Just wanted to add it depends a lot on where you plan to live in Iowa as to what hunting oppurtunities are available.The areas where the most good bucks come from also seem to have less public ground, more leasing, and more non resident land ownership than other areas of the state.Where Im at in NW Iowa we have plenty of public ground, and most of the private grounds accessible if you stop and ask, the farmers for the most part find deer to be a nuisance and want them killed.

I lived in MD in the military (Frederick) I hunted near there and out towards Baltimore. I've seen some nice bucks there. However, If I was choosing MD or Iowa. I'd have to go with Iowa. And I've never been there.

My resoning is there are so many people in MD/DC area. Sure there are some nice areas of MD. Just not many near Baltimore. Drive out a while and everything changes. I prefer not so many people. Also I think there are alot of people that come from the cities and think it would be fun to go hunting and kill something. So with Baltimore DC and the other big cities there the public land seems to get pretty crowded Especialy in gun season. So don't forget your flak vest if you go out.

Still there are some positives to up there. There is a ton of money there. Lots of business around besides what you do. You'll probably make more there but you need to consider cost of living to see what you'll realy make.

Like I said I'd head to Iowa. When I got out of the military I worked in Northern VA and lived in WV and drove in. I'd rather less people if I can.

Without a question, I would pick Iowa to hunt. I hunt MD hard, and it gets tougher every year to find places to hunt.

Baltimore, did you say Baltimore?? Well it could be worse-you could have said Buffalo?? Go Iowa all the way. I have no use for a big city. Tom.

I'm retired Navy, I lived in Maryland (Annapolis) from 1996-2000 while still on active duty, retired in 2003 (from my last duty station in Hawaii) and settled in central Iowa. Finding hunting property here is easy I've found. The key is to make friends (quite easy in Iowa). Once you find a farmer with decent hunting property, they usually say, take as many deer as you can. If you look on the DNR website, you'll see that there are still about 10,000 antlerless tags available in southern Iowa (where they allow rifles during this current January antlerless season).
My brother-in-law lives by the river south of Des Moines, we were there the day after Thanksgiving and there were 22 turkeys under his back deck (unfortunately he is in the city limits)

Here in Iowa, I don't lock the door of my house; in Maryland I had wheel locks on my car.
Don't even get me started on the commute.
Last year, I had a meeting in DC in the afternoon. I left my house that morning, drove 40 miles to the Des Moines airport, flew to Reagan National, took the Metro to Crystal City, and I beat a guy that left his house in Annaplis an hour later than I did and got stuck in traffic driving in to DC.
As for quality of life, quality of people, availability of affordable housing.....can't beat flyover country.

This thread got me thinking so I did a little bit of research comparing the two states in a more data driven way.


Iowa has 56,875 square miles of land and 401 sqaure miles of water. Iowa ranges from 480 to 1,670 feet in elevation the mean elevation being 1,100. The deer herd is somewhat above 250,000 and is currently below the peak population of around 300,0000, 3 or 4 years ago. The 2006 deer harvest was about 150,000 deer, 60% of which were antlerless. Iowa currently limits nonresident any sex (buck) tags to 6,000, chosen by lottery and other factors.

The human poulation of Iowa is 2,926,324.

Maryland has 9,775 square miles of land and 2,633 square miles of water. Maryland ranges from sea level to 3,360 feet in elevation, the mean elevation being 350. The deer herd in Maryland is above 250,000. The 2006 deer harvest was 92,000 deer, 65% antlerless. Maryland does not limit its nonresident deer tags.

The human population of Maryland is 5,296,324.


The main thing I take from this is human population. In Iowa I compete with less than 3,000,000 people for access to deer. In Maryland you compete with tens of millions because of a lack of restriction on nonresident tags. No wonder it costs so much for someone from Baltimore to hunt. If he does not have an in with a relative, it means he will probably have to pay for access by joining a club or daily tresspass fees. In Iowa, I have an in with my cousin who farms. His family does not hunt but he hates deer. It costs me about 100 dollars for licenses to take small game, one buck, and I buy at least one doe tag.

In Iowa you still can get pemission to hunt by knocking on doors. It helps to have a rural county license plate but my boy hunts and fishes all over with his Polk County (DesMoines) tag. It is often easier to get permission to fish, then, if you see game it is matural to ask about hunting later. Non residents have more trouble this way but there is no telling what an ad in a small town paper might provide. People look to bring customers to the busnisses in town, the motels and restaurants. Once you get permission once, you are polite, you obey the owner's rules, then you are trusted and you have found your own "in".

Can you knock on doors to hunt in Maryland? I would like to know.

For deer, turkeys, coyotes, geese, and pheasants, if hunting is your main criteria, it is Iowa with great public schools to boot. If your thing is clams, sea ducks, stripers, oysters, crabs, urban life, and great scenery, then go to Maryland. With all due respect, while Iowa is probaly safer than Maryland, I'm sure there are places where doors are left unlocked there, just as I know there are places in Iowa where I would never leave anything unlocked.

Every place is what you make of it. I live in a Northwest suburb of Des Moines, and people complain about the 20 minute commute to downtown (light traffic) if traffic causes it to be 5 minutes longer.

Bob

I took a quick look at real estate in rural Iowa. As one example, a farmhouse with several outbuildings, a pond, and ten acres of land was on sale for 95K. And you could probably get it for 85K.

Hell, ten acres alone here will run you an upwards of $350K. WOW, I need to move.

well i live on the eastern shore and love it now i do heve some acesss to good property but there is tons of public land and let me tell you some monster bucks are taken off of them........duck hunting, nothing gets better then duck hunting on the chesapeake, sea duckin is loads of fast paced fun, mallards are fun just finding the property is sometimes difficult but could not be too hard with being a biologist..........geese are a favorite aroung my parts and will put you to the test........The eastern shore is way less crowded than any other part of the state and annapolis is close so hittin the bars in the offseason will be no problem...........never been to iowa so i dont know...........you also have fishin for rockfish during the summer on the chesapeake..........i love where i live and would never change it for anything but its alla personal choice

screw the hunting aspect of it. You need to worry more about making money, having health benefits, and hopefully a pension, you need to think long term, you just may have a family one day,then worry about the hunting. My home state of NJ pays near the best for law enforcement nationwide, the state pays for my health benefits, they equal my pension pay, etc. without those things I may not be able to afford to hunt here in NJ and ILLINOIS