How many folks on here are hunting the Cahaba WMa? I stopped right after Geomet started drilling, along with the folks doing the surface mining. I may head out there this weekend and see what has become of some of the areas I enjoyed hunting.

I hunt there quite a bit.Be prepared for some company though that place gets hunted more than any place i have ever seen.

Is that the Forever Wild at Cahaba? If so I know about 8 hunting it! I drive by it on the way to my place, they need about 2-3 more parking areas!

I thought it was probably still crowded. I remember a time when very few hunted the pea ridge side. An article on the Cahaba was written and when they interviewed the biologist he indicated some of the best hunting was the pea ridge side. The following season there were cars at every gate. I think I will stick with Oakmulgee.

Both the WMA and the forever wild are hunted pretty hard. The Forever Wild is bowhunting only or it used to be.

Thanks guys

It never gets hunted for deer or for turkeys, so go enjoy the solitude!!

The forever wild property has been hunted to death. Not only that, people are shooting everything that moves. They have been running beagles on it too.

Is that against the law?

There was a time when it first started where you could enjoy some solitude. I know at one point Geomet was keeping most of the gates closed not sure if they are now or not.

I once called a buck, don't know the size, to my little ground blind I had set up. This was over near the substation. There was a hardwood ridge with a very nasty thicket to the east and a stand of small pines to the west, that was one of my more memorable hunts. Quite frankly I did not think the call would work, wish I could have gotten a good look at him.

You can bowhunt after gun season opens(other than specified gun hunts) and have it to yourself.

It's not so much the number of hunters, its the number of inconsiderate hunters that made me stop hunting there. Don't think people are taught about consideration for other hunters anymore. If someone is already there, go somewhere else. Not just pile in anyway. Nothing like getting there hour and half before daylight to have two or three people, or more, stroll by after daylight. A little common courtesy, is that really too much to ask?

Nope not against the law at all. Some management areas don't allow it. It sure screws up the bowhunting early in the season. I was talking with some of the rabbit hunters last weekend on Perdido River WMA and found out where they were running and where they weren't. One guy showed me how to skin a rabbit. Very nice folks. They admitted that their dogs get after deer every now and then but they try to stop em as soon as that happens. What ya got to do on any WMA is talk to the people hunting it and where they are hunting then figure out a strategy from there. You will be surprised how open most people are.

There are WAY more people bow hunting this year than years past, WAY more. I have always been able to hunt where I wanted to hunt, I have been 3x so far this fall and yet to hunt where I wanted to hunt. I parked at a closed gate yesterday evening around 3:30 and walked to my first spot. Hung my stand and heard a guy yell "you ready" and then see a guy walking through a 4yr clear cut. I walked to another spot and watched 15 trucks and cars drive in, this is on a dead end rd and a gate that stays locked yr round, only it was open when I returned.

well fellas i live right smack in the middle of the the CAHABA RIVER WMA and hunt it religiously. i know many of the geo met workers and they have been told to keep gates locked at all times due to the numbers of thefts of supplies and equip they have had over the summer. yes that means there will be a lot of pissed of people but that also means for the ones that dont mind a lil walk even better hunting then before. yes we will still have the ones that will find a way around the gates and will drive right on in but thats fine if they want to get ticketed then so be it.. i have my lil section that i hunt and kill deer off of every year, reason is 1. its only accessible by canoe 2. i keep my mouth shut and not speak of it to ANYONE and 3. i put the foot work in to find it.. hunting these plots right off the highway where you can see the cars ride by or better yet when i drive by i can see you in a tree isnt going to cut it

I don't know much about the deer hunting but I use to turkey hunt it for years even though I had a club. I don't turkey hunt it as much as I use to due to the good timber being nearly extinct. After the the first maybe two weeks of season I pretty much had it to myself. Hardly ever saw a vehicle when going in to hunt. I limited out there twice without ever going to my camp in 01 and 03. The hunting always got better the last two weeks of April as well.

To me.. locking those gates are the best thing they did for the hunting, especially for the turkey hunters.

I remember going to Cahaba once when it was warm and it seemed the wind was blowing from every direction. This was during what I would later find out was the rut. I made my way down into an HW bottom and then decided to head for a finger that was mostly planted pines. Figuring I would not see anything I did not take my tree stand. As I knelt down in the pines I heard something running towards me and soon I was face to face with a tired and bewildered doe who paused just long enough to decide I wasn't a tree and took off again. Right behind her was a buck, I do not remember how big he was but he too paused and like the doe decided to move on. I was in the process of attempting to bring down my heart rate down when I spotted another buck headed down another ridge in the same direction as the first two, boy talk about fun, didn't get a shot but had a lot of fun that day. Weeks later I was stomping around in that same HW bottom when I came upon a carcass and not just any carcass, it was a 7 point buck and the only think left was his skull, antlers and spine. I do not know what happened to him. You know I may just check out that HW bottom this weekend.