Chase small game on these public lands
For some hunters, sitting and waiting for deer or waterfowl to show up becomes downright boring. When it’s time to get a move on, nothing beats chasing small game.
The Carolinas have thousands of acres of public lands where doves, quail, woodcock, rabbits and squirrels abound. To help narrow the search, we polled the experts about their favorite public hunting lands.
South Carolina
SCDNR Small Game Project Leader Michael Hook said that hot dove hunting is on the front burner in the cold of winter.
“Deer and hog competition is tremendous, so we are trying to fence almost all SCDNR-owned dove fields,” he said. “We have fenced dove fields at Pee Dee Station, Santee, Webb, Samworth and others.”
To maximize opportunity during all three season splits, specific hunting dates are set for each field to capture holiday periods. Corn, sunflowers and milo attract doves during the season, and crops are manipulated to ensure their attractiveness. However, planting is ongoing all year, with winter wheat and millet planted in spring and summer to begin attracting doves.
“Two years ago, we started planting native sunflowers because deer don’t eat them as badly as agricultural sunflowers,” he said. “They may have a side benefit of providing quail habitat. They are planted outside the fence at Pee Dee Station, at Botany Bay, Jocassee and others. They are short and bushy with small seed heads. And we are seeing them bloom almost all year. Deer can eat one stem, but unlike commercial sunflowers that lose their seed head, native sunflowers make new branches. Quail hunters should learn to identify them and be on the lookout for them as we try planting them in other areas.”
For rabbits, quail and perhaps ruffed grouse, Hook named Sumter’s Andrew Pickens Ranger District as the place to go. Thinning and burning of that area is restoring native oak-hickory forest.
Habitat is the key
“I would look in the Long Creek area,” he said. “The oak savannahs and open hardwoods are restoring some great small game habitat.”
For woodcock hunters, he said Wateree is excellent. It has extensive bottomland hardwoods along the river.
The expansive national forests, Sumter and Francis Marion, are also excellent places for woodcock. They also hold rabbits and quail in abundance.
“The woodcock will be in cane and privet thickets along the creek bottoms. Woodcock hunters usually know where to look,” he said. “But the uplands are different because they have decent-looking quail and rabbit habitat everywhere. The biggest problem for quail and rabbit hunters is that there is so much habitat in the big prescribed burn areas that they can get caught up in driving and looking. They just need to stop driving, pick a spot and start hunting.”
Squirrels occur any place with mature hardwood forest. Hook said many of the smaller, unnamed WMAs located throughout the state are overlooked places to hunt.
North Carolina
NCWRC Northern Coastal Management Biologist David Turner said hunting Voice of America Game Land is a unique experience.
“VOA is a draw permit area, so you have to apply in advance,” he said. “But it’s one of the best places for quail.”
He said Roanoke River has excellent squirrel hunting in mature hardwoods. It also has excellent woodcock habitat. Some tracts have vehicle access.
“Texas Plantation is a good place for rabbits,” he said. “It has agricultural land, some planted openings, a large dove field area and some thinned and burned pine forests.”
NCWRC Northern Piedmont Management Biologist Chris Baransksi said R. Wayne Bailey – Caswell has topnotch squirrel hunting.
“Caswell has lots of big, mature timber,” he said. “It’s about half hardwood and half pine, with good bottomland hardwoods along the creeks. The main reason to go there is the mature upland hardwoods in Natural Heritage areas that you don’t see many other places.”
He said smaller game lands – Tillery, Embro, Shocco and Brinkleyville – are overlooked. Thanks to habitat manipulation, they now have more rabbits.
Rabbit rebound
“When those areas were acquired from International Paper in the 2000s, they had commercial pine plantations on the uplands,” he said. “We conducted intensive burning and thinning, so now it has younger stands and powerline corridors that create blocks big enough to hunt rabbits with dogs.”
NCWRC Southern Piedmont Management Biologist Brady Beck said Sandhills is mostly longleaf pine forest edged with mixed hardwoods.
“The large field complexes are good places for rabbits and quail,” he said. “At times, bird hunters find woodcock.”
Beck said Uwharrie has rabbits and a few quail. The pine forest is mostly on the south, and hardwood forest mostly on the north and west. Hunters should look for clearcuts, controlled burn areas, open forests, and managed wildlife openings. The openings are good places for rabbits and quail. The hardwoods are great places for squirrels.
“Our website’s mapping tool really helps,” he said. “Using the aerial photography and satellite layers, you can find the wildlife openings. We also acquired 6,000 acres of what was formerly Alcoa Game Land that is now in Yadkin River Game Land. The change in ownership allowed us to increase parking, provide better road access, thin the canopy and introduce fire. It is now a better place to hunt squirrels, quail and rabbits.”
Ruffin’ it
Chris Kreh is NCWRC Assistant Chief of the Game and Furbearer Program. He said ruffed grouse hunters in the mountain region should find grouse at the higher elevations. Grouse numbers are declining nationwide and the birds are slowly depopulating lower elevations. Finding openings adjoining regenerating habitat is key.
“Cold Mountain should have some grouse,” Kreh said. “The best habitat is regenerating forest 12 to 20 years following logging activity or a controlled burn. If it’s so thick you don’t want to walk through it, grouse are probably there.”
Ruffed grouse hunters are finding fewer grouse than 20 years ago. The NCWRC Avid Grouse Hunter Survey shows flush rates declining from one grouse per hour to one grouse per two hours. The number of hunting trips is falling and the length of trips is trending slightly shorter.
In the southern mountains, the most reported grouse trips were in Ashe County. In the northern mountains, counties where hunters reported the most trips were Haywood, Jackson, Macon, Madison and Yancey.
In the mountain region, hunters can find many other species of small game in Pisgah and Nantahala national forests. Rabbit hunters should look for areas burned by wildfires and prescribed burns and regenerating clearcuts.
The most abundant small game animals are gray and red squirrels, with red squirrels occurring at higher elevations. Squirrel hunters can find abundant hardwood forests and mixed pine/hardwood forests. They should also be on the lookout for fox squirrels, which have been expanding their range. Kreh said some fox squirrels may even be at Pond Mountain Game Land.
Fill out those surveys
NCWRC and SCDNR need more hunter participation in small game surveys. Hunters fill out postcards sent through the mail and return them, or report results of their daily hunts online.
These surveys are vital in showing hunter activity and harvest trends, which are of particular urgency to rabbit hunters since Rabbit Hemorrhagic Disease (RHDV2) is expected to enter the Carolinas.
“We have good participation with our quail survey, but it’s difficult to get our rabbit hunters to participate,” Hook said. “But we really need more participation from both groups.”
NCWRC hunters can take part in its avid rabbit, quail and grouse surveys while SCDNR conducts only rabbit and quail hunter surveys. Hunters who keep copies of their surveys have an excellent way of tracking their personal success rates over time.
In return, participants receive harvest statistics reports and hunting caps. In some years, SCDNR awards premiums other than caps such as tee shirts and pins. To participate, visit ncwildlife.org or dnr.sc.gov and search “surveys.”
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