Originally Posted by DakotaDeer
Let's see--then you might as well try something different than sitting in the woods.

Head down the road toward Jewel Cave (Route 16). A couple miles before you get to the entrance, you will see National Forest Service land on both sides of the road with open gravel roads. One of those to the east was burned to the ground a few decades back, but is now growing back in lush grass. You could just drive that road at dawn/dusk with binoculars and you'd see a deer to shoot. Or you could hike off the road a bit during the day and find one.

For an Any Whitetail tag, unless you are being trophy-picky, you can shoot one just about anywhere in the BH units very easily. Just drive NF roads a bit to see the kind of country that interests you, then get out and walk a half mile off the road over the next ridge or ravine. At dawn/dusk you'll see whitetails everywhere. Just bring binoculars.

If you want a trophy whitetail, then try to go either second or third week of November just following peak breeding. There will be some extra movement, and you may have some snow to make seeing them easier. Take a NF road to a higher vantage point, hike out to where you can see, and just start looking with binos. You'll get the lay of the land quickly, and the whitetails act just like they do anywhere else.

Road travel will be your biggest headache, as many of those "roads" turn straight to gumbo as soon as they have moisture. But hiking is the more fun way to hunt anyway. You can always get a deer around a burn if you have to, or you may enjoy trying to hike way up in the pine forests and get one during the day. Or you can just hunt hardwood creek bottoms like anywhere else and spook one up.


DakotaDeer, I much appreciate this post of yours. Excellent guidance and info.


The degree of my privacy is no business of yours.

What we've learned from history is that we haven't learned from it.