WMAs Anyone hunt them?

[Guest Brent1973]

I'm running short on places to hunt this year. The place i have hunted in the past is unsure. The guy is very hard to get in with so am looking into hunting wmas around polk county. Anyone no how these place or as for as people? Is there a lot of people and traffic at these places?

[DaveS]

Some have a lot of people, a lot of traffic, extra license and special regulations. One of my local WMA's deer are no where to be found after the first half day of hunting,.

 

DaveS

[stillstanding669]

Unfortunately the Cheatham WMA has grown up so much that you really need a truck to go down any of the gravel and dirt roads. The money from the State to maintain those WMA's has been cut so much and used for other things.

Otherwise, I have hunted Cheatham for about 15 years off and on with only taking a single 4 point buck. Hard to get enough hunters in, and hard to get any movement of the deer to have much luck. I will have to hunt this area again this year due to the same problem of no private land to hunt.

[Wiljo05]

I hunt several. Never on opening day. More If I am running late and want to get into the woods I may hit one or two of the lesser travelled ones around me.

[Guest Brent1973]

ok thanks for the info. Anyone hunt the Charlotte Anne Finnel Neal WMA? I beleave it's Archery only.. 

[broylz]

went to Haynes bottom here in Montgomery county yesterday. saw a few birds and one other hunter who claimed its usually pretty slow.

[Dennis1209]

Glad you brought it up.

 

One of the minor reasons I bought this place in the country was to dove hunt in my back fields. Long story short, no doves fly around here and it's not because of the feed availability, as corn is planted everywhere?

 

Anywho... Last year I was reviewing WMA land around here to dove hunt and found two in Henry County fairly close to me, between Paris and Big Sandy. I ended up not going last year basically because it required and additional permit. So, this year I decided I'm going come Hades or high water and went back to TWR website to get directions to these two places again and find out how/where to get one of those TWR permits.

 

Those two places I seen last year were not listed and thought that odd, so I emailed TWR and asked the status of those two WMA'S.

 

I got a terse response from the TWR lady saying, "if they're not listed on the website..."

 

I assume TWR must lease some private land for these WMA areas? Now there's no state land anywhere near here in NW Tennessee to bird hunt.

 

That's my meager experience.

Edited September 12, 2013 by Dennis1209

[Randall53]

I used to hunt Prentice Cooper many years ago.  There used to be deer on there and plenty of hunters, but it wasn't easy to get a big deer. Spikes were plentiful and filled a freezer nice though.

[broylz]

they do lease some land. I went last weekend to a leased field in Robertson county with Whiskey. they only leased it for the first two weeks.

[DaveS]

went to Haynes bottom here in Montgomery county yesterday. saw a few birds and one other hunter who claimed its usually pretty slow.

Wait till deer season opens! I was going to show you the area yesterday, but you had already found it, which is good. Now that the weather is cooling just a degree or two, it's time to squirrel hunt!

 

Dave