Hunt Pressured WMA Bucks

The hunter had scouted the middle Georgia WMA two weeks before the quota hunt was to begin. He had combined the trip to include a squirrel hunt, along with the scouting, as the area was open to small-game hunting right up to the occurrence of the first deer hunt.

One beautiful ridge of white and red oaks was just covered with huge rubs. The hunter could see at least 15 wrist-sized rubs in a 60-yard strip, along with at least that many large scrapes. Deer droppings of all size covered the hardwood leaves, as it seemed the entire WMA herd was feeding on acorns at this site.

Oh yeahhh…he had found the “Rolex” of big-buck harvesting locations!

The day before the hunt, he returned to finalize his choice of stand sites. The hunter decided on a straight tulip poplar amidst a dozen or more active scrapes. The ridge was a quarter mile or so from the closest road. He marked the tree with glow-in-the-dark tacks, early in the morning, then went to set up camp and otherwise prepare for a great hunt!

He was filled with anticipation the next morning and was situated comfortably in his portable stand an hour or so before a hint of grey appeared on the eastern horizon.

The excitement built as dawn approached… in 10 minutes, he would be able to see a deer moving down the ridge…

Those were about the last pleasant thoughts our hunter had. ʻBout daylight he heard a terrible racket coming toward him. When the other hunter was within 50 yards, our hunter shined his flashlight to notify him of his presence. The other hunter saw the beam, and veered off to his left, portable stand clanging like a cowbell. Suddenly the noise stopped, and our hunter heard the sound of someone jacking themselves up a tree. In the meantime, another hunter had approached from the other direction… the good news… this guy was much more quiet… the bad news… even after seeing our hunter, he climbed a tree no more than 60 yards away. So our boy has a guy 60 yards down the ridge, and another around 100 yards up the ridge, scent everywhere, and enough racket to wake the dead just prior to daylight.

B.F. Grant WMA produced this 11-pointer for Steve Bucknerʼs 11-pointer during the November 5-8, 2003 quota hunt. At the Truck-Buck scoring in February, the deer netted 124 3/8 inches.

The closest hunter stays all day, but olʼ “noisy” gets down, takes his stand off the tree, and at 9 a.m. leaves the area the way he entered it.

How many deer do you think the two remaining hunters (or the third that entered the area around 2 p.m.) saw during their hunt? Iʼm glad I wasnʼt one of ʼem!

The WMA had been scouted hard by a lot of hunters just prior to the quota hunt, and it had been hunted hard by small-game hunters for months. An avalanche of human activity had covered up the area for a week or more. The deer were alerted, and shoʼ ʻnuff “skeered.” Yes, there was a lot of sign on that ridge, but whitetails weren’t cominʼ out in the open to commit deer suicide. Almost all of that sign was surely made by deer feeding at night.

The hunter would have been much better served by factoring in all the human activity and disturbance, then figuring out how the deer would react, and where they would be at first light on that opening day.

When preparing to hunt “high pressure” bucks on WMAs and National Forests, the first thing I go about doing is obtaining a good aerial photo of the area. This, when combined with a topo map, allows me to view all the different habitat types, topography, roads, and other access points. You can get a pretty good handle on where the deer will seek refuge when an army of hunters descends upon them before you ever reach the WMA.

I then scout the WMA, map and photo in hand, at least a couple weeks before the hunt. “Ground truthing” the area will ascertain where the deer are feeding, and where the mature buck sign is located, where the usual bedding areas are, etc. I plot everything I find on the photo…then look for secure, remote areas where few will venture, or places so close to parking areas, check stations, camping zones, etc., that no one would think of hunting them.

Itʼs not just a hunting-article theory either — it has paid off for me personally and for other hunters who have let me pick their brains.

