Wayne Nat'l Forest (out of state hunter)

[ButchA]

Good morning...

I have been browsing this forum to learn more about Ohio and see about coming to your fine state to go deer hunting this coming season.

I have information from Ohio DNR, written to the Foresty Dept to get a map of the Wayne Nat'l Forest, and am basically doing a lot of research, planning, "homework" before I even think of showing up in Ohio to go hunting for the first time.

The thread about Waterloo has me a bit concerned.... I see where it is (smack dab in the middle of the WNF) and didn't think people would get so hostile towards another hunter. I guess for me, I need to know EXACTLY where it would be safe to go and not accidently tresspass or step on someones toes, if you know what I mean.

Here's what I am thinking of doing this summer (camping trip with my wife to see Ohio and do some scouting at the same time):

Head up Route 35 from the Ohio River up past Rio Grande and turn off and head toward Oak Hill. Then down down Route 93 into the WNF and scout all the way down Route 93 and probably go camping at Lake Vesuvious (sp?) or somewhere nearby.

--------OR---------

Head along Route 52 from Huntington, WV to Portsmouth to the Shawnee State Forest and go up into the State Forest to go camping and scouting.

I have heard so many good things about Ohio that I want to come check it out for myself and see what your state has to offer. But, I want to be smart about it and not bump into anyone else, or accidently tresspass and/or end up somewhere where I shouldn't be.

I am not sure how hard your public land WMA's get hit, but here in Virginia, they are absolutely ridiculous! I mean, on any given Saturday during general firearms, the "orange army" is out in full force and it's a wonder that no one gets shot! :eek:

Could someone maybe send me a PM with some advice? I would really appreciate it....

Thank you.

P.S. I am a regular kind of guy, just looking for a better opportunity. I am a computer programmer and am retired from the U.S. Coast Guard. I have my own little website/homepage thing that I made, in case you're wondering "hey, who is this Virginia guy who keeps appearing on our forum?" ;)

http://members.aol.com/ammonc/butch.html

[Fish-n-Fool]

"I am not sure how hard your public land WMA's get hit, but here in Virginia, they are absolutely ridiculous! I mean, on any given Saturday during general firearms, the "orange army" is out in full force and it's a wonder that no one gets shot!"

No different anywhere in Ohio during any of the firearms seasons.
I would suggest you bring a bow and come during late October/ early November and you will not be disappointed. You will find plenty of property to hunt and see plenty of deer.

For firearms season - good luck and bring your flapjacket!

[Caribou Dreamer2]

[QUOTE][For firearms season - good luck and bring your flapjacket!
/QUOTE]Good one,That to funny.

As for stepping on others toes it all public ground and as a paid non resident you have just as much right to hunt that ground as a resident.Good luck and have fun.

[coonskinner]

the forest is very big but scattered with private properties sometimes unmarked within in it and you can not tell private from the forest...no fences,no signs......chances are if its unmarked the owner cares less BUT AND THIS IS A BIG BUTT...IF A GAME WARDEN SHOULD CATCH YOU ON ONE OF THESE PRIVATE AREAS AND THEY DO KNOW WHERE THEY ARE...YOU CAN BE FINED FOR HUNTING ON PRIVATE LAND WITHOUT WRITTEN PERMISSION...chances are this will not happen but...oh and i have not been on a pc. of national forest yet that isnt full of wildlife...squirrels,rabbits,deer an turks...

[ButchA]

sometimes unmarked within in it and you can not tell private from the forest...no fences,no signs......
You're kidding... :eek: Here in VA, the huge George Washington and Jefferson National Forests all have big orange signs marking the boundries. Heck, those signs are probably on every 50th tree along the boundry lines.

I'll get some GPS boundry readings from some websites, so when I come, I'll bring my Garmin GPS with me, so I'll KNOW exactly where I am and where I shouldn't be. ;)

[coonskinner]

you are in luck,i have a garman rhino 120...if you get lost i can find you...our forest is very primitive...i have yet to see a boundry marker...some landowners post signs though...:mischeif:

[OhioHunter88]

I cant help you with any info, but you seem like a great hunter and a great guy,because most non residents come up during gun and hunt wherever they please or on public land, i also like the idea that you are putting in time to scout. GOOD LUCK,and Have Fun.







