Whitetail Road Trips: America’s Top Five DIY Bowhunting Destinations
Bernie Barringer 08.28.13
There was a time when I devoured every word and photo in outdoor magazines and dreamed of hunting in far-off places. Using money from my paper route, I subscribed to Field & Stream magazine when I was 12 years old. I remember lying under my covers at night with a flashlight reading about hunting in fascinating places. Most whitetail hunters can relate to the desire to hunt a new spot. In the last dozen years, outdoor television has exploded and fanned the sparks to a flame in the hearts of many hunters. Let’s face it, the average whitetail hunter doesn’t hunt where he has a chance to kill a big mature buck like the ones being held by smiling outdoor TV personalities. But wouldn’t it be great to experience that just once?
I can tell you from experience that it can be done, and it can be done for a lot less coin than you think. The keys to it are knowing where to go and being willing to do the ground work yourself instead of paying an outfitter to do it for you. If you are willing to put in some effort, you can experience great hunting in great places. I have had the good fortune to hunt whitetails in several states. Here are the top five destinations for shooting a mature whitetail on a do-it-yourself (DIY) hunt.
Iowa
Everyone wants to hunt Iowa, and for good reason. Iowa produces terrific hunting for mature bucks year after year. It’s a bowhunter’s dream. Iowa has the genetics, the nutrition, and the habitat to produce quality whitetails. Plus, the shotgun season falls after the rut, so bucks have an increased chance to survive to maturity. The top areas of the state include the rugged northeast corner and the southern third of the state where the combination of farmland and brushy ravines serves up ideal whitetail habitat. In the more desirable zones, it will take two preference points to draw an archery tag, which means a nonresident can hunt every third year. Rather than send in your $551 every year for a tag only to have it returned, buy a preference point for $50 a year for two years, then buy the licenses the third year. Applications are due during the month of May each year.
Outfitters and wealthy people from the surrounding states have bought up a lot of the great deer hunting land, but Iowa also offers a fair amount of public land, including several state forests. These state forests get fair amount of hunting pressure, but if you are willing to get off the roads a mile or two you might find yourself in the middle of great hunting with little to no other hunters around. It is still possible to get permission to hunt great private land, especially for a bowhunter, if you are willing to knock on a lot of doors.
You will not find a Boone & Crockett buck around every corner in Iowa, but if you do your research before the hunt, and work hard during the hunt, you will have a legitimate chance to kill a mature buck you can be proud of.
Missouri
Ranking the Show-Me State as number two might be a surprise but there are several factors involved. First of all, there is an abundance of public hunting land, and unlike Iowa, it is still quite easy to get permission to hunt on private farms. Access is not the only easy part. Nonresident licenses are available over the counter, so you can hunt every year, and they are one of the best bargains for the travelling bowhunter. A nonresident archery license costs $225 and it allows you to bag two turkeys and two deer.
The northern two tiers of counties and the bottoms of the Missouri River are where you will find all the action for big bucks. Missouri’s antler point restrictions in the northern half of the state have had a positive impact on the number of mature bucks that can be seen on a trip to the state. There are large blocks of public ground open to hunting, and some are designated archery only. Missouri’s habitat is similar to that of Iowa’s: a perfect combination of fertile crop ground mixed with brushy draws and wooded hills covered in hardwoods.
Another advantage to hunting in northern Missouri is the cost of staying there. It’s not hard to find a decent motel in a small town near good hunting for less than $300 per week. Gas prices there are some of the cheapest in the nation and the cost of living is low. You can even camp in the parking lot of a public hunting area if you really want to rough it, or travel in an RV. It’s DIY on a budget to the max!
Kansas
I call it the land of tornadoes and 10-pointers. It’s one of my favorite destinations to hunt. Kansas is well-known for producing outsized whitetails. This state has nowhere near the numbers that are found in Iowa and Missouri, but the average size is very good. In the eastern part of the state, the habitat is much like our first two picks, but the proximity to major population areas makes it more difficult to find a place to hunt. There is some public land in the eastern part of the state, but it gets a lot of pressure. The south-central part of the state has historically produced the largest number of Boone & Crockett bucks, but good whitetail hunting is found throughout the state.
