Why not East?

[5MilesBack]

I said Western Hunting 3 times in a row and, out loud and.......... unbelievable things happened almost immediately. An unknown smoking hot women in the bank threw me to the ground and ravished me, I grew three inches and gained 12 pounds of pure muscle, and I became infinitely smarter. All at once

Ya, sometimes that happens. But usually in the West.

 

[codym]

East of me is Texas so yea there's that. I will say I have hunted turkeys and deer and Tx and it was fun just not really into the pay to play or feeder thing. I really want to head east for deer and especially turkeys but I'm a elk hunter and a pointing dog guy so 14 days chasing bulls a week chasing coues deer and upland birds everywhere in between doesn't leave much room in the leave balance. If someone wanted to invite me on an eastern turkey hunt somewhere next spring I will return the favor on a merriams just sayin....

 

[ncstewart]

Easy fellas. Everywhere has its challenges and it’s own skill set to be efficient and effective. Some hunts are physical, some are mental, some are pure patience just leave it at that.



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[WV Mountaineer]

Easy fellas. Everywhere has its challenges and it’s own skill set to be efficient and effective. Some hunts are physical, some are mental, some are pure patience just leave it at that.



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Nobody seems to be taking this very seriously. It's all in good fun.

 

[Poser]

If you consider the obesity factor, Eastern hunting is wayyy harder.

 

[Poser]

A Eastern hunter and a Western hunter walk into a bar. Which is the first to leave with a woman?

 

[WV Mountaineer]

A Eastern hunter and a Western hunter walk into a bar. Which is the first to leave with a woman?

According to 5milesback, it will definitely be the western hunter. :^)

 

[ethan]

I think a lot of this is perception. I live and hunt on the cumberland plateau in south East Tennessee. The overwhelmingly vast majority of the places I hunt require breaking down and packing out an animal. Our elevation is only around 2000’ but when you drop into a canyon you go from typical south eastern hardwood forests to a literal temperate rain forest complete with giant hemlocks, ferns, Moss, etc... It’s remote, rugged, and beautiful. 95% of hunters here never go to these laces because you can’t drive to them (sound familiar?).

I absolutely love chasing elk out west, and will be doing so in a few months. But I’m just as excited to back pack into areas of public land (some of which are over a hundred thousand acres) and chase white tails and bear. It’s completely different from sitting in a shooting house over a food plot. Everywhere has its challenges.

 

[woods89]

I think a lot of this is perception. I live and hunt on the cumberland plateau in south East Tennessee. The overwhelmingly vast majority of the places I hunt require breaking down and packing out an animal. Our elevation is only around 2000’ but when you drop into a canyon you go from typical south eastern hardwood forests to a literal temperate rain forest complete with giant hemlocks, ferns, Moss, etc... It’s remote, rugged, and beautiful. 95% of hunters here never go to these laces because you can’t drive to them (sound familiar?).

I absolutely love chasing elk out west, and will be doing so in a few months. But I’m just as excited to back pack into areas of public land (some of which are over a hundred thousand acres) and chase white tails and bear. It’s completely different from sitting in a shooting house over a food plot. Everywhere has its challenges.

Well said. I feel the same way about the Ozarks.

Wild animals in wild places are cool. Doesn't matter if they are in the west, east, north, or south. Diehard hunters will find those wild animals and relish the experience of taking them all across this country and Canada.

 

[Farmingdale's Finest]

I went to AZ and took my hunters ed a while back and honestly got the impression several ppl there didn’t like it. One fella informed me he didn’t like non res getting tags when he couldn’t get one in his home state. And hey I get it to a point. But it got me to thinking how many western guys actually take advantage of eastern hunting/fishing?
I honestly hunt the West cause I like adventure and change of pace and cause I freaking love to hunt. I’m not waiting on “trophy tags” but rather just want opportunity to hunt and do it in some different country. For guys looking for adventure and hunting then in some of the western states where tags are limited why not come east? Most southern states are dirt cheap to hunt and we have that fun wet stuff called water so fishing is good!
My home state of Arkansas isn’t probably gonna get you record book deer but we got public land and cheap tags with good numbers. Yes tagsss you can kill 3 deer for $180 for 5 day licenses. Or $350 for the year and that gets ya 6 deer, a bear and 2 turkeys.
Anyway not trying to rant to much but for real some of you guys that maybe feeling sorry for yourself just load up and head east if ya didn’t draw out. If you love hunting and like new country you might be surprised at what you find.



