Book Your Adventure
1-800-346-8747

Blog Posts > The Best Whitetail Destinations in the Lower 48

The Best Whitetail Destinations in the Lower 48

Eric Pawlak

| February 13, 2024

Eric Pawlak
February 13, 2024

WTA’s TAGS consultants love discovering the very best whitetail destinations for our clients. We love hunting mature bucks on public and private land and are well-versed in the world of whitetails with boots-on-the-ground vetting. When you call our office to book your next whitetail adventure, you can be assured that you’ll be getting solid, up-to-date recommendations from true whitetail hunters.

Below are some of our favorite whitetail destinations in the lower 48. Although all require drawing a tag and some require preference points, we can help you make the process simple. We love helping to put our clients on nice bucks all over North America.

Kansas

Drawing a whitetail tag in Kansas is usually quite simple, with an 80% draw rate. Therefore, early booking is crucial if you’re after trophy bucks. The Sunflower State offers muzzleloader hunts in September, archery hunts during the November rut, and high-powered rifle hunts in early December. Each season has its advantages. During the September muzzleloader season, deer are habitual, consistently moving between the same bedding and feeding areas. During this season, we’ll be looking for deer that move right before dark. This time of year provides the best opportunity to harvest the biggest bucks. November is an excellent time for bowhunting. The deer are in rut and moving all over the place. Plus, in Kansas, crossbows are permitted during archery season. The December rifle hunt is perhaps the most challenging period of the season, but using this long-range tool is always appealing to our clients. We believe that the whitetail draw in Kansas may become more competitive/complex and are now advising our clients to purchase a preference point, ensuring they secure a tag in the future. If you’re looking for a giant buck in Kansas, now is the time to get started!

Iowa

Iowa is known for putting deer in the record books. In fact, lots of the biggest deer harvested every year come out of the Hawkeye state. However, Iowa’s tags are in high demand and do require preference points. If you’re hoping to harvest a big whitetail buck, it’s time to start building preference points today. Typically, it takes a minimum of four preference points to draw a tag during the archery season, which also coincides with the November rut. Iowa also offers gun hunting with shotgun and muzzleloader. We book our shotgun clients in December and our muzzleloader clients in early January. Hunting during these late-season firearm hunts is generally more challenging than the November archery season; however, it does take fewer points to draw, allowing clients to hunt Iowa more often. Gun hunts typically only take two preference points to draw. One hot tip as you plan: many of our clients hunt whitetail deer in Kansas while they are building their Iowa points. It’s a great way to go!

Montana and Wyoming

Hunting trophy whitetails out West is becoming more and more popular for nonresident hunters. The enormous private land ranches located in Montana and Wyoming have low hunting pressure and are full of mature deer. These hunting trips offer extremely exciting experiences in the beauty and grandeur of the North American West. Furthermore, obtaining tags to hunt whitetails in these states is easy. You’ll typically draw each time you apply. However, you must not miss the application deadlines—Montana’s deadline to apply is March 15 and Wyoming’s is June 1.

South Dakota

Deer hunters often overlook South Dakota as a premium whitetail destination. This is a sleeper state filled with monster bucks. As far as giant whitetail deer go, it’s comparable to both Iowa and Kansas. Archery tags in South Dakota are over the counter. However, the rifle tags west of the Missouri River often take two to three preference points to draw. Hunting from ground blinds, ladder stands, and by spot and stalk are all effective methods in the rolling farmland and creek bottoms of beautiful South Dakota. In South Dakota, you can purchase preference points up until the January 31 application deadline. Start building deer points today!

WTA TAGS has professional whitetail outfitters located in all of the states above and we can’t wait to help you this whitetail hunting season. If you’re hoping to get into some huge bucks, please reach out. The best way to view our offerings is to go to our website and select the whitetail species and then select your states of interest. You can also call our office at 1-800-755-8247 and ask to speak to a TAGS consultant. Let’s talk about whitetail deer hunting, hunting licenses, and preference points. We’ll help you get a plan in place that allows you to hunt this incredible species in the best places in the United States!

Recent Articles

Apply for Alaska’s Most Coveted Tags

Eric Pawlak November 24, 2025

Remembering Our Dear Friend, Mike Mason

WTA Team November 18, 2025

Limited-Entry Alaska Dall Sheep: North America’s Pinnacle Hunt

Eric Pawlak November 5, 2025

Alaska

Black Bear

Apply for Alaska’s Most Coveted Tags

November 24, 2025

Remembering Our Dear Friend, Mike Mason

November 18, 2025

Alaska

Dall Sheep

Limited-Entry Alaska Dall Sheep: North America’s Pinnacle Hunt

November 5, 2025

Apply for Alaska’s Most Coveted Tags

Most sportsmen don’t think of the draw when contemplating a hunt in Alaska. That’s because, for most of the big…

Limited-Entry Alaska Dall Sheep: North America’s Pinnacle Hunt

As the December 15 deadline to apply for Alaska’s most coveted big-game tags approaches, one opportunity stands above all others: limited-entry Dall sheep. If you’ve ever dreamed of pursuing this iconic high-country species, now is the time to apply.

Why this Hunt Matters More than Ever

In the not-too-distant past, Alaska suffered back-to-back-to-back severe weather events that dramatically impacted Dall sheep populations across much of the state, resulting in fewer over-the-counter opportunities and even closures. Hunters have been forced to look to Canada, where hunts are now largely sold out through 2027 and prices have surged beyond $60,000. Even at such outrageous prices, availability is scarce.

