Best State to be a Bowhunter
Whitetail Deer
If I had to choose somewhere to live based on WT hunting, I think I'd rather be in Iowa and travel nearby to IL, NE, OH, KY, etc.
EDIT: I did not start this thread. I posted 2nd and it appears the first post was deleted.
Are you TBM reincarnated?
Been a slow fall no BB antelope hunt to follow, no Jaquamo plains muley adventure but He's BAck! Oh tee bee mer must ya got outa the dog house pass from Pat Gotta be better than the Wisconsin page nothing but one gun posting thread after the other must be a trial run for Gunsite.com
I'd say the best state to be a bowhunter isn't even a state.... I'd go with a province....BC or AB offhand...
State? AK hands down. Second place a handful of western states that have 8 or 10 NABG species. The rest are just playin' around with the local pets ya got.... =D
Expand your kill zone with the possibilities... not the broadhead.... ADVENTURES....
^^^^^^ What TD said.
Why would you restrict yourself to little whitetails?
Arizona, or Wyoming. Both have world class elk hunting, great mule deer, and whitetail hunting, good bear and antelope hunting, plenty of public land, and both have ling hunting season during the rut.
You say that there are not too many bucks, but you can kill two a day all season?!!! Something sounds inconsistent.....
Whitetails... ? Oklahoma, duh. :)
I agree with TD on all around animals to hunt... AK, hands down.
do you do any turkey hunting there............ word has it they are world class brilliant birds in AL
If you're restricting yourself to whitetails and turkeys then most of the Southern states are pretty much equal. They all have long seasons, liberal bag limits, and small-medium size deer. Not much difference.
If you're truly a whitetail nut then move to the Midwest and hunt several states. You could lengthen the season and fill several freezers with much bigger bucks than you'll kill in Alabama. The only downside: you'd have to put up with the cold.
Ohio has huge deer. Archery season runs from late September to early February.
Iowa's archery season is early October to mid January.
Hands down it has to be Connecticut.
I have chosen not to comment at this time.
My best, Paul
I guess it depends on what you like to hunt. Whitetails for me so IL is pretty good, 2 buck limit, unlimited does and oct1 to jan17. Wish we had hogs to hunt and some other big game but I can't complain..
Come on Paul, give us your thoughts on Colorado? I say this as my wife and I are considering retiring there.
Alaska is great with lots of opportunities. But the logistics of getting to each hunt is huge and very expensive. Just ask Nick.
To me it Montana. I get 7 deer tags 2 elk tags a antelope, bear, lion , wolf and 2 turkey tags a year. Then a chance to hunt bison , sheep, goats and moose every year. Living in western Montana puts me close to Idaho and Washington. So for me it's Montana hands down. Hunt
I think I made a pretty good choice in 1981 when I moved to Alaska for bow hunting opportunities.
No whitetails here, but I travel to Arizona every winter to hunt Coues whitetails and that seems to fill the winter void nicely.
In March I'll hunt Mtn Goats, on Kodiak Island; May-June giant Black Bear on POW Island; July Brown Bear at Lisa Lake; August Sitka Blacktail back on POW Island; first of September grizzly bear on the Unalakleet River; mid-November moose at Lisa Lake; early November Sitka Blacktails on Kodiak Island; mid-November Sitka Blacktails on POW Island.
Where else do you have those kinds of Bow hunting opportunities?
Whichever state you currently are in.
Considering half the bowhunters in AL, MS, LA, TN & GA are in Illinois in November methinks it's not Alabama. Wish we had a real NR quota again like Iowa. BTW there's your answer.
Montana or Wyoming. The crowds aren't as bad as other western states (namely Colorado) and there is a huge range of animals to hunt.
For whitetails, Iowa, but it would kill me to live there all year. For overall opportunities, I'd go with Montana.
Jeez, Blacktial Bob makes a convincing arguement! That's a lot of hunting! How do you work?
Kansas for me as it has a fairly long season and you can also be selective on what deer you shoot, Than you are close to Colorado and if you draw Iowa. I am retiring to Kansas for those reasons. Shawn
Worked for 35 years, that's enough.
I can go kill a whitetail off the back porch of my in-laws place in Indiana. Not worth moving for them. Hard to argue with Alaska, or Montana for a lower 48 state.
