Best State for Deer Hunting

[El Chivo]

Ok, I think I'm going to compile a list of the best states for deer hunting. I spent the afternoon looking at different DNR departments.

I'm a little disappointed in that most states seem to have very short seasons for general gun season, most about two weeks. The impulse is to flee California for good deer hunting, but we at least have a month-long season. I'm lucky enough to be able to hunt two different seasons without driving too far.

I think it would be nice to have certain info at our fingertips, so I've thought about making a table.

1 - Season length (general gun season)
2 - Public land availability
3 - Game availability
4 - Simple regulations

Anything else to add? What would you look for in an ideal deer hunting state?

[Blaine]

I don't have the exact figgers, but Alabama has the longest season of any state I've heard of and the take is something like one a day, or maybe even more. The deer run smallish, but no decent redneck in Alamaba need buy meat On top of that, the squill and turkey is supposed to be superior, as well.....

[Tennessee Hayre]

Middle Tennessee is a great place to deer hunt as well as kentucky. Tn has about a 6 week gun season and that takes out the one week pause.The adverage Doe that I have hunted is about 100 to 140LBS and the adverage buck is about 160 lbs. every time i go hunting on just a 32 acre plot i kick up at least 5 or 6 deer daily. The deer have gotten bigger. They use to be the size of dogs, But now things are great. If you cannot find a deer here in this part of the country you are doing something wrong. They are also living in folks back yards here around(Ft campbell Ky) and (Land Between the lakes). East Tn is not too good reason is thats were all the bears and cats live.

[Rusty]

AS much as I love it here I'd say cross Fla off the list. If you shoot a deer here it's like shootin your neighbor's German Shepard. 90# is about average.

[meanc]

As blaine stated, Alabama .Almost 3mo. of gen gun hunting. One buck and one doe a day limit.

Every year I've gone I've taken at least one each buck/doe (sometimes 2ea). The avg of the bucks I've taken is close to 155lb, avg of the does is 135lb.

I'm not a trophy hunter, but will seldom shoot anything smaller than a 6pt. Plus and process and eat every bit of the meat.

[Tennessee Hayre]

Ya I here ya, My sister thinks I'm a cave man Because I process my own deer. She is not too excited about deer, but my wife is german and she helps do it all. Her friends in berlin germany don't agree with it. They are against killing anything. What can you expect from big city folks, who have no rights to own fire arms.

[Combat Diver]

I just moved back to North Carolina on the coast. Small game abound, turkey (few fall counties, all have a spring season), only 6 counties have a wild boar season (other 94 co. its open year round), coyote also open year round. NC has 4 different deer zones as far as deer seasons goes.
Eastern Deer Season
Bow and Arrow: Sept. 13 – Oct. 10
Muzzleloading: Oct. 11 – 17
Gun: Oct. 18 – Jan. 1
Central Deer Season
Bow and Arrow: Sept. 13 – Nov. 7
Muzzleloading: Nov. 8 – 14
Gun: Nov. 15 – Jan. 1
Northwestern Deer Season
Bow and Arrow: Sept. 13 – Nov. 14
Muzzleloading: Nov. 15 – 21
Gun: Nov. 22 – Dec. 20
Western Deer Season
Bow and Arrow: Sept. 8 – Oct. 4
and Oct. 13 – Nov. 22
Muzzleloading: Oct. 6 - 11
Gun: Nov. 24 – Dec. 13
Urban Season
Bow and Arrow: Jan. 10, 2009 –
Feb. 14, 2009

Western Black Bear Season
Oct. 13 – Nov. 22
Dec. 15 – Jan. 1
Eastern Bear Seasons
My Area 1-20 Dec

CD
ETA: NC has allot of State Game Lands. I have 32,000+ acres about 10 miles to the north. 3/4 of that is a black bear sancuary. Still loaded with whitetails and black bear, small game, boar and turkey. One caviaute, No hunting on Sundays. This is an old 1869 Law that got relooked at last year and was still upheld.

[mescalero1]

OK, I think I know the answer but, why no hunting on Sunday

[Grizz]

Alaska by a long shot... SE Alaska specifically. Season opens Aug 1 and closes Jan something. Usually six tags and I could hunt for my kids when they were too young to hunt. We got twenty to thirty deer per year.

