Deer, bear, waterfowl, small-game? You name it, North Carolina’s game lands have it.
North Carolina contains 85 separate areas where public hunting is allowed, tracts that cover more than 2 million acres — more than a million alone in the Pisgah and Nantahala national forests in the western third of the state.
Nearly every game land contains deer and similar small game. Some areas have larger populations of certain game birds and animals than others, often because of their location, and for the first time, black bears will be fair game on every game land across North Carolina’s 100 counties.
Here’s a look by region at what North Carolina hunters can expect to find on their game lands during the 2014-15 season:
EAST
Deer
Best game-land bets: Roanoke River Wetlands, Roanoke River National Wildlife Refuge, Holly Shelter, Alligator River, Dover Bay, Lantern Acres, Van Swamp, White Hall Plantation, White Oak River, Goose Creek, Devil’s Garden Tract/Neuse River Game Land.
Biologist Chris Turner of the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission said the Roanoke River Wetlands Game Land and Roanoke River National Wildlife Refuge may provide the best chances to harvest a deer.
“Most of the private land around (it) is under lease, farm land, private ownership or private clubs,” he said. “Adjacent land has a lot of agricultural crops and hunters kill a lot of (heavy-racked) deer up there.”
Northampton, Halifax, Bertie and Martin counties contain the game lands’ 14 sections, encompassing 35,457 acres. It’s all managed by the Commissions.
“I’d say the parts in Bertie and Martin are the best for deer,” Turner said. “A lot of the game land is bottomland hardwoods; flooding sometimes pushes the deer around, but floods push deer onto private farms. However, when it’s dry, deer disperse throughout the bottomlands.
“The best idea is to … find out the (water) condition. I recommend people scout and watch river levels.”
All hunting at Roanoke River is by permit only. Individuals should obtain a Special Permit Hunts booklet or visit www.ncwildlife.org for more information.
Slightly to the south, Commission biologist Jonathan Shaw said Craven and Pitt counties hold the highest deer densities, and those two hold portions of the Croatan National Forest, where 472 deer were killed last year — best in North Carolina. They’re also home to the Dover Bay and Neuse River game lands.
“A wad of counties are real close to those numbers, including Pender,” said Turner, noting that both Angola Bay and Holly Shelter include acreage in Pender.
Rich Clark, another Commission biologist, said the White Oak River Game Land in Onslow County is a good still-hunting game land where dog hunting is prohibited.
Holly Shelter’s size adds to its attractiveness. It’s recovered from a 2011 fire at the Bear Garden Tract that burned peat bogs so deeply it wiped out all understory seeds.
Another Commission biologist, Chesley Ward said that Whitehall Plantation has added 224 acres since last season. This game land, which offers permit either-sex archery, muzzle-loader and gun hunting, is on the east bank of the Cape Fear River between NC 87 and NC 53, just south of Suggs Mill Pond, which also has a good deer population.
Bear
Best game-land bets: Buckridge, Chowan Swamp, Dare, Gull Rock Long Shoal Tract, Bertie, Lantern Acres, Alligator River, Croatan, Holly Shelter, Goose Creek.
Buckridge Game Land, which covers 18,194 acres in Tyrrell County, ranks No. 1 in the east for public-land black bears because of its location south and west of Frying Pan Lake, an area that has a good roads system.
This game land is south of Pocosin Lakes National Wildlife Refuge, where deer-hunting archers often complain that bears grab and drag away deer they’ve shot before they can get to them. Bear hunting is allowed on Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays through the November and December seasons.
Turner said that Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge, with most of its 13,877 acres south of US 64 in Dare County, is a top bear-hunting spot, and he likes the Long Shoal tract of Gull Rock Game Land in Hyde County, and the Chowan Swamp Game Land in Gates and Hertford counties. The Dare Game Land is crammed with bears and features a permit-only still hunt and a separate hunt for bear-dog hunters. The deadline to apply is October 1.
“The Bertie Game Land on the Cashie River has expanded the last 5 or 6 years, and a lot of its smaller tracts are only accessible by boat,” Tucker said. “It’s got deer and bear. Lantern Acres has some bears.”
Farther south, Shaw said the Croatan National Forest has the highest number of bears, followed closely by Goose Creek in Beaufort County. Croatan surrendered a 500-pound bear last year, biologist Rich Clark said.
“The Green Swamp has some bears, but a lot of it is tied up in bear sanctuary,” he said. “Holly Shelter is big and a traditional place to hunt bears, but the Bear Garden Tract is permit only.”
Waterfowl
Best game-land bets: Goose Creek, J. Morgan Futch, Lower Roanoke River, Gull Rock, Suggs Mill Pond, White Oak River (impoundment), Croatan (Catfish Lake), North River, Lantern Acres, Currituck.
