount they are making from Non-residents right now so the buck tag is $322 by drawing and the doe tags are $77 each. Hope you can make a trip over.

[PEARL DRUMS]

Any of them that have an open season is the best state IMHO. Some manage the herd and some manage the cash flow, but if the season remains open its good by me.

[hnt2mch]

i dont know the facts and figures of deer per mile and what not but in alabama our season runs from oct 15 to jan 31 we are allowed 2 does a day in most of the state a few counties are less and 3 bucks but one has to have one has to have 4 point on one side.no tags no checkin station.just a hunting license res $24.non res $275 and if hunting wma's a $16 permit.pretty sure thats correct

[myshootinstinks]

Interesting thread, must be loads of deer in the midwestern & eastern states. Here in S Wyo, it's basically a deer per year unless you draw a special hunt tag of some sort. Our season is basically the month of September....too short.
   Probably not a hot-spot for deer hunting but we are loaded w/ antelope and have decent elk hunting.

[Jerry Jeffer]

Ben, the info on this site may help you out.

 http://www.state.nj.us/dep/fgw/

[Toecutter]

Not Massachusetts!!