I’m looking to do a fair chase hunt next bow season that is on the lower end of the cost spectrum, any suggestions?

Public land, diy. You choose the State that best fits your skills and what you're looking for.

That was something else I was considering, looking at either KY, or MS. Not looking for a trophy, just something different.

Only place I’ve been so only place I can recommend. https://app.fw.ky.gov/Public_Lands_Search/detail.aspx?Kdfwr_id=132

If you decide on MS public land, shoot me a Pm. I know a few spots.

What ever you do, don’t go out west. It’ll ruin you.

Thanks everyone

If you go anywhere, I'd go during the rut. If you have a choice. Rut hunting is night and day from regular hunting. Good luck.

MS won’t be anything different than AL. KY will be a change of pace, and if you go public land during the rut, you will see thousands.................of hunters

Lol. The one thing I am looking to do is to go to a state that has its opener prior to ours, guess I should have mentioned that to begin with.

MS opens Oct 1. I was out there in short sleeves and temps were low 80s. I wasn’t wild about dealing with a deer carcass in that heat.

Kentucky can be fun around bean fields the first few days of the season

In south Florida the bow season starts on Aug 3, which is crazy stupid IMHO.

Central Alabama, Corps of Engineers land. Free permit, plenty of under utilized land. Several nice campgrounds available. Bow hunting only.

Gun season in the South Carolina low country opens up on private land August 15. Public ground opens up around the state middle of Sept for now, for muzzleloader Oct. 1 with firearms season opening Oct. 10th. Plenty of public ground to hunt and lots of different terrain to hunt. The upstate is more mountainous while the lowcountry is mostly swamp bottoms, and the midlands of the state is more rolling hills. Bag limits are 2 per day and either sex tags are relatively cheap. The rut varies but the further to the coast you go the earlier the rut starts. Around Columbia the public ground I hunt typically starts showing rut sign around mid to late October.

South Carolina, Cowden Plantation.

10,000 acres of private land, inexpensive to hunt, plenty of deer.

That would be just too hot, plus with my luck I would have one of those 15 ft pythons climb up in the tree with me.

I may try one of these places this season, looking pretty interesting.

You just prefer Mississippi or Kentucky mosquitoes over Alabama? If not going for a trophy, why change from normal?

Prairie Creek Campground is really nice and gives you access to Lowndes WMA also. I officiated football games with a couple of the guys that work for the Corps and they told me that once gun season starts very few people hunted on the Corps land because they would find somewhere to gun hunt.