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shawnee state forest ohio

Gregg D Vance

Active Member
Joined
Feb 15, 2018
Messages
123
Location
Slapout AL
does anyone here ever hunt this public land. i am hitting ohio this year (somewhere) and this one is about as close as it gets to AL and its 60,000 acres so theres has to be some good deer there- was wondering if any one new much about that area-
 
Drove through the Shawnee on my way to another area. Get them legs and lungs in shape because it's STEEP country! I can guarantee there are some big deer in there. I would like to do a backpack hunt in there sometime!
 
2nd the steep!!!!! Wow steep!!!! I moved to the area about 6 years ago , came from hunting the pine plantations and swamps of Louisiana. Totally a different experience..... flinginairos is spot on you need to be in great shape. The area is very target rich!!!! Best of luck !!!!!
 
Years ago we had a whitetail lease northwest of Jackson Ohio, along the Scioto river. While talking to a logger from the SSF area there one day, he said “ If you fellas like hill country, you should come down to the Shawnee State Forest. It’s not flat like it is here”. We were standing on a 30 degree slope at the time!


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Years ago we had a whitetail lease northeast of Jackson Ohio, along the Scioto river. While talking to a logger from the SSF area there one day, he said “ If you fellas like hill country, you should come down to the Shawnee State Forest. It’s not flat like it is here”. We were standing on a 30 degree slope at the time!


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HAHA "flat" being a relative term :D
 
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I mean, just look at this topo! A guy could explore saddles, ravine heads, and converging hubs for a lifetime!



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I hunted it one year when I was in high school it's super rugged country but there are some big deer killed over there every year... I didn't have any luck there but I honestly had no idea what I was doing then... not that I'm great now.... I hunt Wayne national now mostly because it's closer it's about 25mins away from me a couple of my spots... Shawnee is still just about an hour from me.


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i will be hunting it from nov 4 thru 9th - going to spend most of the 3rd just riding some road , kinda checking it all out. gonna be intresting but i got the whole summer to get ready since i have never hunted out of state so compiling a huge check list and just about 2 of every thing -bows releases, flashlights u name it. may need a dang u-haul just to get there. ready to go now though. lets just skip summer and get on with deer season.
 
i will be hunting it from nov 4 thru 9th - going to spend most of the 3rd just riding some road , kinda checking it all out. gonna be intresting but i got the whole summer to get ready since i have never hunted out of state so compiling a huge check list and just about 2 of every thing -bows releases, flashlights u name it. may need a dang u-haul just to get there. ready to go now though. lets just skip summer and get on with deer season.
Make sure you take some milkweed.

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i will be hunting it from nov 4 thru 9th - going to spend most of the 3rd just riding some road , kinda checking it all out. gonna be intresting but i got the whole summer to get ready since i have never hunted out of state so compiling a huge check list and just about 2 of every thing -bows releases, flashlights u name it. may need a dang u-haul just to get there. ready to go now though. lets just skip summer and get on with deer season.

I’ve been hunting out of state (mainly Ohio) for a few years now and I’ll just say don’t over-complicate things. There’s really nothing to it. Treat it like you’re hunting anywhere else and you’ll have a blast! I’ve never had an issue with other people and have met some new friends hunting over there. Great place to hunt! I might even be doing a turkey hunt in the Shawnee this year if my mountain hunt here in WV doesn’t pan out. Just depends on the weather. Shoot me a PM I have been to that area and can tell you what to look for if you haven’t hunted that type of terrain.


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Treat it like you’re hunting anywhere else and you’ll have a blast!
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I'm going to respectfully disagree with that statement. Hunting mountainous, big woods terrain is not like hunting anywhere else. I don't think it can be compared to places like the flat, ag areas of the mid-west. Only 25 miles North West of Shawnee is a whole different world. Just learning wind patterns and how deer use them in intricate terrain is a science in itself. Choosing productive stand sites is a lot less complicated in flat land compared to flat farmland with patchy cover.
Where I hunt in Iowa, we have access to 2,400 acres (spread out on a dozen farms) in gently rolling terrain. Of the 2,400 acres, probably only one sixths of it is cover. Choosing stand sites is a piece of cake compared to choosing sites in big-woods areas.
And wind? Hunting steep terrain can give you fits compared to flatland.
 
