West goes East????

I was listening to the MeatEater podcast today and one of the subjects discussed was how difficult it would be for a guy in the West to come East for a whitetail hunt. The general consensus was that it is far easier for a guy to go West. This seemed to be due mostly to land access and local knowledge. So my question is this: Have any you western guys ever wanted to go east for a deer hunt and didn't because of the reasons mentioned above?

I moved from Montana to Maine once. Big mistake. Lack of public land, lack of mountains, and too many people. It's amazing what some people will try for money.

Lack of Federal land and restrictive gun laws are the 2 biggies IMO.

I've always thought it would be fun to go hunt whitetails in the East. Never have tried but think it would be fun somewhere you can see lots of deer and be able to shoot multiple deer. I wouldn't even care if it was just does. But I'll never move from the West. We have it pretty good here with Public land.

Mac7 said:

somewhere you can see lots of deer

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When you find this place out east, lemme know I'm also interested and I've lived and hunted out here the last 16yrs lol

Granted the 90s I remember seeing 30 deer in a single morning sit on public land, not so much anymore but that's a whole nother argument I don't wanna get into lol

It's a money game out east, in PA and OH at least, gotta pay to play. I lost rights to hunt a 400acre piece to some bonehead from down south that offered the owner $30/acre. Owner was in a bind financially and I never once blamed him for it, he was nice enough to lemme hunt it for free.

teej89 said:

When you find this place out east, lemme know I'm also interested and I've lived and hunted out here the last 16yrs lol

Granted the 90s I remember seeing 30 deer in a single morning sit, not so much anymore but that's a whole nother argument I don't wanna get into lol

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See this is what I was getting at with this post. I live in Georgia and hunt both here and in northern Mississippi. Its been a while since Ive seen 30 deer in a hunt but I sat with my 8 and 10 year old last year and let 13 does walk in the first 35 minutes. As an outsider that would be a difficult honey hole to find without local knowledge.

shootbrownelk said:

Lack of Federal land and restrictive gun laws are the 2 biggies IMO.

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Hunt the south east then! We have pretty wide open gun laws and a lot of public land.

I'm sure there are some places where a guy can walk into the mountains and hunt on public land but I suspect they are probably overrun by orange clad hunters. The other option of sitting over a food plot or in a blind on someones back forty just doesn't appeal to me.

Well, I f you ever sat in a real Hardwood bottom when it is coming awake with Wood Ducks squealing and Squirrels scurrying around you would change your mind. There are many places back East to hunt DIY. all you have to do is look. John

teej89 said:

When you find this place out east, lemme know I'm also interested and I've lived and hunted out here the last 16yrs lol

Granted the 90s I remember seeing 30 deer in a single morning sit on public land, not so much anymore but that's a whole nother argument I don't wanna get into lol

It's a money game out east, in PA and OH at least, gotta pay to play. I lost rights to hunt a 400acre piece to some bonehead from down south that offered the owner $30/acre. Owner was in a bind financially and I never once blamed him for it, he was nice enough to lemme hunt it for free.

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Doubt I'll ever go but good to know.

As much as I love hunting the West, since I am from IN and have emotional ties there is something really special about sitting in a tree stand after a fresh snowfall in the hardwood forest. Kinda like being in the mountains and hearing an elk bugle....good for the soul.

Plenty of public land in the east. I've hunted MS all my life and also around Tennessee, Ohio, and West Virginia. Not that restrictive in most of these places and decent deer numbers. However, you can't expect to come out this way and have a monster walk out in the first day. Its just like us coming out west, you have to do the research and plenty of boot leather.

I've hunted whitetail for nearly 28 of my 38 years here in Ohio. My dad has hunted over 70 years....deer since they opened the season back up in the 60s. In the last 10-15 years, dad and I have lost access to over 3000 acres of private lands of various sizes. Public land is pretty much overran. I know a nature conservancy property of a couple hundred acres that had over 20 hunters on it in one evening during the past bow season. One of my friends from Pennsylvania was one of them. There were many instances of trespass onto private property surrounding this area. Too many hunters, not enough land. Public land, for the most part, is state land. What public land there is has a lot of activity. The deer tend to hang around the fringes where they are nearly impossible to access and bail out onto private when the pressure mounts. Food plots weren't even a thing 10 years ago. Bow hunters were non-existent when I first started bow hunting. You usually had the woods to yourself and plenty of rutting bucks. There is nothing like sitting in an oak woods with bucks chasing does, grunting', fighting'....just waiting for one to give you an opportunity. I can't tell you how many bucks of a lifetime I had cross just out of bow range back in those days...or how many I just screwed up on. I love it to my core..or at least I used to.

That being said, access for me has narrowed for a few parcels of land, probably less than 300 acres total, that gets pressure from other hunters too. I'm a classic "east goes west" guy. Last season was the first season that I never checked in a deer in Ohio..buck or doe. I seriously doubt that I will even buy a tag here this fall because of a hopeful Wyoming antelope hunt and a New Mexico elk hunt. I don't need the meat if I'm lucky on both of those hunts. I have several friends that are giving up. Adams/Brown/Scioto counties where I used to hunt are all poor counties. My friends can't afford several hundred or thousand for leases. Dad and I are lucky that the outfitters and land owners still let us look for shed antlers. It's just a matter of time before they start outfitting that too. What does suck about that is finding sheds like dad found this year...the 215" brute...that we realistically can't even hunt. If we hunt the parcel that we have permission on, we will just blow it on him and force him out of the area. The only reason I'm still hoping to have land to hunt around here is so that as my son ages, I can get him involved at an early age like I was.