In Arizona we have the following big game species:
Desert Bighorn sheep (mexicana and nelsoni, 1 per lifetime), Rocky Mountain Bighorn sheep (1 per lifetime), Bison (1 per lifetime), Pronghorn, Elk, Mule Deer (Rocky Mountain and Desert), Coues Whitetail deer, Mountain Lion, Black Bear, Javelina, Wild Turkeys (Merriam's, Gould's, Rio Grande). There are also a few feral hogs in small numbers. We arguably have the best Coues whitetail deer hunting in the US.
New Mexico has pretty much all the same except wild bison I think, plus they have oryx, aoudad, and ibex on public land as well.
Some of these species are smaller in population size compared to other states but make up for it in trophy quality (Elk, Pronghorn). Generous OTC opportunity for antlered deer with a bow, including a ton of public land to utilize. Rut hunt opportunity for archery deer and elk.
Great predator and small game hunting. Decent trout fishing, great bass fishing!
Big Whitetails? It's definitely not SD. Please keep going to Iowa. There's no big bucks here. :-)
NY is NOT the place to be. The DEC is incompetent and has allowed our deer numbers to dwindle to the point of seeing a deer when hunting is rarity,, yet we can still kill 5 deer a year.... I haven't seen 5 deer here in this state all year. Turkey hunting is okay, we have the whole month of May, but that doesn't offset the taxes and the was on guns that is happening here. I would say that Ohio is a good state. It's still accessible, lots of state land and land prices are sorta low. Licenses aren't bad either. So NY is not be the best state, but prolly the worst. Jay
Is thinking Alabama is the best state connected in any way to gene pools and inbreeding? Am I hearing banjoes ?
If I wanted to hunt 24/7/365 it would be Texas, hands down.
Whitetails - the midwestern states
All other NA biggame- Canada
The problem with long hunting seasons and OTC tags are the effect they have on trophy quality and animal numbers.
With two different tags, I can hunt deer for 4 months in SoCal and used to log 50-60 days hunting deer in CA a year. Trouble is, you can hunt 60 days and not see a single mature animal.
I look at each state and try to ask, what would I get out of this state as a resident that I don't get as a non-resident? That pretty much cans most of the advantages of the midwest and southern states except for Iowa. Many of the western states only improve your opportunity marginally becoming a resident.
I'd never move to CO, AZ, or MT over WY if I were doing it just to increase opportunity to hunting. You don't get that much more access to trophy hunting as a resident of those states as you do moving to WY.
And if you're going to buy land, WY and NM are definitely the way to go.
AK is such a mixed bag with access to quality hunting mentioned. If you have the funds and the time, it's great. If you want to just hunt near your house after work, you're either going to have to sacrifice trophy quality or live somewhere that's not necessarily conducive to work/family.
The problem for me is the difficult mix of hunter opportunity with all of the other aspects that add to quality of life. Culture, education, tolerable weather, etc. And my wife likes her Starbucks!
I'm surprised nobody has mentioned Texas. With one license that you can get at any gas station you can kill at least 5 deer and 3 turkeys! Yes, you might need to pay for some private access but if you do the math, it's not much given all you can potentially shoot. Hogs and exotics too. No draws, no fuss.
I too like AZ, but only being able to get one deer tag a year and something else every several years is almost a deal breaker. I need several tags a year to keep me happy!
BC has 16 species to hunt. That said, many species are a long way from where I live. We also have 3 month OTC rifle seasons (and either sex tags in October) for whitetails in my area so the bucks get a lot of pressure. I wouldn't move to BC for the whitetail hunting, but it is an excellent place for variety including OTC stone and bighorn sheep, goat, moose, caribou, black bear, mule, blacktail, sitka blacktail (bag limit 5) deer, elk etc.
Bob? When's he work? Bob's like me.... a kept man..... =D
"just a gigolo, and everywhere I go...."
I've only been up here for just over 2 years, but so far I absolutely love Alaska and the opportunities it offers. I, like many others who have taken advantage of all Alaska has to offer, have hunted places up here that most could only dream of. A common theme shared by most people that I run into that live up here and haven't had much success, is that they are not capable of planning a hunt away from home. I can't go hunting after work for the most part and I can't/won't just go wing something just to do it. Every hunt I've done up here has been planned out and all but one has resulted in an opportunity at game. There are no secrets (well, maybe a few), but one has to be willing to travel and plan. Both require time and plenty of it in most cases. I envy those that can just go hunt after work or quick morning deals, I grew up doing that. In general, I can't do it here. Some do that up here and few have success. I realized early on, to have a quality hunt in AK, you need to get away from others... I can't do that without time off. Bears in the spring are about the only thing I can do near home and have success, and near home is a 3-5 hour drive.
