Overlooked simple DIY out of state hunt.

[TheTruth2]

So the past few years I've been taking trips to hunt in western Maryland, yes Maryland. There is an array of public land down there and they are starving for hunters. They have their tags set up so you can take unlimited does and you get a buck tag. If you fill your buck tag, you can take it back and get a new one called a bonus tag. The license is about 250 bucks and the season opens in September. My psst two years down there I managed to tag out on 4 bucks, two over 120. With the shear lack of hunters and the abundance of overlooked land I seriously recommend this to others. Plus if you kill a buck in September you can come back in January and get another tag. Anyone elSe ever hunt Maryland?

[TheTruth2]

100 inches*

[phade]

Maryland is one of the lesser known states that can produce book bucks. Don't hear much about western Maryland, however, lots of focus on the mid/eastern portion of the state.

 

Two over 120? Not bad.

[TheTruth2]

Meant to type over 100 lol yeah my old man loves about 40 minutes outside of DC in town called poolesville. It's a small town stuck in the middle of 110,000 agricultural reserve right on the Potomac. The hunting is very similar to ny. I'll post pics of the two bigger ones I took down there

[ncountry]

Sounds interesting..I have been thinking of doing an early season out of state hunt one of these years.

[virgil]

How familiar were you with the hunting land before your first trip?  Did you scout it much in advance?

[TheTruth2]

i read a lot of forums on where to go and where not to go, which lands are overpopulated etc etc... i went up the weekend before and scouted out land i heard the best reviews on and it ended up being a gorgeous piece of land. Basically i rough scouted it looking for funnels and draws for a day, mapped trees on my phone and used my climber while hunting. I applied for a lottery draw to hunt a park for a weekend  in january, 20 people were selected including me to hunt 700 acres of untouched property. Altough i saw over 40 deer i never took a shot.

 

for a 6 hour drive its nice to be able to hunt in september and get ahead of the game.

[virgil]

Did you come across any of the other hunters?

[TheTruth2]

Nope not a one. Hunters are extremely scarce around there. With it being so close to DC, there's a lot of people from India and Asia that live on the outskirts and drive to the city for work. Obviously not many of them hunt.

[virgil]

What about the other guys that won the lottery for the park you were hunting?  I would think that having 20 guys in 700 acres could get a little crowded.  Either way, it sounds great.

[BizCT]

CT is very similar. Many bow-only public lands. Bow season is 9/16 - 12/31, you get 4 deer tags. 2 either sex, 2 anterless.  If you gun hunt, you get another 2 (1 either sex, 1 anterless). Non-resident archey permit is like $150, if I remember correctly.

[phade]

20 people on 700 acres for bowhunting is spacious by wNY standards. Assuming a few take the lottery but don't show, and a few hunt close to the roads or with a partner in close proximity, and there's bound to be large chunks of non-pressured hunting ground. Lottery hunts are a different breed of public hunting, usually pretty solid results for the localized area.

 

I assume you need the license before applying to the lottery there?

 

$250 is a bit on the high side for OTC. Especially when looking at Ohio, Kentucky, and Indiana which are within a 4-8 hour drive.

Edited July 29, 2013 by phade