Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting Need some advice

Hello to all. I need to tap some knowledge on here and see what you all may be able to help me with. I am trying to arrange a deer hunting trip for several friends of mine from vastly different locales so that we can get together and go on a joint deer hunting trip. I need some advice on where to go. We are looking at primarily either PA or WV (possibly VA as well). For what its worth, this will include folks that normally hunt big woods in Upstate NY, Farms in SC and the fields of western OH so there is a lot of different ideas being floated. The reasons we are looking at PA and WV is that is where the 3 areas would meet in the middle so to speak. We would like to hunt on public land (not interested in a guided hunt nor a lease/outfitter) and are looking at staying in either a nearby hotel or campground. Its kind of a tall order. As far as what we would be able to harvest, we would like the ability to be able to harvest a decent buck or 2 but they don't have to be trophy deer.Can anyone give me a decent suggestion on where to hunt and what the hunting would be like in that area?

Thanks in advance

No advice for that area…

Is there any mil bases in that region that offers hunting?

Renegade50 on here hunts an army base in TN. Has pretty good luck. He hunts areas that the avg hunter won’t put in the work to reach.

I would think PA might be your best bet since they have large tracts of game lands. Not sure what WV offers.

Good luck on the research and planning. It sounds like an excellent trip in the making.

Good luck, day hunt places are usually shot out.

In PA,the SGL's are pretty over crowded, but so is Colorado public land. Seems the big hardwoods carry less deer now than the big farm country.From reports of people I know there, a lot are heading to Ohio for better hunting.

My grandson lives in Warren PA, in the north central region in what was once prime deer hunting. My son lives in Finleyvile, extreme SA PA.and is over run with deer,but it is mostly farm country with very little public land.

A friend lives in NE Ohio and the same holds true there, but he takes some darn nice bucks.

Lots of national forest in western Virginia

My suggestion would be to rent a cabin or two at one of the many Pa. State Parks. The rates are very reasonable and many of them are located in or near Pa. State Forests that are open to the public and have good deer numbers. Reservations are made thru the Pa. State Park website. They book up pretty early for deer season. Check them out.

Like VA, WV has lots of public hunting ground, much of which is National Forest land. In fact, along our Eastern side where we border VA is where much of that ground is located, so it’s possible to cross the line from one state to the other while hunting. A lot of that ground is pretty steep too, covered with mountain laurel and rhododendron. Tough going. Good areas are likely to have a lot of pressure, especially early in the season and on weekends.

I’d suggest looking at deer-kill reports, then contacting the state game folks for suggestions in the good areas. Someone’s probably going to need to do some scouting on the ground, but topo maps and one of the hunting apps like On-X will help a lot.

I've only hunted whitetails in OK and TX, so not alot of help here.

I would look into states like Alabama that have limits like "1 a day". With populations like that, you may not kill a Booner, but your chances of success should be good.
OK has a good deer population, but our seasons are screwed up, to me. Just a suggestion.

Thanks to everyone that replied. This is an effort to get 3 groups together that all like to hunt, do something a little different and the states I mentioned are in the middle of all of us/them. I think there will be some road trips this summer to see if we can find a spot. Thanks again to everyone the replied

P.S. to BigDave--There are quite a few military bases/training areas around but although I can get access to them, most of my friends probably couldn't due to the fact that they have no military affiliation. I'm pretty sure the base that Renegade50 hunts is Ft Campbell and if its the same now as it was in the early 90's when I was there, there were huge lines of fon-military folks waiting for last minute openings to hunt it.

Of the areas mentioned I’ve only hunted in up state New York. I’ve been in PA a lot and lived in Virginia for 6 months. I don’t see much difference in the hunting style needed in these states.
If you mentioned, Texas, Idaho and the plain states there would have been more variables!

Check out the Allegheny National Forest area of Pa. Lots of state/fed land open to hunting.