Nebraska Rifle hunt

[satchamo]

Well all my hunting partners decided to have babies in the midst of hunting season this fall so it looks like I'm going it alone. For that reason I'm going to try and do a little less involved hunt than the CO archery elk hunts. For context, I'm in Southern Indiana.

Anyways, I'm kicking around the idea of a mule deer rifle hunt. I've never rifle hunted in my life, just archery and slug guns in IL where I hunt whitetails. So I'm intrigued to try it out. My question is, is nebraska a viable OTC option? I'm not looking for trophy's, just opportunity. Would I be better off trying an archery hunt to avoid crowds? How is the overall public land outlook in the state? Is it checkerboard or?

Any help or insight would be appreciated!

 

[netman]

Where are you from in Indiana?

 

[satchamo]

Evansville

 

[Jmock97]

Where to Hunt - Nebraska Game and ParksNebraska Game and Parks |

 

[netman]

I’m from Chandler. I know a doctor from Nebraska who practices here. He was my family doctor for a long time until he went back to working the hospital. He grew up on western Nebraska farms. he Would be a good resource if you want to call me I would be happy to pass info to you.

 

[Kramer588]

Me and 3 buddies hunted mulies in the NW corner of the state last year. Lots of hunters and not much for deer. We only saw a few buck and got the biggest one we found on public, which was about a 100" 3x3. The most depressing thing was the complete lack of deer we saw, very few on public and very few on private, we did put on a good number of miles both on foot and in the truck. On the flip side, it was warm the first two days and we were hunting the last few days of a 9 day hunt, so the deer could have been all busted out of the areas we were in and skiddish from the pressure. The locals were all saying how it was a slow year and below average for sightings, so it could have been just a slow year.

 

[satchamo]

Me and 3 buddies hunted mulies in the NW corner of the state last year. Lots of hunters and not much for deer. We only saw a few buck and got the biggest one we found on public, which was about a 100" 3x3. The most depressing thing was the complete lack of deer we saw, very few on public and very few on private, we did put on a good number of miles both on foot and in the truck. On the flip side, it was warm the first two days and we were hunting the last few days of a 9 day hunt, so the deer could have been all busted out of the areas we were in and skiddish from the pressure. The locals were all saying how it was a slow year and below average for sightings, so it could have been just a slow year.

Thanks for the info here, I assume that was a rifle hunt?

 

[Kramer588]

Thanks for the info here, I assume that was a rifle hunt?

Yes it was a rifle hunt, if youre interested in that area, you can pm me for a more detailed rundown of what we learned

 

[guf54]

With the small amount of public land in Nebraska it mostly all gets hammered pretty hard during the rifle season. If you want to do archery you will have most places all to yourself or at least very little competition. Trophy potential for mule deer on public land is very small since most get shot at young age but you could get lucky and get a nice one as it has happened before. I'm relatively new to the western muley hunting game though since I've mainly hunted for whitetail on the eastern 1/3 of the state. Still this year I'm going to set up some trail cameras on some public land on the western side of the state to see what is around and if its worth hunting.

 

[ColoHunter87]

Will echo several of the above comments - not many decent deer on public land and there is very little public land. If you can get permission to access private, that will help, but unfortunately not many folks are willing to allow out-of-state hunters to hunt their properties - so the knocking on doors isn't a great option (at least hasn't worked for me). One suggestion - the first morning of the rifle hunt is a saturday and it's guns of navarone until about noon. After that, it's pretty empty of hunters. So from the Monday or Tuesday after opening weekend and through the second weekend you will likely be the only hunter in the field. Good luck

 

[KJH]

The above posts are correct. If you're public land hunting, especially with a rifle, Nebraska isn't a very good option for a non-resident. There are some great mule deer spots in Nebraska, but they are not on public land. That said, anyone could get lucky. Statewide, there is a healthy deer population (even mulies which are declining), and permits are readily available.

1.4% of the state is public land open to hunting. Nebraska ranks 48th in percentage of land that is public land. The powers that be want to keep it that way. I would spend my time and money elsewhere if it were me unless you can get access to private land. Too much competition for too little area...

 

[RumLover]

NE rifle hunts are very crowed on public land. Coming from out of state, I've hunted the Platte, North Platte, and Republican MDCA's and over the past 5 years, if I didn't put a tag on something the first morning, I was likely going to eat a tag for the year. People are everywhere and I constantly have issues with people driving vehicles through the canyons and brush to push the deer out, they jump out and shoot them. Even had a nice 190 class buck that was about the jump the fence from private to public right in front of me, guys across the canyon jumped out and shot the deer 3' from the fence, aiming directly at me, then drove down and got the deer about 200 yards in front of me. This type of behavior tends to coincide with really cold temps when they are too lazy to walk.

That said, if you return for the muzzleloader season, completely different situation. The locals are at the house and the deer are condensed near food. Temps are usually very cold, sub zero often, but we've dropped our largest deer with less pressure during this time. Archery is tough, like really tough, if you can't get there early and pattern the deer.

 

[mikenelson9091]

I have lived most of my life in Nebraska and hunted across the state, in my opinion I would do anything I could to avoid the rifle season. Dont get me wrong there are giants killed every year across the state on public but they are few and far between and there are plenty of tag sandwiches and frustrated hunters out there. Muzzleloader season or Archery are going to be your best bet. My piece of advice for Muzzleloader season is you are either on them or you arent the later in the year you get. Big herds of deer and sometimes they can be found on public but they are far from dumb that time of year. Happy hunting and good luck to all!

 

[William Sublette]

Just use the search function on this site.


This is probably the most often asked question on the internet


And yet.....there are almost zero success stories posted.





There's a reason for that.

 

[KYBowhuntin]

I’m in a similar boat as you. Just wanna hunt but didn’t draw so I guess I’ll just pick a couple states close and try to fill some more whitetail tags.