Best whitetail state

17remhunter

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Nov 12, 2025
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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
 
As far as public land and big bucks that's tough, pay to play seems like Iowa would be worth looking into.
 
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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.
 
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.
 
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.
 
Coues Whitetails probably Arizona.

Regular Whitetails probably South Dakota in the Black Hills

Western Whitetails probably Idaho
 
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 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.
 
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