hunting the Uwharrie

Hi guys, I'm brand new to the Asheboro area from Louisiana. I grew up hunting and fishing. I'm buying 10 acres right next to the Uhwarrie NF on Friday. I plan on doing most of my hunting on my place, but also plan on doing some hunting in the Uwharrie. Does anybody have any tips or experiences they can share that are good or bad? I've never hunted public land before as I had 60 acres of family land to myself, and was part of a 1700 acre club. I plan on starting to do my scouting in the next couple of weeks.

I have a small 2 man boat as well. Is there any small ponds/lakes in the Uhwarrie that anybody could recommend?

You might need to be a little more specific about where at Uwharrie, it's a big area and covers several counties that all have different habitat.

Tuckertown, Badin and Tillery are all near Uwharrie and you have the Uwharrie River that flows through parts of it.

There are deer there. Ive only been there one time... Saw one deer and killed him
View attachment 54819

Pretty country and lots of land to play around on.
Lots of people on here have YEARS of experience hunting there. I just had a good plan and got lucky one day.

I also hunt 100% public land for deer all over the western part of the state.
Most people are going to say you either need to get in way early and way back in from access to get away from other people.
Or, hunt out of the way pieces and parts that are within shouting distance of the vehicle...
I do both...

One piece of advice. Have plenty of options, plans, and backup spots when you get to an area and there's 3 trucks at the gate of a 100 acre section...
It will take plenty of scouting and hunting to build up your list of spots, but once you get it figured out you can have a backup plan for everything.
Some years a spot may be loaded with deer and no hunters, the next year there may be no deer and tons of hunters in the same spot. Cross it off the list and go hunt somewhere else.

I have places I hunt in the mountains that are a 2hr drive and 2hr walk just to get to in the mornings, even though I have some gamelands 20 minutes from home where I've killed some nice deer before.
IMO, I'd rather get up earlier and drive farther to hunt somewhere I know I've got a better opportunity, than beat my head against a wall hunting somewhere close that I don't have as much confidence in...

Have fun and be safe!

I'm on the north side. I'm buying a place literally a half mile from the Uwharrie border. Even If I go to the south side it shouldn't take me long to get there. I'd probably want to stay on the northern half, but if it's over populated with hunters then I'm open to driving to the south side. I know nobody is going to give up personal spots, but any insight would be much appreciated.

RaginCajun said:

I'm on the north side. I'm buying a place literally a half mile from the Uwharrie border. Even If I go to the south side it shouldn't take me long to get there. I'd probably want to stay on the northern half, but if it's over populated with hunters then I'm open to driving to the south side. I know nobody is going to give up personal spots, but any insight would be much appreciated.

Click to expand...

I think appmtnhntr hit on the main points. Since the Uwharries are the closest public land to most of charlotte, its going to get crowded but there are ways to beat that.

1- Archery season is not NEARLY as packed as ML and gun seasons.....so if you bow hunt, its alot less crowded in my experience ( only hunted there for 3 years, there are many on here with 10 time that).
2- Most places along River Road and 24/27 will get alot of traffic since they are the spots that everyone knows about.
3- If you go deep or go to a small parcel you wont probably wont see a sole but Uwharrries are so broken up that it can be challenging to find those remote locations. I might start with Birkhead Wilderness region. You see alot of hikers, but if you go off trail it can be pretty quiet.
4- There are alot of Oak stands, so when the acorns are dropping you really need to know where they are bedding. I guess this is pretty standard advice no matter the location though.
5- some of the best spots are those only accessible by Boat.

2 hr drive and a 2 hr walk? Dern, I thought I loved it...

duckmauler said:

2 hr drive and a 2 hr walk? Dern, I thought I loved it...

Click to expand...

Ha. yeah I get the same comments from my friends that hunt...
My Dad and brothers are the only people that don't even ask questions when I text them about hunting on a Saturday... Just text them what gate and what time...
They all know that if I'm burning a Saturday to go somewhere then I've done my scouting and know what to expect...

Take last season for instance, I hunted or scouted seven different tracts of public in 5 different counties by the end of October. Checked prolly 30 different "spots" that have had deer over the years.
During that time I killed two does while I was "scouting" for the rut... I also saw one of the bucks that I eventually killed in November.
Both bucks I killed were within 400 yards of where the does fell.
Once November/December came, I had narrowed down where I had the best chance to kill a good deer and hunted those spots till I got them on the ground...