Shaw calls Goose Creek Game Land, which covers 1,0027 acres in Beaufort and Pamlico counties, the top waterfowling game land in the east.
“I think Pamlico Point may be the best of Goose Creek,” he said, describing a series of four waterfowl impoundments on Beard Island.
But when the weather’s too rough for ducks and geese at the Pamlico Point, they often fly to one of six sheltered impoundments at the mainland portion of the game land.
“Goose Creek is one of the state’s favorite permit waterfowl hunts because of the variety of ducks you can see,” Shaw said. “It has divers and puddlers and occasionally some sea ducks. You might see pintails, widgeon, gadwall, blue- and green-winged teal and shovelers.”
Croatan’s Catfish Lake is a waterfowl impoundment that attracts wood ducks and mallards, ringnecks and gadwall.
Gull Rock, which covers 34,346 acres in Hyde County, doesn’t trail Goose Creek by much with sections adjacent to Swan Quarter National Wildlife Refuge,the Long Shoal River tract north of Engelhard and the Long Shoal tract south of Fairfield. All three are within a short hop of Lake Mattamuskeet National Wildlife Refuge.
J. Morgan Futch Game Land covers 600 acres in Tyrrell County off US 64. It’s a permit-only area that has 15 impoundments. Lantern Acres, which covers 1,825 acres in Tyrrell and Washington counties, features two waterfowl impoundments; it’s within a half-mile of Pocosin Lakes National Wildlife Refuge.
“I’ve heard people talk about the unbelievable diversity of birds at Futch,” Tucker said.
Three impoundments are featured at North River Game Land in Camden and Currituck counties, while Suggs Mill Pond has three lakes and a managed impoundment on its 10,760 acres in Bladen and Cumberland counties. Holly Shelter’s Lodge Road and Green Tree impoundments draw ringnecks, woodies and mallards. Mattamuskeet National Wildlife Refuge is a famed spot for permit waterfowl hunts, with its 17 blinds on the southeastern shore of the lake.
Early-season waterfowl hunts at each of these game lands have a Sept. 1 application deadline. Tundra swan hunts on game lands follow the general waterfowl season, and permits are restricted to 5,000 with an Oct. 1 deadline.
Nine blinds at Currituck National Wildlife Refuge are administered by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and require permits.
“Success at Currituck comes down to advance scouting and drawing for blinds,” Tucker said. “Things can change there based on wind tides.”
Roanoke River’s permit hunts also can be excellent for dabblers.
“If conditions are right, flooded swamps can be excellent,” Tucker said, “but you must plan ahead to walk in and hunt woodies or mallards. Some places have a lot of mallards when Roanoke River is right.”
Permits for the early teal season (Sept. 6-24 east of U.S. 17, including tracts in Martin and Bertie counties) have a Sept. 1 application deadline.
The Upper Roanoke River Wetlands has beaver ponds in swamps off the main river that hold water year-round and lure woodies and mallards. Fields on each side of the river attract Canada geese.
Small game
Best game-land bets: Roanoke River National Wildlife Refuge, Lantern Acres, Chowan Swamp, Holly Shelter, Croatan, Stones Creek, Tillery, Van Swamp.
The bottomlands along the lower Roanoke River refuge can be good places for squirrel hunting, and the region has some rabbits.
“Small-game permits are at point-of-sale,” Tucker said. “You don’t have to wait on a lottery.”
The Conoho Tract above Williamston has upland habitat, managed pine forests and agricultural fields that are excellent for rabbits and some quail.
“It’s also intensely managed for doves,” he said. “It’s a good permit hunt area for doves.”
Dove hunts on Labor day and the first three Saturdays of the season are by draw-permit; after that, they’re point-of-sale open hunts. Dove hunt dates at the Huggins and Morton Tracts at White Oak River and Suggs Mill Pond fall under the same permit regulation. Dove hunting at J. Morgan Futch impoundments requires permits for the season’s first six days. Only the first two days of Croatan’s dove season require permits.
Lantern Acres is small, but the section off Phelps Road has “good habitat diversity,” Tucker said. “Fields offer rabbit opportunities. It also has some quail.”
Batts said the upper Roanoke River tracts have “several decent places for quail, mostly at high (elevation) edges. It’s got a lot of old (International Paper Company) land. The Boone Tract used to be part of the CURE project, and it has some cutovers after 10 years. Around Brinkleyville has some of those areas, and some fields at Tillery have quail.”
Dove hunting at Tillery also should be good, and permits aren’t needed.
On both sides of the Meherrin River in Bertie, Gates and Hertford counties, Commission staffers at Chowan Swamp Game Lands have used controlled burns at long-leaf pine areas to create “potential for rabbits and quail,” Tucker said.
Bottomland hardwoods along the river teem with gray squirrels.
Shaw said Croatan National Forest, Dover Bay, western Craven, Holly Shelter and Angola Bay have squirrels, rabbits and some quail.
