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Hunt challenge

BTaylor

BTaylor

Well-Known Member
Vendor Rep
SH Member
Joined
Oct 23, 2019
Messages
11,538
Location
Central Arkansas
For me this coincides with something else I am working on that I will share later. But I am challenging myself to this and thought it would be fun to see if anyone else wanted to give it in a go in your state.

I have put together a list of all of the public lands that allow bowhunting with the exception of the urban hunts. The challenge for myself for the rest of my years is to see how many I can kill a deer on with a long bow. Currently, we get 6 deer tags each year, two of which can be a buck. If I tag out every year it will take until like 82 to complete the list. I have absolutely no expectation that I can tag out every year. That I have been able to find out, no one in this state has ever killed on every piece of ground and I havent found any evidence of it even being attempted. So the way I am looking at it is worst case I get to set the bar for most pieces killed on. When I get to the point I cant hunt with the bow, I plan to switch to ML but hopefully that is a long way out.

So my question is who has the gumption to take on that challenge in your state? As I said, I will be hunting with my longbow but I dont care what weapon you use or what mixture of weapons you use. The challenge is a legal deer on each area of public ground in your state. If you also film your hunts, be sure you do that as well. I will explain why on that at a later date.
 
This is an interesting idea. I can see several challenges to it besides just the longbow aspect. One, I'm sure I would work through the close properties first, then it would be an ever increasing challenge to travel to the more distant areas. I'm also sure my scouting effort would fall off proportionally to the distance from home base to the properties, making the farther properties even more of a challenge to hunt.

If I were going to do it, I'd try the approach of still hunting on foot with the longbow, going in blind on most pieces. A variation of this is to try and kill a deer, any deer, in each state in the USA. It would be best to start this at age 16 or so, lol.
 
NMSbowhunter said:
This is an interesting idea. I can see several challenges to it besides just the longbow aspect. One, I'm sure I would work through the close properties first, then it would be an ever increasing challenge to travel to the more distant areas. I'm also sure my scouting effort would fall off proportionally to the distance from home base to the properties, making the farther properties even more of a challenge to hunt.

If I were going to do it, I'd try the approach of still hunting on foot with the longbow, going in blind on most pieces. A variation of this is to try and kill a deer, any deer, in each state in the USA. It would be best to start this at age 16 or so, lol.
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I am map scouting the pieces but not planning to boot scout them. I may try to drop a cam or two on some places I dont intended to hunt this year but likely wont have the time to even do that. Just going deer hunting, put gear on and go. When I find a spot I like I will get in a tree. If a legal deer shows, I am gonna try to put an arrow in it. Having the topper on the truck now is going to make a big difference. Not having to mess with setting up a camp is a real plus in my book. Every weekend a new adventure.
 
I don't have nearly enough years left for a challenge like that here in Michigan. :tearsofjoy:

Seriously though, I don't think I would have had enough time for a challenge like that if I had started when I first started hunting at 12. This is the "Public Hunting" map of Michigan from my Huntstand app. This doesn't include federal lands with available access and I know from first hand experience its not a complete showing of all the available public land. We are definitely blessed here in northern Michigan with a lot of public land opportunity.

1783427605484.png
 
BTaylor said:
I am map scouting the pieces but not planning to boot scout them. I may try to drop a cam or two on some places I dont intended to hunt this year but likely wont have the time to even do that. Just going deer hunting, put gear on and go. When I find a spot I like I will get in a tree. If a legal deer shows, I am gonna try to put an arrow in it. Having the topper on the truck now is going to make a big difference. Not having to mess with setting up a camp is a real plus in my book. Every weekend a new adventure.
Click to expand...
Sounds like a great way to hunt...just having fun and not worrying about a "target buck". That's a lot like what I do, but I just concentrate on 3 big pieces totaling about 100,000 acres within about an hour's drive at most.
 
boyne bowhunter said:
I don't have nearly enough years left for a challenge like that here in Michigan. :tearsofjoy:

Seriously though, I don't think I would have had enough time for a challenge like that if I had started when I first started hunting at 12. This is the "Public Hunting" map of Michigan from my Huntstand app. This doesn't include federal lands with available access and I know from first hand experience its not a complete showing of all the available public land. We are definitely blessed here in northern Michigan with a lot of public land opportunity.

View attachment 127467
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Yeah I should have started this years ago. Best I can tell, we have I think 132 WMA's with a bow season plus a small handful of national forest and another small handful of national wildlife refuges that make up my list. I excluded the urban hunts because I dont want to mess with having to go for their orientation days, aint got time for that.
 