Kaleb

[deerhunt45]

You're kidding... :eek: Here in VA, the huge George Washington and Jefferson National Forests all have big orange signs marking the boundries. Heck, those signs are probably on every 50th tree along the boundry lines.

I'll get some GPS boundry readings from some websites, so when I come, I'll bring my Garmin GPS with me, so I'll KNOW exactly where I am and where I shouldn't be. ;)

Hello ButchA...no, coonie's not kidding.
GPS is the way to go along with map and compass of course. but you can get lost in ohio's forests.:mischeif:

the suggestion to come to ohio during early bow season is an excellent one. i second that, you will not be disappointed! just wanted to wish you good luck in your scouting and welcome to ohio:Welcome:

sorry i could not be of more help but i'm a native nwesterner:whistle: (ohio that is):D

[deerhunt45]

because most non residents come up during gun and hunt wherever they please or on public land,
Kaleb

i don't entirely agree with that statement 88. at least from my experience:whistle: (that and 50 cents may get you a coffee):yikes:
a topic for another thread.:mischeif:

but i do agree, kudos to ButchA for his exciting plans, well thought out. welcome. look forward to hearing about some of your adventures into the great state of Ohio.:)

[ButchA]

Wow.... What a hearty welcome! Thank you all.

Let's see... more details, more details... My nextdoor neighbor and his wife are originally from Chillicothe. Their in the early 60's and he no longer hunts, but has told me many many great stories of the monster deer you all have there.

Myself - I'm originally from Poughkeepsie, NY (upstate, 2 hrs from NY City). I served in the US Coast Guard and when I retired, I settled here in Richmond, VA as a computer programmer and Unix systems administrator (computer geek job). Virginia is a split up state, meaning, you have east of the Blue Ridge Mts, and west of the Blue Ridge for hunting. East of the Blue Ridge is all hound dog hunting for deer. I just find it strange... You can have a quiet peaceful morning, then all of the sudden, "Bow-wow-wow-wow..." you see a pack of 25-30 Blue Tick Heelers or Coonhounds running amok through the woods, chasing after some doe. :irked: West of the Blue Ridge you can't run dogs after deer (thank God), so I hunt out there with some friends of mine.

Anyway, I do both bowhunting (my favorite) and shotgun/rifle hunting in the mountains.

Hunting gear:
2006 Reflex Highlander - brand new bow, I love it! :D
Remington 870 12GA shotgun
...and an old Marlin 30-30 (can't hunt with in Ohio, but that's okay).
Summit Viper X4 treestand

I got my Wayne Nat'l Forest map in the mail today when I got home from work! Looks great!!! Huge areas... Ironton area, Athens area, and the Marietta area.

I plan on going bowhunting for a few days this coming season and will be doing some scouting this summer and looking at different areas when my wife and I head out this summer to go camping.

Thanks again for the great replies! I appreciate it...

Butch

[CritterGitter]

Butch, I don't know if coonskinner mentioned our deer camp, but there are some guys from this website who meet up for a deer camp on the Athens unit of the Wayne National Forrest each fall. It usually coincides with the weekend that is closest to Halloween as that is when our bucks start to really get active. We generally have about 3 to 6 guys in camp at a time. Some stay a week, some stay 2 days(me) and I think ole Coonskinner stayed 2 weeks last year. This can be bowhunting big woods at it's finest because the pressure hasn't picked up too bad yet and of course it's still bow season so we get to witness a lot of big buck action. In my two days of hunting I never saw another hunter which was nice. You are more than welcome to join us if you like. I think you will like bowhuntin Ohio whitetails.

Kyle

[OLDHAT]

Butch,

When hunting national forest, hopefully you got the TOPO maps that show private and public on the map (I think private is white and national forest is green),with this said and thinking that you can read/interpret a topo map, you should have no problem staying on public.

