ROYAL BLUE PIONEER TN

[Billboy]

The ATV crowd is annoying, but I killed my largest buck just minutes after a train of ATV's went by. 12pt crossed the trail right behind them... See my profile pic. But, you would be better off getting as far from roads/trails as you can. Plenty of gated roads you can walk in on and a deer cart is definitely helpful.

 

[TNGRIZZLY_]

Let me put it this way. I live there (as you can tell by my name). I would heavily advise against it. Again, WMA is big enough to get away from the prior folks i talk about, however your problem then is getting your deer out unless you butcher it right there. also, these side by siders like to shoot into the woods while they ride (not at anything in particular btw), so good luck with that.

Yeah I had that happen several times, I just started going to big south fork

 

[TNGRIZZLY_]

Right passed Beech Grove Church on Hwy 116 is another road that I've killed several deer on. The road is rougher than Gum Branch, but you can get up there a ways in a 2WD. Google Earth will be your best friend finding places to hunt up there.

I agree and unless the road has changed, you can get to the top of the mountain in 2 wd.

I used to work in the strip mines on 116 and when we moved to Smoky. I had to drive equipment over that mountain and my tires in some places hung over both sides.b

 

[TNGRIZZLY_]

The ATV crowd is annoying, but I killed my largest buck just minutes after a train of ATV's went by. 12pt crossed the trail right behind them... See my profile pic. But, you would be better off getting as far from roads/trails as you can. Plenty of gated roads you can walk in on and a deer cart is definitely helpful.

I heard them ebike are good for those areas

 

[TNGRIZZLY_]

They are some great area to hunt in the north Cumberland WMA, I killed deer in there. All we are saying is that you will be dealing with a bunch of idiots who has no respect for anyone. They are a lot of old strip mines that the deer love and elk.

 

[Harold Money jr]

LMAO. leave it by pudges, I will give it the OLE 63 treatment! HAWHAW HAW!!

There's always a "local" or two you can tell them by their screen name who insinuates that they are gonna damage one's vehicle or that folks drive down the trails randomly shooting into the woods. I too am a local just at the other end of the wma and spend as much time as anyone on all parts of the WMA from one end to the other. I've never heard of anyone randomly shooting into the woods. I have heard of vehicles being vandalized at Pudges (didn't know people have a phrase for it that's funny)
Here is the truth, it's a HUGE area that holds a good amount of deer and some huge ones! Where else can hunt and expect to see or hear elk, see several wild hogs and kill a couple, have a chance at a lifetime deer while seeing several, see turkeys and potentially a bear. It's a huge area that doesn't get hunted correctly very often. You don't need a 4 wheeler or a 4x4 vehicle, either would help but, not required. I advise if the area looks real good and there's a great place to park then keep looking. Find a small area and learn it. You'll be ahead by studying topo maps of the area. Good luck and just on a couple of occasions have I seen people who needed to quarter a buck out to pack him out. They knew where they were hunting and expected to pack one out.

 

[SES]

I'll be up there during the doe days in rifle season. I don't shoot does on my property.

 

[wardamn93]

Drive by Brushy Mountain Prison. You'll go to the top of the mountain and come down the other side. Go several miles and there will be a coal processing plant on the right. Turn left on the gravel road just passed it. More land up that road than you would ever be able to hunt. You'll see the WMA sign once you go up that road a little way.

Been following this thread and checked out your recommendation. Found a promising spot near a waterfall this afternoon, going back tomorrow morning. I recently moved to Knox from Alabama and I'm not used to hunting the mountains!

 

[Bloodwolf1984]

I'm 38 and have lived here 37 years...and imho find somewhere far away from there....you are gonna end up aggravated at side by side traffic...and all the nonsense they bring w them....find some TVA land...much better..just my .02

 

[PickettSFHunter]

Interesting to see this. Our local WMA is nothing but side by sides also. You can't hear yourself think during deer or turkey season. Almost all of them drunk and blaring music. You would think the TWRA would want some kind of restrictions to at least help hunters during the seasons.

 

[TheLBLman]

ATVs are the scourge of the earth.

