My buddy and I hunt Mass every year and this year we are planning on hunting NH and VT too. Anyone have any insight on hunting those two states? Looks like a lot of public land in each but not sure how much pressure it gets. I also see that you can hunt any unposted private land (at least in VT). Just wanted to hear from those that li e there or hunted there what areas you think would be best to start.

I would spend some time driving around pre scouting in Vermont.

I hunted (spring) years ago.It gets hunted. Have you considered Maine? Lots of birds;permission is easy to get north of Augusta and little pressure

I won’t have time to pre-scout unfortunately. Massachusetts starts 4/28, then NH and VT open 5/1. Just have to cold roll and try to find em.

Thought about Maine, but not sure I can fit that in this year.

OnX is your friend. I do all my “scouting” from my recliner during the off season. Pour over the state looking for public or private that allows hunting. Make offline maps. Make calls. Not saying it’s fool proof, but showing up from Georgia to a state I’ve never been and getting first day kills is fairly common. Find access points that most wouldn’t use. Don’t overlook small tracts either. Found some “state” land in a Western state that was only a few hundred acres and heard 8 different gobblers and not another soul around. While OnX won’t account for other hunters, it will give you multiple places to check out and one of those might be a honey hole. I may have up to 10-15 properties marked and find turkeys on the second spot. I’m heading back to Montana this year to check out a property I scouted and planned to hunt until I made a late run to listen for roosted birds on another property and found the motherlode, lol.

I hunted VT last year early May for a couple days. It was less than ideal. A lot of posted signs and little productive public land that I could find. This was in over in the Champlain valley near Middlebury. I spent some time one morning checking private farm fields and I barely saw any birds out strutting, I thought it was very strange. If I went again I would try a different area.

Thanks guys. I’ve been looking at OnX quite a bit trying to get a plan together.