WNC public land hunting

brblake

Button Buck
Hello all. I recently moved from WV to the Asheville area. I'm looking for some guidance on how to go about finding some decent public land to hunt. There's so much around here it's hard to know where to start. My primary objective is to get into some good woods for bow hunting. I rifle hunt but don't really care for the season.
 

CRC

Old Mossy Horns
I would try DuPont State Recreational Forest. That is a permit area but I would put in for the bow hunts there.

The hunts at DuPont are either-sex.

State owned lands have more deer than the Federal national forests.

Good luck
 

nccatfisher

Old Mossy Horns
Contributor
I would try DuPont State Recreational Forest. That is a permit area but I would put in for the bow hunts there.

The hunts at DuPont are either-sex.

State owned lands have more deer than the Federal national forests.

Good luck
You had much success with archery hunts there?
 

CRC

Old Mossy Horns
Nope.

Too many non hunters for my tastes but you can see deer and deer sign if you go there.


Brblake, you will see more deer at DuPont than other area game lands but people like to go there and hike around.
 

ncstatehunter

Twelve Pointer
Just get out there and burn some boot leather. Just moved to Haywood County and while I’ve hunted the mountains in Pisgah, I stuck to the Grandfather district, so this western side of Pisgah and all of Nannthala will be be new to me. Already got 4-5 places I want to check out I person after doing a little aerial and topo map scouting, which I’ll probably do a lot of looking at come turkey season.
 

brblake

Button Buck
I've read a lot from both sides about Dupont. May go walk some trails and see how it looks. I was at Green River yesterday. Some of it is really rough country. Does anyone have any experience with Pisgah around Mills River?
 

wturkey01

Old Mossy Horns
Contributor
I've read a lot from both sides about Dupont. May go walk some trails and see how it looks. I was at Green River yesterday. Some of it is really rough country. Does anyone have any experience with Pisgah around Mills River?


Go to the Pisgah District Ranger's office to get a map of the District..........the Pisgah District covers Buncombe, (some of) Haywood, Henderson, & Transylvania Counties.

Other parts of Haywood are managed by the Appalachian District. The District office is located near Mars Hill. Speaking of the App District, there are some good hunting areas in Madison County.

Boots on the ground work better than keyboard komments from kompooter kowboys who spend more time typing than in the woods!!

There are deer in the areas I mentioned above. Just have to get out and look around. Find clearcuts and get away from the yuppie forest visitors.
You're not likely to find many recent clearcuts since the NF's seem to get managed for scenery & tourist markets nowadays.
 
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brblake

Button Buck
Go to the Pisgah District Ranger's office to get a map of the District..........the Pisgah District covers Buncombe, (some of) Haywood, Henderson, & Transylvania Counties.

Other parts of Haywood are managed by the Appalachian District. The District office is located near Mars Hill. Speaking of the App District, there are some good hunting areas in Madison County.

Boots on the ground work better than keyboard komments from kompooter kowboys who spend more time typing than in the woods!!

There are deer in the areas I mentioned above. Just have to get out and look around. Find clearcuts and get away from the yuppie forest visitors.
You're not likely to find many recent clearcuts since the NF's seem to get managed for scenery & tourist markets nowadays.


I've read somewhere there are maps where clearcuts have been done. Do you know if this is true?
 

ncstatehunter

Twelve Pointer
I have a premium membership to GAIA GPS. Can use computer or the phone app and I highly recommend it. They have a NF timber sale layer I’ll turn on when looking for cuts.
 

alt1001

Old Mossy Horns
I have always wanted to hunt up there just seems to be a big leaning curve for me.

Not really.

I once heard a guy I really respect explain mountain hunting like this:

Make a fist.
Top of your knuckles are a ridgeline.
Areas between the knuckles are saddles in the ridge.
Fingers are spurs coming off the ridge.
Gaps between fingers are the draws between spurs.

When you're hunting mountains, these places in red are where you want to look. Saddles, benches, tops of draws......

25965
 

woodmoose

Administrator
Staff member
Contributor
Not really.

I once heard a guy I really respect explain mountain hunting like this:

Make a fist.
Top of your knuckles are a ridgeline.
Areas between the knuckles are saddles in the ridge.
Fingers are spurs coming off the ridge.
Gaps between fingers are the draws between spurs.

When you're hunting mountains, these places in red are where you want to look. Saddles, benches, tops of draws......

View attachment 25965


that fellow was smart,,,and spot on
 

alt1001

Old Mossy Horns
I have always wanted to hunt up there just seems to be a big leaning curve for me.

I'll add this to my last post. It's not so much a learning curve as it is a 'hurting curve' because the best daytime funnels and pinch points in the mountains, are in some of the hardest to reach to places.

It's going to hurt and there are no shortcuts. Own it, embrace it. Your legs are going to burn, your lungs are going to hurt, your heart is going to pound of it's chest and it doesn't matter how good of shape you are in, it gets even the best of us.
 

ncscrubmaster

Twelve Pointer
Contributor
Might find them on the FS website.............enter this website and navigate to NFsNC. https://www.fs.fed.us/

Or this site goes directly to NC. https://www.fs.usda.gov/wps/portal/...vid=091000000000000&ttype=main&cid=FSE_003853
What maps do you guys use for small access roads to park and start walking. I looked through this but didn’t find a detailed map. I was looking at the area below Burnsville’s. I have access to five acres there that I could camp on and use to clean animals.
 

snakeskinner

Twelve Pointer
This is an image of where I grew up hunting in the mountains of VA. The yellow circles are thickets of pine and laurel that seemed to grow on the southwest slope of ridges. I guess there could be multiple reasons for that. One of the yellow circles is where a fire burned and it grew into a nice thicket. Those areas hold deer that will enter in the morning and bed there and exit in the evening. Shot my biggest buck following does out of one one evening. The read circles are what we called "flats". My hunting buddies and I would call them the first flat and the second flat. Both had lots of rut sign on them and were great places to hunt. One thing I realized when I moved down here was that I seldom saw deer trails down here. Up in the mountains they are very distinctive. They create a very definitive trail as they side hill the ridges.
 

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Redneckhero91

Four Pointer
Hello all. I recently moved from WV to the Asheville area. I'm looking for some guidance on how to go about finding some decent public land to hunt. There's so much around here it's hard to know where to start. My primary objective is to get into some good woods for bow hunting. I rifle hunt but don't really care for the season.

Before I left for the Navy. I would walk creeks and follow trails leading to/from those creeks to find bedding areas and feeding areas in the summer. The best sign I would find were on secondary ridges that were adjacent to an oak flat. Mind you I never killed a deer during archery season, but I could find them. I’ve got a friend currently who bikes in miles to hunt old clear cuts and he kills a good buck a year or every other year.
 
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