With all the reading and TV shows I have taken in since my deer hunting interest has resurfaced a question came to mind and I have been pondering this for a while as this is what I do. What is the deer hunting capital of the United States? To me it seems to be the Northeast as in Michigan, Wisconsin and Minnesota. Any opinions? I wondered about Texas but I hear you have to stalk them naked, tackle them down and chew their throat out to be a real hunter there

Metro

Well it aint Pa. I dont think the states you mentioned as N.E. states are in the N.E.

A lot depends on what you count in your values as deer hunting capital. If deer numbers, harvest limits and length of season count one of the southeastern states would be hard to beat. Example of Alabama where the season last from mid Nov to the end of Jan and you can legally harvest around 200 deer. If it is trophy antlers and deer size are what you count you would probably go to one of the lower populated areas. My vote would go to Alabama.

Here in NJ in the zone I hunt (zone 8) I get 49 days of shotgun hunting and I can take 98 does and 2 antlered bucks! Thats 100 deer just for shotgun! With bow and muzzy seasons added in It's got to be over 200 deer! I usually take 3 or 4 deer a year to keep meat in the freezer until the next season.

For sheer numbers of deer it has to be Texas and Alabama. For rack size along with body weight I think the top three have to be Iowa, Illinois, and Kansas.

Canada?!! or deep woods in Northern WI or Minnesota!

Not here ,
no , definitely not here ... [:-]

Interesting tidbits in the November issue of American Hunter: in 2001 survey, Michigan had 780,000 hunters, Pennsylvania 1 million, and Texas 1.2 million. I know this is for a different yr, but the deer harvest for 2003 for these states are as follows:
Texas- 436,942 deer
Penn.- 464,890 deer
Mich.- 495, 000 deer

I was very surprised that Michigan harvested that many.
And I am really jealous of you hunters that can take so many deer. Here in the county I hunt in East Texas, I can take 1 buck, and NO does!!! Really sucks. At least I can still hunt the ducks, squirrells, and the year-around no limit take of wild hogs. Still wish I could take more deer.

We have a lot of deer here in GA. The problem is that two days befor Bow season opens they all rent a house down the block and hide out until Feb. I haven't even seen one yet. Can't wait until the move. Maybe I can get some of those Hogs you Texas boys have been talking about.

Another little fact about Texas that most people dont know or realize, about 30% of the state has no whitetail deer. The whitetail just do not inhabite these parts of the state.

Some times people say that Texas does not produce as many B&C class bucks as other states, I have to remind them about a few things. For example when you think about the fact that central and east Texas do not have the capability to produce B&C class deer (although east Tex is getting better), your only left with south Texas and parts of extreme north Texas that have the ability to consitently produce B&C class bucks. So next time you look at the B&C books and see Texas behind some of the mid-western states, you have to realize that most of those bucks came from the same small regions of the state. If all of Texas was as good as the southern and extreme northern portions, then Texas would blow all of the other states out of the water.