Place to hunt

[janwbrown616]

Hey guys,
Since I"ve only lived here a short timne. (Chattanooga area) I'd like to find a place to deer hunt this season. Now, I don't get serious and hunt all hours of the day or night. I like to go out maybe in the evening, find a nice spot, set up and see what happens. Of course I'd want to scout it out, chek for signs and all the good stuff, but I don't really care much if I shoot a buck or not. If it's a nice rack, a good shot and everything is the way I like it, I MIGHT shoot it. I've pissed off a lot of hunters letting a 6 or 4 pt or spike walk away because it was too small or too easy a shot... I guess you can tell I'm not a died in the wool, hunter. Well, I've been there and done that and frankly now, I just like to be in the woods and enjoy it.

I don't plan to hunt more than a few days during the season, so, I hate to spend a ton of money. I can hunt down in
Georgia (where I'm originally from), but now since I live in TN I'd have to pay for an out of state license and to hunt what few times I'd go, it would not be worth it. I live in Ooltewah area and someplace around here would be great.

Thanks for any input...

[REDDOG79]

moved here from SC (originally from Maine which is a lot different than TN in finding land open to hunting). Now that I have time I am planning on hunting in the CHerokee Natl Forest near the Hiwassee River. Get the regulation book and look through it and pay close attention to the laws in regards to where you are going to be hunting as it is quite confusing at least to me. Find someone local to you that hunts and ask them where they go. There are public lands to hunt but you need to research them.

[GUTTERbOY]

TWRA has pretty decent maps online of all the WMAs available.

Regional map with all the WMA maps linked:
http://www.state.tn.us/twra/gis/gis_r3_wma.html

This PDF lists WMA-specific regulations, like legal hunting days, permissible weapons, etc:
http://www.state.tn.us/twra/pdfs/wmaseasons08.pdf

And finally some general WMA regulations:
http://www.state.tn.us/twra/wmas.html

I moved out here last summer, and did a lot of research using those tools, in addition to Google Earth, which is a great tool for getting an idea of the lay of the land before actually hoofing it out to scout in person.

[janwbrown616]

I' ve been looking at the WMAs and google earth. I guess that may be the only way I can go. I'd prefer to find a small farm someplace. I'm not to Keen in entering a battlefield. I'm sure those have not changed much.

[GUTTERbOY]

Well, if it makes you feel any better, with all the hunting I did on WMAs last year, I saw other hunters in the field twice. Only one time did they bother my hunting at all; I was hunting an archery-only plot right around the corner from my house, and some dove hunters or something came in and proceeded to troop all over the place, making all kinds of noise. The other time, I was rifle hunting up at North Chickamauga, and before sunrise, I observed a flashlight maybe 1000 yards away across a field.

I think maybe the key to avoiding the war zone stuff is to do some deep research and try to figure out which areas are not going to be attractive to the casual hunters.

[janwbrown616]

Thanks for the info, I'll keep it in mind.

Good hunting....