In my home state of Georgia a non-resident on a $300 license has 2 millions acres of public land to hunt. On that license they can kill 2 bucks, 10 does, and 2 black bears. Bow season starts in Mid September and runs to Mid October when gun season starts and runs to the 2nd weekend in January.

mattlowe31 said:

In my home state of Georgia a non-resident on a $300 license has 2 millions acres of public land to hunt. On that license they can kill 2 bucks, 10 does, and 2 black bears. Bow season starts in Mid September and runs to Mid October when gun season starts and runs to the 2nd weekend in January.

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Is that 2 million acres of contiguous land or bits and peices? It's a lot different when it's a few hundered acres here and there.
I'm glad you are happy with that type of hunting but it's not for everyone.

I don't know why anyone from out west would want to go back east to hunt let alone sitting in a treestand waiting for whitetails. After spot and stalk hunting western big game, stand hunting has zero appeal to me. People who are really into eastern whitetail hunting like it because they haven't experienced other things or they hang on to family traditions more than the actual hunt.

Eastern hunting lacks the adventure and scale of hunting out west in 99% of its applications. There are very few tracks of ground big enough to pose more than a modest challenge to allow you to really "get away from people." Money, family and connections have more to do with success than effort.

There is no doubt that there is a lot of skill and gamesmanship involved in hunting small pieces of ground for heavily pressured animals, but it isn't necessarily a set of skills I want to develop personally. Eastern hunts become overwhelming about reacting to other humans rather than about hunting animals.

I remember having a weird moment this spring while scouting for turkeys in Illinois along a creek bottom and I came to the edge of what is essentially a 20 mile continuous flat cornfield and I could see 20+ houses from one point in a relatively unpopulated area. After spending a week solo elk hunting wilderness areas of the rocky mountains last fall I couldn't consider what I was doing to be the same activity as that Illinois turkey hunt. I didn't even end up going hunting on that tag.

Lots of people enjoy Eastern hunting, but most have no point of comparison. Ask them how many species, different styles of hunts and different states and the conversation gets really quiet.

Flatland Crusoe said:

I don't know why anyone from out west would want to go back east to hunt let alone sitting in a treestand waiting for whitetails. After spot and stalk hunting western big game, stand hunting has zero appeal to me. People who are really into eastern whitetail hunting like it because they haven't experienced other things or they hang on to family traditions more than the actual hunt.

Eastern hunting lacks the adventure and scale of hunting out west in 99% of its applications. There are very few tracks of ground big enough to pose more than a modest challenge to allow you to really "get away from people." Money, family and connections have more to do with success than effort.

There is no doubt that there is a lot of skill and gamesmanship involved in hunting small pieces of ground for heavily pressured animals, but it isn't necessarily a set of skills I want to develop personally. Eastern hunts become overwhelming about reacting to other humans rather than about hunting animals.

I remember having a weird moment this spring while scouting for turkeys in Illinois along a creek bottom and I came to the edge of what is essentially a 20 mile continuous flat cornfield and I could see 20+ houses from one point in a relatively unpopulated area. After spending a week solo elk hunting wilderness areas of the rocky mountains last fall I couldn't consider what I was doing to be the same activity as that Illinois turkey hunt. I didn't even end up going hunting on that tag.

Lots of people enjoy Eastern hunting, but most have no point of comparison. Ask them how many species, different styles of hunts and different states and the conversation gets really quiet.

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You make a lot of bold presumptions there, fella. I can tell you haven't ever been to my neck of the woods.

Well my intention wasn't really to start a contest over whether eastern or western hunting was better. They're obviously very different and both have their merits.

Gr8bawana said:

I'm sure there are some places where a guy can walk into the mountains and hunt on public land but I suspect they are probably overrun by orange clad hunters.

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Where I grew up hunting in Virginia, you will run into fewer people in the forest than a lot of places in Montana.

Flatland Crusoe said:

I don't know why anyone from out west would want to go back east to hunt let alone sitting in a treestand waiting for whitetails. After spot and stalk hunting western big game, stand hunting has zero appeal to me. People who are really into eastern whitetail hunting like it because they haven't experienced other things or they hang on to family traditions more than the actual hunt.

Eastern hunting lacks the adventure and scale of hunting out west in 99% of its applications. There are very few tracks of ground big enough to pose more than a modest challenge to allow you to really "get away from people." Money, family and connections have more to do with success than effort.

There is no doubt that there is a lot of skill and gamesmanship involved in hunting small pieces of ground for heavily pressured animals, but it isn't necessarily a set of skills I want to develop personally. Eastern hunts become overwhelming about reacting to other humans rather than about hunting animals.

I remember having a weird moment this spring while scouting for turkeys in Illinois along a creek bottom and I came to the edge of what is essentially a 20 mile continuous flat cornfield and I could see 20+ houses from one point in a relatively unpopulated area. After spending a week solo elk hunting wilderness areas of the rocky mountains last fall I couldn't consider what I was doing to be the same activity as that Illinois turkey hunt. I didn't even end up going hunting on that tag.

Lots of people enjoy Eastern hunting, but most have no point of comparison. Ask them how many species, different styles of hunts and different states and the conversation gets really quiet.

Click to expand...

Clueless comes to mind...