future deer hunter (hopefully)

[drewski]

I've always been around folks that deer hunt.  years have passed, so most have passed on, or have retired from hunting.  the land they hunted is long since gone.  I always wanted to give deer hunting a try, but am only now able to do so.  My experience is hunting with a BB gun- old daisy pump- and squirrel hunting with a 22.  Public land seems to be the only option at this time.  open to suggestions, though.  thought i would ask the group about hunting on public, TVA,  and WMA's in middle TN area.  region 2: cheatham, normandy, yanahli, etc, or region 3 are preferable.  good, bad, and the ugly to prepare.  Rifle only.  no muzzle loader or archery, yet.  i've read all the "how to" articles and posts i could find.  now i'm down to- where to go.  any help would be greatly appreciated!

[bersaguy]

Back years ago I use to hunt the Cheatham WMA and it offered some great areas to hunt. I bagged quite a few deer while hunting it. Last year after not being down there for 20+ years I took a drive through the Reserve. Where I use to hunt now have houses built of them. That tells me that many of the leases of the land that made up the Cheatham WMA ended and the new generations that inherited the land sold it rather than re lease it back to the state. That means the reserve had gotten a lot smaller so don't know if it would be as good as it once was.

[KahrMan]

Cheatham WMA is a pretty large place.  There is some good hunting to be found at most of the WMA's.  The problem is you are not going to find it with in a 10 minute walk of any road.  If you are going to hunt public land try to go during the week if you schedule allows it.  There will be a lot of pressure on the first couple of weekends.  Get you a good map of the area and plan on hiking a good ways in to get away from the people.  

Good luck.

[drewski]

thanks guys- i'll start hiking around this summer to scout a bit.  

[Shorty]

The only downside to public land, depending on size, is if you find a nice spot to hunt chances are good somebody else has scouted it too.  Find yourself several locations so you have a backup in case somebody is at the one you planned on hunting that day.  People are also lazy so the deeper you go, the less likely you will have competition.

Edited July 3, 2018 by Shorty

[james.price]

Cheatam WMA is good...if you don't mind driving a bit further there's the Stewart County State Forest or Ft Campbell Military base if you can handle the call in routine.

If Public is your only option, I'd honestly recommend getting a bow and learning archery. Much fewer people to deal with and more opportunities (a lot of WMA's are archery only). That opens up Land Between the Lakes which is archery only (except for a few draw hunts during the season for rifle/muzzleloader) It's a great place to hunt/camp/fish and big enough I've never felt crowded.

Edited July 6, 2018 by james.price