This shift has made Alaska’s limited-entry draw areas for Dall sheep one of the most valuable options left for serious hunters. With hunts priced between $28,000 and $35,000, applicants can still access very high-quality white sheep at nearly half the cost of Canadian alternatives.

Exceptional Success Rates

Despite the challenges statewide, the limited-entry regions—managed by very conservative tag allocations—continue to produce outstanding results for the lucky applicants of WTA TAGS:

100% shot opportunity during the past three seasons,
90%+ harvest rates on mature rams,
Some of the largest Dall rams in North America.

For those willing to embrace the physical challenge, this hunt represents the ultimate North American mountain adventure.

Why…

Against the Odds: Drawing Back-to-Back Sheep and Goat Tags

Drawing a sheep tag with 1-in-5,300 odds is amazing. Drawing a mountain goat tag the next year? That’s lottery luck. That’s why it didn’t seem real when my WTA consultant, Jordan Roche, called me two years in a row with that news!

I’d been working with Jordan at WTA TAGS for about five years, letting him manage my hunting applications in multiple states while I focused on staying in shape for whatever hunts might come through. When he called about the Tok Range Dall sheep tag (the only non-resident permit out of 10 total), I knew it was special.

After the excitement of drawing my tag settled in, it was time to find the right outfitter to make my hunt a success. WTA recommended one of their top partners for that area and handled every detail. My outfitter made it clear: this would be a backpack hunt in some of Alaska’s toughest sheep country. At 64, with two hip replacements, I can’t run anymore. But I can hike. So that’s how I prepared—I hiked mile after mile with a weighted pack, knowing the Tok doesn’t care about age or medical history.

We went in a day and a half before the season opened and spotted a band of 14 rams, including one heavy-horned giant that immediately caught our attention. Then Alaska did what Alaska does best. Weather rolled in, the rams vanished, and we spent the three days scouring valleys and ridges to find them again.

When we finally relocated them, we had to break camp and make a major move. After a full day’s work, we spotted six rams bedding down as evening fell. The next morning, we made our play.

The wind that day was unlike anything I’d ever experienced. It sounded like a freight train roaring up the mountain; gusting, dying, gusting again. At 320 yards, I had to time my shot during the lulls. My first shot went wide in the wind. The second shot dropped him—a beautiful 39″ ram. Honestly, I didn’t care about the number. That’s not why I hunt. I’m in it for the experience and a good animal. This ram was both.

The pack-out was its own adventure. We crossed the glacier-fed Tok River multiple times before Matt showed up with a Korean War-era military vehicle that could go just about anywhere. After nine days in the mountains, that slow, bumpy ride was a step up from travelling another 10 miles on foot. This was a trip I’ll never forget.

When Jordan called me in February 2025 to tell me I’d drawn a mountain goat tag, I actually laughed. “Figure out something for next year,” I told him, knowing the odds of a three-peat were one in a million. But first, it was time to prepare for my goat hunt.

I flew into Homer at the end of August, expecting to start hunting on Tuesday. By Monday evening, my outfitter, Paul, was warning me about the incoming weather. “We might not get you in until Friday,” he said. He wasn’t kidding. We sat through three days of howling wind, driving rain, and zero visibility before finally getting our chance.

Paul operates from a landing craft that serves as a mobile base camp. But getting from sea level to where the goats live? That was the hardest climb I’ve ever done, and I’ve completed five sheep hunts.

It was only 1,500 vertical feet, but every step came wrapped in devil’s club thorns, soaking brush, deadfall, and rain-slicked cliff bands. We hiked for what seemed like an eternity before stopping for the night to set up camp.

The next morning changed everything. Once above that coastal jungle, the alpine opened up to reveal why we’d suffered through that brutal climb. There were mountain goats everywhere. Good billies. The kind that makes you forget about devil’s club and exhaustion.

I took my billy on August 30, the first day of actual hunting after being sidelined due to weather. While packing him out, we witnessed something I’d never seen: ravens harassing a billy goat. They would swoop within inches of his head, and he’d swing his horns, trying to knock them away. Paul had told me about this strange relationship between ravens and goats, but seeing it firsthand was incredible.

The trip down gave us one more show. A black bear, fat from gorging on berries, army-crawled through the blueberry patches, entertained us from 400 yards away. I had a bear tag, but watching him was worth more than any trophy. Crossing salmon-choked streams on the way out completed the full Alaskan experience.

Both hunts worked because of solid preparation and connections with the right team. Jordan, my WTA consultant, had been helping me strategically build points and select units for years. When the draw results came through, WTA’s network meant proven outfitters were ready and handled every detail. They provided thorough gear lists, arranged logistics, and coordinated air charters. Everything was dialed in.

Some guys chase record books. Others chase hunting milestones. I finished my slam in 2019 with a desert ram, but what excites me most these days is the experience—the hunts that test you, humble you, and stay with you long after the pack is unloaded. When you work with the right people and put in the preparation, amazing things can happen. Jordan’s already working on my applications for 2026, so we’ll see what adventure comes through next.

Contact WTA TAGS to learn more about drawing the tags of your dreams: 1-800-755-8247.

Get Started with WTA TAGS