I was lucky enough to get drawn for the inaugural Flint River WMA quota hunt. I scouted the area way in advance of the hunt, and the day before the hunt I actually ran into GON editor Daryl Kirby when I was goinʼ in scoutinʼ just prior to the hunt. The area I picked to hunt was about as far away from a road as you can get on Flint River… and across a lot of deep water. It was a myrtle-bay regrowth thicket on the edge of a beaver swamp. A quarter mile or so away was a “ridge” (also known as a “high place” in south Georgia!) It was loaded with rubs and scrapes, and it led from an off-the-property peanut field to the impenetrable habitat I was hunting.

By 8 a.m. that first morning, I had seen three legal bucks, the third of which I harvested… and I didnʼt see any other hunters. I shot the 205-lb., 19-inch-wide 8-point at 10 yards. (Dragging him out, I again saw Daryl, who helped me to the truck and took some photos…Thanks again my friend.)

One thing Iʼve learned about hunting big bucks on high-pressure areas is you donʼt necessarily want to hunt where the “sign” is… hunt where the deer are going to be when pressured.

Tom Winn of Young Harris also believes in hunting those isolated locations. He has taken several mature bucks off West Point WMA, including a 2002 Truck-Buck winner (a 5 1/2-year-old, 10-point that scored 140 2/8), and two muzzleloader 9-points. Tom said that he has seen at least a dozen mature bucks in these hard-to-reach spots on WMAs. The morning he harvested the 5 1/2-year-old buck, he saw at least nine other deer before he shot the buck.

I asked Tom what his keys to a successful WMA hunt were.

“Besides hard scouting and knowing where the human disturbance will be, Iʼd have to say remote location, super-thick ground cover, and hunting very high in tall trees to minimize any human scent in the wind.”

Tom also makes sure he has exact trees picked out in several different remote areas, just in case a few are not as remote as he thought!

Getting away from hunting pressure doesn’t always mean walking to the most-remote part of the area. There are some mighty fine spots mere yards from roads because no one thinks of hunting them… one of the mature deer taken on Joe Kurz WMA was harvested within sight of the main hard road on which the check station is located. These locations might be very close to human disturbance, but no one actually walks into them because they seem to be unlikely places to see deer.

I hunted Joe Kurz WMA (first gun hunt) two years ago, and I could not really find a spot that did not lend itself to a lot of hunter traffic, so I scouted the areas I thought hunters would overlook. I only saw one deer from my stand, but it was a legal buck for the WMA. I wonʼt tell yʼall exactly where it was, but I could see tents and campers from my tree if I looked hard enough (hint).

Shannon Green of Jackson is another hunter who consistently takes mature WMA bucks. He also looks for these overlooked locales. Last year Shannon harvested a beautiful 3 1/2-year-old, 8-point on Di-Lane WMA, and he also shot a big 11-point on Flint River WMA during the same year that I harvested my buck there.

Shannon told me the Di-Lane buck was taken not much more than 50 yards from a main road, which is by regulation the closest a hunter can hunt to a WMA road.

“There were lots of hunters, and it was hard to get away from people,” Shannon said. “I found a spot between two roads where people were steadily driving in and out and parking. There was a nice trail in that peninsula, between some very thick pines and a large, overgrown swamp bottom.”

Another plan of action on hard-hunted WMAs would be to hunt funnels between the remote cover and human disturbance. If 15 people are parking and entering an area, and the only way out is a peninsula of thick regrowth between two deep beaver ponds, youʼre goinʼ to see some deer if you set your stand at the remote end of the strip. Look on those aerial photos!

If you are lucky enough to draw one of those diamond WMA quota hunts this year, make the most of it. It might be three years before you see that dirt again with a rifle in your hand!

Scout hard, and think of where you might hide when hunters descend on a small piece of ground. Also think how you might go about gettinʼ to that hiding spot without any of those folks seeing you. Thatʼs what a buck is going to try to do under heavy-pressure situations that are common on at least parts of all WMAs. Either get away from the hunting pressure, or use that pressure to your advantage.

Good luck to everyone this coming season. I hope yʼall fill that freezer or get that wall-hanger, but most of all, I hope yʼall enjoy and appreciate every day spent in Godʼs woods and fields.

Please take a child hunting, as they are the future of our sport and our environment.