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Home / Stories / Hunting / Deer Hunting / Whitetail Hunting / 100 Best Public-Land Hunts: Washington
Whitetail Hunting

100 Best Public-Land Hunts: Washington

Scott BestulBy Scott BestulMarch 23, 2026

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Three Rivers Ranger District, Colville National ForestLocation: northeast WashingtonSize: 483,916 acresZIP: 99141

West across the Columbia River, Game Management Unit 101 in Colville National Forest’s Three Rivers Ranger District in Ferry County offers an excellent opportunity for bowhunters. Most of Washington’s mature buck harvest comes during the late firearms season, which ends just before the peak rut and the onset of late archery season in mid-November. But Unit 101 doesn’t hold a late modern firearms hunt. As a result, bowhunters can look forward to more bucks and less disruption, and they get to hunt the entire rut. Three Rivers Ranger District tends to be more arid, and the forest here is more open-and thus more suited to the tree-stand hunting bowhunters in the state seem to prefer. “Those archers do take a higher percentage of nice big bucks,” Zender says.

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Scott Bestul

    Trained as a high school English teacher and coach, Scott Bestul left that lucrative field to pursue another—as a full-time freelance writer in 1990. He sold his first story to Field & Stream a few years later and has been contributing to the brand ever since. Highlights Education Bestul graduated from Winona State University in 1985, with a B.S. in English (writing emphasis) and a coaching certificate. Experience Bestul has been the F&S whitetails columnist for more than a decade and has written dozens of articles and contributed to many feature packages since joining the brand. Additionally, he’s contributed to many national and regional outdoor magazines and newspapers. Bestul paired with F&S Executive Editor, Dave Hurteau, to write the The Total Deer Hunter Manual and The Total Bowhunting Manual. Bestul also co-authored The Last River Rat with Wisconsin resident Kenny Salwey in 2001. He was awarded the Quality Deer Management Association’s “Signpost Communicator of the Year” in 2013, and has given seminars at deer expos and sportsman’s shows across the country. Bestul will enjoy his 50th deer season this fall, and has been turkey hunting since the 1980s. He’s been an avid upland hunter and fisherman since boyhood. F&S Lightning Round Favorite Place to Fish: Driftless region trout streams in Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Iowa,Favorite Critter to Hunt: Whitetail deer in the woods behind his home,Bucket List Adventure: Float trip for archery moose in Alaska or the Yukon,Most Prized Piece of Gear: Recurve bow I helped build,All-Time Favorite F&S Story: “The Quicksand” by Bill Heavey Notable Work

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