I’ve been a resident of the west for three years, yet I’m still drawn to whitetail deer while living in the heart of elk country. Although the mountains are now what I call home, my Michigan roots keep my mind wandering to whitetails, especially when the November rut rolls around. Outside of my formal stomping grounds, I’ve had my fair share of whitetail hunts around the country in various states including; Kansas, Iowa, Ohio, Colorado, and Oklahoma. On many of these trips I’ve returned home “deer-less” but the experiences I’ve had and the memories made are nothing short of spectacular. If you’re an avid whitetail hunter (like myself) you should highly consider an out of state hunting trip.

The Unknown

The thing that reels me in the most to DIY whitetail trips is the adventure aspect, hands down. There’s just something about diving head first into parts unknown that draws the true adventurer out of me and the anticipation of new landscapes brings heightened energy like no other. Who doesn’t love a road trip with a good buddy and getting to step foot into unseen whitetail habitat?

Seeing new parts of the country and getting to hunt deer in different landscapes also brings new challenges. It takes hunting back to the basics where you have to figure out travel corridors, locate bedding areas, and put the entire puzzle together piece by piece. The adventure is so much more than miles traveled, it’s the experience of hunting in its purest form.

Large Tracts Of Public Land

100 acres was considered a big chunk of property where I grew up in Southern Michigan and up until I was 23 years old, I never knew what it was like to hunt thousands of acres of woods or crop fields. Large tracts of public land were few and far between so I was left to play within the lines of small private parcels, which I usually shared with multiple other hunters.

Many states have endless amounts of public land that are open to premier whitetail deer hunting, some of which are over the counter (OTC) tags. On public lands, you can literally play outside the lines and confines that you are normally subject to on private land. How often do you get to travel a mile into a stand location or cover square miles of acreage in a single day?

Camping and Lodging

The fun part about on an out of state hunting trip is getting to experience something new in a lodging situation. I’ve set up tents on public land, rented cabins at state parks and most recently on my hunt to Oklahoma, I slept in the bed of my truck with an air mattress and a SoftTopper. I’ve also stayed in hotels but I don’t recommend it because it kills part of the adventure on the trip, at least for me. A hotel doesn’t have the rustic hunting camp feel and even the shittiest motel can rack up a credit card bill pretty damn quick. I suggest finding a cabin, bringing a camper, or roughing it in the back of your truck; it will only make the experience better.

Creativity

The beauty part of a whitetail trip is the amount of creativity you can use for strategy, land access, and locating deer. There is no right or wrong way to approach or execute a hunt and you are only limited by your imagination. Who says you have to hunt exclusively on public land? I’ve gained free access to hunt private farms simply by door knocking, thus playing outside of the lines that I thought I was confined to. On my recent 2018 Whitetail Hunt to Oklahoma, I utilized quail hunters to help locate deer by exchanging numbers on the first day with the agreement to let each other know of sightings of the quarry we were chasing. After having a slow couple of days, I followed up with one of the bird hunters and he disclosed the area they were seeing the most deer while hunting for quails. Later that day I hung a stand and killed a doe and buck that same week. There’s no single path to get you from A to Z and that’s part of what makes these out of state trips so cool.

Have Fun!

Above all else, it’s important to remember why we deer hunt to begin with and that’s to have fun. If you’ve lost your itch or are looking to find a new passion, getting out of the same routine and mixing it up in another state can help rekindle the flame or start a fire that will burn for the rest of your life. Sometimes a spontaneous trip can help recharge the batteries for your daily life, regardless of whether or not you return with meat for the freezer.

With the start of 2019 upon us, where will you hunt this year? Will you return to the same back-forty that you know like the back of your hand, or will you experience someplace new? Life is short. Plan the trip, buy the tag, and go hunting!

During the podcast, I talk about how I ended up selecting an area to hunt, my digital scouting process and the gear I used for both hunting and camping. I talk about the creative way I was able to find a little honey hole within large tracts of state land and how I utilized the shotgun quail hunters to my advantage while hunting. To round out the episode, I cover each day of the week-long hunt and the details of the buck and doe I took during the seven days.

Topics Covered In This Episode Include:

• The backstory of how I selected Oklahoma as the state I wanted to hunt for 2018
• Initial stages of research which included contacting people who knew the area, the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife and studying the deer hunting regulations
• Talking to a local biologist and the information I took away from the 30-minute conversation I had with him
• Digital scouting on Google Earth and onXmaps to find property boundaries and mark waypoints before getting to the area
• Locating tracts of land that were suited for tree stand hunting and pieces that were better suited for spot and stalk hunting
• The decision to purchase a SoftTopper for my truck and camp out of the back of my truck bed for the week as opposed to staying in a hotel or cabin
• My sleeping setup and how I arranged my living quarters for the week
• The meals I was preparing and my setup for cooking with limited space
• Hunting gear selection of boots, clothing, tree stand, knives, and game bags
• My Mystery Ranch Mule Pack and how it was a total game changer for doing a run and gun set up on public land
• Utilizing the Mystery Ranch overload shelf and frame design to comfortably pack out quartered deer on public land
• Details of each day afield and the encounters I had with numerous whitetail deer
• The lessons learned and the keys to my success during my solo Oklahoma DIY whitetail hunt