“Along the pine ridges at Croatan and Stones Creek are fair quail populations,” Clark said. “A couple of the early successional places have woodcock and quail off NC 58.”
The Bryson’s Creek and Hill Fields areas in the Croatan National Forest have fields planted for doves.
“You can hunt the Hill and Bryson’s Creek areas using the same permit,” he said. “The same thing is available at White Oak River’s Huggins and Martin tracts. There’s a lot of active timber management going on. Some of the bottomlands have pretty good hardwoods (for gray) and pines for fox squirrels.
“Holly Shelter has reforested areas and long-leaf ridges good for quail and fox squirrels.”
Van Swamp has bottom-land hardwoods and contains squirrels.
PIEDMONT
Deer
Best game-land bets: Butner-Falls of Neuse, Jordan, Uwharrie, R. Wayne Bailey-Caswell, Shearon Harris, Pee Dee River, Sandhills, Shocco Creek, Embro
Butner-Falls of the Neuse and Jordan Lake game lands are hard to beat for public-land deer hunting in the Piedmont. Hunters at Butner-Falls of Neuse killed 570 deer last season, the second-best total in North Carolina, trailing only the Croatan National Forest, which is 400-percent larger and allows hunting with dogs.
With its rolling hills, pine thickets, hardwood slopes and surrounding agricultural fields west of Raleigh and north of Durham, Butner-Falls of Neuse offers ideal habitat for deer and hunters. Jordan Lake is almost a carbon copy, just south of Raleigh and Durham. Hunters killed 495 deer on its 40,937 acres last season. Nearby, 109 deer were taken on the Shearon Harris Game Lands.
“I also think Uwharrie (National Forest) is a good game land for deer,” said Ken Knight, who supervises Commission biologists in the Piedmont.
Last season, hunters took 358 deer in the Uwharrie National Forest, which covers 50,189 acres in Davidson, Montgomery and Randolph counties.
R. Wayne Bailey-Caswell Game Lands has excellent habitat on its 17,788 acres in Caswell County, with rolling hills, hardwood slopes and planted food plots.
“You get the extra benefit of (feral) pigs at Caswell,” Knight said.
Sandhills Game Lands is a top area made up of four parcels spread across 61,225 acres in four counties that is also is a top area for whitetails where hunting with dogs is allowed. Hunters must obtain permits for either-sex hunts in mid-November to mid-December hunts.
Small game
Best game-land bets: Embro, Shocco Creek, Butner-Falls of Neuse, Second Creek, Sandhills, Uhwarrie, Bailey-Caswell, upper Roanoke River, Jordan.
Doves, squirrels and rabbits are the main attractions for small-game hunters in the Piedmont, and the Commission tries to meet the demand with food plots and grain plantings on most of those properties.
Butner-Falls of Neuse has eight dove fields planted in corn, buckwheat, millet and sunflowers, while Jordan has about the same number. Both have planted waterfowl impoundments that, until flooded, are good places for dove.
Embro Game Lands in Halifax and Warren counties and Shocco Creek in Franklin, Halifax, Nash and Warren counties, have lots of cover and food for rabbits.
Jordan, Butner-Falls of Neuse, Bailey-Caswell, the upper Roanoke River and Uwharrie National Forest all have vast hardwoods sections that provide great habitat for gray squirrels. Second Creek has food plots that provide rabbit habitat.
“Sandhills has everything,” Knight said. “It’s such a big, wide-open place. It’s great for running rabbit dogs. and it’s probably the best game land in the state for fox squirrels.
“Uwharrie has dove fields and plenty of squirrels.”
Waterfowl
Best game-land bets: Butner-Falls, Jordan, Harris, upper Roanoke River Wetlands Alcoa, Linwood, Bailey-Caswell.
The top public waterfowl hunting areas in the Piedmont are Jordan and Butner-Falls of Neuse Lake, “with a little bit of waterfowl places at Second Creek in Rowan County,” Knight said.
Jordan and Butner-Falls of Neuse have planted and “green-tree” impoundments that are flooded before the November waterfowl season opens. When acorns drop at green-tree impoundments, they draw woodies and mallards.
Alcoa Game Lands provides good duck opportunities, Knight said, up and down the river system, especially the upper end of High Rock Lake near the Linwood Game Land.
“A lot of people go there for river hunting, and there are even some coal ash impoundments at the Buck Steam Plant,” he said. “They attract woodies, mallards, ringneck and even some hooded mergansers. (The ponds) are private-property and can’t be hunted but are refuges (for ducks) that foray out.”
Bailey-Caswell has the Brumley and Caswell impoundments. Mallards and wood ducks are frequent visitors.
“Sandhills has a few beaver ponds,” Knight said.
Bear
Best game-land bets: Bailey-Caswell, Granville, Person, Mayo, Embro, Lower Fishing Creek, Shocco Creek, Tillery.
