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Galloway840

New Member
Joined
Oct 21, 2024
Messages
4
Location
spring hill, tn
Hi folks,

I'm new to Tennessee and new to this forum. Hope to get out and hunt in Tennessee this fall, but having to learn the new rules and regs and scouting for places to hunt on Public Land in the Spring Hill region.

Archery hunting is archery hunting, so it isn't so much to learn except I've been surprised by a few things. You have to hang your stand the day you hunt and take it out at the end of the day? Man, that's quite a change from Michigan where you hang your stand a few days to a few weeks before the opener and leave it up until the season is done.

I've never had to be fast or quiet hanging a stand, but I can't imagine doing it in the dark at 4:00AM. Does everyone just hunt afternoons? Personally, I like to hunt mornings so I can find my deer during the daytime.

And as far as scouting goes, I've been looking around quite a bit and see very little evidence of other public land hunters. In Michigan you find stands as well as orange tape nearby. I walked several hundred acres yesterday and only found two examples of tape in the woods.

Thanks for any recommendations you may have.

Richard
 
UCStandSitter said:
Recommendation #1: Vote red or go back. Sorry to be rude but we're all a bit fed up with folks moving in trying to make TN like the place they left.
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Look, I'm as red as any of you, but I try to keep most of my online politics to Twitter!

As far as hunting and trying to make things more like where people come from and such... I find there are a lot of good and bad hunting regulations in every state. I didn't fish much in MI due to the complex rules (for a guy who can't differentiate b/w fish very well). I wouldn't import their fishing regs anywhere!

From the TN website it says something like, "TN WRA assumes any tree-stand left in the woods will be considered abandoned and removed" (or similar language).

So I was kind of wondering what everyone who hunts public land does.

Thanks for the warm welcome :)
 
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Don't be lazy. carry your stand in like a man and carry it back out at the end of your hunt with your deer thrown on top! Or drop your stand in your truck or corolla, and then go back with a sled and drag your deer out. Or you can do a gutless method and put it in a backpack.

Sometimes carts are good and sometimes dragging a deer back to the boat works too.
 
swampbadger said:
View attachment 248180View attachment 248181View attachment 248182View attachment 248183View attachment 248184Don't be lazy. carry your stand in like a man and carry it back out at the end of your hunt with your deer thrown on top! Or drop your stand in your truck or corolla, and then go back with a sled and drag your deer out. Or you can do a gutless method and put it in a backpack.

Sometimes carts are good and sometimes dragging a deer back to the boat works too.
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Nice photos!

I'm pretty far from lazy, but I don't like digging holes just to fill them in!
 
Galloway840 said:
Nice photos!

I'm pretty far from lazy, but I don't like digging holes just to fill them in!
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public can be challenging. Getting deer out can be difficult too. There's tons of ways to do it and every situation might make one way or another make more sense. Oh and another way i did not mention is buying a case of beer for a buddy with a 4 wheeler, or down here we say (fo whilla). A case of beer is way cheaper than actually buying and storing a 4 wheeler.

That gutless method and packing them out is something new for me I added last season. I can see myself using that more and more the older i get.
 
Two years ago, I shot a nice-sized 8 and called up all of my hunting buddies to help me come drag it out (we were deep), and the only guy I could get was my non-hunting buddy that I share venison with. And he was like, "man, I had no idea it was this hard." I like the cart idea, may need to invest in one.

It's not the deer dragging I need advice on though, mainly the tree-stand hanging and pulling on a daily-basis. I need a better/lighter setup than I got for that!
 
Galloway840 said:
Two years ago, I shot a nice-sized 8 and called up all of my hunting buddies to help me come drag it out (we were deep), and the only guy I could get was my non-hunting buddy that I share venison with. And he was like, "man, I had no idea it was this hard." I like the cart idea, may need to invest in one.

It's not the deer dragging I need advice on though, mainly the tree-stand hanging and pulling on a daily-basis. I need a better/lighter setup than I got for that!
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I don't know what stand you are currently using, but I can recommend the Summit brand tree stands. All aluminum and easily back packed in and out. I used them for years before I got too old to climb with them. :D They use a cable system to attach to the tree and are very quiet and easy to set up. A deer cart comes in handy as well. I haven't hunted public land since the late 1970's but I know it can be a challenge in today's era of increasing hunters and decreasing hunting land. I would guess the reason for pulling the stands daily is to prevent people from hanging a stand and leaving it all season but just hunting it 2 or 3 days all year. In my experience, archery season is relatively low pressure hunting but when rifle season opens, the woods are full of people. After opening weekend of rifle season, the pressure falls off and once it gets good and cold, all the honeycutts will be at home in bed with Momma instead of freezing their arse off in the woods. :p

Welcome to the site and the state. Grab you a seat by the campfire, enjoy a beverage of choice and good luck in the woods.

Lots of good people here with a ton of knowledge. Just find your groove and you'll fit in just fine...
 
Welcome from Middle TN. Agree with the recommendations of going with a summit viper aluminum climber. Not to bad to carry. And...there are certain scenarios where you can hunt off the ground. Like on the side of a steep ridge overlooking a big hollow or looking down into a thick area. Good luck hunting.
 
Galloway, Being honest I can't imagine a worse place to move to than middle Tn if you hunt and fish. 100 people a day move here and a percentage of them hunt and fish. Of that group Id' guess 95% will look to what little public land there is with their onx app and join the crowd. The public land thing was tight back in the 80's when we still had the timber company lands but all those thousands of acres went away in the 90's.
The hunting situation on public here is miserable and it gets worse 100 people a day at a time.
Wear your orange and keep your head on a swivel is the best advise I can give.
 
I agree with both UC and Iglow.

I love TN but it is infamous for very little public land to hunt and way too many people are moving here. I would be scared of getting shot on public land even with full blaze on. If I were in your situation, I'd ask some older farmers for permission to hunt and although most hate out of staters, maybe you can offer to help them out with projects ? Kindness goes a long way.

That's the route I would go, just my 2 cents. Maybe look into tree saddles too. Welcome to the forum !
 
Welcome to the campfire! My advice is to be creative. In other words, don't pick out the easiest public land to access and park at the first gate. Find some out of the way spots that are difficult to access and don't tell anyone when you find it. Best of luck.
 

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