Which State Park Quota Hunt?

[CharrDad]

I've got a handful of points to use this year but am unsure which state park hunt to apply for. I'd love to hear thoughts from those of you who have hunted these previously. Which ones hunt best, are there any to steer clear of?
Chattahoochee Bend
Roosevelt
Yargo
Hard Labor Creek

 

[FOLES55]

I can say I was in the same boat and picked Chattahoochee Bend last season. I was sadly disappointed with it. The night of the safety meeting and check-in it was like black Friday shoppers tearing up the woods in a mad scramble to claim their sports with flagging tape/ribbon. While doing that I saw 2 deer hiding at the Rangers house in the yard since that was one of the places you couldn't hunt obviously. Next morning the same thing all over, complete chaos with hunters everywhere and I think only 1-2 shots heard all morning. That ended my hunt and I returned to my private land and never returned.

The park directors need to take the 100 hunters and cut that in half with hunts only being held every other year so hunters truly have a chance. WAY OVER CROWDED WITH TO MANY AREAS BEING SAFETY ZONES, but if they did that then that's half the money they would of got in their pockets. Plus the deer population no way justifies the need at all for 100 hunters in my opinion. I'm glad my money went to the state park instead of something else, but it would have been nice to know that it was going to be a waste of time and I would have saved my gas money and time for my own hunting woods. Having state park hunts are good things and if I could make any changes id say they need to really reconsider the management side of it with the hunter/deer ratios.

I hope this helps you in selecting a place to go and can say if you choose Chatt Bend that I hope your experience is different and better than mine. Pretty State park for squirrel watching or an outing with the family, just not hunting. However I bet the first couple hunts they ever had were probably awesome, however many years ago that was. It would be interesting to know what the harvest total was last year if anyone knows where to look.

 

[mtstephens18]

Same here with chattahoochee Bend. My dad and I both took of work and stuff and were all excited about it last year because we had never been on a state park hunt. You literally couldn’t walk in the woods there were so many people. We found a bunch of good buck sign and were really looking forward to hunting it. When we literally stepped out of the truck, we got hit with five different flashlights. Every spot you could pull over there was somebody parked there, so we couldn’t go to a secondary spot. So we made about a half mile loop around all those people(who were all hunting less than 300 yards from the truck) to the spot we had scouted a good piece back in there. Didn’t see a thing and had several people walk in on us. WHistled at them and they just walked about 50 yards and sat down. I’ve never really felt uneasy about walking out but that day I did. We hunted the first morning and packed up and came home. WE will never go back. There was 100 quota usually 50 to 75 percent of those will actually show up. But there was at least 95 there. The quota for that place should be NO MORE than 25, if that

 

[Rick Alexander]

I went to HLC park hunt last year. They completely closed off the golf course - said there was work going on but nobody seemed to see any. That crunched the hunters up a bit but still had a good time. It's a big park. One of the guys in my group got a very nice 8 and all of us got at least one. I was happy with the experience. Thought the rangers were very professional and accommodating.

 

[CharrDad]

Thanks a bunch for the reports. Sorry to hear the Chattahoochee Bend hunts were so crowded. That's one of the things I was concerned about.

 

[CharrDad]

Does anyone have thoughts or past experiences on Yargo?

 

[35 Whelen]

My brother and I hunted Ft Yargo several years ago, weather was terrible the afternoon of the first day, rain. I could only hunt one day, he hunted first day and half of the second day, again weather was terrible, drenching rain in the afternoon. Neither of us saw a deer and heard very few shots.

 

[zack1a2]

Wish I had seen this before we applied to the hunt..went several years ago and it was great!

Did anyone have any luck??

 

[South Man]

Wondering the same thing? Any success?