need a bit of help where would you hunt?

3317 Views 19 Replies 11 Participants Last post by leserz, Oct 7, 2008

leserz

Discussion Starter · Sep 27, 2008

i have signed up for the deer contest this will be my first time hunting in AR. sorry team. i'm in bull shoals looks like my choices are few for public lands. seems like it will be Northfork Lake WMA, Buffalo national river WMA or Sylamore WMA i will be using my crossbow. i'm not in all that good of shape. so hiking for 5-6 miles dragging a deer will not work at all. bad knee's, lungs, just to fat now. so got any tips for me ? or areas to start from ? also looking for my first ever deer. i can hear team members groaning now. ok i'm a late starter at 62.:wink:

1 - 20 of 20 Posts

Manybeards

· #2 · Sep 27, 2008

Not familiar with the north....but sometimes beginners luck is better than many years of experience. So good luck to you :up:

Key factors to learn:
bedding area
food source
travel route between the 2
scrapes
rubs

Find these and set of downwind of them and you should be fine :up:

leserz

Discussion Starter · #3 · Sep 28, 2008

what would be a bedding area high grass, bushy area. level ground ? higher ground?

E-T

· #4 · Sep 28, 2008

Deer bed where they feel safe. Usually in the thickest stuff in the woods. They know we can not get to them with out spooking them. Food will not be hard for them to find this year. Huge acorn crop and Tons of percimmons this year. Look for trails leading out of thickets going towards food. Find the trails with scrapes or rubs. Learn the predominate wind direction for that area. Set your stands on the down wind side. Good luck to you and your team.

The most important thing to remember about hunting, TEAM 19 RULES!!!!!!!!!

knighten

· #5 · Sep 28, 2008

i have hunted norfork lake the past 3 years,there is lots of corps land ,get in touch with corps in mountain home. if you got a boat its pretty easy to find a spot.try to get of corps land around the lake.

leserz

Discussion Starter · #6 · Sep 28, 2008

thanks for the help. i will check out norfork lake station.i need to go to mt home any way mon or tues. i will stop at the office .

newdad

· #7 · Sep 28, 2008

next year you need to get in on the urban hunt at bull shoals. that place is overun with deer we see bucks about everytime we work there. as someone else said your best choice for this year will be one of the wma's or corp land near the lake. if you dont get a spot picked pretty early at sylamore wma you will be hunting on top of somone else or vice versa. all the spots that are close enough to walk onto from the road are usaully full of hunters. i would probably look into the oakland/promiseland area and see if you can find some public in that area to hunt theres always good bucks come from that area. another spot that produces big bucks every year is the gamaliel area.

zane

· #8 · Sep 29, 2008

leserz said:
i. i'm in bull shoals looks like my choices are few for public lands. seems like it will be Northfork Lake WMA, Buffalo national river WMA or Sylamore WMA i will be using my crossbow. .:wink:

If those choices are few, I must be in a dead zone here in NEA. You are in a sportsman's paradise. You have 2 BIG lakes that are totally surrounded by public land. I have hunted Core land on Norfork tons of times for both deer and turkey. Get an aluminum boat, find a long, secluded creek that cuts off the main lake and hike about 100 yards into the woods. You have access to more public land there than just about anywhere else in the state.

Sylamore is HUGE!! You won't have any problems finding a place to hunt there, especially during the week, and during bow season.

johnf

· #9 · Sep 29, 2008

Get on google earth and find a spot on a ridge that looks like would be a good travel area. Take November 10-11 and 18-19 off work and go out to that spot with a bottle of tinks 69 and pour the whole bottle down the side of a tree and on a wick above it about 50 yards from where you'll be sitting.

The scent should bring anything with horns around to you before too long.

