[mywaynow]

My crew has opted out of Maine for next year. I am looking for suggestions for states that have rifle seasons and large tracts of public accessible grounds. If you have hunted Maine, you know what we are used to; unlimited access of very difficult terrain by the 10s of thousand acres.

Needs to be in North/Central/East portion of the country.

Thanks for any input!

 

[onehorse]

Montana! MILLIONS of public access acres, whitetails, muleys, mountain goats, moose, elk, big horn sheep, bison, wolf, bear, antelope. Need I say more? You'd have to strech the area that you mentioned a little, but it would be worth it.

 

[timetohunt]

The Adirondacks of Northern Ner York should give you some challenging hunting. The deer aren't as plentiful as the rest of the state but some nice bucks come out of there. Earlier this year I sat in on a presentation at a Outdoors seminar given by the Salerno Brothers. Itwas quite interesting and worth checking out.

 

[gfdeputy2]

well I just got back from the finger lakes of NY & hunted public land & most likely will never hunt public land in NY again during firearm season I could not believe how many STUPID hunters there are & I don't think it is just NY every piece of public land we went to was full of hunters. We went the second week to try & avoid the fever of opening week. Didn't work I can not believe Hunters think it is ok to consantly shoot in the air while driving deer or just unload on flat out running deer till their guns are empty & have absolutely no respect for the land or others in the woods I would seriously consider looking into Private land put an ad on craigslist or something I am thinking of going back for bow season only becouse there are so many deer there but when you would rather stay in the truck or the hotel then be in the woods NO THANKS

 

[timetohunt]

well I just got back from the finger lakes of NY & hunted public land & most likely will never hunt public land in NY again during firearm season I could not believe how many STUPID hunters there are & I don't think it is just NY every piece of public land we went to was full of hunters. We went the second week to try & avoid the fever of opening week. Didn't work I can not believe Hunters think it is ok to consantly shoot in the air while driving deer or just unload on flat out running deer till their guns are empty & have absolutely no respect for the land or others in the woods I would seriously consider looking into Private land put an ad on craigslist or something I am thinking of going back for bow season only becouse there are so many deer there but when you would rather stay in the truck or the hotel then be in the woods NO THANKS

There are a lot of "crazy" Hunters on Public land. Here in central New York we get alot of hunters from New York City and New Jersy. Where I live there is so much public state forest that it "dilutes" the hunters. Theres always alot of shooting opening day. I am always out of state for the second weekend of gun season for thanksgiving. By the third Saturday of gun season, the State land where I hunt is empty. I've spent the whole day up there on a saturday and have only heard a few distant shots and seen no one else. This forest is 3000 + acres. I always feel safer on private land too and if I ran into the stuff you were talking about, I would avoid that area like the plague.

 

[Hunting Man]

Parts of Ohio can be crazy too in the public hunting areas. Takes a lot of woods time to locate the one spot nobody else goes too. A few of my co-workers can go to southern ohio and bring deer home but its a mad house first week. I would love to get into a lease for private property in Ohio just to shoot a real wall hanging buck.