What State Has the Wariest Whitetails

JimP said:

Arizona/New Mexico and their coues whitetails. If you even breath wrong in their canyon they will head to the next county.

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^^^^100%^^^^^

Yes “Cows” deer are definitely at or near the top

mdwest said:

Definitely NOT East Texas lol…

I could fill my freezer standing naked in a field with nothing more than a pocket knife

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With a rose clenched in your teeth!

Public ground, closest to a SEC school.

JimP said:

Arizona/New Mexico and their coues whitetails. If you even breath wrong in their canyon they will head to the next county.

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Interesting adaptation demonstrated where these little whitetails commonly choose to live in the steepest, rockiest, highest terrain of their range. Additionally, the vegetation can be so thick and entangled as to be impossible to navigate on foot. I have had to completely circumnavigate large, monolithic patches of manzanita… growing only 2-4 feet off the ground. Manzanita is an innocuous looking hardwood shrub that is not thorny as much of the vegetation in these areas tends
to be, but nonetheless, it can be impenetrable. These whitetails are very specialized for these vegetation/terrain types. They have small compact bodies and narrow antler configurations. They can be extremely difficult to hunt especially if subjected to hunting pressure and/or if numbers of mtn lions are in area. Hunters and the guiding industry have resorted to long range sniping for “hunting”. Conversely, desert mule deer in the same areas tend to choose the easier, lower slopes.

Betterinthebush said:

The twin tiers along the Pa/NY line from McKean county east to the east county line of Tioga/Bradford counties. Lots of hunting pressure on both sides of the state line going on at the same time, lots of state lands on both sides, deep valleys with larger headwaters creeks/rivers, heavy timber on steepish hills, crappy thermal dynamics, always windy.. never calm. It sucks. Very smart bucks. I wish hound hunting were legal here.

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375Fox said:

You’d have a difficult time convincing me it’s not Pennsylvania. Eastern Ohio, Southern New York, West Virginia are the also same deer. Small properties 10-100 acres and a lot of hunting pressure make very alert deer. Pennsylvania is particularly difficult to get a nice deer because we cannot bait. I’m uncertain rules in other states.

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I mostly would have based my answer on hunter density and my own experience. So, I would have said Wisconsin and Pennsylvania. I think someone above brought up an interesting topic of wolves. Which I do think would make them more alert on average, but I also think their alertness toward animal predators and being educated to humans plays out differently for us as hunters.


The suggestion of the line between NY and PA is really interesting since they are both very high pressure states.

This map is interesting and coordinates well with what many are saying.

I can't say all of Louisiana, but certainly West Feliciana parish.

Course, in the dense timber, by the time they're in view, they're no more than 40 or 50 yards away most of the time. I've taken to wearing Axils the last 3 or 4 years, lets me hear them walking on the dry leaf litter long before they every come into view. I can't sit perfectly still for 3 hours, but I can for 10 or 15 minutes, and that's what it takes.

mdwest said:

Definitely NOT East Texas lol…

I could fill my freezer standing naked in a field with nothing more than a pocket knife

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Not in fl either.
A few years ago my wife shot one. Called me to come pick it up. Said hold on a min.
Heard another shot.
She picked the phone up said there 2 now.
She had walked 1/2 to the doe and a little 7 still came out. And it was way to early for the. Rut to make him stupid.

A buddy had his son and friend in a box blind
The friend shot a deer. With in 3 min another came out on the peanut field his some shot it.
Putting them in the truck a good 10 pt came out and he shot it.

My father has it down to a science. He’s done hunting his buck by day 3. He walks out to the old sugar shanty at the edge of our small pasture at 9am. By then the thermals on the north slope where he posts are pulling up the hill towards him. At 11 the other hunters start moving to get warm and lunch and invariably push the deer right to him.

Dads killed a lot of deer. Almost all in that one spot. never killed “the big one” but, he had cows to milk and he was a man that liked getting his chores (hunting included) done early. Hard to argue with results.

Betterinthebush said:

My father has it down to a science. He’s done hunting his buck by day 3. He walks out to the old sugar shanty at the edge of our small pasture at 9am. By then the thermals on the north slope where he posts are pulling up the hill towards him. At 11 the other hunters start moving to get warm and lunch and invariably push the deer right to him.

Dads killed a lot of deer. Almost all in that one spot. never killed “the big one” but, he had cows to milk and he was a man that liked getting his chores (hunting included) done early. Hard to argue with results.

View attachment 744076

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Big one I guess is also place determined.
Those would be very nice for here.

Anywhere deer are still hunted with hounds makes them very Wiley