Best whitetail state and why!

[PaPaFrank]

I don't know Jim, you may be wasting your time. Everybody knows there are NO deer in Ohio!    

[CAT22]

gatekeeoper, I think Buckeye just has a concern, maybe founded, maybe not, but just his opinion. Certainly not saying he grouping people being dishonest. Anytime tradition is broke and something new comes down the trail, one has doubts. That's the first thing that came to my mind, to be honest, but I think a guy will poach if he's a poacher no matter what. Galion and places in southern Ohio are sparcely populated in comparison to the rest of the state. pretty easy to do what you want down there and not get caught if you wanted. Buckeye, like me, prob has had some experience running into folks like that. But like all of us on this site, we have concerns valid to us. I'm sure no ill intent was meant. Let's get back to the best state for whitetail!

[CAT22]

papafrank, I use to live in Stow right across from Larrys Stables. Hunted up against the north side of the stow park. Portage county has great genetics and some slammers down your way! To this day the biggest deer I have ever seen alive lived in that park. You have fun this season and enjoy our great deer!

[djanko]

Gatekeeper...so well said!

[Scoobiedooo]

I took a nice 10 pointer back in the late 1990's here in upstate NY that would have been a 12 had not 2 tines been broken off. He was huge! Albeit this was during the Southern Zone gun season back then - when I hunted with firearms - which I no longer do any longer but now only hunt with the bow!

[Gun]

Saw this late, but yeah, you're right.  

[Tajue17]

Zone 8 in Massachusetts is #1,,,,,,,  well I think it might of been before all the deer left 8^(

[cp55002]

Thats pretty funny Ted that no one else said Ma, I thought sitting 150 + hours and seeing 3 deer all year would rank up at the top? I guess I was wrong. I might be able to increase the 3 deer number tommarow, fingers crossed.

[Fritz]

Anywhere in the Midwest is great IMO. Bowhunting southwest Louisiana sucks!

[NBK]

Notice that not many Wisconsin guys have spoken up?  Lots of deer in the southern half of the state.  Few and far between in the northern part.  Lots of wolves, bear, rampant baiting, and an army of over 3 million orange hunters every November.  Combined with a DNR that's hogtied by legislators.  Sure... we have Buffalo county, and the Packers, but if you don't have full pockets to own private land, or season tickets to Lambeau most serious bowhunters I personally know do their "serious" hunting in other states.

[KellyG]

Kansas just look at my avatar, and there is a lot of public hunting all over the state.

[Nate Fikkert]

Wisconsin isn't even close, that is why I haven't spoken up.  I will continue to hunt in WI but I am setting up options to hunt whitetails in other states every year from now on.  Chronic Wasting Disease zone in the south (eradication zone) and few deer in the north.  Get on good private land and Wisconsin could compete with any states already listed...but,if you have to hunt public or "average private" good luck.  Sure you can hunt the thousands of acres of public land but you better really enjoy watching squirrels.

Unfortunately it sounds like many states are struggling and it truly just comes down to too many people trying to use a limited resource.  I don't know where the statistics are coming from that say hunter numbers are declining?  Every year I hear more and more stories about hunter conflict, running into more hunters, and hunters from one state going to other states to try and find better hunting, usually to no avail.

Maybe I need to do some Ohio research???  

Nathan

[joevan125]

Ohio, Kansas and my home state of Alabama. We can legally shoot i think 5 bucks a year and 105 does a year in the county i hunt.

Yea for sure we dont have many slammer bucks but im out on the horn porn anyway.

When i get the urge to get a chance to kill a slammer buck i have a lease in ILL. with some friends of mine.

I will take off for a couple of weeks during the rut and i already have 4-5 loc-ons put up so i can slip in and out and not have to stomp around in the woods.

Also have a place in Kansas thats a paid hunt but  MAN we see some huge bucks.

Stll like hunting in AL. the best. When you kill a 120in class down here you have really shot a mature buck.

[njloco]

I would have to go with NJ, why you ask ?, we have so many regulations that's why, if fact we have regulations for the regulations, and then if your in doubt, we have more regulations, and for every regulation we charge $$$$$$$$$ and more $$$$$$$, yes you can shoot all the deer you want, it's not as much fun, but it's cheaper to go and buy the meat.

To get good or decent property to hunt on is gonna cost ya, that's right, $$$$$$$. by the time it's all said and done, one might as well just go and hunt in another state and pay the none resident fee.  

If you hunt up north like some of my friends do, and you shoot a deer, now it's a race to see who gets it first, the bear, the yots, or you.

If there is one thing I learned about hunting in NJ, it's that " it's not the quantity but the quality of the hunt that counts.

[Mike Gerardi]

loose lips sink ships.

[YORNOC]

It sure isn't Massachusetts.

[joevan125]

I just lease 784 acrs for $4 dollars a acr that has never been leased. Me and my hunting partner got to hunt it 2 afternoons in a row to see if it had deer on it, there was buck sign everywhere.

I saw 3 buck and a WHOLE lot of other deer.

My buddy killed a 18in 8 pointer.

How excited do you think i am waiting for next fall.

Plus the older gentleman said we could sign a 5 year lease going up 25 cents a acr each year.

After the 5 years he said we could still lease the property and we would talk about the money then.

I use to pay $12 dollars a acr hunting the Blackbelt in Pickens county and this land we leased is known for some really nice bucks being killed in that area. We went to a local taxedermist and that all we needed to see, WOW.

We got very lucky to find this land.

[Tim Finley]

You can forget North Dakota after last winter and the heavy gun hunting we only have small pockets of deer left, many areas have no deer very sad from what we had ...Tim

[YORNOC]

Wow Tim, that sucks to hear.  A few guys in my hunting group were chatting one night and the topic of what state to deer hunt came up. They all figured ND because human population is low and deer genetics are pretty good.  I'm not even going to tell them, as we probably wont make it there any time soon anyway. I hope they rebound for ya!

[guspup]

They just got done paving the last square foot of upstate NY, yep, one big Manhattan now. And if you do get a deer, it tastes like taxi exhaust..... so best hunting one of them other states