NMSbowhunter said:
Sounds like a great way to hunt...just having fun and not worrying about a "target buck". That's a lot like what I do, but I just concentrate on 3 big pieces totaling about 100,000 acres within about an hour's drive at most.
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Havent added it all up but there is ballpark 4.5 million acres split into like 145-150 different properties.
 
BTaylor said:
Havent added it all up but there is ballpark 4.5 million acres split into like 145-150 different properties.
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Off the top of my head I think we have 3.8 million acres. No idea about how many properties but it is more than I have years left, I would be willing to bet, lol.
 
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This would be a daunting task here in MO. 542 places on MDC's website that allow deer hunting in some form or fashion, 9 sections of Mark Twain National Forest, The army corps of engineers has several different properties that hunting is available on as well.
 
BTaylor said:
For me this coincides with something else I am working on that I will share later. But I am challenging myself to this and thought it would be fun to see if anyone else wanted to give it in a go in your state.

I have put together a list of all of the public lands that allow bowhunting with the exception of the urban hunts. The challenge for myself for the rest of my years is to see how many I can kill a deer on with a long bow. Currently, we get 6 deer tags each year, two of which can be a buck. If I tag out every year it will take until like 82 to complete the list. I have absolutely no expectation that I can tag out every year. That I have been able to find out, no one in this state has ever killed on every piece of ground and I havent found any evidence of it even being attempted. So the way I am looking at it is worst case I get to set the bar for most pieces killed on. When I get to the point I cant hunt with the bow, I plan to switch to ML but hopefully that is a long way out.

So my question is who has the gumption to take on that challenge in your state? As I said, I will be hunting with my longbow but I dont care what weapon you use or what mixture of weapons you use. The challenge is a legal deer on each area of public ground in your state. If you also film your hunts, be sure you do that as well. I will explain why on that at a later date.
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I've got enough trouble on the 2 chunks I frequent, I'm gonna have to pass on this one:sweat:
 
krub6b said:
This would be a daunting task here in MO. 542 places on MDC's website that allow deer hunting in some form or fashion, 9 sections of Mark Twain National Forest, The army corps of engineers has several different properties that hunting is available on as well.
Click to expand...
I am counting a national forest as one property.
 
krub6b said:
This would be a daunting task here in MO. 542 places on MDC's website that allow deer hunting in some form or fashion, 9 sections of Mark Twain National Forest, The army corps of engineers has several different properties that hunting is available on as well.
Click to expand...
Yes but if you are the first to attempt, you get to set the bar for others to chase.
 
This would be pretty achievable in northern Ohio. Even southern I think if you’re counting a whole state forest as one property. I like the idea!
 
How long did it take you to compile that list? That can’t be an easy undertaking in itself lol
 
I’ve actually thought about this myself in the past. But mostly just ones within 2-3 hours of me. I also like the idea of trying every state but I doubt that’s practical for me. Especially now that all the good states have huge fees and require expensive preference points.

I have started to do it around me and already have killed a few deer on nearby state and other municipal public lands.

I like the idea a lot!
 
That's a big no go for me. Some of the properties I'd have to travel for 5 to 6 hours just to get there. lol. Maine is pretty big. Now, If I lived in RI that would be a different story. lol.
 
bigcat93 said:
How long did it take you to compile that list? That can’t be an easy undertaking in itself lol
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Not long at all. AGFC has a list of all of the WMA's on their website. Click on a location and it gives you the hunt regs and if camping is allowed. All of the Fed lands are listed in the AGFC reg book, along with all of the WMA's. My list is national forest, WMA's, NWR's and AGFC leased lands. As I mentioned I am skipping the urban hunts due to the additional time requirements to participate.
 
DroptineKrazy said:
That's a big no go for me. Some of the properties I'd have to travel for 5 to 6 hours just to get there. lol. Maine is pretty big. Now, If I lived in RI that would be a different story. lol.
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Arkansas isnt exactly tiny but it is sorta squareish. There will be a lot of 2.5-3.5 hour drives. That's where the topper or a good tent comes into play. This definitely wont be day hunting. It will be weekend or long weekend hunts, 2-4 days. I do live in the center of the state though which keeps the drives pretty easy.
 
Funny enough, I've had this thought as well for AR, but I doubt I attempt it. Actually thought about trying to kill a deer in every county with public land, be a little easier than what you're talking about, but still would take years to complete.
 
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