What are...

[BamaBarebow]

some good states to hunt public land whitetails? My dad, brother, and I are looking to hunt some public land in other states with hopefully better deer populations.

[Mudd]

Missouri has a good heard of whitetails, turkeys are abundant but only in certain areas as we've had some poor hatches the last couple of years.

Small game is a big plus here but not many folks except for sq.dog folks. Those folks come from all over to get after our tree chickens.

If you go to the MDC site you'll see that Missouri has a huge amount of public access hunting land. Then there's also a lot of Federal land available to hunt.

Our season runs 9/15 thru 1/15

God bless,Mudd

[SilverTip]

Kentucky, North eastern- Kleber
          South western- Higgins and henry

 there are alot of others in both parts of the state. western Kentucky can hold its own in big bucks with any other state in the country.

[Doug in MN]

Minnesota has so much it is hard to pick specific spots for you. There are literally millions of acres and a season that goes from middle Sept to Dec 31st.

Look at the Minnesota DNR site they have links to all of the State and Federal forest areas along with all the WMA lands. The other trick in the state is that any tax forfeited land is state land. That info is though the county  offices.

People always head to the very large tracts, there are multiple forests and WMA's that exceed 20,000 acres. Look at the smaller WMA's closer to the  south / center of the state in farm country they hold some fine deer.

For one of the greatest hunting experiences of you life head to the far north some of the most beautiful country in the US. The bonus is there are some very large bodied big racked deer, you will how ever work for the shot opportunity.

[jsweka]

Pennsylvania has a lot of public land between state game lands, state forest, and the Allegheny National Forest.  There may not be many deer in some of those areas becuase public land gets lot of pressure in rifle season and the Game Commission has reduced the herd through higher numbers of antlerless permits.  I'd say average antler size has increased with point restrictions, but don't expect to see many mid-west monster type bucks.  I bought into a lease this year, but ended up hunting nearby public land just as much because I was seeing more deer there.

[BamaBarebow]

Thanks guys. Keep them coming.

We like where we hunt because the lease is directly behind our house. Just not a lot of activity lately.

[JamesV]

Dwill............

Have you tried Kinderbish management area in Sumpter Co, Alabama. It was a hot spot for bowhunting some years back and was infested with deer. I think the nearest town was Butler.

[Bowwild]

Kentucky -- KY River WMA - North of Frankfort, KY. Lots of deer and turkey, several tracts, some lightly hunted.  KY has excellent mapping system available at the KDFWR's web site.

Indiana -- Hoosier National Forest -- Brownstown, IN.

[Jason in Bama]

You are in a great state for public land whitetails.

[BamaBarebow]

Our lease has been super slow lately.

We go to Lowndes WMA and nearly every year and we've been successful before. Just looking to expand our horizons.

[SEMO_HUNTER]

There are lots and lots of acres that are open to public hunting in Missouri that isn't advertised by the Department of Conservation because it belongs to the Corps of Engineers. Litterally thousands of acres around large lakes like Wappapello and Mark Twain lake has Corp ground that's all open to public hunting. It's still managed under state regulations for seasons and bag limits, but the MDC doesn't govern it.....they just enforce the regs.

Then there is the Mark Twain National Forest that has thousands of acres in Missouri that's owned by the Feds under the Forestry Service.......most of it is public hunting as well.

Many huge bucks have been taken from Corp of Engineer ground, and National Forest ground in Missouri as well. There are guys here that have never hunted anything but public hunting ground......you could literally get lost in there so if you decide to check it out be sure to get topo maps and a good compass.......and learn how to use them.

Mingo National Refuge is a huge chunk of public ground that has lots of deer on it, but I've only hunted there once. It also has hogs.

Google either of these chunks of real estate and you will get lots of info.

[YORNOC]

The "Soldiers and Sailors" area in Wyoming...around the Buffalo/Sheridan area. Never hunted it, but walked through a few times. LOADED.

[JAG]

We have State Wildlife Management Areas, purchase a permit across the counter.  Federal National Wildlife Rufuges, free permit.  Corps of Engineer lands along the major rivers, free permit.  Archery season, Oct 15 thru Jan 31.
ALABAMA!

[moose eye levi]

AEP recreational land in southeastern Ohio is a great place.

[primitivealltheway]

there is a wild life refuge (weeler)*spell check!* up around decatuer ,thats bow hunting only.
 the only gun hunting is with a flinklock only for 2 weeks in jan.
the state lets farmers plant crops on the refuge but they have to let so many acers standing for wildlife.corn,beans,its a deer dine-in,they have hogs also but not like they use to ,its also around red stone arsenel (military base),from what i have been told its a gret place! im off till jan.3rd for christmas shut-down .me and a couple of co-workers are going to hunt some ,my buddy went it and walked and got within 30 yards of deer and he said the trails are everywhere ,he found 7 trails going into one thats about 100 yards from a feild of beans,i already smell back straps cooking!!!

[John Scifres]

I hunt a lot of public land in Southern Indiana and while it is beautiful and there are definitely deer around, it would not be my choice for a trip that I planned to kill a deer.  I have a community bowhunt (you can come up if you want) in Southern IN every October.  We've killed a couple deer over the years and it is always fun but public land is tough to hunt.

[BamaBarebow]

Thanks guys. May hit some local public land we haven't been to and would still like to get out of state depending on non-resident licenses cost.

[Huntschool]

Southern Illinois has a ton of public ground..
300,000+ ac of Shawnee National Forest that streches from the Ohio River to the Mississippi River, and a number of State DNR areas.

License fees are high, State thinks its a real profit center and at current tag prices it is... but you likely already know that.

[BamaBarebow]

Yeah we've hunted Illinios, a little high! lol

[magnus]

There Are a lot of public places in Ohio. Just a thought. Good luck and enjoy your adventures.

Keeping the Faith!
Magnus