No roads so no trucks. Travel by boat or airplane. Never saw a game warden.

THAT'S THE BEST DEER HUNTING IN America..,

Grizz

[Duff L Bagg]

AS much as I love it here I'd say cross Fla off the list. If you shoot a deer here it's like shootin your neighbor's German Shepard. 90# is about average.

On public land here in Fl you are more likely to shoot a German shepard than a deer. Deer season in Fl, for me, is an excuse to go hiking through the woods with firearms and go 4 wheeling.

[marlinman93]

I'd like to know more about how much public land in these states with long seasons? Doesn't do much good to have the whole fall to hunt, if there's no place the public can find them!

[Bruce]

Dang Rusty and Duff, I like hunting in Florida and have hunted public lands for many years. I will admit that central and south Florida lands are crowded though and I do hunt private lands now. North Florida WMA's are totally different than those from Ocala south.

Vall, Florida has the most public lands in the Wildlife Management Area system of any state this side of the Rockies I believe. The last time I looked at the stats, it was somewhere around 15% of the state and growing yearly. This includes three National Forests and the Everglades which are all quite large. We have always had a large WMA system, but a few years back a law was passed that basically mandates that any suitable land (size and habitat) owned or purchased by any state agency shall be put into the WMA system unless just cause can be shown for not doing it. State Parks are the exception, allthough some state park owned land is in the WMA system. Currently, there are close to 160 public hunt areas in Florida for a total of 5.8 million acres in the WMA system.

Florida has three zones as far as hunting dates are concerned. The seasons start with archery, then muzzleloading, then general gun followed by small game and ending with spring turkey. There is also a short crossbow season on private lands. If you were to start in the south end of the state with archery and end in the northwest part of the state with general gun, you could deer hunt from the early part of September to nearly the end of February. If you throw small game and spring turkey seasons in there, you can hunt nearly to the end of April. That's eight months of hunting available. All of our seasons are real long when compared to most states. Our daily bag limit of deer on private lands is two per day with no season limit. Our WMA limits vary.

While our deer are not on par with states such as Alabama or Georgia, it is real hard to beat our variety in my opinion. We have good duck hunting, fair deer hunting, good small game and better than most with turkey hunting. And on top of all that, we have hogs.

[BenT]

Wisconsin has only a 9 day deer season during the week of Thanksgiving. Kind of a traditional thing. But to regulate the deer herd they will also have a 4 to 7 day October and December doe only season. With a couple million deer in the state it's not hard getting a doe during season. The southern part of the state the season is 5 weeks long to cut the population down in order to control CWD. Plenty of puplic land to hunt.

[HEAD0001]

I like northern WV. The seasons and tags are liberal. It does not cost an arm and a leg to buy your tags, there are a lot of deer, and some good deer also. The southern states are great also, but I prefer a little cold weather when hunting. Not bitter cold, and deep snow, but just a little cold weather. And that is the type of weather we have here. It gets a little nippy, but not like the northern states. I also like Northern WV because I live within 1-1/2 hours drive from MD, OH, PA, and 2 hours from VA. So I can hunt a lot of great states. And OH just gets better every year. Tom.

[FWiedner]

Texas has a season about 2 months long, and a huge deer herd. The deer are small compared to climes farther north. It's an exceptional deer that weighs over 150lbs, and it's not unusual to see the german-shepard sized specimen here either.

Bag limit varies from county to county, and there are antler-size and sex restrictions, etc.

The real challenge is finding a place to hunt, because there isn't a lot of public land. The public land that is available is hunted hard.

The big deer and the trophies are mostly on private ranches behind high fence.

If you want to hunt in Texas, bring your wallet and be prepared to use it. If there's enough cash involved, you can find any beast that the earth itself offers on a ranch somewhere.

[Bullard4075]

Man I can't believe I'm tellin you this..........but look to Montana.

Deer season is about 6 weeks long.
No calibure/ gun restrictions to speak of.
Usually ,with extra tags,you can get 5-7 deer (only one buck) a year.
The deer are big.
Most of the state has both Whitetail and Mulies.
Huge tracts of public land.
Not real hard to find private land to hunt.
Hunt elk/deer/bear in the same areas.
It goes on and on.

[meanc]

Duffl,

You hit it on the head there. No better excuse for getting out and enjoying nature in a 4WD.