Hunting in North Georgia

[jeff / sc]

I'm getting tired of the high price hunting leases, 4 wheelers, and corn being dumped out every where a 4 wheeler can go.  Plus you never know from year to year if your lease will be sold.  I notice there appears to be a lot of public hunting in North Ga.  I realize public hunting doesn't always mean good hunting (good = enjoyable).  Just looking for an honest assesment from you guys that live and hunt there.  Do you hunt public land or private? What kind of critters? How do you consider the hunting??  
 
If the hunting was good, I would even consider moving if I could also find a place that would keep the little lady happy (happy =lots of shopping).

Thanks for any info........

[varmint]

Jeff,

   Do you ever hunt any of the public land here in SC??There's a few spots that are only open to bowhunting,and I've never had any overcrowding problems when I've hunted them.One particular WMA I look forward to every year,even with all the private land I have to hunt,I take vacation to make the first day or so of this hunt.

[BillyBobHowdieVern]

jeff when i hunted in GA. it was mostly in north GA. there are some really good public lands if you dont mind having to walk a good ways to get away from the road hunters and the 200 yarders. some of the GA. boy's will chime in im sure

john

[Walter Mauney]

About half the land in north Georgia is public. USFS owns around half of the property in Union, Fannin, Towns and Rabun county. Within that forest service property are several wilderness areas and WMAs. The hunting is rugged and you may have to walk to get away from other hunters. There is some USFS property near the TVA lakes, but that property is usually crowded compared with the mountains. The hunting is probably harder, as far as seeing deer, than further south, but you won't have as many people around. You also have the option of bear and hogs.

[joel smith]

what Walter said is absolutely correct. If you do your homework you can find some good places but deer densities generally do not come close to those further south. holler at me sometime if you want to do some "exploratory" hunting and I'll give you a few spots to try. might want to come down i September and hunt with some of us at Cohutta---that'll give you a good taste

[jeff / sc]

Thanks guys....

Varmint, sent you a PM.

Walter, may get to Blairsville next weekend...planning a loop thru the GA mountains with wife next weekend...no real plan, just head that way and see where we end up.

Joel..I'll give you a holler..thanks.

[Terry Green]

How far south ya gotta go for higher deer numbers?  Not very far.  Gordon, Floyd, and Bartow counties are COVERED UP with deer, and they are in N GA....Hogs are also now showing up in all 3 of those counties.

[slick]

Jeff, I feel your pain. I live all my life in the west and moved to Charleston 3 years ago. I hunted the first year in Francis Marion WMA and saw one doe. Now I admit these whitetails are a different animal than muleys but no hunting on Sundays, dog hunting seasons, not being able to leave a stand in the woods and use of bait on the surrounding private land had me fustrated.

The next year I joined a club that turned into a fiasco. This last year I didn't hunt a day in SC, but went back west for 3 weeks. I've got to get something going out here or I'm afraid there might be irreparable damage to my well being.

Any suggestions from SC tradgangers would be greatly appreciated.

Slick

[varmint]

I've only hunted Public land the last 5 years or so here in SC.Just never had to before.Plus all the horror stories I had heard.I've enjoyed hunting the WMA's,most stroies seem to be just that......stories.Haven't had any problems,great deer numbers,had my chances at some very nice bucks.........which I blew,and have never really been crowded by others.

If you check the SCDNR site,or search thru the regs,you can find some good bow hunting lands in SC.Only real problem,and just in my opinion,is trying to keep up with all the different opening/closing dates and trying to decipher the restrictions and limits.It seems like every one is different.

Just a few to check out in my area would be Hall,Donnelley,Cuddo,Santee,Edisto.

[Lee in S.C.]

Slick, you can hunt deer and pigs on GOOD public land every week from mid Sept- the end of the season within an hour of Charleston. Check out Hickory Top, Cuddo(Santee NWR), Pine Island (Santee NWR), Santee Coastal Reserve, Samworth WMA, Santee Delta WMA, Santee State Park, Bear Island WMA, Donnelly WMA, Pachucola WMA, Are Just a few. Ive taken deer and hogs on about half of those. You're scraping the bottom of the barrel at Francis Marion IMHO.

[Titan_Bow]

I used to live in Greenville, SC, and I bowhunted Fants Grove WMA and Keowee WMA.  Both are archery only, and I had a spot on Keowee that I saw deer in every single time I ever hunted it.
 Also, there is a spot up in Northern Greenville County, Chesnut Ridge Heritage Preserve.  If you walk back to the archery only section, you wont see another soul. There are some spots back there that are loaded with pigs also.  The only downside is that you can only hunt them during the deer season.   If you can get back to the archery only section, and then follow the creek bottoms you will see alot of hog sign. (At least there was 3 years ago). I was almost ran over by a 250lbs+ boar that was chasing a sow up here.  They ended up coming right down the trail towards me, and I figured that far back in, I wasnt going to try a frontal shot unless I had to.  Needless to say, I didnt get a shot at him.
    Also, if the acorns are falling good that year, the tops of the oak ridges are awesome for deer, and I've seen some nice bucks up there.

[allanburden]

Jeff,
    I sent you a pm.

[PigStikker]

I am heading down into that area next weekend to do some camping and scouting.  I am pretty excited about it to the point I am driving my wife crazy.

Matt

[Slasher]

Anybody hunt Joe Kurz? They haul some real nice deer outta there every year... and its sign in during Archery Season....
I've not hunted it myself (will this year though...) but have seem 3 nice bucks coming from there...

I'd love to find someone who knows the area...