So I have grown up and hunted central New Jersey my entire life and have garnered some interest in attempting an out of state whitetail hunt, probably in the midwest, next fall. Who here has done this and if so, how did you go about it? I could spend about a week of hunting, I would probably just run my lone wolf hang and hunt system so I could be portable wherever I go, but what states have some of you had success in? Time of year? Public or Private? I am not trying to get anybody to share their personal spots, I am just trying to get an idea of where to start.
Ive had success in OH, IN and MD. All public land. We just started by searching maps for reasonable chunks of public land or public access land. One of the biggest reasons we have had success was our willingness to push in as far as we could. We always tried to avoid other hunters. Sometimes you can't avoid them all but its worth trying. We also spent time scouting in late winter/ early spring. OH and IN are always rut hunts for us. MD was an early season hunt. It was fun being able to hunt in Sept. but if we went back to MD again I would try to time it for the Rut. Once you decide you have an area that you want to check out, dont be afraid to knock on some doors or talk to people at local restaurants, stores etc. We have gained a lot of valuable info from just talking to people. In PA, everyone seems to hunt or know someone that hunts and they are not very willing to share info. These other states, people seemed very willing to help. Hope that helps a little bit.. Good luck!
get OnX, and pick a state with lots of public land and OTC tags. Watch The Public Hunter on YouTube- religiously. If you can, buy your license online ahead of time. One thing to do for sure if you haven't already, take Hunter's Ed/Archery Ed and/or have your certificate# handy. Some states are really, really hard ons about that. I almost wasn't able to hunt my first time in WI because I didn't have my certificate# handy; I hadn't needed it in over 20 years hunting in other states so I didn't think anything of it. Luckily I was able to look it up on the my DNR website from my phone.
