NR Whitetail hunts

[SandyCreek]

Im from southeast Iowa land of the giants.....good luck finding public land there and don't even think about asking to hunt private land. Plus why pay 600$ for a lesser of a state when Wisconsin has bigger bucks (evidence based) then Iowa and way way way more public land.

..okay.. You'll never convince me the Wisconsin tag is better than an Iowa tag, less expensive yes, a better quality hunt no. Theres more and better places than the SE part of the state (private land included). SC and SW have good public land opportunities for someone coming out of state. Like anything its all about the leg work you put in.

 

[LCH]

I'm surprised no one has mentioned Coues Whitetail in AZ. As another guy who lives in a good whitetail state, if I'm paying NR tag fees I'm looking for something a lot different than the cheap/nearly free hunting I can do at home.

 

[Mallardsx2]

Buy a Georgia tag. You can shoot 2 bucks and 10 does. Blast anything that walks by and fill your freezer for 2 years. Lots of WMA land to hunt. Odds are you wont kill anything big but if you want to go hunting and shoot stuff it is the place for that.

Personally, I dont shoot does. But I can kill 10 a year if I want.

 

[fwagner]

..okay.. You'll never convince me the Wisconsin tag is better than an Iowa tag, less expensive yes, a better quality hunt no. Theres more and better places than the SE part of the state (private land included). SC and SW have good public land opportunities for someone coming out of state. Like anything its all about the leg work you put in.

Some people get confused with hard data, numbers, and statistics so I can't help you there. But the evidence based numbers of total acres of public land, cost of tag, and the most trophy deer are all pointing to Wisconsin over Iowa. It's called confirmation bias...google the definition. Also google best places to hunt whitetails and all of the articles have Wisconsin listed above Iowa. You might want to ask why you will never be "convinced".

 

[fwagner]

..okay.. You'll never convince me the Wisconsin tag is better than an Iowa tag, less expensive yes, a better quality hunt no. Theres more and better places than the SE part of the state (private land included). SC and SW have good public land opportunities for someone coming out of state. Like anything its all about the leg work you put in.

https://www.realtree.com/deer-hunti...-and-crockett-whitetails-in-the-last-10-years


....It's not even close between the two states.

 

[Dooger]

https://www.realtree.com/deer-hunti...-and-crockett-whitetails-in-the-last-10-years


....It's not even close between the two states.

That’s just entries. Doesn’t mean squat.

I live in MI and would hunt some of those lesser states before I hunted MI again.

 

[kylemcintyre67]

I had fun in Oklahoma this past year. In the southeast part of the state there is a bunch of timber land the state leases hunting access for. It was a learning experience for me as it was my first diy hunt of any kind. I hunted the rifle season in November. I am going next month to hunt one of the WMAs on the Red River for hogs, I will be using it as a scouting trip for deer also.

 

[NYyotekiller]

There’s a reason that it takes 4 years of preference points to hunt Iowa as a Non resident and you can get an over the counter tag for Wisconsin. No doubt that Wisconsin has a ton of booners running around, but they also have a ton more hunters running around as well. Low Hunter density is a big plus for me when I plan a hunting trip and will choose the Hawkeye state over the Badger state any day of the week.

 

[schmalts]

There’s a reason that it takes 4 years of preference points to hunt Iowa as a Non resident and you can get an over the counter tag for Wisconsin. No doubt that Wisconsin has a ton of booners running around, but they also have a ton more hunters running around as well. Low Hunter density is a big plus for me when I plan a hunting trip and will choose the Hawkeye state over the Badger state any day of the week.

Yep. If they had a way to graph hunters odds to harvest a 140+ inch deer in both states Iowa and many other states would crush Wisconsin. Booners don't mean jack, look at who produces the most 3.5+ year old deer per hunter. You might even find some age data on many DNR websites.

 

[Exhausted]

I was thinking about this recently myself after watching "The Hunting Public" guys on a NR Nebraska hunt. I live in deep south Florida where the deer population is in dire straits and I'd like to find somewhere I can travel to every other year (out west on alternating years) and have a decent chance to fill at least one deer tag with a buck or doe. Honestly I just haven't put the time in to learn as I've been putting all of my time into learning the western mule deer and elk opportunities, lol.

 

[MEG2]

As a Missouri resident, we have the same deer as Iowa and Kansas. Our deer grow just the same with many outstanding bucks taken every year. Although having hunted both of those states, they do have more deer in the upper age class because of their season structures. Missouri's age structure has improved over the last 10-12 when an antler point restriction was implemented in a majority of the state. In doing so, this brought the awareness that by letting young deer go, they can grow. Although I have access to private land in Iowa and know of a decent public land area, I have not returned to Iowa in 10 years because of the cost and I look to spend my money elsewhere. From my experience, Kansas has better public land opportunities than Iowa. IMO, neither state can beat Missouri's public land opportunities. There are archery only or primitive weapon only areas. All the areas can only be accessed on foot and there are some that a person can really get away if they choose too. For archery hunters, you are going to likely have the public areas to yourself. If you rifle hunt, wait till after the opening weekend and the woods will be pretty much vacant. Most of the rifle hunters are heading home by mid-day of the second day and I have experienced better hunting later during our rifle season at the tail end of the rut when the big boys are out looking for the last remaining does.