Kansas has a walk-in hunting program where landowners allow the public to hunt on their land. They sign up for this program and the Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks publishes a free book with maps to these areas. This program is primarily designed to benefit pheasant and quail hunters, but deer hunters are welcomed onto this land as well. Much of it is open grassland, but these prairies are commonly intersected by wooded draws or cottonwood shaded streams. At first glance it may not look like typical whitetail habitat but bucks live there—and big ones at that. Don’t overlook the opportunity to do a spot and stalk hunt during the rut when the big bucks push does out into the open where they can keep an eye on them.
Kansas has increased the number of nonresident hunting permits it offers in recent years. In most zones you will draw every other year, and in some you can draw a tag every year. If you cannot hunt in a given year, but want to be guaranteed a tag in the following year, you can buy a preference point for $22.50 and be assured of a draw the following year. Licenses with all fees included are $395. Applications are due during the month of April.
North Dakota
Much like the walk-in program in Kansas, North Dakota’s PLOTS (Private Land Open to Sportsmen) program offers an abundance of hunting opportunities. This program too is designed for bird hunters, but deer hunters can benefit a great deal if they spend some time on Google Earth and look over the areas, pinpointing good deer habitat. You will find a great deal of state and federal land open to hunting. And unlike Iowa, where farmers have learned they can get good money to lease their land, most farmers in North Dakota are very open to a hunter who will respect his property, be courteous, and remove a crop-raiding deer.
North Dakota has produced few B&C bucks over the years when compared to the well-known Midwestern states, but your chance to shoot a 130- to 150-class deer is very realistic. Much of the hunting centers around water. River bottoms, drainages, and ponds attract deer in this arid land. Lake Sakakawea is surrounded by tens of thousands of acres of U.S. Army Corps of Engineers land that is open to hunting. The Missouri River from the Sakakawea Dam to the South Dakota border offers floodplains that are ideal deer habitat.
The abundance of public hunting is not the only thing attractive about North Dakota. The archery season opens in early September, when the deer are in predictable bedding-to-feeding movement patterns. This offers a great opportunity to bag a buck long before many other states’ seasons open. And if you ever had a hankering to shoot a whitetail buck in velvet, this is one of a handful of great opportunities to do it.
Licenses are available over-the-counter and they are a steal at $215. No drawings to wait on, no extra fees or preference points, just show up, buy a license, and hunt. That simplicity typifies the North Dakota approach to hunting: just get outdoors and have fun.
Northeastern Wyoming and southeastern Montana
Rather than a state, number five on our list is an area. This is open country with river bottoms and irrigated cropland. Rivers lined with cottonwood trees and fields smothered in lush alfalfa offer the best opportunity in the nation to bag a mature buck in late summer and early fall. Patterns are remarkably predictable and anyone with a spotting scope can figure it out. Some of the best land is leased by outfitters, but there’s plenty left that offers easy access. The landowners often do not hold whitetails in high regard. In fact they are seen as pests and on many ranches, bowhunters are welcomed with open arms.
Montana has become especially fond of their whitetail tags. You can draw a whitetail tag for this area of the state every one to three years but it will set you back $572. Or you can buy a deer/elk combo license for $986 which guarantees you a tag, and if you do not hunt elk, the state will refund the difference. It’s a strange process, but the hunting can be worth it if you are looking for a high percentage early-season hunt.
Wyoming’s pricing is a little better; tags cost $338.50 and you can draw every other year and sometimes yearly. You can simply up your drawing odds by purchasing a preference point rather than applying for a tag. A preference point in Montana is $20 and in Wyoming $40.
This area is not known for B&C bucks, but the chance of bagging a 130 to 140 is very good, and 150-class bucks are not out of the question. One advantage is the ability to glass these fields and get a really good feel for the trophy potential so you know what to expect when you get in a treestand.
I could make a case for several other states that could appear in the top five, such as Wisconsin, Illinois, Ohio, and Kentucky. These states also offer opportunities to shoot a mature buck. But the combination of access, tag availability, and the odds of bagging a mature buck on a DIY hunt make these five my top destinations for the bowhunting road trip.
If you have a case of “itchy feet” as the mountain men once called it, the desire to see what’s over that next mountain, or the desire to experience something new, consider a do-it-yourself bowhunt in one of these top destinations. The rewards of doing so are great, even if you come home with memories instead of a big rack.
Follow Bernie’s bowhunting adventures on his blog, bowhuntingroad.com.
