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LBL gun hunt.

I hunted LBL during the first Gun hunt in November. We were overrun with people who followed us in, in places we rarely ever see them. Had seven guys surround us. I never saw a deer in the woods, other than the one my buddy killed. The place was packed. Rangers were out in force checking people.

Heard plenty of gunshots on that hunt, sounds like this one was slow.
 
PickettSFHunter said:
I guess it's all perspective.
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Exactly.

Those accustomed to hunting farmland deer may have a tough time hunting LBL now (without the ag crops). The deer are now more nomadic, more like "wilderness" deer in the Cherokee National Forest.

In times past, the deer density was much higher, and they were relatively easy for more hunters to kill just by setting up around ag fields. All the scouting the day before the hunt causes a lot of deer to "shift" their routines a bit, as they will spend the next day more in places no one happened to scout and set themselves up to hunt.

That sudden intrusion, more in a day than the deer typically experience in a month, simply causes the deer to be less active the day of the quota hunt. Wherever the hunters "scout", you can bet most of the older deer move away from those areas. They don't go far, but often just two or three hundred yards is enough to become undetected for a couple days.

Ironically, for these quota hunts, the areas with the least deer sign are often the most productive, as the deer tend to quickly gravitate to the areas the hunters have ignored the prior day.
 
JCDEERMAN said:
This has been our experience. No deer sightings, leaving early and seeing tons of deer at the home farm. Screw LBL and screw those managing it. I quit that place about 10 years ago
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It is a great resource to be sure. I wish everyone the best of luck. My experience has been pretty bad. This year I bought a big game gun, Combo hunt fish and an LBL land use permit. Right at 100.00 to hunt with friends. Lots of great comradery and nice sunrises and sets in new scenery. If I just stick to my farm I hunt for free. If I let them both hunt with me it's win/win. They still have to pay though. :)
 
csi-tech said:
It is a great resource to be sure. I wish everyone the best of luck. My experience has been pretty bad. This year I bought a big game gun, Combo hunt fish and an LBL land use permit. Right at 100.00 to hunt with friends. Lots of great comradery and nice sunrises and sets in new scenery. If I just stick to my farm I hunt for free. If I let them both hunt with me it's win/win. They still have to pay though. :)
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I used to hunt it back in the late 90's until about 2010. It was the land of the giants. Never knew what you were going to see. As soon as the new management took over, everything went to hell. But yes, some of my best hunting memories growing up were from LBL.
 
deerfever said:
The last hunt was bad timing, not only was the weather warm but it came pretty much after all rut activity. Someone messed up the dates for both hunts and they just went with it. I am guessing if both hunts would have been on the normal dates it would have been much better for both sets of quota hunters.
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Whoever did scheduling this year needs to be fired, they not only messed up deer but messed up small game. They dI'd not know what they where doing and no one checked it before it was put out
 
Lost Lake said:
My cousin hunted it, spent two all day sits in the woods and never saw the first deer.
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I am convinced it is because they messed up the hunt dates. Normally first gun hunt there is second weekend of ML, and second gun hunt is the day after Thanksgiving and Saturday.

This year they made the first gun hunt on the gun opener, and the second hunt was too late, because of that.

It took prying, but I got the guy to admit it was a mistake on their end due to someone new setting the hunts. He said, it was supposed to be corrected next year. I hope they do, or no one will put in for the second hunt, which will make drawing the first tougher. I don't like to e gone right around thanksgiving, so I choose not to draw for that hunt.
 
Bone Collector said:
I am convinced it is because they messed up the hunt dates. Normally first gun hunt there is second weekend of ML, and second gun hunt is the day after Thanksgiving and Saturday.

This year they made the first gun hunt on the gun opener, and the second hunt was too late, because of that.

It took prying, but I got the guy to admit it was a mistake on their end due to someone new setting the hunts. He said, it was supposed to be corrected next year. I hope they do, or no one will put in for the second hunt, which will make drawing the first tougher. I don't like to e gone right around thanksgiving, so I choose not to draw for that hunt.
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I remember you saying that you had spoken with someone, and that you got them to admit the mistake.