I'm going to respectfully disagree with that statement. Hunting mountainous, big woods terrain is not like hunting anywhere else. I don't think it can be compared to places like the flat, ag areas of the mid-west. Only 25 miles North West of Shawnee is a whole different world. Just learning wind patterns and how deer use them in intricate terrain is a science in itself. Choosing productive stand sites is a lot less complicated in flat land compared to flat farmland with patchy cover.
Where I hunt in Iowa, we have access to 2,400 acres (spread out on a dozen farms) in gently rolling terrain. Of the 2,400 acres, probably only one sixths of it is cover. Choosing stand sites is a piece of cake compared to choosing sites in big-woods areas.
And wind? Hunting steep terrain can give you fits compared to flatland.

You are completely right, I think you took my comment in the wrong way, what I was meaning was guys get so amped up about hunting a different area they overthink things and talk themselves out of even going because of the unknown. I am guilty of this and slowly getting better about hunting outside my comfort zone. I really meant to just get out there and do it, apply what scouting techniques and tactics you know and have fun.
 
You are completely right, I think you took my comment in the wrong way, what I was meaning was guys get so amped up about hunting a different area they overthink things and talk themselves out of even going because of the unknown. I am guilty of this and slowly getting better about hunting outside my comfort zone. I really meant to just get out there and do it, apply what scouting techniques and tactics you know and have fun.

Sorry if I sounded like a wet blanket. I wasn't trying to be discouraging at all.
I think that one of the problems that any forum has is that we tend to assume all readers fall into our experience and knowledge. We tend to think that others enjoy the same challenges as we do. Then on top of it, we throw in all kinds of acronyms and slang and threads can get really confusing to newbies. I'm actually in that boat right now with learning all the aspects of saddle use...my Kestrel just arrived yesterday.

As far as hunting vastly different habitats, what one hunter will find an enjoyable challenge (big woods, intricate terrain) the next guy may find it to be not his cup of tea. The same goes with the opposite scenario...Some mid west hunting habitat consists of narrow slivers of cover that snake though huge crop land. Ag land hunting tends to a lot less complicated that big woods hunting. Some guys may prefer the big woods over the ag land or visa versa, but each has it's unique challenges that require different tactics.

I suspect that the OP may be somewhat new to bow hunting and it also sounds like Shawnee may be much different than what he's experienced in AL. I was just trying to give another perspective on what he should prepare for. No matter where one hunts, having an enjoyable (blast) hunt, IMO, depends on going about it with eyes wide open and an understanding that it may be a lot different than you're used to. For me, I'm a wind freak. I get a lot more enjoyment out of a hunt when I understand why the wind is doing what it does. For a lot of years, I'd get frustrated thinking that wind was so fickle. It's not that fickle if you understand how terrain effects wind patterns. But for a hunter that never hunted or understands the wind patterns of steep terrain, a hunt might not be a blast.
 
Sorry if I sounded like a wet blanket. I wasn't trying to be discouraging at all.
I think that one of the problems that any forum has is that we tend to assume all readers fall into our experience and knowledge. We tend to think that others enjoy the same challenges as we do. Then on top of it, we throw in all kinds of acronyms and slang and threads can get really confusing to newbies. I'm actually in that boat right now with learning all the aspects of saddle use...my Kestrel just arrived yesterday.

As far as hunting vastly different habitats, what one hunter will find an enjoyable challenge (big woods, intricate terrain) the next guy may find it to be not his cup of tea. The same goes with the opposite scenario...Some mid west hunting habitat consists of narrow slivers of cover that snake though huge crop land. Ag land hunting tends to a lot less complicated that big woods hunting. Some guys may prefer the big woods over the ag land or visa versa, but each has it's unique challenges that require different tactics.

