Best States for Whitetail Deer Hunting in USA
Last Updated on September 26, 2020
Whitetail hunting is the passion for most American outdoor persons. This has been further boosted by the availability of advanced hunting gear, which makes it easier for experienced as well as beginners to get comfortable in the sport.
In the US, there are very many places to hunt for whitetails. However, different states have different requirements, laws, and parcels of land for hunting that make certain areas better to hunt on than others.
This is in addition to the environmental conditions, which also make certain areas better than others. To help you get started, this article lists the best states for whitetail deer hunting while also showing what makes them special.
1. Kentucky
Kentucky continues to churn out more and bigger whitetails every hunting season. However, most people don’t know it’s potential because it has been kept sort of like a secret.
Well, what makes it a great state? For starters, Kentucky is also known as the bluegrass state because of its extensive bluegrass pastures that grow very well in the state’s fertile soils. This provides quite a lot of food to grow whitetail herds for hunting each season.
The state also has long hunting seasons with friendly regulations that guide hunters on how to hunt from among the roughly 900,000 whitetail population that exists in the region.
Additionally, it has big chunks of public hunting land with fewer hunters per square mile, which means that the chances of landing a big buck are very high.
2. Wisconsin
Wisconsin probably has the largest number of recorded trophy whitetails than any other state. This is cemented by the fact that the Johnny King Buck, which was named as the biggest typical whitetail of all time by the Northeast Big Buck Club, was hunted down in this state.
What makes hunting here special is the huge acreage (roughly 6 million acres) of public land that is available to deer hunters every season. Such a big outdoor space definitely increases the chances of getting at least one big whitetail.
3. Missouri
Missouri is not considered as the best of the best but neither is it a bad place for deer hunting. Lately, however, a couple of TV shows and online hunting shows have been popping up from this state, raising a lot of attention towards its potential in producing good trophies.
The potential is actually there because Missouri has a large acreage of public land available for hunting, with a lesser pressure of about 8.3 hunters per square mile.
To add on to this, 38% of the harvest so far consists of bucks aged 3.5 years or older, which means that the deer herd has a healthy age structure that is ripe for harvesting.
4. Iowa
Iowa has a very small amount of public hunting land, totaling about 266,000 acres. Hunting licenses are also super expensive and you must apply then await approval or rejection. Therefore, you might wonder why Iowa is on this list.
Well, the state is a land of giants, making it worth the wait and sacrifice. Apart from this, the restrictive and expensive hunting approvals are also what makes it a great state because most people will be locked out, leaving only a small number of hunters to roam the available hunting grounds.
5. Texas
The lone star state hunters have the highest recorded number of kills than in any other state. For instance, in 2011 alone, close to 310,000 bucks were killed and 60% of them were 3.5 years or older. This shows that there is a huge number of mature whitetails in Texas that are ready for harvesting.
Additionally, the state has close to 1.6 million acres of public hunting grounds, which is a big space to accommodate many hunters.
6. Indiana
Indiana is home to a large amount of public hunting land and has a fair amount of hunting pressure. This combination leads to an almost 50% success hunting rate each season.
In the B & C entries, Indiana has always been in the top 10 for the last 10 years, and this shows how good their grounds are.
However, this information is not widely known and the hunters in that region would probably prefer this to remain private so that they can enjoy this hunting paradise alone.
Final Words
As you can see, the USA has some excellent areas for deer hunting. In fact, these are just a few of the best locations and thus, you might find your own hunting paradise after trying out these states or others that are not mentioned here.
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