Hey everyone,
It's been a little while since I've posted but I'm back, at least for the fall . I'm in a little conundrum, I'm not sure what to concentrate on for this fall bow season. I just lost my local Gardner KS hunting hookup (20 minutes from my house), because the landowner just sold his house and land . In any case, KS has a pretty good walk-in program so I'm not totally hosed out in the sunflower state. My family also has around 1800 acres of land in NE Missouri up near Macon and I have exclusive access to a 160 acre plot (mixed woodland and corn) and an 80 acre plot of soybean. The trouble is, since I'm an out-of-state resident, I'd have to bite the bullet and pay the $225 bucks for a tag, even though my family owns the land , which leads to my question:

• Would you all bite the bullet and pay the $225 if you had exclusive access to 240 acres that you know very well OR
• Take the time to go scout on public land in an area that is known for having rather large deer.

Bear in mind, I work full time, my wifes a full-time graduate student and I have 3 young children so time/money is a limited commodity.

Thanks in advance for your posts!

I have hunted public land with some success and alot of frustration. The frustration comes from the simple fact that "anybody" can ruin your hunt at anytime. I have had public land hunts ruined intentionally and unintentionally by other hunters. Most hunters are well mannered and others are not. If you can afford the $225 and not shorthand your family and the time off then i would do it in a heartbeat. Just my .02 cents.

I am actually in a simular situation. All of my normal gun season spots are being leased or sold off here in IL. But I have access to my inlaws 100 acres of woodland in southern Indiana where I am the only person who hunts it. I believe the $295 I paid for the tags this year will be worth it for the following reasons. 1) I still fill my freezer full of meat. 2) I treat it as vacation and really enjoy my time. 3) I see my family while I am there and since they are 4 hours away we don't see them that often so its nice to catch up.

It all comes down to do you have the money to spend and do you want to spend the money. Luckily for me my wife knows I need my time in the woods!

Good luck with either choice you make

Look at it this way, if you hunt 10 times, that's $22.50 a hunt (plus gas) - I'm sure if you looked you could carve that much out of your budget between now and the end of the season. Go for it.

I am in Arkansas thinking how nice it would be just to pay 225 dollars to hunt prime territory for whitetail deer. I dish out 300 every year here to hunt on a lease. We have ok bucks at best here.

I'm from the same area, and have hunted alot of the public land around you. If I were you, I'd try hitting those public land spots when your short on time and get out to Missouri when you've got the whole weekend. If your trophy hunting then thats a different story, Ive only seen a couple real nice bucks in that area.

Another thing to think about, is if you have your Bowhunters certificate apply for access at shawnee mission park. I never did, but Ive seen some nice ones out at the bow range!! lol

Really the worst walk-in hunting is clustered around the big cities. If you get a chance, and venture out west too! theres some exceptional hunting, even mulies!

That being said, if your in it for the meat and not looking for a giant. Ive had real good luck out at hillsdale and clinton.

If it was ME, I'd pay the non resident fee and enjoy being by myself or with a close buddy.

Thanks Pheasant hunter, I'd considered looking into getting a bowhunting certificate to hunt in Shawnee Mission Park, or around it, but never got serious about it. The other night I was out at the archery range out at SMP and I had a HUGE 10 pointer walk up within 60 yards of me, they surely have some giants out there. I was thinking of hunting some of the walk-in land up by Seneca KS up by the Nebraska border, I've seen some really big deer up there. In any case I may look into that bow hunter certificate a little harder this year, do you have any detailed info about it?

I scanned through but couldnt find the link, I think all of the info should be on the parks and rec website I believe, if not I think a park ranger told me about it anyhow. Most of them seem like pretty good guys. My dad lives right across from the park, so I might have to put in for the draw as well!

I just hope they didn't go back to sending in joco swat team in at night to thin out the herd!

I havent had much experience up around seneca, but Im sure there are some big deer up there. I think alot of it depends on hunting pressure, Im in wichita now and have seen some big deer on public land around here so far. Last year once october hit, the deer dissapeared which was pretty dissapointing.

Ill probably be hunting public land around hillsdale, and hopefully trying to stalk mulies in western kansas this year. Havent had much luck on private land except a bunch of stolen treestands and deer that were poached!

Knowing what that area of MO is like, I'd be forking out the $$ for out of state tags.