Archery Only Public Land?
Contributors to this thread:Massachusetts
From: Arkansas
04-Sep-18
So far I know that Great Meadows NWR seems to have this, does anyone know of other places that allow someone to avoid the orange army?
From: Will
04-Sep-18
In MA, I didnt even know about Great Meadows NWR? Most of the areas that may be archery only, I think, are eastern MA and sometimes are not state owned, like certain Trustees of Reservation or other land management / protection NPO's...
In CT there are a bunch... but here I'm not real aware of them. Hopefully others will have ideas.
From: Arkansas
04-Sep-18
Arkansas's Link
Thanks. Do you think making the trip to CT is worth it for public land hunting? You can see the Great Meadows rules using the link here. The other NWR's in the same area allow gun hunting in some places but are also archery only in parts.
From: Tekoa
04-Sep-18
Great meadows is very crowded. I hunted there once and wouldn't go back. If you are willing to travel, head to Western Mass. In December maybe you'll see a few hunters opening day and the first Saturday. Other than that you should find all the room that you need. Remember, firearms in Mass isn't until After Thanksgiving so you'll have almost two full months. Except for areas that stock pheasant you wont see many gun hunters no matter where you are. Good Luck. Tekoa
From: GED
04-Sep-18
The NWR are like 100% for archery and lottery guns. First time bowhunting I was checked 3 times before I made it to the woods.
Was not checked gun hunting.
From: Will
04-Sep-18
Arkansas - Depends on where you live. If you would mostly hunt public ground Z9 east, especially east of 495 (I think that's Z10), and you live in that area, then it's only going to be better if you drive at least half way into the state from a north south perspective. If you live/ hunt in Z5 or 6 or 7... Ok, that's different. then yes, I think you would see nice woods with a fair number of deer, even in northern CT's public ground, and save the trip to the area you noted.
From: Buckshot89
05-Sep-18
There's a few archery only areas in MA that I know of in zone 7 but here out east I don't know of any yet. Arkansas, what zone do you mainly hunt?
From: stillhunter
05-Sep-18
Check individual towns conservation land, some of it is archery only. You should print out info from thier web sites when you find it because getting hasled is to be expected, and it helps to have proof.
From: Arkansas
05-Sep-18
Thanks, everyone. I mainly hunt deer and live in the Boston area. I would like to go further west but that just becomes a burden in terms of getting there and back and still having any other time to do things. Being from Arkansas I am used to lots of public land and large tracts of bowhunting only. Perhaps the best thing to do is just get it out of the way before the gun season starts. Does anyone have suggestions on the best public tracts in zones 9–11? I am willing to look into town lands as well, but obviously the less hassle and time taken from hunting the better.
From: Buckshot89
06-Sep-18
Any public piece in those zones gets pounded during gun season and I wouldn't say any one public piece is better than the other because they all hold quality deer, its just a matter of how much work do you want to put in in order to harvest them. The Mass Fish and Wildlife website has a "Where to hunt?" section that is extremely helpful in finding public areas and access. My suggestion is to find the biggest public piece and go deep or into an area within that piece where no one else would go. I've noticed a lot of guys here that fill up the parking lots on opening day have stands within 300 yards of their trucks so use that to your advantage. There's a lot of hunters around here but a lot of them are pretty lazy IMO.
From: Arrownoob
14-Sep-18
I'm pretty sure all of it is archery only before shotgun season starts.
From: Public land hunter
14-Sep-18
Zone 9. Oxbow refuge. Archery only areas. Shot my big boy on the gun and archery area, but had chances at some bruisers in the bow only areas too. They do a lottery, so definitely try next year.