East Tennessee

[archer19]

There are places in the Cherokee National Forest that have deer, but have never seen a hunter for decades.

fact

I can look at maps and find spots, look at getting there and change my mind.

 

[Brisco Darlin]

naw we're all brown downers in east tn. :super:

 

[Rockhound]

I would like to hunt east tn. I never have, it would take awhile for me to get use to the low deer density, but I think the ability to get away from other hunters would trump that for me.

 

[bigjohn]

Largest deer killed on record in TN was killed in East TN.

 

[smalljawbasser]

There are places in the Cherokee National Forest that have deer, but have never seen a hunter for decades.

fact

I can look at maps and find spots, look at getting there and change my mind.

there ain't as many of those spots as you might think. come up here and spend a week with a group of bear hunters and your perception will change. not that there isn't lightly hunted areas, but it isn't as untouched as one might think.

 

[Good time Charlie]

We have more deer then some of you guys think,I can remember when the yearly kill was less then 100 deer in our county.
This year we should push 2000 deer or close to it.We have plenty of deer ,I think we don't have the hunters we use to.

 

[7mminatree]

There are places in the Cherokee National Forest that have deer, but have never seen a hunter for decades.

fact

I can look at maps and find spots, look at getting there and change my mind.

there ain't as many of those spots as you might think. come up here and spend a week with a group of bear hunters and your perception will change. not that there isn't lightly hunted areas, but it isn't as untouched as one might think.

The OP was talking about deer hunting not bear hunting and BTW: I live up here and so does Archer.

 

[Good time Charlie]

Just one more thing I would like to add ,there has been no tobacco grown here to speak of in years now. Farmers are growing corn, lots of it and There are even a few soybean fields.From what I can tell this has helped our region a great bit. :super:

 

[highridge]

there ain't as many of those spots as you might think. come up here and spend a week with a group of bear hunters and your perception will change. not that there isn't lightly hunted areas, but it isn't as untouched as one might think.[/quote]

The OP was talking about deer hunting not bear hunting and BTW: I live up here and so does Archer.[/quote]

When we are bear hunting though we come up on some pretty impressive buck sign that is a long ways off the roads ecspecially on Unaka Mtn. and in Johnson Co. but it would be hello to get a deer out of some of the places that we find. There is some really good deer back here in these mountains if your willing to work for them.

 

[Timber Ghost]

I have hunted deer for over 50 yrs and I have killed hundreds and seen thousands, the biggest buck I have ever seen was on a ridgetop in Wears Valley about 25 ft off the park boundary line. Saw a smaller 12-14 pt in the same area. Both looked like they had TV antennas on their heads.

 

[csi-tech]

I have hunted Middle Tennessee for decades and the biggest buck I have ever killed is 127". Nice, but not a monster. The people our family leased the farm to were from East Tennessee and killed far better. I think there is a lot of luck involved with huge bucks. Now that the family farm is ours to hunt, things may improve, but I might not see anything bigger than a spike. Who knows?

 

[sbhockey]

I'll be back in the Cherokees on Thanksgiving weekend. I'll be treating it as a backpacking/hunting trip. Last year I tried Big Frog Mountain. Not sure if I'm going back there, or someplace new. Any advice is much appreciated. Only lived in the area a couple years, and will be my 2nd year hunting here.

 

[gatodoc]

If my TN history memory is right, back in the day the Cherokee Indians in the east and the Shawnee in the west both used middle TN as their preferred hunting ground...This scenario goes back a long way...