2015 was a good story too.... I had my two bucks by December 5th, but saw another really good buck on the mountain while I was skinning my 10pt.
Was by myself 1.5 miles from vehicle, and couldn't have gotten all that meat out even if I did want to play outlaw...
Since I only hunt gamelands and my two buck tags were done, I couldn't be in the woods on public land until doe days came in.

So, I texted my dad a pin on my phone and told him to go to the pin and sit on the closest big rock he sees at daylight.
He had never been there before. Walked up the mtn and down the back side. Sat on the rock drinking his coffee and a 17" wide 8pt walked up to 50 yards about 30 minutes after daylight. Boom. Deer down and he hasn't been back since...
Like calling in an airstrike...

All my other buddies bombard me with questions. How far is it? How long is the walk? Is it steep? When will we be home? How many deer are there? What way is the wind blowing? The answers are usually far, long, yes, IDK, IDK, and IDK.
I don't work all the hours I do during the week just to drive down to some spot close to the house and hunt till 9am and call it a day. Time is worth too much...

Have a friend that I've taken to one of my favorite spots 3 seasons in a row. 1st time killed an 8, 2nd and 3rd times killed does so he's got a .1000 batting average up there. 2.5hr drive and 2hr walk that gains about 1,200ft elevation in less than a mile. Steeeeeep.

This year he just wore slap out on the walk up the mountain and swore he'd never go back... He may have puked just a little bit on the walk up, but that happens sometimes...

Point being, if you're gonna hunt any public ground, you need to have 10 times as many spots as you plan to hunt in a given year cause things change...

Then again, the biggest deer I've ever killed with a bow was a big heavy 8 in full velvet and he fell about 150 yards from the main parking area of an 1,100 acre piece 30 minutes from my house that gets beat to death with people.

You never know until you get out there and find plenty of places to put back in your files for next year, or the next, or the next.
It's gotten to where we can keep track of the weather and what acorns and other mast have done in the past and have a pretty good idea what the feed is gonna be like in a given area without ever stepping foot in there...

Good luck to the OP, and have fun!

Thanks guys, Once I get settled by next weekend for sure, I plan on starting scouting pretty hard. I guess I just need to get out there and get too hiking! Hopefully I won't run into any turkey hunters...

How far is your 10 acres from the closest public access? Corn or food plot or both on your property should do a good job of drawing them in.

At this time of year, permethrin is your friend.

RaginCajun said:

Thanks guys, Once I get settled by next weekend for sure, I plan on starting scouting pretty hard. I guess I just need to get out there and get too hiking! Hopefully I won't run into any turkey hunters...

Click to expand...

I'll be there yelping away all saturday!!! If you hear some turkeys that sound like they have bronchitis...thats me.

Homebrewale said:

At this time of year, permethrin is your friend.

Click to expand...

this...x 1000.

GSOHunter said:

How far is your 10 acres from the closest public access? Corn or food plot or both on your property should do a good job of drawing them in.

Click to expand...

There's one access spot less than a mile from me... On my place I plan on doing corn and and a plot.

Homebrewale said:

At this time of year, permethrin is your friend.

Click to expand...

I had to google this one... I'll be investing in some. Don't think the bugs can be near as bad as in the swamps I'm used to roaming around in though.

Dolfan21 said:

I'll be there yelping away all saturday!!! If you hear some turkeys that sound like they have bronchitis...thats me.

Click to expand...

LOL, I hope I can get my DL switched over quick enough to where I can catch the end of the season!

RaginCajun said:

I had to google this one... I'll be investing in some. Don't think the bugs can be near as bad as in the swamps I'm used to roaming around in though.

Click to expand...

I see you have not been bitten by a chigger (red bugs to natives) yet.

Homebrewale said:

I see you have not been bitten by a chigger (red bugs to natives) yet.

Click to expand...

Had my first run in with red bugs last year. Decided to weed eat around a camera wearing shorts and flip flops. Suckers got me all over my thighs and crotch. Youch!

Homebrewale said:

I see you have not been bitten by a chigger (red bugs to natives) yet.

Click to expand...

Yeah, I'm used to them. I'm just used to deet based bug sprays. I'll usually pull my pants down and coat the edges of my undies heavily with spray. This odorless stuff looks pretty handy though! Usually I just carry a thermacell with me early in the season. Just scouting I don't care about scent.

RaginCajun said:

Yeah, I'm used to them. I'm just used to deet based bug sprays. I'll usually pull my pants down and coat the edges of my undies heavily with spray. This odorless stuff looks pretty handy though! Usually I just carry a thermacell with me early in the season. Just scouting I don't care about scent.

Click to expand...

I used to use cat flea collars over my socks but permathin is some great stuff, best out there by far


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk