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Cheatham WMA newbie
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<blockquote data-quote="Woody Armor" data-source="post: 5181055" data-attributes="member: 16646"><p>I cannot speak to other WMA's as I have exclusively utilized Chetham right after the Blue Tongue incident until recently expanding Yanahli into my seasons. It was a little slow right after that, but did not take too many years to bounce back due to the direction taken when Randy was managing it with the guidelines he had in place. There was no disaster with full open seasons even before the antler restrictions that have just recently been implemented at Cheatham. The way Randy had it set up with buck only in ML and FA kept the pressure down quite a bit during those seasons. Maybe a Thanksgiving weekend had some heavier traffic, but overall it was fairly light to moderate as far as pressure goes. Like most WMA's archery was pretty light. Cheatham was just fine with no issues for quality of deer or quantity of deer before Randy left. </p><p></p><p>The roads prior to being closed off gave more access to a pretty good size continuous piece of land. If you have not been to Cheatham, even with the roads open the way they used to be, still left a good bit of the WMA rarely accessed as it is extremely demanding terrain with its deep rolling ridges and valleys. While having to adjust, the roads being closed off can be worked around. Not as big of a deal on that point. The season limitation and the current quota schedule are another matter of limited access during the heart of the season.</p><p></p><p>As far as no deer being left in places in general with heavy pressure... I think Yanahli serves to put that thought process to rest. The place gets absolutely pummeled day in and day out throughout all the months of the season with no antler restrictions and 3 does a day per the regulations for middle TN. Still plenty of deer and believe it or not even some nice bucks that make it through. I have passed on some bucks at Yanahli that were pretty nice bucks for many and have had a few really nice bucks just out of range. Catman holds his own out there as well. While not a "big buck" destination for one of our WMA's, there are some good ones out there.</p><p></p><p>Many just don't get at them as they are limited by skill set, lack of preparation, not going the extra mile on diligent research and scouting and lack of patience and drive to stay 100% committed to overcoming setbacks and other hunters. </p><p></p><p>Deer are surviving machines and quotas or not they are going to work around hunters through entire seasons and do well in the majority of properties. </p><p>While I have been hunting exclusively in mid TN on public since moving here 12 or so years ago and get frustrated with many disrespectful hunters and WMA regs, nothing down here comes close to what pressure really is. In Michigan we harvested more deer throughout a season than the total number of hunters in Tennessee. Most TN hunters have no idea what true hunting pressure really looks like. Michigan public land was brutal. Talk about a pumpkin patch in any ML FA season. Archery was more like ML/FA down here if not worse. Even at that though, there are still a lot of deer to this day in Michigan even having to navigate decades of unreal pressure from massive numbers of hunters.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Woody Armor, post: 5181055, member: 16646"] I cannot speak to other WMA's as I have exclusively utilized Chetham right after the Blue Tongue incident until recently expanding Yanahli into my seasons. It was a little slow right after that, but did not take too many years to bounce back due to the direction taken when Randy was managing it with the guidelines he had in place. There was no disaster with full open seasons even before the antler restrictions that have just recently been implemented at Cheatham. The way Randy had it set up with buck only in ML and FA kept the pressure down quite a bit during those seasons. Maybe a Thanksgiving weekend had some heavier traffic, but overall it was fairly light to moderate as far as pressure goes. Like most WMA's archery was pretty light. Cheatham was just fine with no issues for quality of deer or quantity of deer before Randy left. The roads prior to being closed off gave more access to a pretty good size continuous piece of land. If you have not been to Cheatham, even with the roads open the way they used to be, still left a good bit of the WMA rarely accessed as it is extremely demanding terrain with its deep rolling ridges and valleys. While having to adjust, the roads being closed off can be worked around. Not as big of a deal on that point. The season limitation and the current quota schedule are another matter of limited access during the heart of the season. As far as no deer being left in places in general with heavy pressure... I think Yanahli serves to put that thought process to rest. The place gets absolutely pummeled day in and day out throughout all the months of the season with no antler restrictions and 3 does a day per the regulations for middle TN. Still plenty of deer and believe it or not even some nice bucks that make it through. I have passed on some bucks at Yanahli that were pretty nice bucks for many and have had a few really nice bucks just out of range. Catman holds his own out there as well. While not a "big buck" destination for one of our WMA's, there are some good ones out there. Many just don't get at them as they are limited by skill set, lack of preparation, not going the extra mile on diligent research and scouting and lack of patience and drive to stay 100% committed to overcoming setbacks and other hunters. Deer are surviving machines and quotas or not they are going to work around hunters through entire seasons and do well in the majority of properties. While I have been hunting exclusively in mid TN on public since moving here 12 or so years ago and get frustrated with many disrespectful hunters and WMA regs, nothing down here comes close to what pressure really is. In Michigan we harvested more deer throughout a season than the total number of hunters in Tennessee. Most TN hunters have no idea what true hunting pressure really looks like. Michigan public land was brutal. Talk about a pumpkin patch in any ML FA season. Archery was more like ML/FA down here if not worse. Even at that though, there are still a lot of deer to this day in Michigan even having to navigate decades of unreal pressure from massive numbers of hunters. [/QUOTE]
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