Mature Public Land Bucks

[Court2005]

Over the holidays I will in Georgia hunting public land with my brother in law. I've done a little research on the WMA and it is around 4,000 acres and is said to have a lot of hunting pressure unless willing to do a little bit of walking and there is alot of hills. This is a bow only WMA as well.



In your experience where have you had success finding pressured mature deer on public land??

TOPO of WMA







This is a buck that got hit by a bus a few years back near the WMA.

[Diamond07]

I don't have much experience but I'd check out way in the back where the creek bed splits. Long walk for most on top of that

[mjbtexas]

go in quiet. trails, scrapes, rubs, hunt funnels and get high in a tree. if you can corn do it.

i've seen deer 3 of the 5 times i have hunted public land and consider that a "W" for now, and will shoot any buck i see. i think.

[Court2005]

go in quiet. trails, scrapes, rubs, hunt funnels and get high in a tree. if you can corn do it.

i've seen deer 3 of the 5 times i have hunted public land and consider that a "W" for now, and will shoot any buck i see. i think.

No baiting allowed

[Court2005]

Evening crowd

[GarGuy]

Without first hand experience there, its hard for me to guess. They will be were the other hunters arent going though whether thats across a big creek, way down in the woods, or a bad thicket 100yds off the main road.

[Etxnoodler]

I would get on one of the middle ridges in those groups where there are a few in a row. If that makes since. You don't necisarlly have to be a long way from the road. Like said above there could be a hellish thicket next to a road that holds a swamp donkey.

[Court2005]

Without first hand experience there, its hard for me to guess. They will be were the other hunters arent going though whether thats across a big creek, way down in the woods, or a bad thicket 100yds off the main road.

In order to hunt a bad thicket do I get into the middle of it for find a trail going in and out and set up there?


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[NF HUNTER]

If the road is open that the red arrow is pointing at, I would scout that area that i have circled. It seems to be an area that might not get hunted much. Because its a hard place to get to. There might be some funnels just to the right of where the red circles meet. but I've never been there. You're going to have to scout the area out. I've always been fond of creek crossings. Look for the most deer tracks you can find on a trail and hunt it. I would use a light weight climber if you can and hunt pretty high up in the tree. Good luck!

[Court2005]

If the road is open that the red arrow is pointing at, I would scout that area that i have circled. It seems to be an area that might not get hunted much. Because its a hard place to get to. There might be some funnels just to the right of where the red circles meet. but I've never been there. You're going to have to scout the area out. I've always been fond of creek crossings. Look for the most deer tracks you can find on a trail and hunt it. I would use a light weight climber if you can and hunt pretty high up in the tree. Good luck!

Will definitely check that area out. Not real sure on where exactly the gates are though. Given the terrain would it be best to quarter a deer or use a deer cart to get one out?


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[Felix40]

Definitely quarter or carry out whole depending on how much brush and how far you have to go. You couldn't pay me to use a deer cart unless I had a road I was walking down.

I'm a big fan of creek crossings as a way to figure out how deer are moving in an area. They will cross in a specific spot which basically tells you where they are going. I don't hunt creek crossings a lot but it's the easiest way to find what patch of woods they are using. I like the look of that wma a lot. Don't forget that further isn't always the best. If you can find nasty brush patches that people overlook there should be deer in them.

Edit to say that you can probably scout most of that place in a day so it may be worthwhile to donate an entire day to scouting before you commit to a spot.

[Court2005]

Definitely quarter or carry out whole depending on how much brush and how far you have to go. You couldn't pay me to use a deer cart unless I had a road I was walking down.

I'm a big fan of creek crossings as a way to figure out how deer are moving in an area. They will cross in a specific spot which basically tells you where they are going. I don't hunt creek crossings a lot but it's the easiest way to find what patch of woods they are using. I like the look of that wma a lot. Don't forget that further isn't always the best. If you can find nasty brush patches that people overlook there should be deer in them.

Edit to say that you can probably scout most of that place in a day so it may be worthwhile to donate an entire day to scouting before you commit to a spot.

I like the sound of quartering the deer and strapping it to my back as opposed to dragging it out.

I plan on starting with the creek bottoms and just walk until i find a crossing and then see where it takes me.