Many hunters start hunts with the idea in mind of just getting some venison. If this is why you hunt, you should consider traveling to one of the states with a high hunter success ratio. The states with the most success are in the intermountain areas. You should write the game department of the state you are interested in and ask for information on which part of that state has the highest deer harvest. You may want to consider using guides or outfitters.
If you're wanting to get a trophy buck, odds are you'll have to make arrangements with a guide or outfitter who operates in areas well known for trophy kills. Trophy kills seldom come from areas that have high deer harvests. A good place to start would be looking for books that list hunting records in North America. These books will list the precise areas where these trophy deer were taken.
We've covered this before, but if you want a better chance of getting a trophy kill, you may want to consider going after a mule deer. If you get set up with a good hunting guide or outfitter, your chances will increase tremendously for getting that record buck. Mule deer have larger racks than whitetails and are a lot easier to hunt that whitetails because they are not as suspicious of human beings. If you are considering stillhunting or stalking, you might as well forget about hunting whitetails, you'll have much more luck with mule deer.
Other Considerations
One major drawback to hunting muledeer is you'll have to travel to the west if you don't already live there. This can really get expensive when you consider the costs of the guide or outfitter plus all the other costs involved with traveling. You may be one who simply enjoys hunting for whitetails, if that's the case then stick with it. Once you find a decent hunting spot, and have improved all your hunting techniques you're bound to get a nice one sooner or later. Don't get nervous and drop your gun when a really nice whitetail approaches as many hunters have done, take a couple of slow, deep breaths once you get him in range and calmly raise your weapon to aim and fire it. Good luck!
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