Best whitetail state

[17remhunter]

I grew up in Nevada never saw a white-tail deer until a few years ago. I found them fascinating. Your opinion on what state has the best whitetail hunting. The most un crowded public land etc

 

[El Jason]

The first rule about fight club…

Mule deer are sexier.

 

[Bigjay73]

Most of the states I've hunted WT in haven't had a ton of public. Montana may be one to look at.

 

[Salmonchaser]

As far as public land and big bucks that's tough, pay to play seems like Iowa would be worth looking into.

 

[Forkyfinder]

Wisconsin

 

[np307]

What do you want out of the hunt? You can have a lot of fun on public in the SE but you aren't going to find "big" deer by Midwest standards.

 

[NoWiser]

Northeast MN will give you many lifetimes of public land to explore and some dang nice bucks, but they won’t come easy. You can easily go a season without seeing a deer.

 

[buckbull]

I think Maine would be a fun hunt.

 

[Salmonchaser]

The first rule about fight club…

Mule deer are sexier.

Yesterday my buddy got this one, way better than an skinny little white tail.

 

[Southern Elk]

The best whitetail state and public land don’t go together. The biggest whitetails are in the Midwest and there is a lack of public land there.

 

[Darkside]

Texas, Kansas, Ohio, I live in Wv.

 

[JohnBud]

Depends upon how you define "best" whitetail hunting. Wisconsin has over 1.5 million acres of public land with very easy access and way over 1 million whitetails. Licenses are cheap, OTC and you will get at least one doe tag to go along with the buck tag. Not bad. You will also have lots of company with over 500,000 in the orange army for the 10-day season. You are likely to see plenty of deer but not likely to see a big buck on public land. You will also see a lot of "Welcome Hunters" banners all over the state. Wisconsin deer hunting is a great experience.

 

[TheDudeAbides]

Coues Whitetails probably Arizona.

Regular Whitetails probably South Dakota in the Black Hills

Western Whitetails probably Idaho

 

[The_Coloradoboy]

From my personal experience I’d probably say Iowa or Kansas. Public land whitetail is tricky business anywhere. As far as western states I’d say Montana followed by Wyoming.

 

[The_Jim]

The information is already out there(thanks influencers). It just depends what you’re looking for.

-Archery vs rifle
-100” buck vs 160” buck
-Your definition of crowded because if its public your probably going to have company
-Tree stand hunting vs spot & stalk prairie whitetails.

 

[TrapperJ]

I gotta say my home state of Missouri is really nice for whitetail ive seen quite a few big bucks plus one last night that I didnt get but I am gonna try again just Missouris problem is 92 percent of it is private land and the land owners can be rather stanky about who hunts on them. Also the deer wont be records but 11 to big 7 points all day is what we have. I like arkansas to they give more of a challenge but they also have nice deer. I have always wanted to hunt Oklahoma whitetail but I have no clue how big they are so

 

[utah400elk]

I think northern Missouri and southern Iowa are really good general areas that produce their share of huge bucks. Kansas is also great IMO. I have hunted whitetail in several places but the public land draw hunts in TX are one of my favorites.

 

[seeth07]

The information is already out there(thanks influencers). It just depends what you’re looking for.

-Archery vs rifle
-100” buck vs 160” buck
-Your definition of crowded because of its public your probably going to have company
-Tree stand hunting vs spot & stalk prairie whitetails.

For sure this response. If you start out by answering those questions it will become very easy to direct you to the best state to go to

WI in archery season to shoot a 120" buck on public land that you will have mostly to yourself hunting out of a tree stand is very possible with an extremely high chance of filling the free doe tag you get with your buck tag. It's also dirt cheap at only $99.75 if you have not hunted in WI over the last 10 years. Otherwise its still only $200. You can also use a crossbow in the archery season.

 

[westbranch]

It seems like there are a lot of different places and ways to hunt whitetails. Look up Troy Pottenger for some info on mountain whitetails.

 

[Greybeard]

The first rule about fight club…

Mule deer are sexier.

I love hunting mule deer too. They don't seem to be the smartest critters though, at least compared to whitetails.