Where for Whitetail?

[putm2sleep]

Well said Gunner.
A buddy owns some property in KY, sneaky good deer and have strong elk herd now too!?
You might consider that state? Double up!

 

[Gunner46]

If ANY Western hunter can pull of a successful hunt in the East, using Western tactics, I dare them to say the East is easy. It's not, just different.

From my experiences, through life, the bestest part of any adventure is not so much the game that dropped, but the memories of the weird carp endured along the way.

 

[BIDZ]

Archery season runs from beginning of Sep thru January in KY, which allows for many opportunities. Low priced non-res tags and plenty of public land opportunities. I hunt mostly private, but public ground is what got me thru college. I arrowed one of my biggest bucks on public ground.

 

[Gut Shot]

And if you want you can extend that eastward into Illinois, Indian and Ohio. Hoosier National Forest has 203K Acres that you can spot and stalk all you want. Not very expensive but definitely a long drive for ya.

Though it has its benefits,I don't necessarily like tree stand hunting either, we successfully still hunt/ spot and stalk often here in the Midwest.

Much of Iowa and Illinois have taken a hit in their whitetail populations the past couple of years. I think it will be a few years before the herds recover. Still some big deer around but not like it used to be.

 

[VAspeedgoat]

Like gunner said, its not easy just different. I think the biggest shock coming east is the proximity to other hunters. Busy places out west look desolate to me.

 

[HUNTNNW]

I see lots of votes for N ID, but right next door in E WA offers even better whitetail hunting. Not just good, but some consider best in the west for whitetails.

 

[MN Public Hunter]

How about you tell us how much money you have to spend, how far you will travel and then I can give you a good idea of where to go.

 

[Flatland Crusoe]

Having hunted most of the Midwest (MO, KS, IL, IN, WI, NE) I would suggest Nebraska or Kansas. They have the best walk-in hunting areas and mapping with quite reasonable demand especially in as you get 1-2 hours from a population center. These will be wooded creek bottom hunts and field hunts with generally good visibility compared to further east in heavy timber. Generally speaking if you find water and trees you can narrow down the deer quickly.

Iowa for bow isn't bad if you are OK building 4 years worth of points and paying $500+ for a license.

Iowa and Kansas both don't have their gun seasons until post rut around November so they really favor the bow hunter.

Illinois is really a pay to play game. Only 1/2 the state (West and South) really have deer habitat and the state is almost all private save for Shawnee National Forest way south by KY. The State is about 3% public land and has twice the population of most of its neighboring states.

Missouri Splits November 50/50 on Bow/Gun hunting and has 10 firearms hunters/sq mile statewide during gun season. Missouri department of Conservation generally doesn't allow rifle hunting on a ton of their properties so most public gun hunting is in Mark Twain national forest in the Southern Ozark region and its really over run with guys. The Northern Part of MO is definitely the better deer area and could be worth a look for a bow hunt.

Generally speaking a bow hunt the second week of November is pretty hard to beat in any deer area with that has decent buck to doe ratios. A lot of bow hunters have given up from their sept/oct openers and are waiting for gun season.

 

[RUT JUNKEY]

No whitetails in Indiana. . .the ones we have are small, weak, and mostly spikes. LOL