By Scott Bestul

Field & Stream reporter Steven Hill spent two months interviewing state game agency officials, deer biologists, and whitetail experts to identify the absolute best public whitetail hunting grounds in the nation. No membership fees, no meetings, no permission, no special rules -- just deer, and plenty of them.

Choose a state from the pull-down menu at right or just scroll down through this page to find Hill's recommendations for an area near you. [ Read Full Post ]

By Scott Bestul

Fairystone Farms Wildlife Management Area
Location: southwest Virginia
Size: 5,321 acres
ZIP: 24055

Virginia has ample public land: The National Forest Service alone holds 1.7 million acres, several military bases grant hunting access, and a number of Fish & Wildlife Service areas support good whitetail populations. But for big bucks, options are far fewer. Fairystone is one of only two wildlife areas in the state that use antler restrictions to boost the number of older bucks. Four antler points an inch or longer on one side make a buck legal at this Virginia Department of Game an Inland Fisheries-managed area, which is on the border of Patrick and Henry counties (both among the top 10 counties in the state for Boone and Crockett and Pope and Young bucks). This is the eastern foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains; oak, hickory and pine forests cover steep slopes broken by small patches of bottomland. The adjacent Philpott Reservoir and Fairy Stone State Park add another 9,000 acres of deer range open to public hunting.

Featherfin Wildlife Management Area
Location: central Virginia
Size: 2,800 acres
ZIP: 23901

Even before the state bought Featherfin from private landowners in 2005 and created Virginia’s second quality deer area, this wooded... [ Read Full Post ]

By Scott Bestul

Moran Wildlife Management Area
Location: west Massachusetts
Size: 1,147 acres
ZIP: 01270

More than 25 percent of Massachusetts bucks are 3 1/2 years or older, according to Tom O’Shea, assistant director of wildlife for the Massachusetts Department of Fish and Game. “We’ve got the kind of age structure the Quality Deer Management Association sets as a goal,” O’Shea says, “and our deer densities, while not as high as mid-Atlantic states, are still better than a lot of our New England neighbors.” Big bucks can be found statewide, but the Berkshire Mountains offer some of the most extensive public land acres. Moran is a good place to start: Located on a plateau at 1,700 feet, the WMA’s northern hardwood, spruce, fir, aspen and birch habitat provides lots of security, which means hunters need to mount a drive (a reasonable undertaking on Moran’s relatively gentle terrain) to get deer up and moving.

Nantucket Conservation Foundation lands
Location: east Massachusetts
Size: 8,800 acres
ZIP: 02554

Nantucket Island boasts the state’s highest deer densities and best hunter success rates. “You may not find the biggest bucks there,” O’Shea says, “but you’ll see lots of deer in a really unique hunting environment.” Thirty miles off the Massachusetts coast,... [ Read Full Post ]

By Scott Bestul

Three Rivers Ranger District, Colville National Forest
Location: northeast Washington
Size: 483,916 acres
ZIP: 99141

West across the Columbia River, Game Management Unit 101 in Colville National Forest's Three Rivers Ranger District in Ferry County offers an excellent opportunity for bowhunters. Most of Washington's mature buck harvest comes during the late firearms season, which ends just before the peak rut and the onset of late archery season in mid-November. But Unit 101 doesn't hold a late modern firearms hunt. As a result, bowhunters can look forward to more bucks and less disruption, and they get to hunt the entire rut. Three Rivers Ranger District tends to be more arid, and the forest here is more open-and thus more suited to the tree-stand hunting bowhunters in the state seem to prefer. "Those archers do take a higher percentage of nice big bucks," Zender says. [ Read Full Post ]

By Scott Bestul

Mississippi River Pool 24
Location: 10,211 acres
Size: west Illinois
ZIP: 62366

"About the closest we come to underused public land in Pike County is on the Mississippi River islands," says Krumwiede. You'll need a boat-preferably at least a 16-footer with a 40 horsepower motor-to access this federally owned land, which helps explain the reduced hunting pressure. Pool 24 extends from Lock 22 at Hannibal, Mo., to Lock 24 at Clarksville, Mo., and there are half a dozen named islands on the Illinois side of the state line worth checking out. Denmark (the largest, at 30 acres), Cottonwood, Willow, Gosline, Crider and Cash lie in Pike County, while Middleton Island is in Calhoun County. Cottonwoods, willows and thick brush can make it hard to see far, but some mature hardwood stands thin out the cover and offer more visibility. Pool 21 (with 8,536 acres in Adams County) and Pool 22 (with 6,861 acres in Adams and Pike counties) offer similar opportunities upriver.

Weinberg-King State Fish and Wildlife Area
Location: west Illinois
Size: 2,320 acres
ZIP: 62311

Pike County may get the headlines, but there's good hunting elsewhere in western Illinois, too. "Schuyler and Brown counties are real good sleeper counties, and they're just as... [ Read Full Post ]

By Scott Bestul

State Game Land 223
Location: southwest Pennsylvania
Size: 7,200 acres
ZIP: 15370

Hardwood forest tangled with wild grapevines dominates this area on either side of I-79 in Greene County. "There are a lot of deer on the public area, and they don't seem to be hard to hold," Dunkerley says. Reverting farm fields and old apple orchards help keep bucks put, as do 200 acres of crop fields and numerous clear cuts that are the result of vigorous timber sales. Game Land 223 is about 70 minutes from Pittsburgh, and Dunkerley says the greater distance seems to lighten hunting pressure a bit. The area produced a 178 Boone and Crockett buck two years ago, and someone snapped a photograph of a 190-class bruiser in 2006. "As far as we know he wasn't killed last year," Dunkerley says. "He may still be out there."

Cooperative Farm-Game Program and Cooperative Safety Zone Program lands
Location: southwest Pennsylvania
Size: 5,000 acres
ZIP: 15122-15223

Lots of states say some of their biggest bucks are found near urban areas, but not many offer hunters a chance to harvest them. Pennsylvania does. The Farm-Game and Safety Zone programs lease private property for public access, and about 5,000 acres are in... [ Read Full Post ]