If you want to go out the opening Saturday, fine, you might get lucky, but there will be a lot of people in the woods and deer will be running for cover.

leserz

Discussion Starter · #10 · Sep 29, 2008

thanks for all your help. seems like the hardest info to get is in your back yard. i will be hunting on week days. to many on week ends out there.
you bet i'm waiting for the urban hunt next year. they come out of the woods across the street from me. my next door neighbor seen a ten pointer a few days ago in our yard

we have tons of does around my block. i'm not working so i have all kinds of time for hunting this year. was told in the winter they come in the yard and start eating the hedges out side of the front windows.i'm on the outskirts of town but still in the city limits.

fisherman505

· #11 · Sep 29, 2008

The best way to hunt either Norfork or Bull Shoals is by boat. Just a little ol 14-footer on a trailer with a ten horse on it will do. If you want to hunt the Norfork WMA, just launch out of Cranfield and the WMA is pretty much the left-side of the lake for the next couple of miles. There will be red COE signs up showing where the WMA is. Also, it is archery only for deer.

For Bull Shoals, you can go down Rt-15 and launch in the back end of Howard Creek. Or launch at Bull Shoals Dock on Jimmy Creek. Like one poster said above, just find a deep cove and go to the back of it and hoof it up the bank a hundred yards and you are in business.

The above being said, getting a deer this time will be all luck because you are new and don't know where to go. You need to spend a few years checking out the shorelines of both lakes in January or February when the leaves are down and gun season is over. Once you've located some areas with good deer activity, you'll be ready for the next year.

If you don't have a boat, get one. The boat will pay for itself because of all the COE land that will be available for you to hunt. Off the top of my head, I would say I have at least a dozen places to hunt on Norfork between the dam and the Missouri border. Probably comprises of about 5000 acres. And it's all free. All it cost me is a lot of time scouting. I might also add that I rarely see other deer hunters on the COE land.

Cheers.....

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leserz

Discussion Starter · #12 · Sep 30, 2008

i don't have a boat . can not afford one now. but been looking at a few places on BS where hunting is permitted. checking out the areas with creek's in them

flippinhntr

· #13 · Sep 30, 2008

Hey Leserz, if you know where the CCC road is between Bull Shoals and Flippin, take that road up bout 5 miles to the boat ramp on the right at Jimmy's Creek and hunt the corp line around there. Lots of big bucks in that area and most people around here will be working thru the week. :wink:

leserz

Discussion Starter · #14 · Sep 30, 2008

flippinhntr said:
Hey Leserz, if you know where the CCC road is between Bull Shoals and Flippin, take that road up bout 5 miles to the boat ramp on the right at Jimmy's Creek and hunt the corp line around there. Lots of big bucks in that area and most people around here will be working thru the week. :wink:

that the road that runs west of the road to the white hole in fair view? hey thanks a ton for that info i will give it a shot for sure. i will look it up on the map tonight.:up:

leserz

Discussion Starter · #15 · Sep 30, 2008

flippinhtr i found it. thanks a bunch again

leserz

Discussion Starter · #16 · Oct 1, 2008

flippinhtr well i found the boat ramp at CCC but every where i look all i see is purple painted trees. been down a few gravel roads where i swore i could hear banjo music.:fit: seen 3 deer next to a no hunting sign. doe 2 older fawns i think. looking at corps map every thing is very vague no markers where there boundary's are. oh well need to start over. long season anyway.
any one hunt that joe something island on bull shoals lake or is it under water now.

obie

· #17 · Oct 6, 2008

Just run over one with your truck, stick an arrow in it and post the pic....Help a team out. No just playing with you, I have full confidence that you will get you're first kill this season.

leserz

Discussion Starter · #18 · Oct 6, 2008

eeeer some one i know. all most screwed up big time

found a place on corps land. so was there friday found out today that was a no hunting area sure glad he did not take his bow in there to hunt.

Buck-Ridge

· #19 · Oct 6, 2008

I used to hunt in Sylamore and always managed to see deer there. I found that there were usually areas with few deer and areas where there were several. There are or were food plots all over that have deer using them and most of them have trees you can put a stand in. Drive around down there some day and don't forget to start with a full tank and a map it is a huge place. When I hunted there probably 6 years ago I didn't see many other hunters.

leserz

Discussion Starter · #20 · Oct 7, 2008

going to take a drive to corps in mt home tues. they said they have maps of hunting areas in the twin lakes area.

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