Eastern vs western hunting success rate

[grfox92]

One of the better troll jobs I’ve seen on here in awhile…

Not a troll job. Hes 100% right. To be a successful hunter in Maine is no joke. If a guy who's a successful hunter in Maine brings his skills and endurance to the west, he's going to be a killer.


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[Ecampbell25]

I have also hunted Maine Vermont and New Hampshire.

Maine is a hard place to hunt or at least where we hunted. Sebec Maine. Usually out of the group of hunters we would get 1 or 2 bucks every other year.

I shot one on the last day of a 5 day hunt.

I moved out west and have shot a nice mule deer and an elk every year for the last 9 years.

The guy who is consistently successful in Maine will smoke the western hunters after a year or two.

Agreed Maine is a different animal. Those smart white tails hear a twig snap they are gone.

Mule deer just stand there…

 

[willfrye027]

Not a troll job. Hes 100% right. To be a successful hunter in Maine is no joke. If a guy who's a successful hunter in Maine brings his skills and endurance to the west, he's going to be a killer.


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Never hunted Maine but have hunted both public land whitetails and mule deer. Different gear and tactics but killing an average public land whitetail buck is harder than an average mule deer buck IMO

 

[jtevanMT]

If you’re moving to Montana and you want to harvest a deer it’s gotta be near 100% success. Lots of zones it’s either sex, most you can hunt into the rut..should have zero problem finding a deer to kill.

Agreed, there are many public land areas/units where harvesting a deer is easy. If you put in some time and are willing to get away from people success should be 100%, unless you are looking for a a mature buck.

 

[PNW bow hunter]

I grew up hunting ME NH VT and shot 2 or 3 deer in 18 yrs - i’m deaf. Plus the buck only rule sucked.

Been out west 3x and shot 3 antelope and a 160 inch muley. Find it easier.

Your skills are way more valuable than you really know. Out west you can see everything, back home you cant.

They have success rates on all the state websites. Pull em up before you apply.

Yep… it’s wide open out west.

Sometimes we get 20, and even 60 yards shots if we’re really really lucky!!!

Lots of thick country “out west”.

These are all NE Oregon, not the coast range

 

[Yoder]

I grew up hunting ME NH VT and shot 2 or 3 deer in 18 yrs - i’m deaf. Plus the buck only rule sucked.

Been out west 3x and shot 3 antelope and a 160 inch muley. Find it easier.

Your skills are way more valuable than you really know. Out west you can see everything, back home you cant.

They have success rates on all the state websites. Pull em up before you apply.

Those are definitely the three toughest states to kill deer in the NE. I lived in VT for three years. I missed a small buck with my bow and my son missed a doe. That was the only buck I saw. PA, I either kill a buck or pass up several each year. Then there's doe tags.

 

[Rich M]

Yep… it’s wide open out west.

Sometimes we get 20, and even 60 yards shots if we’re really really lucky!!!

Lots of thick country “out west”.
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These are all NE Oregon, not the coast range

Where we hunted in ME, clearcuts and logging roads provided the longest shots, usually it was like where you are sitting with that nice bull.

FL is a jungle half the time.

 

[Rich M]

One of the better troll jobs I’ve seen on here in awhile…

We can likely compare it to the heavily wooded areas out west - same thing.

If you grow up hunting thick timber and then get to hunt semi-open and partially open country, you will do well. Your whole life has been reading tracks and hopefully figuring out what the animals are doing. Then you get to go somewhere where you can verify what the animals are doing in a couple of days, visually, and adapt immediately to what you need to be doing. It is a whole different concept. Just a regional difference.

Not that the west doesn't have difficult hunts too. I'd take a weeklong western hunt over a week long ME hunt no questions asked.

 

[Amos Keeto]

I grew up hunting whitetails in east Texas. Got a chance to finally hunt Colorado and I took it.
I WAS NOT prepared for the conditions or the environment. Hunted around Pagosa Springs for four years. Killed one smallish mulie buck, a total of a month and half of vacation and several thousand dollars. Had one shot at a nice mulie buck. HE walked up on me!
I missed!
Enjoyed the experience, the people and the country. High country mulie hunting just wasn't my "thang"! LOL!
Hunting whitetails in East Texas was more rewarding, cheaper and vacation time was much more enjoyable!

 

[jimh406]

The MT Harvest Estimates by species are at the link below. As you might expect, success rate can vary.

FWP :: Harvest Estimates

myfwp.mt.gov

 

[Rich M]

I grew up hunting whitetails in east Texas. Got a chance to finally hunt Colorado and I took it.
I WAS NOT prepared for the conditions or the environment. Hunted around Pagosa Springs for four years. Killed one smallish mulie buck, a total of a month and half of vacation and several thousand dollars. Had one shot at a nice mulie buck. HE walked up on me!
I missed!
Enjoyed the experience, the people and the country. High country mulie hunting just wasn't my "thang"! LOL!
Hunting whitetails in East Texas was more rewarding, cheaper and vacation time was much more enjoyable!

