Discussion: Most difficult

Anyone care to share stories about some of their most difficult access to hunting land and what they did to overcome it? For example the majority of your land being on the other side of a deep large swamp/creek from your access point. Having to travel by boat. Only access being across an open field deer frequent at night. No roads on the property. Just some scenarios. What say ye?

Nothing too crazy for me, but last year I didn't have an ATV and probably walked close to 2 miles one time to get to a spot on a spot over here. Only did that once. Makes it fun when there's lots of clay prairie gumbo mud too.

Craziest for me is just super dumb steep terrain and no ATV. Claims Rep went with me once last year, he can attest to it. Hiking in and out 1+ miles (mostly more) with my climber and gear was pretty awful at times. And a creek runs in the middle of it.

Jon you gotta learn to hunt smart... walk in once with a climber, and then leave that sucker out there until the next time you go. Nice spot though - you hunt it long enough and you'll kill a good racked buck there.

I went with a friend of mine that was 500 acres and their rule was no vehicles or atvs on property unless you killed a deer. It was easy to find low pressure areas.

I left it a few times, but after my camera was stolen I was always hesitant to leave anything else.

It's not a bad idea, I'm just not that mad at em. Seen too many deer with my buggy parked 100 yards away to do all that hiking and sweating.

Water and inaccessible thick edges will slow you down severely. I once got pics of a nice deer on some PL only i couldnt get there by foot. I had to carry my 10ft flat bottom in the back of my truck and push pole across a slew every time i hunted the area. I also once wore waders and waded the edge of a slew due to excessively thick brush surrounding the area. Deer bedded close by just hard to get to place all together. Mashed a doe and i litterally floated her back across the slew. Im not doin that crap again..ever. If you have good accessible private land be thankful.

Walked in waders through waist deep flooded timber in Arkansas. Carrying my climber on my back and bow over my head the whole way in. There was a secluded clover field next to the levy way off the river channel, that was the driest food source around. Had bucks walking through water up to their bellies trying to get in there

I have a lease with 15-20 acres across the creek and my neighbor on the other side of the creek as a little more on my side of the creek so we just swap. I have all of his family listed as club members to be covered on insurance. It has worked great and I'm sure I get best end of the deal. He doesn't turkey hunt so I can slip across the creek in the spring to hunt.

I don't have an atv/utv so I walk everywhere on my lease and put out ground blinds in September so theres not much packing in on hunt days. the worst is the land that's up on top of the steep hills

I went hunting with a buddy one time on some public land back in the 80's. We had to ride in a jon boat to access the land. He said he had scouted it the day before and put night eyes up so we could get into our areas prior to daylight. Well, we are floating down the creek/river and get close to where he claims we needed to start looking. When we start shining our lights, I bet you there were 10K night eyes reflecting along the bank. He had no clue where to stop at. When he finally claims, "this is it!". We get out with our climbers and walk thru the thickest muddiest swamp poopy I ever been thru. It was the most miserable and hardest walking hunt I've ever been on. To this day I could choke the guy cuz I hate anytime my hunt gets ruined. Especially after driving 2 hours for that mess.

Hunted a bunch in the Little Coon creek valley of Skyline. Had to hike 1500 yards up a mountain, 1000 ft elevation change. I took a climber a few times then ended up building a makeshift ground blind and leaving my climber at home.

I killed a 130 lb doe up there and had to drag her down. It took me 3 to 4 hours to get her to my truck. That was a lotta fun

Ive hunted in little coon... Drove my truck bout 3/4 of the way to the top of smolligans steep, it got to muddy and steep to go any further so i had to back(slide) back down the whole way because the road was about 10ft wide an it dropped off tha side of a mountain straight down, i know i slid into atleast 3 trees on my way back down. I got out of the truck an hit my knees thankin the lord for lettin me get back to the bottom. Ill never chase a turkey gobble up that sucker again.

Ditto. I will not try to climb the area I hunt in my ATV.

Cable lock, take the seat and cables out, and bury the climber in leaves.

Well I don't blame you for not leaving it if your stuff is being stolen. There's really nothing worse than a thief.