A change in the Commission’s bear regulations has opened all of the Piedmont to bear hunting this fall during the regular gun season for deer, but baiting bears — one part of the regulation changes — is not allowed on game lands.
“You can hunt bear at a game land in a county during the bear season that applies to that county,” said Mike Carraway, a Commission biologist. “The only thing you have to have is a big-game license. But if a game land has permit-hunting during designated season dates, you’ll need the permit to hunt those days.”
Only upper tracts of the Roanoke River National Wildlife Refuge will not have bear hunting in 2014.
The best Piedmont game lands for bear might be Person County’s Hyco and Mayo game lands and Bailey-Caswell, which have river drainages where bears have filtered west from the big populations along the Roanoke River and south from Virginia.
Knight noted some bear sightings last year in the Uwharrie National Forests in Montgomery County.
MOUNTAINS
Deer
Best game-land bests: Mitchell River, Three-Top Mountain, Thurmond Chatham, Cold Mountain, Pond Mountain, Green River, Johns River, Sandy Mush, Needmore, Dupont State Forest, Pisgah, Nantahala.
In the northwest corner of the state, Mitchell River Game Lands in Surry County “is probably one of the best game-land options for deer,” said Chris Kreh, another Commission biologist who pointed to Three Top in Ashe County and Thurmond Chatham in Alleghany and Wilkes counties as top public-land tracts.
Biologist Carraway said that South Mountains Game Lands, which covers 21,613 acres in Burke, Cleveland, McDowell and Rutherford counties as a good spot for whitetails; it borders a state park of the same name.
“Green River (in Henderson and Polk counties) is a rugged place to hunt but it has deer,” said Carraway, noting 70 acres of food plots.
“We also do a lot of active management at Cold Mountain (in Haywood COunty), with early successionals and planted clover fields,” he said.
Johns River in Burke County is probably the No. 2 deer game land in western North Carolina because of its atypical habitat: rolling terrain, creek bottoms, and 30 acres of fields. Only disabled and youth hunters are permitted to hunt one tract that’s planted with corn.
Although the Pisgah and Nantahala national forest each had more than 400 recorded kills last season, they were spread across 1 million acres.
Bear
Best game-land bets: Pond Mountain, Pisgah National Forest, Nantahala National Forest, Three Top, Cold Mountain, Toxaway.
Biologist Kreh said hunting black bears was “probably the top permit hunt at Pond Mountain, a 2,272-acre tract in Ashe County that borders Tennessee and Virginia.
“It’s above 5,000 feet (sea level) and pretty rugged,” he said. “It’s some of the coolest game land in the state, pretty flat on top, and (it) has 700 acres of Christmas trees. Most of the hunting is done with dogs.”
Three Top is another good bear public land, Kreh said.
Cold Mountain and Needmore in Swain and Macon counties also have bears, and no permit is required to hunt.
“Bears are everywhere (in the mountains),” Carraway said. “(The population) just continues to increase.”
Two great permit hunts on bear sanctuaries are on the Mount Mitchell and Daniel Boone tracts.
Small Game
Best game-land bets: South Mountains, Perkins, Pond Mountain, Three Top, Sandy Mush. Needmore, Cold Mountain, Nantahala, Pisgah.
Kreh said the main small-game attractions in the northwestern corner of the state are squirrels and ruffed grouse.
“Pond Mountain and Three Top have some opportunities for grouse on top of the mountain,” he said. “There are a few dove fields at Perkins.”
Grouse numbers vary annually, Carraway said.
“On national forest land, you typically need to find places that have been clear cut and are 10- to 15-years old,” he said. (Grouse) hide in laurel thickets on sides of hills or at cove bottoms with (streams).”
Biologist Kip Hollifield said the Pisgah National Forest in the counties bordering Tennessee also hold grouse.
Sandy Mush in Buncombe and Madison counties is a former farm with good bottomland fields for doves, but permits are needed Sept. 1, 3, 6, 8, 10, 13.
“Sandy Mush’s fields also are good for rabbits,” Carraway said.
Johns River also has bottomland dove field hunts, but permits are needed on certain dates.
“Squirrel hunting is usually good in (the mountains),” Carraway said. “There are even some fox squirrels in (northwestern North Carolina).”
Waterfowl
Best game-land bets: Sandy Mush. Needmore, W. Kerr Scott.
Only one game land in northwestern North Carolina borders any water, and that’s 523-acre W. Kerr Scott in Wilkes County. According to Kreh, “It has mallards, wood ducks and some ringnecks.”
The Little Tennessee River flows through Needmore Game Land in Swain County, and hunters sometimes float that water and jump-shoot woodies and mallards.
The French Broad River creates the northern boundary of Sandy Mush Game Land, which has some duck hunting.
Be the first to comment