Tigerfan

I am looking for a place to hunt on public land in these states. A friend and I are wanting to go up and hunt for a week to 10 days within the next year or two and we are looking for any and all information that we can get. I have a few questions.

1 How many hunters normally hunt these areas.
2 When is the best time to come up and hunt.
3 Are there any crop fields in the area.

If you have any information, such as just a name of a Management area, refuge, or public land that allows hunting,please respond. I can investigate more from there. Once we get some of this information we can find what works best for us and then call the DNR and go from there. Thanks

petasux

What are you planning to hunt with?

What are you wanting to shoot, you after big bucks or just looking to hunt somewhere different?

If youre planning to come to Iowa within the next two years Id suggest getting your application in this year, you may not get drawn till next year depending on the zone you pick.Answer the first two questions and I can get a better idea where and when in the state youd be better off hunting, the crowds on public lands vary quite a bit at different times of the year here. Other areas dont hold quite as big of bucks but you can also gain access to a lot of private ground in these places and not have to fight the crowds.

Tigerfan

Preferably Gun, and yes we would like a chance at some decent bucks say 120+.

What is the best zone to hunt in Iowa and when does the rut run?

We don't mind walking so if we have to walk a mile or two, to get away from the crowd that is not a problem. We also have a boat so we can use waterways to get anywhere.

As far as hunting private land how would we gain access to these, and is there normally cost involved? We are land owners ourselves and understand how to treat someone else's property. We were both in the Marines and we learned to leave it better than how we found it. I can promise that we would never dissapoint a land owner by leaving his property damaged or hunt illiegally. Thanks for your reply.

Surely there are more people on here that know about public land in their areas. I don't hunt public land in Louisiana but, I can tell you about several different locations of public land. Thanks again

zrexpilot

I live here in Texas, and I hear hunting out that way is way different. My buddy just got back from Kansas, he hunted 6000 acre private ranched that was completely fenced. He said there were hunters slash tresspassers everywhere and they even tried to steal a buck he had killed. He said it was the craziest thing he has ever seen. He told the rancher and he just laghed. He actually didnt even mind. My friend said that for those 10 days everyone and their grandma go into the woods, any woods they dont care. Pretty scary he said, he was afraid of being shot.
For you guys that live in Kansas, is that the way it is out there ?

Runningun

The season opened during the week so for a couple of days I did not see alot of hunters, I heard 6 shots I think4 of those were fromthe same gun. Opening weekend, I saw 2 trucks every mile section along a wooded river areafor about 5 miles when I was driving home.I havenot had any problems with any hunters coming on to my 80acres or had any prob. with rude hunters. I am sure there are some outthere, Sorry your buddy had a bad experience and for the record my grandma does not hunt. (Anymore)

Tigerfan

I have noticed that hunting is diiferent just about everywhere. I am sure that we will find this to be true where we end up hunting.

SuperRedHawk

I would check out the National Forests. Mark Twain in Missouri is huge with some great hunting. Did you search the DNR sites, some great info as well as regs, etc.
But IMO, bowhunting is reallythe way to go if you want to hunt public. You can have huge chunks of land without much pressure at all, usually you are in there over a month before the gun season, the weather is nice and warm,.... well you get the point.

Tigerfan

Yeah that sounds great but, I am not a big bow hunter. My friend would go up for the bow hunt, but I would rather gun hunt. I have checked out the Missouri and Iowa DNR and Missouri is looking like the place to go so far. The tags are cheaper and it is closer. Where is the Mark Twain NF? Thanks for the reply.

Manybeards

Nebraska and Missouri both have OTC Tags,and lots of public land. I just returned from my hunt in Kansas where I hunt private land exclusively. I was suprised by the amount of public land near our lease,and by the low number of hunters I saw using these areas. We saw several 130 class bucks on the public land while riding around. Kansas is a draw state,but transferable non resident tags are available. You'll pay $321.00 for a tag if you draw one,and about twice that if you buy one from a landowner. Still a pretty cheap hunt if you're hunting on public land which is totally free! Best of luck......

BlueRanger1

2 Bad Arkansas not on your list i could give you some suggestion's.The Buck in my Avator is on public land in AR.