Whitetail Hunt Help

[Taxidermynut]

I'm starting to look into a Whitetail hunt for me, dad and 2 brothers. I went on a hunt with a friend in Neb this year, but it was on his families land and it's not something all of us could go do. I do not want to miss any opportunities to look into. So give me some ideas as to what your suggestions would be, so I can get doing more research.

I'm looking within 12 hours of central Utah, preferably a tag we could get every year so we can learn the area and make it a yearly hunt if we would like and on land accessible to the public.

I'm currently looking at Western Neb or North Western WY. Don't know where to look in Colorado, Southern Montana or Idaho.

Thanks for the help

 

[Topgun 30-06]

Take a look and see what the tag situation is for the Black Hills of South Dakota. I see a ton of them out there when I go out turkey hunting every few years and it's basically all National Forest public land that's open to hunting.

 

[Taxidermynut]

Thanks I take a look at that also. Don't know whay I didn't think of it when I was looking at hunting the Black hills side in WY.

 

[1_pointer]

Don't forget northern Idaho. Lots of whitetails in the Panhandle and Palouse regions. Tags are OTC and lots of public land and/or timber co. land that can be accessed for a small fee.

 

[Taxidermynut]

How do I go about finding out about the timber company property and the fees?

 

[mconway951]

The Black hills of SD are not gonna be and every year hunt it will more then likely be every other year hunt but there is a lot of public just takes at least one point to draw for rifle hunting archer you can do every year. Also if you archery you can take a mule deer or whitetail as a non res you can only take a whitey while rifle hunting. Lots of whitetails in the black hills in WY though might wanna try there.

 

[1_pointer]

How do I go about finding out about the timber company property and the fees?

http://recreation.potlatchcorp.com/id/faq/default.asp

 

[Taxidermynut]

Thanks for the link to Idaho Timber land.

looks like I messed up on my first post the NE corner of WY not NW WY. Any one know if we are better off looking in the Blackhills NF or the Thunder Basin Grassland? All I've ever heard about is the Blackhills. Are there many in the Grasslands?

 

[mconway951]

There are a few deer in the grasslands but lot more mule deer there then whitetails i have seen about 75 to 25 mix of whitetails to mule deer though in the black hills and it is really pretty country to hunt as well.

 

[wyoming556]

I'd think a Wyoming whitetail tag would be hard to beat for your situation. I think it's type 6, usually good in November. Usually quite a few leftovers available each year.
If you are looking for more trophy potential try Western Kansas. You can draw tags each year and the walk in hunting access is pretty good. Tags run in the $500 dollar range though.
Nw Nebraska and western Oklahoma have some pretty nice pieces of public land as well as OTC tags.

You might try a muzzleloader hunt to avoid the typically heavy pressure during gun season. There are muzzleloader seasons from September in Kansas to October in Oklahoma and all december in Nebraska.

 

[pointingdogsrule]

I've hunted northeast Wyoming for seven years. Region A. Tags are easy to draw and lots of public land. NOTE: deer population has dropped in a tremendous way over the past few years. Blue tongue, cougars???

good luck to all
the dog

 

[Taxidermynut]

Thanks for the advice. I have been looking at some of the WMA in western Neb. Not realy looking for a trophy area, just a hunt the 4 of us could do together.

Any info on the no-wilderness portions of the units in the Bighorns?

 

[MinnesotaHunter]

I have seen some really nice whitetails along the rivers down near Sheridan and Buffalo, but once you start heading west into the foothills of the Bighorns, whitetails are pretty non-existant. Having said that the land the whitetails are on along the river bottoms is almost all private. You might be able to get on for a tresspass fee for whitetails only if you find the right landowner.

I haven't looked recently, but I know a couple of years ago there were some archery tags for Custer National Park. I have seen alot of nice bucks in the grassland/river bottom areas of the park.

I have probably seen more 150" whitetails driving around Sheridan in teh last 5 years, than I have sitting in a treestand in SE Minnesota.