stringtalker
Well-Known Member
There is way to much tree cutting here anyway, they destroy the property and leave it basically an obstical course
What is wrong with East Tennessee?
- Thread starter Okatoba
- Start date
Huntaholic
Well-Known Member
Its something in the water up there! That, or those east TN hunters are so blood thirsty they kill everything they see. Take your pick.
WORM82
Well-Known Member
I think our problem is all the middle and west TN guys keep saying they found a dead deer or seen a couple deer piled up in a truck with east TN tags and started accusing us of poaching and the brown and down mindset. If were going to be accused of doing it then we might as well do it lol. In reality the only chance we have to kill doe's in certain county's is during bow and muzzleloader season and we are lucky to have a chance at 1 buck per season. If I went to west Tn and had the chance to fill my freezer in a weekend then I would come back with a truck load also because there is a really good chance of only being able to kill 1 or 2 deer per year around here.
A lot of the reasons mentioned. Less deer lead people to shoot the first thing they see and increases poaching so it's very counterproductive, a lot of people shoot themselves in the foot per se. Like Wes said as well, same limit on bucks, same season length but less deer. There's a reason I hunt the north side of my county....it is close enough to KY that their regs help us.
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Rockhound":2c5evigb said:
one of the things I found surprising when looking for potential properties to lease was the number of "large" tracts. Having grown up in carter co, I thought from looking around with my eyes, 200 acre tracts of mountain land would be everywhere.
Nope. I bet there isn't 20 tracts of land over 200 acres in all of johnson, carter, Sullivan and Washington counties.
Lots of small 30-50 acre tracts. Hard to put your 28 acres into a cutover rotation.
on top of that, with beef prices being what they are, anything that will grow a blade of grass or a stalk of silage corn is leased and in production, aka no hunting.
If the Feds would put 50ac/year of NCNF into timber rotation sold to the highest bidder, I bet the benefit to wildlife (and the taxpayer) would be enormous.
lungpuncher1
Well-Known Member
smalljawbasser":3oapcgah said:
That's not true. I lease two pieces of ground that are 200+ acres myself. There are several in Sullivan and Washington county.
lungpuncher1
Well-Known Member
lungpuncher1":36mujz5c said:
That's not true. I lease two pieces of ground that are 200+ acres myself. There are several in Sullivan and Washington county.[/quote]
Okatoba
Well-Known Member
I can see why the land might be in smaller tracts,people have lived in East Tn. a long time,the land has been being divided by generations into smaller tracts for longer.The big tracts in the mountains were bought up by the timber companies,stripped, and sold in mass to uncle sam?
7mminatree
Well-Known Member
You have to realize that east Tn. has the most diverse habitat in the state. Not a lot of agriculture. Small farms, foothills up 2500 ft. elevation and mountains up to 6000 ft.+ elevation. So in places the deer numbers are very good and in the high mountains it tough for a deer to make a living. I lived in Greene Co. from the early 80's to the early 90's. We had a small farm in Baileyton. I could easily fill my tags every year with no problem. I considered myself a competent, above average deer hunter. We sold the farm and moved to Unicoi in 1993. I had to hunt the CNF public land and boy was I humbled. Not near the deer numbers, the terrain is nothing but a butt kicker, it's always bone chilling cold or snowing. It was a huge learning curve. I'd have to say I was a shooter of deer and not a hunter. I couldn't believe a person with my hunting experience was getting skunked! :bash:. Lucky for me I meet a great mentor. A friend of my dad's, he used to hunt the upper peninsula of Michigan during the depression. What a great hunter he was. I was blessed to have known him. One of the things he always said when I would complain about not seeing any deer was, "remember that in the big forests 90 percent of the deer will on 10 percent of the land." So that means putting your boots all over these mountains. Five, seven, ten miles of scouting going from 1500 ft. to 5000 ft. elevation will separate the hunters from the shooters. You central and west guys for the most part, have it easy and I'm envious, but it is what it is. You east guys, you just gotta keep searching. I don't think the east is still stuck in the seventies, I do remember the seventies, lots more deer now than then.
Okatoba
Well-Known Member
I bet it's a young man's game there. A while back I went over to the MTSU wma near the duck river and looked around a while and when I looked off those big ridges and down in those hollers and though "at my age if I shoot a deer and he runs down there,he's staying down there" so I never went back.
lungpuncher1":22pz1nd1 said:
Ok, there's two. lol, 18 more to go. My point is, there isn't large tracts of land everywhere that can be put in timber rotation, thereby creating that criticial early-successional cover that is crucial to wildlife. Not that logging doesn't happen, but it doesn't happen as much on the large scale commercial level. It would be my guess that the majority of habitat in upper east Tennessee is mature hardwood forest. If I'm not mistaken, that is not prime whitetail habitat.
lungpuncher1
Well-Known Member
I agree with you saying there aren't as many as out west. But there are more than people realize. Western Hawkins county and towards blountville in Sullivan county there's many big tracts.smalljawbasser":1offch0o said:
Treestand Troubadour
Well-Known Member
Yep its horrible for us east tennesseeans to go out west and shoot some deer but as soon as it warms up a little bit everybody comes a runnin this way lookin for them big trout
miller1buc
Well-Known Member
Yes it really is that bad especially the further east you go. Washington, Sullivan, Carter and Unicoi are tough hunting. Access is tough to public. There are some deer on the private farms but access to those are very limited. I am not even going to waste time or money on TN license next year to hunt around here. I have scouted around the public land in these areas and have found very little sign. I have seen more deer in city limits of Johnson City than anywhere else.
Some of the comments on this thread is 1 reason I wont hunt out of state and will probably stop making any trips out of this region. Twra has set up WMA'S for the sportsman of Tn and not just the locals. We all know it has to be the folks from out of town doing the poaching as no locals ever do such. how many dummys are going to drive a couple hundred miles and poach a deer and chance losing trucks guns and money taking it back home? my $ is a local that can get rid of it quick where nobody will see it and will hang in a barn till hell freezes over. some of us use hunting trips as vacations and its not so much the kill as the trip. I reckon my $ will stay in this end of the state
"Deerless" hunting days are the norm around here I have to say. Late season hunting is the worst for me. I've only seen deer once in the last 5 times out. Yea, it's tough out here.
Okatoba":9cgf6d4q said:
I just turned 50 this year Oka, and it ain't as easy as it used to be for sure! This buck ran to the very top of the ridge in the background, and when it fell, it slid back down about 30 yds or so! It was just as hard dragging him DOWN the ridge, as dragging him back up almost! He kept passing me up and wrapping around trees and saplings continuously!
bowhunter163
Well-Known Member
^^^^ exactly my thoughts . Blame it on the East TN guys . Like you said , who would drive amike243":1l18lloq said:
Few hours to hunt just to leave a deer laying or poach ? I would bet locals as well .
And heaven forbid someone come from East Tn to hunt " their " WMA . There are a few arrogant posts in this thread and I'm embarrassed for them .
I quit going west to hunt public land after some jackwagon busted my back window out of my truck and left me a nice note saying to stay home and kill my own deer. But yes its all the east tn boys poaching your precious deer that you own that roam the public land! Give me a break guysbowhunter163":1g7we63b said:
