Hello All: New member Introduction, and question

Desert_hawg

Four Pointer
Hello all,

I recently moved to Apex, NC. I am originally from Arkansas and grew up hunting public lands out there. I have spent the last few days driving around the beautiful back roads and woods NC has to offer. In my opinion, it is the prettiest of all the southern states. That said, I have checked out the following game lands for whitetail.
  1. Caswell (182)
  2. Jordan (304)
  3. Butner Falls (383)
Caswell seemed to show the most promise in terms of remoteness, I would imagine the pressure wouldn't be as intense as Jordan and Butner falls, am I mistaken? I understand Caswell has 3 day a week hunts, however this past years harvest numbers for the three listed above were, 182, 304, 383, respectively.

Are the deer numbers just not very high in Caswell? From the harvest numbers it looks like Jordan and Butner have healthier populations, but I imagine more pressure?

Final question, how is the whitetail hunting in Uwhairre? I plan on scouting out there soon.

I do not mind driving and I will be able to go during the weekdays, I will be primarily muzzleloading, if that helps.

I appreciate any information I can get, and I imagine questions like these get asked quite a bit on this forum, so thank you for your help.

-Desert_Hawg.
 

Moose

Administrator
Staff member
Contributor
welcome to the site.... I use to hunt in Caswell. Caswell is a dog hunting county and so it use to get hammered pretty hard. I'd say the harvest numbers don't tell the whole story.
 

Desert_hawg

Four Pointer
welcome to the site.... I use to hunt in Caswell. Caswell is a dog hunting county and so it use to get hammered pretty hard. I'd say the harvest numbers don't tell the whole story.


Good to know about it being a dog hunting county. Thanks MOOSE
 

ABBD

Ten Pointer
Contributor
Welcome... all of the GLā€™s you mentioned are good areas to hunt whitetails. Plan on putting in a lot of scouting trips to get a good feel for them though.
 

Eric Revo

Old Mossy Horns
Contributor
Welcome to the forum, I can't be any help to you on those gamelands. I'm in the wrong part of the state to be hunting those mentioned.
 

Homebrewale

Old Mossy Horns
There are no deer on Jordan. šŸ˜

You can hunt both Butner Falls and Jordan without seeing another hunter. You just got to scout a lot to find those places. Quite a bit of Butner Falls is in the Northeastern zone and most of Jordan is in the Central zone. Muzzleloader season basically starts one month earlier in Northeastern than in Central. If you hunt both game lands, you can experience two "first day of the season" hunts. There are also differences between the types of seasons. Butner-Falls has a moderate season and Jordan has a maximum season.
 

ellwoodjake

Twelve Pointer
Living in Apex, don't forget about Shearon Harris. Plenty of places to get away from the crowds, if you want to burn some shoe leather. Mountain bike, or boat, and you can even get further away. Be forewarned, it is mostly in a treestand or shotgun county, and the "doedays" don't line up with the rest of the eastern zone. If you like hunting with a ML, this place might really be your cup of tea
 

MJ74

Old Mossy Horns
Welcome to NC!

There are also permit only gamelands that folks put in for. Not sure what the best ones are but I'm sure others here can let you know.

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Desert_hawg

Four Pointer
Living in Apex, don't forget about Shearon Harris. Plenty of places to get away from the crowds, if you want to burn some shoe leather. Mountain bike, or boat, and you can even get further away. Be forewarned, it is mostly in a treestand or shotgun county, and the "doedays" don't line up with the rest of the eastern zone. If you like hunting with a ML, this place might really be your cup of tea

Elijah thanks for the tips, i checked out Harris the other day drove around some areas, it was difficult to navigate for a newb. Also, on onX hunt app didnt seem to have it highlighted as public land, but obviously the NCW website does have it listed. Thanks again!
 

Desert_hawg

Four Pointer
There are no deer on Jordan. šŸ˜

You can hunt both Butner Falls and Jordan without seeing another hunter. You just got to scout a lot to find those places. Quite a bit of Butner Falls is in the Northeastern zone and most of Jordan is in the Central zone. Muzzleloader season basically starts one month earlier in Northeastern than in Central. If you hunt both game lands, you can experience two "first day of the season" hunts. There are also differences between the types of seasons. Butner-Falls has a moderate season and Jordan has a maximum season.


Haha, I am within 10 minutes of jordan lands. But my goodness the fishing pressure is intense, so I would imagine the hunting pressure is pretty high too, but the numbers and articles say people take deer there. Sounds good with the scouting I will use the gameland maps and onX hunt. I did a short walk through some parts of caswell GL got back to the truck and was covered in ticks.
 

Homebrewale

Old Mossy Horns
During muzzleloader season, you don't see a lot of hunters. If you want to hunt rifle season and you are willing to waste the first day of rifle season, you can drive to the various parking areas in Jordan and look for number of parked cars. That will tell you where the pressure is located. Also if you are willing to walk a good distance or have a boat, you can access remote areas where others won't bother to hunt.
 
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Desert_hawg

Four Pointer
During muzzleloader season, you don't see a lot of hunters. If you want to hunt rifle season and you are willing to waste the first day of rifle season, you can drive to the various parking areas in Jordan and look for number of parked cars. That will tell you where the pressure is located. Also if you are willing to walk a good distance or have a boat, you can access remote areas where others won't bother to hunt.

Awesome thanks
 

Homebrewale

Old Mossy Horns
M


AWESOME DEER!!!! Thanks for the post, were you in a stand or on the ground? That gets me excited as I am 10 minutes from JORDAN.

In a stand. I have had larger bucks on camera.

A few weeks before I shot it, somebody had this buck on their game camera about 2 miles away.
 
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Hunting Nut

Old Mossy Horns
I've never spent any time in Arkansas. Do they have Chiggers out there ? We have them here. Permethrin will deter them from getting on you and biting you too.
If you've never had Chigger bites all over your legs, trust me. You don't want them.
Can last for weeks.
Just trying to save you some pain.
 

Desert_hawg

Four Pointer
I've never spent any time in Arkansas. Do they have Chiggers out there ? We have them here. Permethrin will deter them from getting on you and biting you too.
If you've never had Chigger bites all over your legs, trust me. You don't want them.
Can last for weeks.
Just trying to save you some pain.

Haha yea, we have chiggers up there. Had experience with then as a kid got bit up all the way up to where the sun dont shine. Lol thanks for the advice


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Desert_hawg

Four Pointer
In a stand. I have had larger bucks on camera.

A few weeks before I shot it, somebody had this buck on their game camera about 2 miles away.

Homebrewale, just to be clear, you setup game cams on a public land?

Thanks.


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Aaron H

Old Mossy Horns
Contributor
Welcome! I've hunted Jordan some, mostly years ago. Gets VERY busy in the easy to get to parts but if you're up for walking into (or boating into) the more remote places there's some good hunting. Access through private land is tough to get mostly- everyone gets asked and they get tired of it I guess.
 

Desert_hawg

Four Pointer
Welcome! I've hunted Jordan some, mostly years ago. Gets VERY busy in the easy to get to parts but if you're up for walking into (or boating into) the more remote places there's some good hunting. Access through private land is tough to get mostly- everyone gets asked and they get tired of it I guess.

Thanks Aaron, helpful.


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Homebrewale

Old Mossy Horns
Homebrewale, just to be clear, you setup game cams on a public land?

Thanks.


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No, I don't set them up on public land. I have a friend whose home is next to the Jordan game land. We have set up two cameras on his property. I have posted a number of photos here over the years where you can see the two paint stripes that indicate the game land border in the background. I have a ladder stand in the back of his property.

There isn't anything wrong with putting cameras on game land. Just put up cheap ones like the $30 Tasco cameras from Walmart so if they're taken, it's not a big loss. I did put one camera up years ago on the game lands but it was in an area that was hard to access. I took it down since there were not a lot of photos on it. Behind my friend's house, we can put out corn to bring deer into camera range.
 
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jug

Old Mossy Horns
Contributor
Yeah Jordan Butner and Harris are good places . Dont waste your time on Caswell.
 

Homebrewale

Old Mossy Horns
Welcome! I've hunted Jordan some, mostly years ago. Gets VERY busy in the easy to get to parts but if you're up for walking into (or boating into) the more remote places there's some good hunting. Access through private land is tough to get mostly- everyone gets asked and they get tired of it I guess.

Yes, I'm lucky to have access through private land. But you can access the same area by walking a little over a mile from a main road without crossing any private land. I have only run into three hunters over the years. One came in from my friend's neighbors property. Another one came in from another neighborhood. I have no idea where the third hunter started but he came from the direction of the main road. It seems people just don't want to walk in that far.
 

Desert_hawg

Four Pointer
No, I don't set them up on public land. I have a friend whose home is next to the Jordan game land. We have set up two cameras on his property. I have posted a number of photos here over the years where you can see the two paint stripes that indicate the game land border in the background. I have a ladder stand in the back of his property.

There isn't anything wrong with putting cameras on game land. Just put up cheap ones like the $30 Tasco cameras from Walmart so if they're taken, it's not a big loss. I did put one camera up years ago on the game lands but it was in an area that was hard to access. I took it down since there were not a lot of photos on it. Behind my friend's house, we can put out corn to bring deer into camera range.

Cool, thanks for the info, will check out your photos soon.


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