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.

 

[KChunter71]

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.

 

[R. Huffman]

Oklahoma doesn’t have much public land. The best areas for spot and stalk would be the west side and there are a few places. The best hunting would be the public land on the east side but not suitable really for spot and stalk hunting.

 

[MallardSX2]

Skip the Midwest and come to Georgia and fill your truck full of does and fork horns and hogs. I’ll even give you coordinates for a place to kill everything on public land.

2 bucks
12 does
3 bears
2 turkeys
Unlimited hogs
All the small game you want.

All for about $300 and I welcome nr’s.

It’s actually funny because I have offered this up a dozen times and nobody ever pm’s me. Lol

 

[JPC6000]

IMO - not very much spot and stalk in midwest - unless you want to track like the Benoits in the north woods. If you still hunt / stalk in Michigan's Lower Peninsula you will just end up pushing deer to someone sitting. You could possibly track like the Benoits in Michigan's Upper Peninsula - however you might walk for days without jumping a deer. I would take a hard look at southern Ohio for decent public access and decent bucks. A good resource for Michigan public land deer hunting is John Eberhart's videos on the tube. I would estimate Eberhart has shot more "trophy" Michigan whitetails than anyone. However, the dedication and lengths he has to go to in order to be successful on Michgan's public land is an eye opener. Don't overlook floating rivers in National Forests in Michigan. Deer or no deer, hunt camp in Michigan's Upper Peninsula is heavenly, get ya a savage 99 or Win 94 and you'll fit right in.

 

[Felix40]

Skip the Midwest and come to Georgia and fill your truck full of does and fork horns and hogs. I’ll even give you coordinates for a place to kill everything on public land.

2 bucks
12 does
3 bears
2 turkeys
Unlimited hogs
All the small game you want.

All for about $300 and I welcome nr’s.

It’s actually funny because I have offered this up a dozen times and nobody ever pm’s me. Lol

Wish I would have seen that sooner. I spent a bunch of time in Brunswick. I’m kind of hoping I never have to go back to GA but that does sound pretty good. Not quite worth driving 24 hours for though.

 

[dirtytough]

Western SD is easier to draw for a whitey rifle tag and it can definitely be spot and stalk.

 

[Westernwannabe]

Iowa

 

[KurtR]

Deer numbers in Sodak are not good but you can get a tag west river

 

[fulldraw1972]

OP since you mentioned rifle hunting here are sone things to consider.
Kansas, Nebraska and Iowa are in the top 5 for least amount of public land states. On a side note Iowa has a a shotgun, strait wall rifle season. So rifles are limited.
The big tracts of what little public land is in Nebraska is in the mule deer conservation area. Nebraska gun season is in the middle of the rut. Both Iowa and Kansas are in the beginning of December.
The amount of pressure the limited amount of public will see is going to be insane.

MN has very good public hunting in the lower 1/3 of the state. But no rifles there. Shotgun area.
ND will not be an easy state to draw a rifle tag in.
My pick would be SD and it will have to be west River since non residents can not draw East River gun tags. Gun season is in the middle of November so you will be able to hunt the rut.
You will have to get into the draw so plan ahead for SD. If you want to hunt the black hills area you will need to get an access permit as well.

 

[Honyock]

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.

We (Oklahoma) went from probably the cheapest to one of the most expensive states for out of state deer hunters and it was long overdue. The last increase was 25 years ago. $710 for license and tag for non-resident. Oklahoma's wildlife department is 100% funded by hunters and fisherman. When you have out of state outfitters leasing up 1,000s of acres because non-resident tags are cheap, it's time for a change.