You can hunt the CO foothills and prairie too...

 

[jeffpenland123]

montana i have heard has good hunting. if you every are able to hunt in western north carolina or eastern no elk or mule deer but we have some pretty big whitetail bucks and some ok sized doe's its good hunting.

 

[Tired03]

If you’ve become proficient at hunting whitetails in Maine, drawing a tag to hunt out west is the only thing that stands in your way. Because killing animals you can see far enough to plot a plan is a lot easier then the once a week they pop up at 35 yards from you in thick brush.


There’s a reason eastern people are flocking to out west hunting opportunity. It’s easy in comparison. Not to mention a lot more fun.

Just looking thru some old mule threads. I'm a michigan hunter. My first Montana trip blew my mind. We had 5 guys drive 24 hours just to see bucks everyday, every hour. In michigan if you see a shooter once a week your winning.

 

[def90]

Colorado elk hunting is something around 15% success rate and that includes all manners of take. When you narrow it down to diy public land I think that drops to low single digits.

 

[Robobiss]

Those are definitely the three toughest states to kill deer in the NE. I lived in VT for three years. I missed a small buck with my bow and my son missed a doe. That was the only buck I saw. PA, I either kill a buck or pass up several each year. Then there's doe tags.

I have lived in Maine for most of my life and have hunted it for ~20 years. I didn’t see a single deer my first probably 5 years hunting as a kid and putting serious time in.

I kill 2 or 3 a year now 20 years later, but I put time in. 6 days a week during archery season after work and and 3-4 a week at least during rifle, including me dumping two weeks vacation time for the year in October and November. If I run out of tags, I head to another state (usually NH).

I hunt my buddies place in Ohio every other year or so and it is so stupid easy in comparison it barely feels like hunting. Half the time I have an arrow ran through something within an hour of parking my truck after the 12 hour drive.

I can’t be convinced that there’s anywhere harder to kill deer than ME and NH (never hunted VT). It is many times more difficult to kill a deer with a rifle than it is with a bow anywhere else I’ve hunted in the country.

 

[summs]

If you can kill deer in Maine regularly, you can kill deer anywhere.

 

[Amos Keeto]

I grew up hunting in east Texas. Hunting heavy brush and thickets for whitetails is a sit and wait proposition.
Find an established travel route, climb a tree and wait.
My first trip to Colorado was a exercise in futility!
Mule deer wander about aimlessly. I wasn't good at spotting them nor was all that tilted earth friendly to a "flat-lander"! LOL!

Didn't take this fat boy long to realize, if I didn't go out west, I'd have more money to spend hunting east Texas. More vacation time to hunt at home and I didn't have to climb mountains! Besides that, I just wasn't very good at it.
I had friends who went up every year and killed deer and elk!

 

[chanson_roland]

I spent a few years on the Maine coast. Almost NEVER saw deer, as densities are so low compared to the Mid Atlantic where I am now. I've only been out west once, but found elk on my 2nd day, and managed to get within shooting distance of pronghorn (no tag).

The biggest differences I can see:

- Animal density. Pretty low in southern Maine, and abysmal in northern Maine.
- Sensitivity to humans: I was so much more aware of scent control in Maine, as any alien scent would send deer crashing through the woods. Zero tolerance.
- Visibility. I know it can get thick in the west. That being said, if I walked out my back door in Maine, I could be in total canopy within 50 yards, totally disoriented.

I get the feeling that Maine compares best to thick areas of Washington, Oregon and Idaho.

 

[OKHunter84]

Low density population whitetail hunting, especially in thick cover is going to be tough anywhere.

I've never hunted Maine but I've hunted whitetail in a few different states and different areas. Growing up hunting small tracts of public in southern Oklahoma was tough. It was a good hunt if we saw a doe. We would get to hunt three hours away in NW Oklahoma for Thanksgiving most years and it was night and day difference, deer everywhere and way less spooky.

Once I finally was able to hunt out west as an adult, that was totally different. I feel like mule deer, pronghorn, and elk are way less cagey and spooky then whitetail. It just has a different set of challenges:
-Rougher terrain
-Navigating all the different tag structures for different states
-Rougher weather conditions
-Dealing with more hunting pressure in some instances (nothing can prepare you for OTC colorado)
-Your gear matters way more

I don't think you can say, "you're good at one, the other would be easier". It depends on where and what you're hunting.

 

[WV Mountaineer]

Just looking thru some old mule threads. I'm a michigan hunter. My first Montana trip blew my mind. We had 5 guys drive 24 hours just to see bucks everyday, every hour. In michigan if you see a shooter once a week your winning.

I think it chaps the average western hunter to hear people say this. But, it’s the truth. It’s the reason tags limit hunting in western states. And, it’s the reason so many guys hunting Appalachia have great success in the west. It’s simply an easier hunt.

The physical fitness required isn’t much different either. At least where I hunt. Yes altitude does matter the first day or so. But, if you run up and down steep slopes with the intent of being in shape, a day of acclimation in tree line elk and deer hunting is just another hike. That’s a fact.