When I first started taking trips out of state to chase whitetails, I dreamed of coming home to Michigan with one of those giant bucks you see on the cover of magazines. After a few trips and finding some success, I quickly realized the real trophies are the memories made in different places with family and friends. These adventures and memories have a far greater impact than any inches of antler. Of course, who doesn’t want to get a crack at a big mature buck?
Outsmarting a big old buck on public land is one of the biggest challenges in hunting, and who doesn’t love a good challenge? However, the realization that so much land open to public hunting exists in our great country is what continues to drive me to invest time, gas and money for a tag and expose myself to new, amazing experiences year after year.
Preparing for an out-of-state public land whitetail trip can be daunting. I’m a bit of a planner by nature, which has proved advantageous over the years when it comes to hunting outside my home state. You can have a great plan and prepare for anything, but the willingness to adapt and throw your original plan right out the window at any moment is crucial. In other words, it’s important not to pigeonhole yourself into limited possibilities, especially if your initial approach isn’t yielding opportunities.
Cast a Wide Net
The beauty of the internet is that you only need to know the name of the state you’re interested in hunting. From there, with a couple of searches, you can bring yourself up to speed quickly on opportunities that align best with your goals and schedule.
Start by doing a Google search for hunting seasons and regulations for whichever state you’re interested in hunting. Obviously, the first step is to determine if tags are available to nonresidents over-the-counter or if a certain amount of preference points are needed to obtain a tag successfully. A highly sought after state like Iowa, for example, will typically require 2-4 years of preference points before actually drawing a tag, whereas states such as Nebraska are available over-the-counter to nonresidents.
After you’ve researched how and when to obtain your tag, the next step is understanding the season dates. Knowing dates provides a look at the season in its entirety, compare it to your available schedule, and when you feel your best odds are of seeing the most deer in daylight.
The rut is often a popular choice for many deer hunter’s trips across the country. It offers the highest likelihood of catching bucks on their feet in daylight, especially in areas you may not hunt throughout the year or have a history of understanding movement patterns in detail. The rut, despite some claims, happens close to the same time every year in a respective area. If this is the time frame you are focusing your trip around, researching and learning when the rut occurs in the area is critical. Then you can cross-reference this for the stage of the rut you would like to focus on and correlating weather conditions that look favorable to deer movement.
Once you’ve determined the date range you want to hunt, it’s time to home in on the region, county(s) or area(s) you want to hunt. Many states limit nonresident tags to specific counties, units, areas, etc. Make sure you fully understand the details and limitations of your deer tag. From here, I like to start dialing in on a more defined area by using an aerial map. I start by locating rivers and creek systems. These areas usually offer a variation, even if it’s slight, of habitat types. If rivers and creeks are present, these are usually the areas where the best security cover and structure is located. Other benefits are a water source for deer, as well as desirable forage. Next, I look for a concentration of tillable land. These areas commonly serve as destination food sources for one or multiple deer herds in an area.
Give Yourself Options
Advancements in technology have changed the game for hunting. We now have endless amounts of information and maps at our fingertips with the development of websites and mobile apps. Tools such as interactive maps and state wildlife websites make it easier than ever for hunters to identify opportunities and create an adventure of their choosing by a few clicks of a mouse or taps on a phone screen. It’s impossible to overstate the value of these resources and how vital they are in creating a plan for the area you want to hunt.
Some hunt-focused mobile mapping apps like OnX and HuntStand even help hunters by offering a filter that identifies locations and details about land open to public hunting in an area. Create a hit list of tracts that hold what you’re looking for in a hunting location. Remember to identify different options for most likely deer movement for different times of day, as well as various wind directions.
Every situation and location is unique, but over the years, I’ve noticed trends in my approach to public land hunting trips regardless of region or state. The most prevalent: I like to have at least 10 different tracts identified to scout and/or hunt. This number can vary depending on the size of the individual properties.
I try to break up larger tracts into smaller sections that I can scout or hunt down, identifying the best portions of each tract and focusing my efforts there. Typically, I end up hunting only a few of these until I either kill or narrow down the options to the best two or three. The main reason I have so many options is that I approach a trip with the strategy of going to where the deer are and not hunting where I think they should be or hope they’ll be. Whether it’s the rut, food source selection, or whatever the cause, finding where the deer are currently located is pivotal to a hunt on a deadline. With a finite amount of time, you can’t afford to put all your eggs in one basket right away, hoping sooner or later a buck comes by. It’s imperative to stay mobile, continuing to scout until you find the spot.
Don’t fall victim to missing the often overlooked spots, either. Just because there might be only one corner on a piece of land that is public, and at first glance on a map it looks marginal at best, it’s worth checking out on foot. It could be the best tract in the whole section. Take the time to speed scout these little out of the way spots for fresh sign and buck activity. Look at the larger picture as well. A huge travel corridor can be entirely on private except for a 10-acre parcel that extends onto a piece of public that otherwise would be a wide-open pasture. Sometimes these little gems are all it takes to hold a good buck and can be excellent cruising funnels during the rut. If your first thought about a spot is that it doesn’t offer enough to be worth your time, check it out anyway. Chances are other hunters are likely thinking the same, and pressure could be low, which means an attractive spot to locate a mature public land buck.
