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After several conversations with friends and family around the country about hunting opportunities where they live I have really been thinking about what each state has to offer. I would love to hear from some the other members here about there state. Lets keep it to big game hunting. My criteria is simple... 1-what big game animals are available to hunt for Non residents? 2-What are the Non Resident license fees? 3-Are the tags over the counter or draw and how difficult is it to draw? 4-How much public land is available to hunt? 5-If private land is the only hunting available what does is cost? 6-How long is your season? | ||
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1-Minnesota offers Non residents hunting for white tail deer, black bear, and timber wolf. 2- A NR license costs $140 for deer, $200 for Black bear, and $250 for wolf. Each license includes a free tag. 3-Deer tags are over the counter. Bear has both over the counter and draw areas some easy some harder. Wolf tags are draw only. This year being our first hunt there were 23,000 applications for 6000 license's. The season closes when the hunt goal of 400 animals has been reached. 4- MN has 4.6 million acres of National forest, 3 million acres of of state forest, 1.29 million acres of wildlife management areas, as well as tens of thousands of acres of county owned timber land that is open to public hunting. Total that is over 10 million acres of public hunting land. 5-The southern part of the state is mostly private farm land and some land leases are available not sure of the cost. 6- Deer Archery season is Sep 15- Dec 31 - 108 days Rifle season is Nov 3 - Nov 18 - 16 days Muzzleloader season is Nov. 24- Dec. 9. -16 days Bear season Sep. 1- Oct. 14 - 44 days Wolf early season Nov.3- Nov. 18 -16 days late season Nov. 24- Jan. 31 -69 days | |||
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MI whitetail deer is $138 for a buck tag. a fair amount of public land. | |||
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MN Hunter, I used to live outside Brainerd, and I think Mn has a lot to offer. You outlined it well. I hunt Ne, Wi, & MN nearly every year for deer (only exception being MN, now that I've moved); all 3 states have similar fees, and good public land hunting, though NE has significantly less public land. I just got back from a MT mule deer hunt, and it was fantastic. No deer, but I had my chances, and the camping was great. We hunted Custer NF, and let me say the pressure, while nothing like a Wisconsin opening morning, was still significant. Most folks we talked to were MT residents, but there were also a couple out of staters. The MT tag + a preference point (or whatever its called) cost me nearly $650. That's a helluvalot more than any out of state deer/buck tag for the states you've mentioned, and while there's no mulies except in Western Ne of these states, most years I'll keep the extra $450 in my pocket to spend on gas & goodies for the trip. I guess all that amounts to is saying, "I'll hunt MT about once every 3 or 4 years". Now, elk...that's another story!  friar Our liberties we prize, and our rights we will maintain. | |||
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Yea, after I read your first post I was thinking, "Wow, the criteria he is laying out all spell M-I-N-N-E-S-O-T-A." The black bear hunting is particularly good, and easy enough to do on your own if you allow some time to bait ahead of time. | |||
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Elk, mule deer, white tail deer, antelope, black bear, moose, bighorn sheep, desert sheep, mountain goat. Bull/either sex elk - 550$ cow 350$ Deer/antelope - 350$ Bear not sure moose/sheep/goats - several thousand Mix of both OTC and draw. There are many OTC elk tags, and many draw. Some are OTC with caps like for bear or either sex elk in certain units/seasons. The rest are draw, BUT, sometimes deer/antelope have left over tags, which are tags that were not drawn in the spring so they're sold sort of OTC. Sheep/moose/goat you're going to be putting in for several years to several decades. The best elk and mule deer tags are also going to take up to decades to draw, but great hunting can be found in low point areas and OTC areas if you put the work in. Lots of public land There are land owner tag hunts, costs can vary greatly from a few hundred to a few thousand. You aren't "buying" the tag, they can't charge more then the tag costs. But they CAN charge you for "access". You still have to purchase the regular tag from the DOW after you get the voucher. Most antelope hunting is done on private land. seasons vary Archery is about 1 month Muzzle loader is about 2 weeks 1st rifle 5 days 2nd rifle 9 days 3rd rifle 9 days 4th rifle 5 days Plains rifle white tail 9 days special late season hunts go from 5 days to several weeks, but again these usually carry special regulations, and are almost always female only. If you think every possible niche has been filled already, thank a wildcatter! | |||
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Missouri only has deer and turkey but with tons of public land and always OTC tags for everyone ________________________________________________ Maker of The Frankenstud Sling Keeper Proudly made in the USA Acepting all forms of payment | |||
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What does a Missouri NR tag cost? | |||
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Milehighshooter, you forgot to mention that you are talking about... COLORADO! | |||
