I'm about to be spending a great deal of time in Nebraska & Kansas (with some spent in ND & SD)over the next couple of years. What kind of do-it-yourself hunting opportunities are available in those states? I'm primarily intersted in deer hunting altough I'm open to hunting virtually anything. Any ideas?

I live in Kansas and hunt in Nebraska a lot, so this is my limited perspective. In most of Nebraska, drawing a buck tag for rifle is next to impossible. You don't even get to apply until the residents have drawn twice. I managed one buck tag in twelve years. (Nice 12 pt to show for it though) If you want to shoot big does, this is the place to go. In some areas, if you get a doe tag, they simply attach a second to get rid of them. I have shot does that field dressed at 180lbs. Gotta love corn fed. Since I hunt on private land, I can not help you with public.

In Kansas I think the draw is better, but very expensive. There are millions of public and walk-in acres available. You can also get landowners to transfer buck tags to you, usually through an outfitter. My landowner requires chores and a very small daily fee for me to have exclusive access to his 1800 acres. Since I like rebuilding fences, this is not an issue. And my horse never fails to start in the winter.

Hope it helps.

I am from SD and now live in ND and have hunted both states, SD & ND have excellent Whitetail & Mule Deer hunting to go with upland and waterfowl game and it will greatly depend on which side of these states you will be in and both will require some leg work to find places to hunt, do not bother trying to get a mule deer tag for the west side of ND - it is a tough draw.

I've really enjoy hunting the NE Nat'l Forrest next to Halsey, NE. It's a large coniferous forrest surrounded by sandhills. You'll find whitetail and mule deer, turkey, grouse, and coyotes. If you're lucky, you'll also run into a few prairie dogs! IIRC, it's ~93,000 acres so you'll definitely have an opportunity to strech your legs. During firearm season, it gets a good share of hunters but I think it'd still be worth the trip.

There's lots of other public land to hunt all across the state and it's not too hard to get permission on private land if you're willing to knock on a few doors. Good luck.