ButchA

That's how I feel about the state of Virginia. Virginia has those WMA's (Wildlife Management Area) and they are ridiculously overhunted, overused, and totally mismanaged by the state. Saturdays on the WMA's are downright scary - I mean, it's a wonder someone hasn't been shot yet! It's like there's so much blaze orange, it looks like a freakin' pumpkin patch, and worse - it's like there's a hunter behind every tree!

Virginia = if you don't have access to private land, you're screwed.
Virginia = you can't hunt on Sundays!
Virginia = they run hound dogs east of the Blue Ridge Mts (both legally, and um...well... )
Virginia = some places are LOADED with deer, but yet, you can't hunt them, obtain access to them, etc...etc...
Virginia = Pffffttttt... I'm done hunting in this state!

Zim

For proximity I think if I were you I'd try Maryland or SE Ohio. Check out the # of P&Y critters taken in each state. Better management. Less guns in the rut.

Up here our public gets hammered by crappy managed southern states Tennessee, Mississippi, Alabama, Louisiana, Georgia plus Michigan. Zero Kentucky, Ohio, Iowa, Wisconsin, even Indiana plates.

Tennessee is worst, but Mississippi is on my new black list after Mossy Oak's support of SFW on their recent rape attempt on public land tags in Arizona. That bunch can pound sand in my book. All about outfitter welfare & entitlements. Putrid people. I do not boycott companies, but for Mossy Oak I now make an exception. They need to spend their money chasing legislators in their own state to manage their deer instead of shipping their resident hunters to Illinois, and buying Arizona legislators for welfare at the expense of a public resource.

Even after near every sportsman's org jumped off the SFW ship, Mossy Oak hung on for the entitlements. Shows you what they are all about.

scribe

Right on Zim! But you know what, we here i Tn feel the same way about IL residents. Instead of coming down here to vacation, just stay up there look for honest politicians.

Bocajnala

I hunt PA every year, I'll be doing that this year. Also looking into going down for a few days of WV deer season. Depends on the work schedule
-Jake

Zim

I don't vacation nor even drive thru Tennessee, but I have no problem with TN residents hunting IL public land. It's the QUANTITY of them I have a problem with. Illinois should take care of it's resident taxpayers first, like most states do.

You cannot compare hunting land with amusement parks. A roller coaster is the same for the 1st rider as it is for the 500th. Not so for hunting land. Everyone knows the quality of experience drops VERY quickly when too many hunters are allowed in.

But if you feel a state should take care of nonresidents before it's own, then we will agree to disagree.

Brow Tine Productions

Here in Ohio, we are hosting a 6 team hunting challenge at Killinbuck Outfitters for free. I think the teams in so far are from Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan and Pennsylvania. All the teams are a 2 man hunting team that video's the hunts. We are having a video competition for the 6th and final team. If you wanna check it out and/or enter click the link below and go to Bone Brawl Challenge or go direct to the Bone Brawl Challenge facebook page.

BTW if you have any questions about the event you can email Donnie Rogers (Founder) from Team Moment of Truth (Indiana) or Nathan Biggs ( Ohio contact ) from Brow Tine Productions (Ohio). Their emails are on the team sites.

Kid

Amen to every last word! Unfortunately, thanks to the aforementioned less than honest politicians here in Illinois raping the IDNR budget the way they have for the last 10 to 12 years, IDNR needs every non-resident dollar they can get their hands on. The way things look now, my guess is that it is going to get a lot more expensive for everyone to Deer hunt in Illinois. Limiting the number of non-residents is never going to happen here in Illinois as long as they are willing to pony up to hunt Deer the way they do. Just glad I have a nice chunk of private ground to hunt.