I've always seen better action on the original first November hunt date, and figured the searching phase would be winding down by the November 20th date. The bright full moon didn't help I'm sure.

And for sure, the weather was terribly warm for last weekends hunt. Hopefully, they get it right next year.

Also, and this was a first for me, there was a young lady at the check station taking hunter's comments and notes on their opinion of the hunt, while we were checking in my friend's buck.

We very politely let her know our thoughts. Hopefully they take the comments seriously.
 
What was interesting to me is that the KY dates were on the right weekend. KY side gets 3 days also. I probably won't gun hunt the TN side anymore.
 
The place should be full of deer!
PickettSFHunter said:
What was interesting to me is that the KY dates were on the right weekend. KY side gets 3 days also. I probably won't gun hunt the TN side anymore.
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ky side also seems to have crops...at least they did in area 12...lots
 
Last year was the first year in a long time that somebody in my group didn't kill a nice buck.

I guess it was a combination of COVID and THP, but I saw more hunters on last year's hunt than I would normally in five hunts.

I like the pressure of the gun hunts as it gets the deer up and moving, but last year was a little too crowded. We all had multiple people walking up on us.

The other change we had last year was pigs. They were everywhere.
 
TX300mag said:
Last year was the first year in a long time that somebody in my group didn't kill a nice buck.

I guess it was a combination of COVID and THP, but I saw more hunters on last year's hunt than I would normally in five hunts.

I like the pressure of the gun hunts as it gets the deer up and moving, but last year was a little too crowded. We all had multiple people walking up on us.

The other change we had last year was pigs. They were everywhere.
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Pigs have been there in large numbers for several years.
 
PickettSFHunter said:
What was interesting to me is that the KY dates were on the right weekend. KY side gets 3 days also. I probably won't gun hunt the TN side anymore.
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Since the LBL bucks now counts against statewide bag limits, keep in mind the KY "statewide" bag limit is 1 buck. So as to those who kill a buck somewhere else in KY, their 3-day LBL quota hunt would become antlerless only.

And, kill a buck on the KY side of LBL, you have limited out on bucks in KY "statewide" as well.

Just saying, there's more to it than the KY side gets 3 days while TN side only gets 2.
 
I was up there bowhunting for a week an got gun1st hunt. talked to a ranger about why fields aren't planted on tn side cause i drove though ky side id guess that 85percent of them was planted. He said the guy with the contract for tn side is blaming hogs tearing it up and pretty much counting it as a loss of profit and getting paid. (Not sure if it would government or insurance payomg out) Said he had 1 or 2 years left on contract can't remember. I also seen more pressure during that week then I have the past 5 years. Iv been up there. Saw alot of nighttime activity and all the sign I found when i scouted in October was gone. Killed a doe. An saw some scrub bucks from the stand. Only Saw 2 nice bucks the 10 days I was there an it was driving around at night. They are in there though just got to have some luck its a hard place to figure out thats for sure.
 
Hunted LBL Quota Dec 3/4. Group saw a few deer and 1 great deer. Lots of sign- tons of rubs and personally saw 3 scrapes. Overall it was a fairly tough hunt.
 
Even in the good ol days lbl was a tough hunt.. You could sit on hot sign for a week and never see a deer, move a ridge over and see 50 in a day.
Its undoubtedly gotten tougher since the forest service took it over with their do absolutely nothing management plan but there are still giants in there. Just without the ag fields to give you a point to work back from not many people have the time nor the skills to find them.

Last year was the 20th year I've hunted lbl. This is the first year since I started that I will not. I even got drawn for the first quota hunt. Life would have made it tough to get there in the first place but seeing the camp/hunt combo is now $75 made the decision to sit out. I love hunting lbl but unless something changes with the management I may be done with it. I can go hunt public in Midwest states for not much more than I can hunt lbl now.
I wish we could get a petition or something going to bring in a deer management group to work with the forest service.
 

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