units 12 & 13 second season deer hunt help.

[wheatja114]

Got a buck & doe tag for these units this fall. First timer here & EVERYTHING I read sounds like unit 12 is hunted TOO HARD & unit 13 is 90% private land. Where do you hunt for a deer? I have hunted whitetails all my life here in VA. & there is alot of pressure on them around here, but I was thinking that by going out west in the BIG county that this was going to be a wilderness hunt with me & the mountains, from the sounds of what I am reading all over the websites, this years hunt is starting to sound like a "good old dove shoot" with hunters elbow to elbow lined up everywhere. Starting to re-think about paying the price to go on a ranch and shoot one tied up to a tree! Where can you hunt in these units on public land for good numbers of deer? Thanks

 

[Rem308]

Unit 12 has alot of National Fprest land that is easy to access and has a fair number of deer,but it gets the crap hammered out of it by all the hunters.
As for private land,if you don't have a place booked by now,it could be diffacult in getting access.

 

[buckbuster64]

good luck(you will need it)to many hunters,not enough pub.land

 

[stinky]

I've hunted both and there are deer in both of em. The standard word still applies...get away from roads, etc.

I think that I've hunted in there 3X...a week each time.

Call the DOW. There is a guy (or gal) assigned to those areas and they know em like the back of their hand and give pretty good advice. Get a BLM map, I don't remember which one. And...get a White River NF map. They will both show the private lands. You'll find those places where a corner of public touches a road...hunt those.

You shouldn't have any weather issues as the first REAL snow (it is snowing now, up real high) doesn't come till around Halloween. It will snow again, but nothing that will be around for over 2 days.

We planned on hunting east of Yellowjacket pass, but it snowed...feet and there wasn't anything in there after that (it was right around election day). East of YJ-pass is all National Forest and there is a bunch of stuff in there to hunt. There are also hunters in there, but I think you could find some stuff in there too.

On the state areas...Oak Ridge is so-so, Iles Grove (I think that is the name, if not, it is in that area) gets hunted real hard, and Indian Hills looks real good, but there are also a bunch of hunters in the area. I was in the Southern Oak Ridge and saw where about 4 guys shoot deer one morning, around Halloween or so...I listened to the Bush-Kerry results on the radio.

BRING CHAINS!!! some of those places git real slick when muddy and if it snows, 6"-a foot ain't no big deal when you have chains.

But, again, call the DOW, they know it best.