What's a good public land whitetail state in the midwest?

[yeti12]

I’m born and raised in Co, have no desire to do the Midwest thing if you are after whitetail I would much rather hunt them in ID, MT, or parts of Nebraska. I know you weren’t asking for honey holes, I just enjoy stirring the pot and some of the… well there isn’t anywhere to hunt… responses. Seems like there is enough places for nerds like “the hunting public” to shoot plenty of animals on public land in the “Midwest”

I feel like the responses here have been pretty good.... saying there isn't much public land in Nebraska or other eastern states isn't a lie.

 

[jjohnsonElknewbie]

I’m born and raised in Co, have no desire to do the Midwest thing if you are after whitetail I would much rather hunt them in ID, MT, or parts of Nebraska. I know you weren’t asking for honey holes, I just enjoy stirring the pot and some of the… well there isn’t anywhere to hunt… responses. Seems like there is enough places for nerds like “the hunting public” to shoot plenty of animals on public land in the “Midwest”

To be fair, "The Hunting Public" guys have a couple of advantages in IA the average resident and NR don't enjoy.

1. Being headquarted in South Central IA, they're an hour's drive or less from a couple of the largest WMAs in the state of Iowa- Red Rock Reservoir and Lake Rathbun, among other areas.
2. As "professional" hunters, they can hunt/scout every day of the week, avoiding peak pressure times.

I like watching these guys, and they show it all, good and bad, including their lessons learned. The whispering gets to be a little much, but probably my favorite YouTube hunting channel.

 

[Ringbill27]

No deer in Wisconsin, too many wolves…

Umm you spelled Wisconsin wrong I believe you meant to spell it this way Minnesota.

 

[BryanLo]

I'd look to S.E. MN. Lot of public land that is not overly hunted. Tag is not overly priced for out of state and due to cwd you can get up to 5 tags.

 

[rookieforever33]

Southern Illinois has a large national forest. The gun seasons are short and only straightwall rifles and shotguns with slugs are allowed. The gun seasons start the weekend before Thanksgiving and run on and off until mid January. It can get crowded during the first gun seasons. But crossbows are legal here and early November has great opportunities for good deer by bow.

 

[Scottyboy]

Minnesota id put in the mediocre category, if you want to hunt private send me a DM and I’ll get you on some deer. Not a lot of land, but a good amount of deer with a handful of decent bucks YOY (*decent is relative term and YMMV)

 

[CJ_BG]

I'm not sure what the going rates are in other states but Oklahoma recently increase NR prices a lot. There's good and bad to that. A lot more expensive to hunt there than it was but there will be significantly less NR hunters.

 

[Corey Paulsen (teamkabob)]

Do you want a draw hunt or over the counter?

 

[GavinM]

Wisconsin, find some public areas that have been logged in the last few years. Wont exactly be spot and stalk but the larger tracks of land you could find a few areas that you could.

 

[FLS]

If you want to spot and stalk, I’d look at western Nebraska, South Dakota, North Dakota.

 

[KHNC]

Nebraska whitetail population has taken a severe beatdown from EHD in the last 12 years. At least 3 outbreaks has absolutely hammered the population in some parts of the state. NW Nebraska area was hands down my favorite place to archery hunt big bucks. Now i wont even think twice about going there to hunt. It is a shell of its former self. Also, all the giant elk in the area have pushed out the deer in a lot of the creek bottoms. Only residents can draw a OIL bull tag.