We have a new place to hunt and at a different time of the year.
The new hunting spot is Wilderness Hunting Lodge in Tennessee, just off of I-40. See www.wildernesshuntinglodge.com for more details.
Wilderness was recommended by four members of the Fire, cal74,maddog,bea175 and Mike762.
Hunting Experience:
Based on their recommendations, I went to Wilderness this past Spring to try it out, and was very impressed. The hunting is very real with the choice of spot and stalk, using a stand(ladder or elevated boxes) or following dogs. I'm a spot and stalk guy and really liked what they provided.I also like to hunt alone, all of which I did for just about three days. The hunting area is large, though fenced in, and the hills and valleys made for an excellent hunting experience. Hogs seem to be oblivious to fences and they were clearly wild and spooky.
I have no interest in hunting exotics, which they have, but I sure liked seeing them in the woods with me. That surprised me somewhat and I started looking for them just to enjoy the experience.
I got a large boar(250 lb) late in the afternoon of the third day with a single shot from my new to me Ruger#3 30-40. Because the hunting area mostly has mature trees, 100+ yard shots are not unusual. My shot was about 35 yards. And binocs are very helpful.
Lodging
If we have 15 or more hunters, we will have a lodge all to ourselves. The log building is pretty new, perfectly clean, has a kitchen and a large meeting area.You can see a picture of it on the website. We will also have a new outside stone grill because I told them that Pat would demand it and it was not a good idea to annoy him.
Guides:
Each guide I dealt with was superb, and willing to do whatever it took to make my hunt rewarding and successful.They took me into the woods on a 4-wheeler and dropped me off wherever I wanted to go.
Food
The food, served buffet style, and Southern , is wholesome, though not necessarily healthy. The main meal is served at noon and is good, but probably not equal to Carryonah. I figure we can take care of ourselves for supper on the grill.
Meat Processing
They have a separate building with a very large cold locker for the meat processing. The butchers are really skilled and very cleanly. The differences from Carryonah will be stark. And strangely enough, everyone seemed to get all the parts of the animal they wanted. They don't have any three or five legged boars there.
Length of Stay
Much different from Carryonah, we get three days of hunting and four days of lodging. We'll arrive on the afternoon of Day 1, hunt on days 2,3 and 4, and leave on the morning of Day 5.
The tentative schedule will be for us to arrive on Wednesday, 14 March, hunt Thursday, Friday and Saturday, and leave Sunday morning, 18 March.
The reason for the change of dates from December to March is that we all seemed to have multiple options to hunt in December, but we were all struck with cabin fever in March. So this is the suggested antidote.
Cost:
For 10-19 hunters, the cost is $695 per hunter. It drops to $675 if we have 20 or more.
My special thanks to maddog,cal74,mike762 and bea175 for their advice and recommendations. If they have a chance, I would appreciate their adding their experiences to mine so that you do not just get a single data point(mine).
Please let us know if you have any questions. The co-conspirators for this venture are isaac and Pugs. And I do hope that isaac does not guarantee that the hunt will be a lot of fun.