There is no other place I'd rather be at this point in my life, opportunities for those willing and able are basically endless. Bob has it figured out and he focuses his time on hunting places/species he enjoys and has figured out. I can't wait to do that or be to that point, but I need to hunt more to figure out what I really love/enjoy.
Since this thread was Whitetail based, I'd pick Montana because then you can hunt a pile of other things too! After being introduced to species other than whitetails, I haven't been the same and there is no way I could be satisfied with just deer.
California is a great state. I've killed 8 animals in this state this year. Unlimited pigs. 2 deer tags mulie or blacktails (: bear Turks all sortsa stuff. It's out there you just gotta go get it. Guys like Muche come to mind when I think of that. Makes it happen. Doesn't sit around an whine like many.
I'm not sayin CA is the best but I def have lots of opportunities here. Only thing I wish we had was better elk but I'll pay to play that game no matter what.
Colorado " has been berry berry gooot to mi"
For whitetail only, Wisconsin hands down. We have lots of land and lots of deer. We are consistently the number one p&y producing state. How can you argue that?
Colorado has been good to me, but it continues to become more and more populated. Glad we are off the Front Range, we have approximately 10's more Elk than we do people in our 78% public land County. I joke that if I can arrow the 10th Species (Desert Bighorn) I need to move to a new state with some new animals to bowhunt.
I was especially interested in living in Alaska back when my wife's Uncle was living in Seward, but taking out the tag expense, living there still requires much of what non-residents have to do to get out to places (boats or float planes).
WI really? That would be way down on my list. Everyone and their brother hunts up there. Also, hunting is beyond competitive up there.
Another option is to choose a cool place to live for reasons other than hunting, and then just travel everywhere you want to hunt. That's my program. At least that's what I keep telling myself!
70 degrees year round and plenty of eye candy doesnt exactly suck!
if you are a whitetail hunter it's awfully hard to beat Kentucky
For the most part, we just have to make the best of what we got. Like a few others, I'm a southern California guy, and like joehunter said, it ain't too bad. So far this year, I've killed three wild hogs, one black bear, one mule deer (still have one deer tag left till Dec. 31.), all DIY on public land, with a lot more critters out there. And, all things considered, a pretty decent lifestyle.
On the other hand, I'd be doing the best I could to make my hunting self happy where ever I lived.
Born & raised in Ill.. Been in Ia. for nearly 20 years. Bowhunted Ws. more times than I can count. 14 States total bowhunting for something & 2 Canadian provinces. I STILL love Northern Ws. the most for Whitetail though the bowhunting for them up there has changed a lot. Lived In Ca., Co., Ws. Il., Ia., N.C. at sometime in my life also. Wisconsin is still my favorite.
SDHNTR has a good point. There are lots of things to do besides hunting. The upper midwest has great whitetail hunting but lots of southern fellas would probably freeze to death if they moved up there.
70's year round is hard to argue with.
For all around species to hunt I would have to say Alaska or Montana.
For whitetails its a toss up. I like my hunting in Ne. Tags are over the counter. You can buy two bow tags etc. Iowa maybe at the top of most people's whitetail lists. My exwife lives there so its not at the top of mine. Having gun season in December is a big plus though. Guess there is always Kansas.
Interesting I love the fishing in my home state of Mn. I just don't think much of the hunting.
I'm a Cheesehead and my part of Wisconsin's getting to be pretty tough sledding.
Bordering impossible to gain access to private land, our illustrious DNR destroyed the herd in my hood with the CWD debacle a few years ago, and public hunting is a mess.
I loved hunting here, but the ti es, they are a changin'.
Sorry, I know they are like 80 or 90% of the bowhunting out there... I'm sure they are great fun, but there is no place on earth I would move to just for better whitetail hunting.
My observation is mostly people hunt them where they live, maybe travel a bit to other states for a quickie. Sometime even rationalize why their state is "the best"...
But move to a state just for whitetails? Really?
Sure not next level thinkin'.....
"But move to a state just for whitetails? Really?"
