East TN Hunting Advice

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Warlock

New Member
Joined
Jun 13, 2022
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2
City & State/Province
Knoxville
Good evening gentlemen. I just moved down here from North Dakota in January and was hoping to get some advice / insight. I'm currently living in Knox county and have started the process of e-scouting nearby public. Luckily it seems like Knox County seems to be within an hour or so of a lot of public hunting opportunity, which at first seems great, but I have some concerns. From reading on this forum and others it sounds like public land down here is just inundated with hunting pressure during the season - is this less so during archery season or is it extremely busy year round? I have no problem getting in deep and away from other hunters, or hunting overlooked spots on smaller parcels. Just seems like a lot of cynicism I'm reading and I'm trying to gauge whether it's just a different frame of reference people have down here or if the public land is just in dire straits in terms of being over hunted. Additionally I've heard some horror stories about vehicles being broke into at Cove Creek / Royal Blue? I'm generally looking for information and tips about where to avoid and how to start not trying to blow out anyones personal honey holes. I saddle hunt so I have no problem staying mobile and getting away from other folks.

Anyway, anything helps. Cheers!
 
The quota hunts at Chuck Swan and Catoosa are usually a madhouse. Getting to areas off the beaten path and playing the pressure of other hunters is key there. Royal Blue is my favorite public area, never had any trouble there. Lots of areas that are foot traffic only. There are some good deer up there, but they are hard to get to typically, although my best one came across an ATV trail after a dozen ATV's just passed through. I tend to hunt weekdays rather than weekends. Welcome to East TN!
 
For the most part public land is very limited and with the rising cost of leased land more and more are hunting it. Vandalism and such in parking areas is common across the state because these damn dope heads know hunters and fishermen are going to be gone awhile, police don't have the man power, and terd heads know most folks won't step up to stop them. So that is a part of public land and the other downside is the mentality of animal ownership. But on the brighter side it's real easy to tell the folks and areas to not bother with and meet good ones who'll watch out for you and yours like they own. Unfortunately it's here like other places, good hunting lands and hunters and other side of fence is the terds of hunters and humanity. Public hunting is like public shopping you going to step on a terd eventually
 
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TNGRIZZLY_ said:
I live in Scott county TN, so I can be at the north Cumberland TWRA area in 20 min and I can be at big south fork in 20+ min. Plenty of property to hunt and get away from people. Just give me a pm and I'll try to help.
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North Cumberland is as rough as a cob, but there are some BIG bucks up there. Probably have it to yourself in bow season.
 
SES said:
North Cumberland is as rough as a cob, but there are some BIG bucks up there. Probably have it to yourself in bow season.
Click to expand...
Best advice that I can give him would be, find a old logging Trail that is grown up and heading into the bottom or middle and walk it. Don't know about deer in the Dakota area, but here they travel and only come around every three days or so. So don't get discouraged if you don't see anything for several days. If you have time and money for gas, go to middle or west TN for does.
 
Buy yourself a hunting license and a type 94 permit and you'll unlock about 200,000 or more acres of land that you can hunt on and around North Cumberland WMA. A 4 wheeler or sidexside is helpful but not mandatory.
Start riding around and learning an area then get out and walk. You'll find there's a pile more deer than you see from the road. Good luck what's not to love about an area that has big deer, big elk, wild hogs, bears and turkeys. You can literally see every one of those species in the same hunt.
 

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