Folks are not that bad, what you are faced with is the "orange army mentality" where out of staters come in and they may just be "week end warriors", it's not to typical for property owners to care much about what a bowhunter is doing. A good method to go about determining private and public if you are in question is to pull right up to the house, tell the owner that you are going to try to bowhunt around his property on public land and that you just wanted to get an idea of where his property lines are so that you do not pass onto them, once you get this established, tell him that if you arrow a deer and it crosses onto his property that you'll come get him and if he is not there is it alright for you to go retrieve your deer. With this said, you'll get a local on "your side", you've prevented a potential altercation and most will respect that, hell, if you are good they might even let you hunt their land (most of my private property permission has come in this method). About the only time when that I see folks not let someone hunt is when the immediate family members hunt themselves. It's much easier when you explain you are a BOWHUNTER and will not be small game hunting with any type of firearm, you emphasis that you're just "kicking back" and taking a vacation and will be bowhunting around them. A lot of folks respect this. Also, thank them for their time amd offer them a bit of meat from your deer if you take one.

Southern Ohio has some of the best natured folks in the world. Sure, they were raised the "hard way", and like for folks to stay out ot their business. Seclusive folks, but if you get them yacking man, you've just won a friend for life.

Now, Vesuvious is a great place to camp/hike lots of big woods, one of my favorite places to hunt and hunted really close to there for about 10 years. I would personally tell you since you are going to bring a camper, is to join Isaac Walton Lake,it cost you $50.00 a year to be a member, they have a 10 acre or so lake, showers and electrical hookups, would be a really good place to take the old lady and camp one weekend and fish,. I would suggest this moreso than Vesuvious. There is maybe room for 10 campers at the entire place, has a gate that you will get a key to to get in. Once you are a member you can also hunt that property which may be 100 acres or so, the good thing about it is that it all borders public. this sets about 6-8 miles off of rt 93 off of Etna Waterloo Rd (yes you follow this rd and you'll end up in Waterloo in about 12 miles or so). If you are heading to Vesuvious down rt 93, then the turn off for this rd is around 1 mile short of the turn off for Lake Vesuvious, which right before the turn off for Lake Vesuvious is the Ironton District Headquarters for Wayne National Forrest. Once you turn onto Cannons creek and about 1/2 mile up the rd I took a P&Y buck there back in 1991, look on the hillside to your right and you can say "That's one of Oldhat's spots". There are a lot of "my spots in this area" remember, I was raised close to vesuvious and could walk to the lake in about 1.5 hours. I used to "dig roots" from Ironton up to Oakhill all along rt 93, then I used to hit the Waterloo/Aid/Arabia area pretty hard in digging roots as a boy. I've walked every single hill in that entire area, every nook every cranny, I've been there. Use to dig 3 lbs of "sang" during the summers and another 30 lbs of yellow root, all you "root hunters" know that I must of been putting in every day and walking a lot of miles over the hills to do that.

If you decide to take me up on the Isaac Walton thing, then let me know. I can tell you of a very productive spot within walking distance of the camp ground, hell I could almost guarantee you a doe the 1st day there. Oddest thing I've ever seen, it's a srping about 10ft or so in elevation down on the side of one of our long ridges, is high on the hill, there are 2 of them within 100 yards, there are a lot of minerals in each, the deer eat that place up, easy to hunt and you'll see a lot of deer.

When it comes to that area, and mainly most of Lawrence county, I know the land. So if you are coming to this area then by all means fell free to pm me and I'll pass along my phone numbers (cell business, and home) and you can give me a call and chat a bit. Also, if you decide to hunt the area and you are going at it alone, then let me know. You might even luck into my hunting buddy from this site ("Tip") giving you a personal tour of that area one day, he lives about 5 minutes from this area. I would, but I now live around 150 miles away in the MidWestern part of the the state.

I still hunt Southern Ohio every year, but as you mentioned Chillicothe, I do most of my hunting around 10 miles out of Chillicothe now which is Ross & Pike Counties. Around here (Dayton) I hunt Greene and Clark counties. "Back home" I hunt Lawrence, Gallia, Athens, and Jackson counties.

Hope I've helped.

Oldhat

[dtabor]

Butch,

Ive been hunting in Ohio for about 6 or 7 years. These guys are giving you great information. I would have to 150% agree with the orange army statements. The first couple days of gun season sound like a war zone on public land.