Are you suggesting it's like asking which state has the most fat girls? ;-)
It comes down to quantity or quality, and then proximity to other states. The OP sounds like he has a good plan.
Seems like most folks answered bases on getting a large buck. Many of the state's listed are one and done, so if you shoot your buck on opening day, your season is pretty much done. WV bow season runs from end of Sept till Dec 31. 3 deer, 2 can be bucks. 4 Archery only counties. Tough hunting-absolutely. Trophy class bucks - Far and few between. But great bow hunting with everything from far lands to hard woods to steep terrain.
Opinions are like you know what
I am the kind of guy that likes the whole experience when I hunt. I like hunting deep hardwoods and oak-lined ridges it just feels and looks like whitetail country. River bottom with cottonwoods, willows, cattails, horsetail and some scattered cedars is great deer hunting atmosphere. Mixed farmland with woody fence-lines, hedgerows, weedy draws, CRP and tree-lined creek-bottoms scream whitetail habitat. Open plains, sandhills, thick cattail marshes, Cedar shelterbelts, cottonwood and ash woodlots scattered throughout make for a really scenic whitetail (and bonus Muley) hunt and deer camp miles from anyone! Deep canyon country with ponderosa ridges short grass saddles and cold water streams with oak stands and alfalfa fields turn out some great whitetails year after year. Just a small sample of the Nebraska deer experience.
I have lived in Montana for 3 years after living in Washington State for decades. As far as I'm concerned Montana is a bowhunting paradise. Long season, lots of public land, and plenty of animals to hunt. What's not to like?
I was born and raised in Wisconsin, hunted Buffalo county on some relatives land and had great success. But the deer hunting has gone down hill big time, and when the wife asked me if I would consider moving to a different state, I gave her a short list of where I would consider, to make a long story short, we moved to Montana. Deer hunting is fun, but once I started hunting other things besides deer, I was hooked...in my opinion, nothing compares to elk hunting the rut...so that was my main decision to move here, and we can still hunt everything else too...but living here might be short lived, as the wife has a job offer in Anchorage Alaska that we are considering...ah the joys of having a sugar momma...lol
Good for you 137! I grew up in WI and it seems the hunting gets worse each year. I guess that's the way she goes... Best of luck in MT!
JayG I don't know where you hunt in NY and I agree the DEC is terrible but the deer numbers in most areas I hunt are very good. I rarely have a sit where I don't see several deer. Just yesterday I sat from 1:30 til dark and saw 14 deer, 3 of them decent bucks. If you are having trouble seeing deer, try a different part of the state, deer numbers are fairly high. Shawn
137buck ya know Anchorage isn't all bad!
Just moved here from MT last March.
Depends on where you are in the journey. In NJ the limit on does is unlimited. You can learn an awful lot on unlimited does.
But when I wanted to kill a big one, I went to Ohio.
NH is pretty poor, as there are about 2-3 deer per square mile.
TBB
Ditto, Zim.
If the hunting is so great in Alabama, how come you see so many 'Bama pick-ups in Kansas and Illinois in November?
When was the last time you saw a rig from Kansas, Iowa, Missouri or any other Midwestern state bowhunting in 'Bama?
And the worst thing about bowhunting deer in Alabama,...is that it's in Alabama. :-)
WI produces a lot of Pope and Young bucks, but it some danged high hunter numbers, too.
Montana for me we can hunt. Mule deer, Whitetails, Antelope, Elk, & Black bear every year . And you can draw Bighorn sheep, Moose, Bison & Mtn Goat I have taken all but the bison with my bow. Wyoming would be the other state I could live in lots of public land to hunt on in both states.
I've hunted whitetails plenty. For U.S. STATES, my first would be AK followed by WY.
BIOYABH
Don't know how you can pull a bow one-handed, since your other arm is always patting yourself on the back.
This is TBM he posted this same thread a while back.
He simply changed his name.
He stayed low key for a while but as you can tell his personality is getting harder for him to contain.
I give it another 45 days until he is 100% back to putting everybody down and slamming them for the way they hunt because it is not his style, and every post bein about how great he is.
Yep Kelly. Same drivel and south boasting nonsense. Just changed first name. Showed up low key but now the devolution of content has started to accelerate
It's a shame that the OP does not have a business class IP address. Then the rhetoric would be gone forever.....
Bou... Kelly... Yep. Agree.