But Nebraska is where I want to try in the future because of the opportunity to hunt both mule deer and whitetails.

 

[RUT JUNKEY]

.....just my 2 cents....lots of different things factor in on the debate between Iowa and Wisconsin...density, topography, access, baiting, seasons (time and duration) Ive seen some places in Wisconsin that I wonder if deer ever see a human, those thick, swampy areas are no joke.

*** NO DEER in Indiana though...move along....***** LOL

 

[fwagner]

There’s a reason that it takes 4 years of preference points to hunt Iowa as a Non resident and you can get an over the counter tag for Wisconsin. No doubt that Wisconsin has a ton of booners running around, but they also have a ton more hunters running around as well. Low Hunter density is a big plus for me when I plan a hunting trip and will choose the Hawkeye state over the Badger state any day of the week.

Why don't you take one minute to do research before you spout off factually and statistically incorrect figures in your posts. The number of acres of public land per hunter in the state of Iowa is 0.1, the number of acres of public hunting land per hunter in Wisconsin is 3.1 so hopefully that basic math will help you realize you are dead wrong. Iowa has less trophy deer, less total deer, less public land, and is MORE crowded on that public land. "Low Hunter density" is a statistic, a statistic you should research before posting.......here you go.

https://www.backcountrychronicles.com/public-hunting-land/

 

[fwagner]

.....just my 2 cents....lots of different things factor in on the debate between Iowa and Wisconsin...density, topography, access, baiting, seasons (time and duration) Ive seen some places in Wisconsin that I wonder if deer ever see a human, those thick, swampy areas are no joke.

*** NO DEER in Indiana though...move along....***** LOL

You hit the nail on the head as to why, in my opinion, Wisconsin has more deer. Iowa is flat and almost every acre of tillable land is torn up so big bucks are easy to find an kill. Wisconsin's topography allows for a lot more places for bucks to hole up and hide and get huge. Wisconsin > Iowa in every statistical measure when it comes to hunting trophy bucks on public land.

 

[NEWHunter]

To the OP, sorry to see that your thread kinda got sidetracked into WI vs IA debate. But . . . WI has about 580,000 firearm hunters and IA about 160,000 near as I can tell. WI gun hunters shot about 211,000 deer and Iowans about 83,000 deer. In the last 10 yrs WI has roughly 700 Booners, and IA has about half that. So yes, IA has half the deer and half the Booners but 1/3 the hunters WI has.

Also, per QDMA, north of 60% of the bucks shot in WI are 1.5 years old, far and away the highest % of yearling buck harvest in the nation. The national average is 35%. WI also has the lowest % of 3.5 + year old bucks in the harvest. I can’t find this data for IA. Hopefully this info helps folks trying to decide between IA and WI.

I’ve been looking in to OOS whitetail hunt as welland my research is pointing me to Missouri fwiw.

 

[NYyotekiller]

Why don't you take one minute to do research before you spout off factually and statistically incorrect figures in your posts. The number of acres of public land per hunter in the state of Iowa is 0.1, the number of acres of public hunting land per hunter in Wisconsin is 3.1 so hopefully that basic math will help you realize you are dead wrong. Iowa has less trophy deer, less total deer, less public land, and is MORE crowded on that public land. "Low Hunter density" is a statistic, a statistic you should research before posting.......here you go.

https://www.backcountrychronicles.com/public-hunting-land/

I never mentioned anything about public land hunter density. I was speaking about the entire state as a whole for hunter density.

The QDMA had a total different view of hunter density than you do showing Wisconsin as the #4 highest hunter density, and #7 highest archery hunter density. Iowa was no where to be found on either list.

https://www.qdma.com/hunter-density-across-u-s/

 

[jlmatthew]

Colorado has some easy WT tags to get in the eastern part of the state. Some good river bottom hunting and some open plains. Archery tags are really easy to get.

John's been drinking again! Whitetails in Colorado, crazy-talk!

 

[Dooger]

Why don't you take one minute to do research before you spout off factually and statistically incorrect figures in your posts. The number of acres of public land per hunter in the state of Iowa is 0.1, the number of acres of public hunting land per hunter in Wisconsin is 3.1 so hopefully that basic math will help you realize you are dead wrong. Iowa has less trophy deer, less total deer, less public land, and is MORE crowded on that public land. "Low Hunter density" is a statistic, a statistic you should research before posting.......here you go.

https://www.backcountrychronicles.com/public-hunting-land/

Before your wife’s g-string goes any further up your butt, here’s something else too consider.

A good chunk of WI public land is in the northern 1/3rd of the state; the area with the lowest deer numbers. Most hunters have now decided to stay closer to home down south which increases the pressure on public in the southern portion of the state. Not fun!

 

[Hilljackoutlaw]

This post went south! You can kill mature whitetail anywhere whitetail live. Just do your homework, get off the road/path, and have fun.

 

[El Jason]

Probably the biggest question to answer is what kind of country do you want to hunt. Big difference between north woods whitetail hunting and river bottoms in Colorado. Both are fun, but way different.