What a great idea. What an ingenious way to plan a deer hunt! The folks at the Realtree website have issued a deer hunting report card (of sorts) for 48 states and assigned a grade based on a host of criteria. How did your state do? Just click your state’s silhouette and the numbers pop up.
Useful Information
Aside from being interesting, this data may change where and when you hunt. For example, Maryland has a liberal hunting season with very reasonable license prices- about $130 dollars for a non-resident to hunt the entire year. If you were to look a a Maryland map you will find two mountainous western counties that adjoin West Virginia and Pennsylvania. This is “big woods,” remote country with plenty of public land, ideal deer hunting… right?
Ironically, the state’s biggest bucks come from “goose country,” the Eastern Shore and suburban Maryland a situation that has remained constant for the past 40 years. The best way to bag a trophy buck is to hunt where they live, a premise that will be true for all states listed.
Out-of-State is Great
Golfers know the enjoyment of playing new courses and hunters can increase their outdoor recreation in a similar way. Use this information to evaluate the cost of a hunt to a neighboring or distant state and analyse where the biggest deer are taken. Sometimes, those huge deer come from public land which is often through controlled hunts. It’s probably too late to apply for those tags at this time, but think ahead. Often a first out-of-state adventure will be a scouting trip. You will want to have a license, but use the information you gain to make a more productive plan for the following year. Be sure to include your friends to maximize the enjoyment.
Compare Your State
Realtree has the low down on deer hunting in all 50 states. Want to know the whitetail hunting population? The record buck in your state? Find out what grade your state got?
https://www.realtree.com/deer-hunting/antler-nation/2017/alabama-deer-hunting?utm_source=deer_email&utm_term=alabama&mc_cid=ccdfc9bac8&mc_eid=8fe2237aad (Begin with Alabama and click to other states)