Any state that has only one or two big game species starts at the bottom of the list for sure, even if you can kill a couple whitetails every day, or if they were all monsters. Variety is the spice of life, and adventure beats killing huge deer by climbing a tree in the back 40 any day of the year.
mmm. something changed on this thread...
With the original question about the best WT with proximity to other states Iowa has to be top of the list. 3 buck tags if you own land and unlimited doe tags . Location is great can be hunting in Colorado or Wyoming in under 12 hours. I would choose my next place to live on the hunting opportunity for different species but also a low resident population to keep the draw odds favorable.
mmm. then changed back...
Good for you 137! I grew up in WI and it seems the hunting gets worse each year. I guess that's the way she goes... Best of luck in MT!
Hawaii purely for bow hunting opportunity. No other state comes close. But....when you get tired of hunting Axis deer, black tail, mouflon sheep, feral sheep, goats, and hogs it's a long flight to hunt something else.
Inshore/offshore fishing, surfing, and hiking in 75 degree weather help pass the time.
I'm a WI boy and love hunting the big woods here for WT's. But, have also hunted Idaho, lots of op's there plus steelhead fishing.
Ak, Montana or idaho have best opps as resident imo... Cali resident opps suck imo, don't get near the opps and pay 3x what other states residents have to pay.
Depends what you own and have access to. I live in NY and agree that overall the bigger buck quality is very poor. Season is too long. I do Euro Mounts on the side and I would say 98% of my customers are hunting for another buck (illegally) despite bringing me one to do...that's based on 50-60 heads a year x last 5 years. Killing one and tagging it and being done simply does not exist for the most part......hard to let a 90" 2 yo walk when that is the norm around you
I'm surprised so few have mentioned CO? I certainly am not, but it doesn't suck for sure. CO could be argued as the best state to hunt. There is a fair amount of variety, cheap and easy tags and tons of public land (and hunters...but that's beside the point). Thousands upon thousands of California transplants can't be wrong!
Idaho also doesn't seem to be getting the love it deserves. Lots of animals, lots of public land, great fishing.
Wyoming is great, but harsh. If you don't like the wind-REAL wind, harsh winters and lack of employment opportunities you are going to have a hard time living in WY. It isn't all Jackson Hole.
Ditto for Montana-I think a lot of folks think Montana is just slightly northern CO-It isn't. Once you are out of the bigger cities you will understand the nicknames "Montucky" and "Mantana".
No one mention Michigan????? Oh yeah, it's Michigan and it sucks here. You know who likes Michigan? Guys that haven't lived any place but Michigan!
For me it will be coastal Georgia November til late April and Montana May til late October. GA hunters get to kill a pile of deer a year plus I love slipping through the swamps after hogs all winter long while the snakes are cold and sleeping. And there are bear in them there mountains too if you are so inclined to try and sneak up on one.
I love Montana, it's just pretty there and it has a lot of critters to bow hunt to go along with great bird hunting. Add that it's only a days drive to BC or Alberta for spring bear and what more could you ask for?
Hunt 10 months a year and not have to freeze my ass off anymore or shovel snow, that's my plan. 5 more years, 5 more years.
I think if whitetails are your main concern then the Midwest is probably always going to be your best overall bet. Right now it seems a the Midwestern states are experiencing lower deer numbers/less mature deer than maybe years past but it's still going to remain the best area to take a giant buck. However I wouldn't pack up and move to the Midwest for whitetail hunting unless you are sure you will have access to a good area for years to come. Access to quality hunting areas is the hardest thing about the Midwest. Good luck guys!
Sure isn't Minnesota. Your lucky if you see a legal buck around here these days. Now wolves on the other hand........ Rory
The state that will provide your best business opportunity.Moving somewhere for whitetails? 3 week season essentially for a good buck,doesn't compute with me.
If your a guy who likes to shuck a little clothing and sit with trail cam pics all year then it is more a consideration.
MT or pushing all in to AK to me provides the most bang in the move...I'm simply not man enough to stomach the winters.
South Carolina has long seasons and generous limits.
I grew up in Iowa and have lived in Colorado for four years. I am finding that CO is pretty hard to beat, because I can hunt so many different species within a one day drive.
This fall I will hunt Iowa, Kansas, North Dakota, and Colorado on three or four day weekends. Pretty hard to beat that and we have had great results with lots of scouting in 0 or 1 point units with dismal success rates.
