Yep, you can hunt both sides, with the associated state license and a purchased permit from the Recaccess site. They just opened it wide open a couple of years ago. Used to be a draw/permit kind of deal and it was a very limited draw. I have to tell you though, it’s not a stroll in the woods for sure. Lot’s of roads, which you can’t drive on, that often aren’t mowed, so you will be crawling with ticks by the time you step off of it. Of course there are lots of ditches along those roads (more like canals in some cases) which severely hamper your ability to get off of the road and into the woods, then theres more ditches in the woods….
And thick, omg it’s thick in there. Lot‘s of cane that you can’t walk through, period. On the other hand, it’s huge and I have only began to explore it. There has to be some big bucks in there, but it’s going to take a level of effort to find them and you don’t have a lot of time because you aren’t allowed to scout except fro like half a day a day or so before it opens. You can scout in season, but man I hate to be tromping around in the woods during season, especially in the thick stuff, when you don’t know who might be on the other side of that thicket with a shotgun waiting for the ”big buck/bear making all that noise” to come out of that thicket. Lol. I plan on spending a little more time out there this next year poking around. About an hour drive for me. Electric bike is money for getting away from the main road. Here is the recaccess site with all the info/maps/etc:
https://greatdismalswamp.recaccess.com/