I used to enjoy an occasional hunt at Catoosa WMA until the ATV's started outnumbering the deer & turkey.

 

[wardamn93]

I'm 38 and have lived here 37 years...and imho find somewhere far away from there....you are gonna end up aggravated at side by side traffic...and all the nonsense they bring w them....find some TVA land...much better..just my .02

Lesson learned on doing my research, I had no idea hunting TVA land was even a thing. I've been under the impression I could only hunt TWRA public land. Thanks for the tip!

 

[knightrider]

Interesting to see this. Our local WMA is nothing but side by sides also. You can't hear yourself think during deer or turkey season. Almost all of them drunk and blaring music. You would think the TWRA would want some kind of restrictions to at least help hunters during the seasons.

As long as they have your license money and their trail permit money they could care less about either sets of people! And dont even get started about what they are allowing to happen to the land in name of permits money

 

[Bloodwolf1984]

As long as they have your license money and their trail permit money they could care less about either sets of people! And dont even get started about what they are allowing to happen to the land in name of permits money

Well said !

 

[Bloodwolf1984]

Lesson learned on doing my research, I had no idea hunting TVA land was even a thing. I've been under the impression I could only hunt TWRA public land. Thanks for the tip!

You are very welcome

 

[Harold Money jr]

I hunted up there for the first time last Tuesday. On the way in we saw 18 elk feeding in a field, drove another mile and about 12 pigs ran across the road in front of us. We drove on, didn't see or hear a 4 wheeler. Didn't see a deer that evening, we went back the next morning to try to kill some pigs. At about 9:30 a doe came by running out of a thicket. She smelled me and ran to the next bench down. I quietly moved down wind and set up. Within 30 minutes a nice 8 point came cruising by looking for the doe. I flinched like an idiot and missed him. That's 18 elk, a herd of pigs and a doe and nice buck in about 5 hours of hunting. There was no other hunters near us and we saw 2 vehicles on the way out. Btw our truck never left two wheel drive. I hunted about 400 yds off the road and saw the buck closer than that to the road. There are literally thousands of acres that fit this same description. What's not to love?

 

[killingtime 41]

Lesson learned on doing my research, I had no idea hunting TVA land was even a thing. I've been under the impression I could only hunt TWRA public land. Thanks for the tip!

You can't hunt all TVA land so do your homework

 

[killingtime 41]

I hunted up there for the first time last Tuesday. On the way in we saw 18 elk feeding in a field, drove another mile and about 12 pigs ran across the road in front of us. We drove on, didn't see or hear a 4 wheeler. Didn't see a deer that evening, we went back the next morning to try to kill some pigs. At about 9:30 a doe came by running out of a thicket. She smelled me and ran to the next bench down. I quietly moved down wind and set up. Within 30 minutes a nice 8 point came cruising by looking for the doe. I flinched like an idiot and missed him. That's 18 elk, a herd of pigs and a doe and nice buck in about 5 hours of hunting. There was no other hunters near us and we saw 2 vehicles on the way out. Btw our truck never left two wheel drive. I hunted about 400 yds off the road and saw the buck closer than that to the road. There are literally thousands of acres that fit this same description. What's not to love?

Try hunting there in the weekend like most people have to and see if there's any traffic

 

[Harold Money jr]

Try hunting there in the weekend like most people have to and see if there's any traffic

There are popular areas that have literally thousands of riders through a days time. The riders get off and party in crowds of hundreds, they are loud and obnoxious. Why anyone would want to hunt next to that is beyond me but, I hear it all the time and apparently people want to hunt close to the few party areas.
This hunt was on the Tuesday after work and Wednesday morning before Thanksgiving. To say you can't get away from riders on 200,000 thousand acres on any day of the week is false. There are thousands of areas where you can walk behind a gate that says foot travel only. You can find a pull off on a road and either go up, down, or sideways where no one will bother you. If I wanted to hunt near the folks with the crazy lights and the jacked up side by sides then I could easily. Just know you can have a really good experience up there in a lot of areas.

 

[Sako]

You can't hunt all TVA land so do your homework

Very true... TVA has a map that will show what is open for hunting and what is not... Here is the link.

TVA recreational land map