kansas, missouri, illinois, etc.

[bowhuntgw]

who all here hunts up in the midwest somewhere? can anyone lend any advice as how someone should go about choosing a state/location for bowhunting. how would you go about getting a place to hunt? i know lots of places across the country are leased up by outfitters and such, but just wondering if its worth my while to explore any possibilities? does the "knock on the door" method still work? i've been going on mule deer and antelope hunts in montana the last couple of years, but i would like to find something a little bit closer to home.

[qzilla]

I know in a lot of areas in Nebraska and Kansas you can still do some door knocking with success. I personally am on a lease in Kansas so I don;t do any knocking. Now my buddies in years past have seen deer in farmed fields in their unit which they have a tag for and they have knocked on some doors with some success.

The problem with gaining permission is that scouting is not that easy up there. Where we hunt there are a lot of deer but you would never know it just driving around. I would think you might want to draw a tag and then try and do some knocking or hang out at the local cafe for a little bit?

Nebraska is pretty similar but, I have a good friend that lived there most of his life so he knows a lot of people around the Platte River and that makes it easier.

I know that if you find a lease up there they are typically cheaper per acre but you cannot shoot as many deer off of them as you can here. You also have a somewhat limited season and if you do not draw you will have to buy a landowner tag which adds to the cost.

[BO-N-ARO]

I have been hunting the great state of Missouri for several years..... every other year when I do not get drawn for Kansas...... and love it. They have several public land hunting areas. Get with the wildlife department and they have all the info. Non-res archery runs $120.
I am heading that way tomorrow afternoon for a few days of hunting. I hunt east of Rich Hill on private land but just south of there is the Four Rivers Preserve that has plenty of archery only hunting and lots of deer. Look at a map, north of Joplin on 71, between Nevada and Rich Hill.
Two weeks ago I passed a deer the first morning that I may not have shoud-a!! I had bucks fighting, scrapes openning up and does being chased two weeks ago. With this cold front things may bust WIDE open!! Wish me luck!

[Dusty]

I have looked at going to MO but all of my hunting buddies are home bodies. I have a hard time getting them to make a four hour drive to a deer lease much less to MO.

[Duane]

We leave for Illinois two weeks from Sunday... can't wait.

Some areas are probably easier to find "door knocking" opportunities than others. We're hunting in Pike County, and it's gotten to be such a big deal there, that I would doubt there's many cheap opportunities left in that part of the state. Others on this board (Lip for instance) have come across great hunting opportunities in the eastern part of the state.

[ruthunter]

I hunt Illinios about every other year. I'm sorta lucky in the fact that my grandmother and mother were born there. I have access to an 80 acre corn farm, 40 acres here and 30 acres there and otherc places all ajacent to either a corn or soybean farm. A few summers ago I condcted google searhes on farm bureau, farm stands and other phrases and coughed up numerous e-mail address for farmers. I e-mailed these farmers asking for permission to hunt their property and had actually gained permission to hunt two small farms, but never followed up on it. I use to post in the Illinois forum on bowsite.com to learn about hunting Illinios. The residents in this forum are brutal towards non-resident hunters because they claim that non-residents are stealing hunting ground away from them and driving up prices. I would still give them hell though. We do live live in a country with a free market place. You should monitor this forum to learn more about hunting Illinois. Those guys share some great information between each other. If you plan a trip to Illinois, you need to hunt between 11/5 - 11/15 which is usually the primary rut period. I drive 1,000 miles to St. Elmo, Illinois and usually hunt 12 days to make it worth my drive. Hunting the "corn belt" is a nice experience that you should try. My two favorite hunting regions are the South Texas Brush Country and the farm lands of Illinios. Within the United States, I don't think that there are any other places that can top it!

[bowhuntgw]

well, we'll see what happens next year. i live in east texas, which has just about been outpriced in my opinion. i'll never pay the $5-10k to hunt the hill country and south texas, so i hope to find something up in the midwest where i can go. i just got back from a deer/antelope trip to wyoming and montana and didn't even spend $1200 on the trip and that price is with 3 tags, lodging, gas and food. thanks for the info.

[qzilla]

Remember typically in TX when you get on a lease you can utilize it year around. Most of them have hogs or Javelina, turkey and wing shooting of some sort. SOme have fishing and you could even just go camping and scouting and look for sheds.

To me if I could only do one of the other the better deal is in TX for year around hunting rather than a 10 day or 2 weeks season.

[Randy]

Im leaving on a hunt next week for SE Missouri. Monster whitetails in the area. This is my first trip up there so Ill let you know what I find out when I get home.

[Joshua Flournoy]

midwest

I grew up in east Texas and hunted there most of my life, but long since gave up on regularly seeing and having opportunities at good bucks there every year. I started bowhunting the midwest almost 10 years ago and have never looked back. Now I live in the midwest (Ohio) and love it. Here's my take:

1) Kansas - plenty of good bucks, probably won't draw a tag every year. Plenty of good public land.

2) Missouri - plenty of good bucks, antler restrictions in a number of counties, plenty of good public land, tags over the counter.

3) Illinois - lots of good bucks, good public land in some parts of the state, tags getting pretty expensive and not guaranteed.

4) Nebraska - plenty of good bucks and good public land, tags over the counter, still a "sleeper" state.

Of those states, the only one I haven't hunted is Nebraska, but I've done a lot of research on hunting there. If I was you, I'd be looking at Missouri and Nebraska. Good luck.

Joshua

[Right_wing]

You can call FHPLTD (1-800-685-7432) and order platt maps of nearly any county in the Midwest. These platt maps will give you landowner names that you can look up on the internet and get their phone numbers. Then just start calling. I did this in 99' and found a place in kansas that is 2700 acres I lease solely by myself for $600 per year and have had it ever since. I called about 20 people and had 3 solid leads before I went up there to look. It works!

[glen]

I hunt Illinois and the tags are getting expensive. I think there are some over the counter out of state tags left. Lots of good public land opportunities. I have permission to hunt private lands but every year I spend about 1/2 of my time hanging from a tree on public lands.

[Jimbow]

I hunted Kansas last year on public land in the southeast corner. Hunting was pretty good saw lots of deer prior to gun season and saw quite a few hunters near the rut. But I would say it was worth the trip.