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Slickrock- Citico Creek Wilderness ?

I hunt the Citico Wilderness area and could count on 1 hand the number of deer I've seen in the past 10 years. You have to really like hunting the mountains to enjoy the hunt. I must also say, I only hunt the 3 day muzzleloader hunt and go elsewhere during rifle season.
 
You WILL see bears. They are thick as fleas in that area. It is a bear sanctuary. As for deer, I have seen some bruisers in there, but they were several miles from the nearest road. You had better love, and I mean dearly love steep terrain, because that is all there is dropping off down to slick rock. They don't name trails "stiff knee" for nothing.

If you hunt it, there will be some pressure within a mile of any trail head, but once you get past a mile or so, hunting pressure drops dramatically.

FWIT, between the fodder stacks is where I always saw the most deer and grouse. It has been many years since I have been in there, but I doubt much has changed. It is a vast expanse of mature timber with big rhododendron hells along the creek drains.

I have toyed with the idea of going deep and camping for a few days to hunt, but just have not had the gumption yet. The idea of getting a deer or hog out of there without a horse scares me a little.
 
That is one of the first places I deer hunted. I hunted it for many years and, tho I saw deer, I never killed. If you park at Far Gap there is a trail that follows the top of the mountain that will take you to Crowders Orchard. I have seen several deer there but was never able to get a good shot at one.
 
Hunted there as a kid and yes it is ROUGH COUNTRY. helped carry a hog UP stiff knee trail once it was one step up three steps back.
 
If you had horses this would be a really cool trip, pack everything in hunt for a week i would really like to try that.
 
My aunt and uncle live up Citico and if that was the only place I had to deer hunt I probably would have quit deer hunting a long time ago. Do yourself a favor and find anywhere else to hunt. Maybe somewhere off Tellico lake or Foothills WMA if you have no other options.
 
Doskil said:
Sounds like a super low deer herd.
Click to expand...
Not only that, but it is a very rugged area that is physically hard to hunt. Some people prefer rugged and remote as being important to the quality of their hunt, even more important than deer density.

I'd speculate you could find some other public hunting land within a reasonable distance of your location that is also quite rugged and remote, maybe with a tad more deer than this. Just depends on what you're wanting most. Doubt if there's anywhere you could go and see fewer deer hunters than around the Slickrock-Citico area in 2012. Amazing how things change over the decades. That area used to be the "cat's meow" for deer hunting in Tennessee, and still is if you're wanting more a wilderness experience rather than killing a deer.
 
I've hunted in the mountains and found they do not support as many deer as flatland areas.

This areas was next to NC so I thought I would ask.
 

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