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

My brother wife"s cousin comes to NJ from Arizona every fall to hunt whitetails for a week during the November rut. He has gone home 5 of the last 6 years with bucks scoring not less than 115" gross. For a guy used to Coues deer these are monsters!

 

[Trial153]

I think youd be nuts to drive east of the Mississippi to hunt anything. With the possible exception of Newfoundland and New Brunswick or an impossible to get maine moose tag in zone 1,2,3 or 7and 8

Sent from my SM-G950U1 using Tapatalk

 

[Backpack Hunter]

Ehh, if those westerners don't want to come east for some great hunting let em stay over there, more for me. The east offers plenty that the west doesn't and vice versa, that's why I choose both.

 

[Mattt]

Early winter hell, in the southeast u can hunt whitetail until February. U can hunt hogs and deer with a spear in Alabama. That is getting hardcore. Love to see a couple of these fair skinned westerners in a south Alabama swamp swatting mosquitos with a cottonmouth stuck to both boots stalking a hog on the palmettos with a homemade spear. Probably laugh as hard as they do when I'm trying to find air at 11,000 ft.

 

[ncstewart]

I just like the banjo and southern jokes cause on a real note my dad is a really good banjo player. We big bluegrass fans around here. Then you add my home town high school mascot is the hillbilly’s! Carries a gun and all to football games. Shoots when we score. I guess I can see why people don’t come east.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Oregon]

Come on over to the Coast range for Rosy bulls and Blacktail. Pretty simple hunt.

I truly enjoy hearing the thoughts of most. Let’s face it, killing a real good buck anywhere is tough.

My Eastern hunts, NC, SC involved corn and tree stands. Arduous 400 yard walk to my stand from where I parked. Corn piles was king.
My Michigan hunts consisted of sugar beet piles.

Iowa was tough. All 3 times. Not as arduous, but absolutely flipping cold. Sitting still all day when it’s 0 degrees was some of the hardest hunting I’ve ever done. I’ve hunted Kodiak 4 times, POW twice, Hells Canyon every other year, Wyo G numerous times, etc
Sitting on my ass, under a tree on a WMA, when it’s brutal cold, was mentally exhausting. I sat 3 straight days under the same tree til I killed my buck that year. I’d go back in a heart beat!! I truly believe deers nose don’t work at all when it’s that cold. Had 50 deer walk with 30 feet in that time frame. I looked like a giant orange pumpkin with so many layers on

 

[Vids]

Great thread, some funny chit in here!

I think the simple answer is those of us out west don't have to travel far for incredible whitetail hunting. Living in CO there is great WT hunting on the eastern plains and then you have KS and NE within a few hours.

I love how my seasons line up - work my butt off for 2 months in the mountains, then head to IL in November to sit in a stand and relax. Wouldn't have it any other way!

The terrain you're talking about in the SE sounds great. If you could put elk, mule deer, bighorn sheep and mountain goats there I'd be there in a minute!

 

[quackaddict]

I do love hunting in the West, but I grew up in SC where you could hunt deer from August to Jan. There's a lot to be said for being able to hunt a couple days a week for 4 1/2 months a year. I like killing things and eating them. Having one tag for a few days makes that a much more strenuous task than having months to fill a freezer up.

From a turkey hunting standpoint, the birds themselves aren't that hard to hunt in the mountains, but the terrain is way harder to kill a Merriam's in than an Eastern(real Merriam's, not those damn plains birds in NE, KS, etc). Put some Easterns in the mountains of NM, and you'd never kill them.

Roll with what you've got...it's not as easy as you think to scout a big pine Forest or a huge hardwood swamp and kill deer as you might think, and it's not as easy to glass up a buck from 2 miles across a desert and slip in and kill him as the internet and TV makes it seem either.

Sent from my XT1585 using Tapatalk

 

[Brendan]

I think youd be nuts to drive east of the Mississippi to hunt anything. With the possible exception of Newfoundland and New Brunswick or an impossible to get maine moose tag in zone 1,2,3 or 7and 8

Pretty much agree, but I could see adding places like Florida for some January / February / March hunting and saltwater fishing. Great way to kill the wintertime blues...

 

[Btaylor]

Pretty much agree, but I could see adding places like Florida for some January / February / March hunting and saltwater fishing. Great way to kill the wintertime blues...

Or you could stop in Louisiana and have all of that plus awesome food but save drive time.

 

[George]

not much trophy potential in SE states that allow 6 bucks a day for 6 months of the year.

G