Maryland

Maryland offers exceptional deer hunting across three distinct regions: the agricultural flatlands of the Eastern Shore, the rolling Piedmont farms, and the Appalachian mountains of western Maryland.

Maryland Department of Natural Resources (MD DNR) offers generous bag limits and long seasons spanning archery, muzzleloader, and modern firearm. The Eastern Shore's rich soybean, corn, and clover fields consistently produce giant heavy-racked bucks.

Maryland's Delmarva Peninsula (Dorchester, Somerset, and Wicomico counties) is home to the only wild, free-ranging herd of Sika deer in the United States. Originally native to eastern Asia, these marsh-dwelling miniature elk have thrived in the tidal salt marshes and loblolly pine islands of the Chesapeake Bay since the early 1900s.

Sika stags feature dark coats, sharp multi-pointed antlers, and distinct white rumps. During the autumn breeding rut, stags produce an unforgettable bugle that sounds like an eerie scream. Public hunting on Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge and state wildlife areas provides an authentic marshland wilderness adventure requiring hip boots, tide charts, and tree stands over tidal marsh guts.

MD DNR conducts an annual computerized lottery for black bear harvest in the western mountain counties of Garrett, Allegany, Washington, and Frederick. The four-day October hunt takes place during the height of autumn foliage in the Appalachian highlands.