If you wanted to hunt something other than whitetail, I would come to Oregon to hunt Muleys. A friend of mine got a 4x4 a couple of years ago that had an inside spread of 24". It was a monster for sure. You would want the Heppner Unit for big bucks. I'm not sure how the hunting pressure is, I have only rifle hunted elk there and it was a zoo. Hunters everywhere.

Your not kidding. I Hunted just before the special primitive season this year and I have never seen anything like it. There were mini "Mash Camps" Setup every where on the state land I hunt. The worst part is a lot of these guys forgot to take thier trash with them; that sucks. As far as I know its illeagal to pull of the side of the road and setup camp on the state land in Ohio, but that didn't stop hundreds of these camps from springing up. We had a comical moment with a state employee while we're down there. We were enjoying a couple of beers (in a state park, causing no trouble at all) and a state worker (not a Ranger) got all bent out of shape. He instructed us, rather forcefully, to dump the brew right now and we did, and then he said the Ranger would be by to issue citations. Our reply was "he has bigger things to worry about right now," we were right the Ranger never stopped by.

CJ, if you are on a budget and want to hunt trophy whitetails on public land without question I feel that the best place would be in one of the 4 bow hunting only
counties here in West Virginia. For the cost of your gas, food and $150 for your license you have access to all the land you could hunt in a lifetime. Almost 90% of the land in these 4 counties is open to public hunting. However, with that much land hunting pressure is not an issue. The deer population here is low so there has been no gun season for about 30 years. The buck to doe ratio is almost a perfect 3:1. You can do a search under my username and see the many P&Y buck trail cam photos that I have posted.

well i must be the lucky one i hunted public land in oh this year did see a few folks on opening day but they didnt do there homework they pushed the deer my way i have only seen a hand full of hunters all season more bird hunters than deer hunters one of the places i hunt in the last 2 years ive only seen 4 people there but i do my home work i get out in the summer and scout ill take another doe friday or next week if i can get out if yah hunt public land in oh you have to scout the deer know when weekend is if yah wanna hunt public land in oh you have to talk to someone who hunts the area if yah wanna know about highland ross and adams county ill tall yah i meet hunt i like trophy bucks but a big ol doe is good eating

I think MN would be a great place, but the Orange Brigade is always running loose during the rut. The bucks never seem to get a chance to grow.

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Public land is open to all citizens of this country, regardless of state of residence

Up here in northern Minnesota, we have many,many thousands of acres open to public hunting. If you look at the record books, we grow them big here. Weather can be an issue, but we definately have big buck potential, with very little bowhunting pressure. get here before early Nov(before rifle season), and you may go a week without seeing any other hunters. Taz

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Northern Maine has LOTS of land open to the public and there are some very large bucks but it can be very tough hunting. The deer density is low (5-10 per sq mile) but if you hunt funnels it can still be very productive. I've been huting up North for 16 years and I can only think on 1 instance where I saw another hunter in the woods that wasn't part of our party so to say the least hunting pressure is very light.

Non resident tag runs 55$ I believe but there is no lottery. Just walk in and buy one.