Craziest and toughest for me was hunting public land in South Florida. My friends and I had a camp in a place called Windmill Prairie in Big Cypress Preserve. It was a 9 mile ATV ride twisting through tight cypress swamps and sloughs with your ATV half underwater at times. Bumping into cypress knees and having to back out and go around or cut stumps with a chainsaw. Getting stuck in deep mud and pushing out while avoiding the cottonmouths around you. After what seemed like eternity of twisting through cypress swamp we reached the southern end of Windmill Prairie and raced toward camp. No power, work, or wives, just mosquitos but plenty of ice cold beer and alcohol; good food; and friends. My biggest thrill was shooting hogs and bucks that were a little bigger than key deer. A good buck was 120 lbs and most were 90-100 lbs. It was tough hunting then and is ruined now that the pythons, panthers, bears, and National Park Service ruined the hunting and the Preserve. But it was fun back in the day even if it took half a day to get there!

One time I had to walk nearly 300 yards to get on a gobbling boar Tom. Had to cross a 1 ft. deep crick

I did similar up there when I was a younger man.

We do that on our property most of the time. Of course there are only 3 of us hunting 700+ acres. We usually don't have any issues with pressuring deer.

I hunted a refuge on the Tombigbee river ,to get to the refuge we had to cross a large creek in a flat bottom boat, we were going in one morning before daylight and a huge barge came up the river,when the first wave hit the boat it almost turned over, we barley stayed in boat and some of our gear went in the river, but it sure was good hunting !!

Mw your post reminded me of a lease my buddy had in Orange County. That place was an absolute swamp jungle. We had to cut a trail through the jungle and lay pallets one by one to even be able to move through it. Between the mosquitoes, moccasins, and heat that place was unbareable. Needless to say but He only kept that lease for a year.

I got a spot on Skyline that you park on the side of the mtn and then walk to the bottom and cross the creek and walk up the other side to the first bench under the top. The side I hunt has zero access of any kind and never seen another human there. It takes about 1 1/2-2 hours to get there.I always sit all day and only hunt it during the rut.I seem to hunt it less every year.

We used to go in there but we would spread out on the 2nd and 3rd bench. I'm not 100 percent sure but i bet it's the same place you're talking about.

Made some roads and 4 wheeler trails. I still need to install a few culverts and possibly make a bridge

used a tractor once to pull power poles along a bush hog road to make a creek crossing, had to use cable and pulleys on the other side and pull pole across creek as the tractor straddled the pole and drove away from the creek. had to lag two power poles together while suspended, and then decked it while trying not to fall off in the creek. all to drive a 4 wheeler across so you could ride to your dead deer rather than drag him 200-300 yards to sandy crossing and wade him across.

Well, I did have to walk almost 500 yards to a stand a couple times bow hunting last season. Then a few times almost 300 to gun hunt. Once I had to drag a 225lb buck nearly 40 yards down hill to the truck. The other two I had to turn around and back up to.

Top cat, you have had it tough man.

Hunt smart not hard....

^^^ THIS

A few years back I had this great picture in my head of roughing it, doing it the hard way ... Just so I could experience it. After a few 1500 yard hikes up 1000' elevation to a ridge with climber/equipment I killed a rather large doe and had to drag her back down through thickets and more. Anyway I checked that box, been there done that ... Now I'm trying to hunt smart so it doesn't kill me. I'd do this again if I was sure I had a great chance at a really nice buck. But I wouldn't do it for a 300 lb doe ...

Thankfully some difficult places to hunt are only difficult to start with. Once you get trails cut, bridges built, and stands located then it can be easy. Just simple maintenance and upkeep.

Lowndes WMA near big swamp creek (80 side) after some good rain can make it pretty difficult on foot to get where the deer are and terrible getting one out, i usually pack em out. hell you cant even park in the parking lot most of the time.

I've got a spot that's very similar to Rocket's. No way to get in there except park at the base and walk up the mountain (no roads on the tops of the ridges). I normally have to have at least a day and a half to hunt to even consider hunting it. The half day to hike in my stand and get it on the sign close to the top of the mountain, then go hunt it the next day. Too steep to try and do it all the same day. No way to keep from sweating even if you walked in naked. I've killed a good buck out of that spot and the only other times I hunted it I saw a lot of deer, just not one worth the drag. That's typically a one time hunt during the rut. Never have the free time to hunt it more often. It is on public ground which means you gotta go where the other folks won't or can't.