90% of the hunt is doing the homework ahead of time!
No crap Genesis. I'm done hunting for the year and its 25 below zero right now :)
Dang Nick,I'm bream fishing in 74 degree Saturday...:)
For whitetail home base...VA. Whitetail bloodlines come from Wisconsin, Kentucky and Michigan in some parts of the state so they have some good genetics. You get 2 either sex tags in the west with a 3rd good in the east. 3 antler less tags and 3 turkey tags on a standard license with unlimited bonus antlerless and an OTC bear tag. LOTS of easy access federal and state land tha have good opportunities if you go in more than a few hundred yards or got to the places that dont get a lot of use. From that home base run to Kentucky or South Carolina for early velvet hunts and be back home for the opener. Kentucky or Ohio for late season after VA season closes first weekend of January or go down to AL or Texas to chase the rut.
Rut activities for early, main and 3rd cycles will be about a week off from Ohio.
Check out Virginia Whitetails Facebook.
Montana hands down. Year round we have a ton of vermin and small game. In the winter wolves and lions, and if you lucky bison. In the spring we have turkeys and bears. Summer Carp. August state wide Antelope. September through January elk and if your lucky sheep, moose and goat. September through January you have deer both Whiteys and Mule deer. And hopefully soon Grizzly's. And then it starts all over again. Sure Alaska is great as well as Canada but the fly out expense makes those states tough for the common man. But Montana has guaranteed 900 archery tags for big game. So you can hunt most big game with the exception of trophy animals every year. Did I mention our seasons are long. And we have exceptional trophy class animals here in all species, mule deer being the weakest, but we still put out studs every year especially for those willing to get of the ATVs. And you can drive anywhere in the State on your own without the need to fly.
Have to disagree with Joehunter about Commie CA. True there are lots of species, but ability to hunt them is controlled (mostly curtailed) by liberals.
As far as best state, having hunted in quite a few gotta admit I am partial to WY so far. In my experience, Montana's seasons run too long, so the animals can be heavily pressured. Lately it seems like every riffle on every stream has a flyfisherman on it (you can stand on the bottom and below high water though) AZ is great but too few animals/tags, same with NV. NM is good. Don't know the Midwest, but plan on finding it out. Problem with a lot of those states is they are mostly private land. Paying to hunt the king's deer (or whatever) is fundamentally different from hunting public land. AK seems wonderful, but it's the size of the west 1/4 of the US - you have to use a plane. That makes the logistics of driving to hunt a lot of the western lower 48 states simple.
I guess for some people "archery hunting" means "deer hunting". That's a shame. And, so, likewise if an archery hunting state is to be considered worthy it has to be in the top 3 for trophy buck production. What have we become?
Having lived and hunted in PA my entire life the quality of hunting here has never left me unsatisfied. Sure, we don't have elk, moose, goats, etc, but there's plenty of other game animals here to hunt. Deer populations naturally and unnaturally fluctuate, and you wouldn't believe the number of 'hunters' I know who go in to fits of hysteria when they come up short on surveillance photos each year of "trophies". They plan their(and their family member's) life around a deer. The thought of moving my family merely because one judges the deer hunting better in another state is the most ridiculous thing I can think of......wow.
Co .....Elk, Mullies , Bear , Mtn Lion and Instate tags are priced much better than NR, and Proximity to the other states for Elk ...Wy, Ut, New Mx with Great Trout Fishing and more Public lands than I can ever walk . 5 bear ( 3 color phases taken with bow ) in 5 Sept ....Elk ( bull or cow each season and a 2nd Cow ELk in Dec on Private Lands. Hence plenty of Meat and few hunters Add that to good weather and scenery for Sept Bow Seasons versus Heat and Humidity of the East . Still Trying for draws on Moose, Pronghorn and Big Horn . $1 Sr fish License and No Habitat Stamp needed for SR
I agree with Roger. I'll take good old PA any day.
Decent deer numbers,some nice buck,good bear and turkey hunting, liberal seasons, and MILLIONS of acres of public land.
Lots of folks frown on public land. Not me i love it. In many parts of the state, I can walk for days and never have to worry about private land. I can hunt deer in a totally wild and natural setting.
I have no interest whatsoever in having to be confined to my own private 40 and managing it, just so i can hunt.
Your mileage may vary.