Ive been on the Nelsonville area of the Wayne. I purchased a topo of the area and it was pretty accurate as far as showing where the public land was in that part anyway.

In general, I have found the people both on here and in person when Ive been there to be extremely friendly and helpful. If you are going to scout, you shouldnt have any problem finding some good areas. Ive found public land harder to come by but Im sure they get bombarded with people asking too and get sick of it after awhile.

Good luck!

D

[ButchA]

Thank you.... (thank you "Oldhat" for the great reply too!) :)

I don't have a camper, but a fairly nice sized 9x11 big dome tent that can sleep 6 people with room to spare.

I like the idea of scouting along Route 93 and the various side roads off of it as well. One area I saw that looks real nice is somewhere around Buffalo Creek and/or Indian Creek, according to the topo map. It's east of Buckhorn from Route 93.

I look forward to visiting your state this summer and coming back in the fall in late October to go bowhunting! :D

[hunTer06]

I look forward to visiting your state this summer and coming back in the fall in late October to go bowhunting! :D

you won't regret it...you'll become hooked so bad you'll move here...:mischeif:

[Ross Co. Bowhunter]

Welcome, looks like you have already collected some excellent info and you are planning ahead. Should make for an enjoyable experience and you just might go home with more than memories to talk about. Good Luck

[OLDHAT]

Butch,

Now you are talking, you done some work and found a really good area (Buffalo/ Indian Creek). That's where my one "honey hole" is that I mentioned in the "Waterloo" thread earlier. I likewise know this area like the "back of my hand". I personally have a spot in that area that is one of what I think the best places to hunt in the entire county. Also, pay special close attention the the private property at the mouth of the mouth of the hollow, in behind that private property is a good place also. there is a ridge line to the "left" as soon as you pull in the hollow and drive past the house. You'll get to a stand of pines, park there and cross the creek and get up on that ridge. If you look at the topo map you'll see one heck of a saddle connecting htose two ridges, this is a really good place to hunt. Other place in that area to hunt is on up in the hollow. Buffalo & Indian creek comes together nearly a mile up the rd. There is a farmhouse here, (to the left (up Buffalo creek)) If you keep going up into Indain creek the rd will stop. It use to continue. In the "right branch" of Indian creek there is a lot of bottoms, stay out of these. There is an old barn up in the left hand branch about 3/4 of a mile up, and I still belive there is an apple tree that should produce some apples right next to the barn(this is all national forest, no longer private). But, learn quick that you need to stay out of these hollow to be productive to hunt, gotta get on the points and ridges because of scent/wind, the only time you should try to hunt low is if there is not any mast crop to be found anywhere. This area in general holds some really good deer. Genetics in here are fabulous. If I wasn't hunting the Chillicothe area, I'd be in the Buffalo Indian creek area during the rut.

Good area, and it is all public except for in the mouth of the hollow as you turn into Buffalo Indain Creek and then there is a bit of private on up in the hollow at teh mouth of Buffallo creek, outside of there it is wide open.

You'll get a lot of bowhunting pressure off of what we refer to as "telegraph ridge" If you follow both Buffalo and Indian creeks back to the head of the hollows and see the ridge line there, this is waht is reffered to as "telegraph ridge", will be some guys in here bowhunting, especially come 1st of November. This area in general always produces a "booner class" buck every year.

If you come to scout, and know what you are looking for, then you should find my honeyhole, it's one of th emore bucky looking spots in the area. Is nestled between 2 clearcuts, maybe 100 yards of standing timber on a ridge line between 2 clearcuts, is just as about a productive as a place as anyone could ever wish for while bowhunting....when they clearcut, they left around 10 persimmon trees and a lot of 100 year old Red & white oaks, in both clearcuts (about 15 year old clearcuts) it's as thick and nasty as a guy could ever hope for (can't get through it). These deer funnel like crazy into this open area. So if you are trying to hunt for a high quality deer, then you should end up in this spot.

Oldhat

[ButchA]

Wow, what a reply! Thank you, Oldhat, thank you!!! :biggrin: :cool:

I printed out your reply post and am going to use it as a guideline and pour over my topo map.

This is absolutely incredible... Let me send you a PM...

Butch A.