Montana

Season Dates (2013): Archery season begins Sept. 7 and runs through Oct. 20. Firearm and muzzleloader season runs from Oct. 26 to Dec. 1

The Grade: A

Although Montana is known mostly for its bugling elk and wide-racked mule deer, it is also a prime location for whitetails. We've all seen Realtree's camo cameras capturing incredible footage of the gang knocking down studs along the Milk River for years, and there are many other locations throughout the eastern third of the state, as well as in the northwest region, which provides similar opportunities. Although Montana is not a top B&C producer nationally, it leads the pack out West and is also the top Western Pope and Young records producer at 533 entries. Because it has strong trophy potential and a relatively high annual success rate for whitetails, Montana gets a solid A as a stellar whitetail producer.

Deer Nation Knowledge: Although public land isn't in short supply in Montana, finding access to chase whitetails along the prime river bottoms and farmlands where their numbers are the strongest can be difficult. To help solve that dilemma the Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks developed the Block Management Program, which is a cooperative effort between Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks, private landowners and public-land management agencies to help landowners manage hunting activities and to provide free public hunting access to private and isolated public lands. Today, there are more than 8 million acres established within this program, and for the hunter willing to do a little research, excellent whitetail hunting can be found for the DIY hunter.