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Georgia has deer and plenty of them, bear, turkey and alligator. Alligator tags are by draw only, all others are OTC. Non-res big game license is $195 for the season. It includes 12 deer tags, only two can be antlered bucks and you are entitled to take two bears and three male turkey. Plenty of public land in Wildlife Managment areas and National forest lands 30+ years experience tells me that perfection hit at .264. Others are adequate but anything before or after is wishful thinking. | |||
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My own opinion is that the best place to hunt is probably wherever you are.... OR... wherever you have family that's already on a hunting lease somewhere.... Other than issues with draws for tags.... people forget that usually - the tag fees aren't the major expense unless you are staying with family or friends..... You have.... A giant amount of off-season scouting and legwork that's hard to do if you live far away.. Guide fees Lodging Travel Food Processing (If you get something) Taxidermy Etc... Honestly - unless I am living in an RV... I am not going to take a week off, travel across country, pay for all the lodging and other expenses - just to take my chances alone on some random over-hunted public land where you won't see anything bigger than a field mouse.... You are going to be competing against hundreds of hunters who have scouted and planned all summer long for the hunt.... I can do that just fine on my $50.00 in-state tag and I can scout during the summer to locate promising places to hunt.... Nope - If I am going out of state on a trophy hunt - I am either going to stay with family and hunt on one of their leases... or I am going to pay for guides and for the privalege of hunting on private land which has amenities and the like.... as well as plenty of game to hunt... Thanks | |||
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Oops! Thanks DLS If you think every possible niche has been filled already, thank a wildcatter! | |||
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Thanks TruckJohn for the input. While I agree with a good part of your assessment I was originally wondering about other states for a reason. 1- where I live in MN I can only kill one buck per year. Some years I would like a shot at another one. 2-draw issues; I was asking what the issues were or if the tags were over the counter not all states have draw issues. 3-major expenses; the title of the post is Best States for BUDGET minded big game hunters. For me personally that means I probably don't have the same discretionary income to spend on hunting as most of the posters here on AR. So I don't pay guide fees because I can't. I hunt DIY. I rarely pay for lodging because I can't so it's sleeping in a tent or the back of the truck for me. Travel well it's hard to get around this one. I don't fly off to far away places to hunt but I do have to put gas in the truck. I do try to go with a buddy to split the gas cost. Food, well I have to eat at home or while hunting so as long as I am willing to put the effort into cooking my own food its no extra expense. Processing, I cut and wrap all of my own game so the only expense is freezer paper and time. Taxidermy, again I can't afford a beautiful head mount of all of the game I shoot so its european mounts for me. I can boil the skull myself or if its really special I can take it to a guy here in MN and he will do an nice european mount for $75. I can't control how many other people hunt on public land but I can assure you I don't pick areas by random. And I promise, you can see game that is bigger than a field mouse on public land. Don't compete against hundreds of other hunters use them to your advantage. Go where they won't or can't. Trust me the game will find a way to slip away from the hordes. So while your assertions are mostly true they just aren't possible for me so unless you are going to invite me out to hunt with you I need to find out other states I can try. So what state do you live in and what are the possibilities there? | |||
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I live in South Carolina.... Out of state licenses are reasonably cheap.. I want to say in the $200 range.... I think you can shoot 8 or 12 deer on 1 license.. No restrictions on sex.... You can shoot does on weekends on a normal license as part of your bag limit - or buy doe tags for week day hunting... 1 license is good for the whole state... No fooling with different county licenses and the like.... There are many different types of hunting available in different regions, but all have additional Muzzle loader and archery seasons... - and in the lower part of the state - it's still legal to hunt deer with dogs... Hogs also abound through most of the state... It's legal in most of the state to hunt them with dogs, and there's no "Season" in most of the state... Our deer hunting season is quite long... Down state - it's like August 1st thru Jan 1st... Up state - it's end of October thru Jan 1st... Many hunt clubs do sell "Day hunts" - which could be a fun alternative to trying to hunt WMA's.. There are also "Draw hunts" - where you can buy a draw into a large, managed hunt.... One of my buddies got into a draw hunt in the Savanah River Site - which is a Nuclear fuel processing site.. Unlimited bag for your hunt - which was like 8 hours or something.... The group of 20 draw hunters shot 90 deer in 1 day.... but there are many different draw hunts like this... The down side is that we just don't grow the giant deer you see up in MN and the midwest... You won't see a 200+ lb deer down here... We love to look at all those pix of the 190 incher, 250lb deer coming out of Oh, MI, WI and MN.... And.. It's a heck of a long drive... A solid 12+ hours... But.. Come on down... There's plenty of hunting... It's better than seeing them hit by cars! Thanks | |||
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