Back of Beyond

Getting away from it all is an awesome way to experience first-class deer hunting.

Some years back, a study found that the average deer hunter ventured less than a half-mile from his vehicle, and game wardens will readily tell you that rarely does a hunter on public land get far from roads or maintained trails.There are various reasons for this, including the reluctance to deal with dragging a dead whitetail a long distance, especially in rugged terrain; fear of getting lost; problems with carrying climbers or other portable stands; and, in some cases, pure-out laziness.

These all-too-common characteristics actually provide great opportunities for hunters willing to exert the extra effort and do the additional homework involved in hunting “back of beyond” — a phrase that Horace Kephart, author of Our Southern Highlanders, applied to the Great Smokies and surrounding mountain ranges.

The Tarheel State’s high country, with a million acres of public land in the Nantahala and Pisgah National Forests, offers exceptional opportunities for the individual fitting the description of what old-timers call a “hard hunter” to find solitude and success.

Decades ago, Joe Scarborough, a superb woodsman and marksman, began doing just that. Scarborough, who lives just outside Waynesville, was a skilled deer hunter even before he headed off to the steamy jungles of Southeast Asia for the ill-fated conflict in Viet Nam. There — as a sniper who served three hitches and was so good at this most dangerous of crafts that he not only survived many 1- or 2-man sorties behind enemy lines but taught others the shadowy skills of his highly specialized aspect of war — he laid the groundwork for becoming a whitetail wizard.

When asked to identify an exceptional deer hunter, a game warden once replied, “Joe Scarborough is your man. Some locals say he cheats, but that’s just jealousy. Year after year, Joe takes trophy deer, and he’s able to do that because of skill and his willingness to venture far back into the wilderness.”

Reading letters and hearing him trade ideas on deer hunting, it’s obvious that here is an individual who, by taking a leaf from the past, opened up a seldom-explored dimension of the sport in the present. His mantra has always been, first and foremost, to “get back of beyond.” If that meant walking mile after arduous mile into the remote vastnesses of Harmon Den in Pisgah National Forest or to the most rugged part of the Standing Indian area in Nantahala National Forest, so be it.

His approach is actually a simple one. Do some preseason scouting in the area you intend to hunt. That will let you zero in on things like obvious travel corridors, the whereabouts of heavy acorn or beech mast, and possibly give you information that an old mossy horn is using a particular area. Sometimes, a scouting trip could be combined with trout fishing backwater streams. Two or three days should finish your homework.

Once the season opens, the real moment of truth is at hand. In all likelihood, at least if you work at it Scarborough fashion, you won’t have to worry about interference from or interfering with other hunters. Camp if you wish, remembering that in a national forest, you aren’t limited to designated sites as you are in a national park. Or you can hike to your destination in the wee hours of the morning, although it’s probably a better idea to be in the general area the night before.

Scarborough has always hunted afoot, and observing his stealth skills is an exercise in awe. Unless the forest understory is tinder dry, anyone accompanying him and leading the way would involuntarily find themselves looking at their back trail just to be sure he was still there. Most hunters lack that cat-quiet ability, but with practice and care it is possible to ease along, stopping frequently to look and listen, in an unobtrusive way. What you are looking for is any sign of movement along with horizontal bulk in what is basically a vertical forest world.

Although a quiet and unassuming individual, Scarborough realizes that the average guy doesn’t possess anything approaching his skills — he shoots most of his deer in the head, and more often than not, they’re bedded down! His solution is a simple one: pick out a place with a good field of vision that overlooks a bench, travel corridor, well-used trail, or other promising situation and get comfortable. If patience isn’t your close partner, you can always change set ups three or four times in the course of an outing.

Scarborough’s home stomping ground is Haywood County, but public land all over North Carolina’s Appalachian chain holds promise for the hunter. However, not all areas are, by any stretch of the imagination, created equal. In that regard, doing a bit of historical research in the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission’s deer-harvest records might be quite revealing. Another way of approaching matters is to focus on areas that are not too great a distance from deer-attracting agricultural endeavors such as apple orchards.

That may seem to run contrary to the whole “back of beyond” theory, but in reality what happens is that as the season gets under way and hunter pressure comes into play, big bucks change their habits and seek sanctuary. Remote areas provide it, and in effect you may be letting hunters a few miles away help you out. If you want more specifics, counties that are particularly deserving of attention include Macon and Clay in far western North Carolina, Haywood and Buncombe in the southern portion of the Pisgah National Forest, and most all the counties in the Pisgah’s northeastern reaches.

“In the end,” Scarborough once said as he knapped flint in a cabin he built by hand, “this kind of hunting is unquestionably a high-energy approach. It isn’t for everyone, but for those who want a better chance at a quality buck, who enjoy solitude, and who want to have a sense of connection with pioneer deerslayers, it offers a mighty tempting alternative. For me, it’s the only way to go.”

Editor’s Note: Jim Casada is a native of North Carolina’s mountains who still hunts and fishes in them at every opportunity. He has written or edited more than 40 books. For information on these or to sign up for a free subscription to his monthly e-newsletter, visit his web site at www.jimcasadaoutdoors.com