Looking for greener pastures around Carolinas

[MCNSC]

If I were coming from out of state, or wanted to bowhunt later in the season I would look at the Keeowee And Fants Grove WMAs  near Clemson.   They have longer bow only seasons and there are camp grounds around the area on Lake Hartwell. I don't think there is a real population of hogs there though.

[Pat B]

Not many hogs here in western NC but a few years ago a 600# was killed in the Jocassee Gorges area. He probably got that big because her didn't have much competition.

[Longbowwally]

Some good advice given here…This has been a very unusual year in my area of NC in that deer sightings in a lot of areas was way down…I have killed 3 bucks this year so I can't complain but I hunt a lot and have access to a fair amount of private land….

I have consistently heard from hunters across the state of how tough the hunting was this year….Not sure why but prolly a combination of things such as an exceptionally heavy acorn crop, and maybe the impacts of EHD in some areas….

I have to agree with some of the comments here in that my experience with public land in other states is they are much better than here in NC….

[Nantahala Nut]

I'm definitely gonna give fants grove a look. Bow only and it's just over 2 hours away from me. This has been really encouraging after a rough couple seasons. I take a lot of time off work and away from my family to hunt and it would be great to see a little return on investment there. My wife would sure appreciate the meat.

[Nantahala Nut]

I'm also looking forward to when my baby boy is old enough to hunt. If I grew up only seeing 4 deer a season I probably wouldn't have stuck with it. I will still get out up here just because there are some monster bucks and other wild stuff. Saw a huge bear this season but he was just out of range at 30 yards.

[Caranthir]

NN, feel your pain. Saw 0 deer this year hunting Gamelands in Green River area. Saw several dead does  only(road kill) Combination of extreme dryness, bumper acorn crop ???? Don't know what to say to explain it. Everyone else I've spoken with says the same this year. Save up for an out of state hunt ??

[MCNSC]

It's been a little tough in the upstate of SC also. Lots of acorns and dry. I really think the dryness has hurt more than anything, as the woods are so noisy. I have spent most of my hunting time hunting right at the edge of a field to keep from walking on the noisy leaves.  On of the few evenings it was wet I went in to the hardwoods and saw a couple of does eating acorns. Most of the season I felt every deer in the county knew exactly where I was, the woods were so noisy.

[DarrinG]

Its really odd how the yearly mast crop varies so much between areas. I saw acorns everywhere in lower elevations but around home (Mitchell and Yancey) in the areas I hunt, acorns were basically non-existent this year. I managed to find a couple trees that actually had a few acorns and had a stellar season as far as seeing deer. Took one younger buck at 7 yards and passed on many more. The drought conditions here was also bad. A squirrel bounding through the leaves sounded like a herd of elephants coming. Hopefully we get rain to make up for the drought over the winter.

[Patknight]

Several weeks ago my buddy who lives near fuquay varina NC invited me to hunt his lease.. apparently Hunting over corn piles is the norm..3 days before I arrive he put out 800 lbs of corn....in four days I saw not one deer..I just couldn't believe it...so I too feel your pain ....very tough area I guess..

[Longbowwally]

Pat - the corn baiters had a really bad time this year cause the deer had so many acorns. They've been spoiled over the years cause normally they just dump out some corn and the deer come to it. I don't want this thread to go downhill so I'll just leave it at that….