What all types of terrain have you hunted for whitetails and what is your favorite? I have hunted the "big woods" of North Arkansas, the cutover timber of Mississippi, and the small blocks and wooded draws of the midwest. In northern Arkansas the blocks of woods that I often hunt are several thousand acres with no distinguishing characteristics. Big oak trees everywhere with very little differences in terrain, completely flat and virtually no funnel areas etc. It tends to be very difficult to hunt and I have learned from years of experience that only way to figure these deer out is with hours logged in a tree stand. Central Mississippi with its rolling hills is a little easier to hunt. There is a lot of paper company ground and therefore a lot of tracts of pine trees as well cutover that tends to be thick and lush with lots of good browse. Also, there will typically be some tracks of hardwoods that adjoin either the pines or the cutover. In these areas there will typically be some good saddles or funnels or brushy draws and lots of "edge" areas that will help you predict the higher percentage hunting areas. The deer will normally bed in the cutover or the young pines and move from there to whatever they happen to be feeding on at the time. The sign shows up better and I find the deer to be more "patternable" than the big woods deer. The last place that I have hunted is the midwest (west central Illinois). The midwest seems to be exemplified by rolling hills, small tracks of timber that border larger tracts of farm ground. Throw in some CRP or "ten year" and you have a pretty good idea what hunting the midwest looks like. While I certainly don't mean to undermine the skill involved in hunting midwestern deer beacuse afterall deer are deer and hunting is hunting and Murphy's Law can and will present itself at any time, hunting midwestern deer seems to be an eazier puzzle to put together. One of the most difficult things to do in hunting or fishing to eliminate unprductive territory which is precisely why hunting the whitetails of the "big woods" can be so difficult. In the midwest this IMO becomes a little easier. In most cases it is easier to determine where deer will bed and where they will feed, where in the "big woods" it quite often is the same place or 50 yards from one another at most. There are a lot of natural funnels and most of the time you can just look at the layout of the ground and determine the higher percentage areas before you ever scout it. Also, in many cases in the midwest it is not difficult to find alternate routes into and out of a hunting locations whereas in some areas that I hunt there may only be one way in without having another boat across a levee on a different river than the one you are hunting and then walking a mile to the only beaver damn that will allow you to cross the 10' deep slough, just to keep the wind in your face as you enter your stand. Most of the time hunting the midwest its just easier to look at an area and make sense of how to hunt it. Now don't get me wrong I know it's still hunting and it's still hard because not only do you not ever know what deer are going to do but also you never know if you going to get a shot even if you get a deer in range. Also, I have been skunked in the midwest just like I have anywhere else. But as far as picking a place to hunt I prefer the midwest. The layout of the terrain coupled with the potential to kill a big deer make it my favorite. What all have you hunted? Which is your favorite and why?

I hunt mostly in clearcut timber, but I would have to say my favorite is riverbottoms. Just seems like deer really like this cover.

I hunt mostly the big woods of northern Maine and a few smaller parcels in southern main and New Hampshire. My favorite set up is in a creek botton in souther Maine. We only own a little over 3 acre's which was abbutted to about 15 acres that has been developed over the last 5 or 6 years. Now the deer are pretty much stuck in my honey hole. I see more deer/ bucks in the creek bottom then anywhere else I hunt. On the other hand I have seen the largest deer of my life in the North ern woods of Maine but have yet to connect on one of those big boys. With a little (lots) of preseason scouting I hope to change that this year.

I've hunted cutover, riverbottom, open hardwoods, tree farms, grass land, swamps, etc. mostly in Mississippi and Arkansas.

I've also been to Illinois on a bowhunt and I would tend to agree with you. It is VERY easy to eyeball a topo map and pinpoint the "best" places to put up a stand in Illinois. That becomes much more difficult when hunting large tracts of solid woods, been there, it literally takes hundreds or thousands of hours on stand to see the big picture.

My favorite, I prefer hunting the Mississippi River bottoms, from south Mississippi up to Illinois, it's all good and probably some of the best hunting on the planet.

Well i screwed up and put 2 of the same posts in here, ahwell.

I guess my name says it all, in PA

I have hunted the Mississippi from Illinois to Mississippi also and it is some phenomenal hunting. The deer are both big bodied and have big horns all the way up and down it.

Just your standard northwoods and swamps of MI.

Residential, Residential and did I mention Residential.

Why would you hunt any where else?