I suspect that the OP may be somewhat new to bow hunting and it also sounds like Shawnee may be much different than what he's experienced in AL. I was just trying to give another perspective on what he should prepare for. No matter where one hunts, having an enjoyable (blast) hunt, IMO, depends on going about it with eyes wide open and an understanding that it may be a lot different than you're used to. For me, I'm a wind freak. I get a lot more enjoyment out of a hunt when I understand why the wind is doing what it does. For a lot of years, I'd get frustrated thinking that wind was so fickle. It's not that fickle if you understand how terrain effects wind patterns. But for a hunter that never hunted or understands the wind patterns of steep terrain, a hunt might not be a blast.

Great post and I absolutely agree with everything you said. I do forget sometimes that the pain and misery that I enjoy from a steep hill country hunt might not be so enjoyable for someone else lol. It’s hard to remember sometimes that we are all at different stages in our hunting and what works and is enjoyable for one, might not be for the next guy.


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Great post and I absolutely agree with everything you said. I do forget sometimes that the pain and misery that I enjoy from a steep hill country hunt might not be so enjoyable for someone else lol. It’s hard to remember sometimes that we are all at different stages in our hunting and what works and is enjoyable for one, might not be for the next guy.
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And that's not to say that switching it up can't become your new passion. Going from hunting one type of habitat to another type can be compared with going from fixed stand hunting to saddle hunting, right? We get comfy in doing things they way we're used to. Then we try something new. If we don't understand what we're getting ourselves into, we can get frustrated, throw up our hands and revert back to our comfort zone. I had that with my Trophy Line. I didn't understand how to get it right and I never got comfortable in it so I seldom used it. I sold it. I'm approaching my Kestrel with determination to get it right. I have confidence that I'll eventually love it. But if I don't understand all the aspects of it, I'll probably get frustrated again. Hunting a completely different habitat is pretty much the same.
 
And that's not to say that switching it up can't become your new passion. Going from hunting one type of habitat to another type can be compared with going from fixed stand hunting to saddle hunting, right? We get comfy in doing things they way we're used to. Then we try something new. If we don't understand what we're getting ourselves into, we can get frustrated, throw up our hands and revert back to our comfort zone. I had that with my Trophy Line. I didn't understand how to get it right and I never got comfortable in it so I seldom used it. I sold it. I'm approaching my Kestrel with determination to get it right. I have confidence that I'll eventually love it. But if I don't understand all the aspects of it, I'll probably get frustrated again. Hunting a completely different habitat is pretty much the same.

I see what you are getting at, but I believe it certainly can go the other way, too. I , for example, always had hunted wood plots in ag lands. A friend talked me into checking out a local piece of public last season...mostly marsh. Completely different than anything I knew. I fell in love with it immediately! And though it is a whole new game than I'm used to playing, I'm looking forward to the learning road, that's part of the fun.
As I consider the idea of taking on a 2nd state to hunt (likely Ohio since I'm 20 minutes north in Michigan), different topography and features of the land from what I am currently hunting will be what I look for...to gain the new experience.
 
I haven't been to the Shawnee but I have hunted north of there for 10 years. I can tell you that Ohio DNR does a great job of managing the land compared to where I live. There are cutovers evenly spaced out of various age and we have had a lot of success hunting between the cutovers on terrain funnels that same week that you are going. Also, the deer up there seem to have a tendency to respond to a grunt call much more frequently than were I live in North Carolina. We almost always call a buck in the first day. I don't even carry a call in North Carolina. It seems like if you get a bit off the road those deer don't get too pressured until the orange army arrives in late November. I believe that area was hit pretty hard last year from EHD. I took a deer to a taxidermist about 30 minutes from Shawnee last November and he said it was the worst year he could remember. We did manage to shoot a few deer but we didn't see near as many as we did a decade ago. I'm skipping this year and going to the mountains of Virginia for that very reason. There are some deer of a lifetime up there. Good luck. Post pics.
 
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