Well guys, I broke down and bought an Alabama license this year because I couldn’t stand the thought of not hunting while I was home for the holidays. I hunted once over Thanksgiving and managed to see a buck on the national forest but couldn’t get a shot. Coming back this weekend for an early family Xmas party and am going to try my luck on a small tract I own basically to justify the license purchase. With that said our season in the Carolinas ends Jan 1. Up where I normally hunt anytime after New Year’s Day is pretty much a waste of time. Was thinking about trying my luck in AL the weekend of the 11th or 18th of January. Saw where Coosa has a gun hunt on the 11th. I hunt almost primarily public ground so I know the drill as far as needing to scout and no one is going to give out a honey hole. Just want a little input so I can make a plan:

1. For this gun hunt would the timing be good to catch rutting action?
2. I’ve heard they logged this place pretty heavy a while back, anybody familiar with this WMA and if the pines there are in a huntable stage or are they still small and too thick to hunt?
3. Are the roads in halfway decent shape for a 2wd truck? (Last thing I want to do is get stuck off on some rutted out road or not be able to access a lot of the property because of bad road conditions).
4. Are the campgrounds typically crowded on these gun hunts?

Appreciate any input you guys can throw my way. Only have a couple days to hunt and want to try to make the best educated guess possible as to where to go.

1. For this gun hunt would the timing be good to catch rutting action?
Yeah they should be starting to rut by then. My place is 10 mins from the WMA and we usually see a little chasing the first week and are full swing around the second or third week of Jan

2. I’ve heard they logged this place pretty heavy a while back, anybody familiar with this WMA and if the pines there are in a huntable stage or are they still small and too thick to hunt?
It really just depends on what part of the WMA you are on. There are lots of different stages of clear cut all over it. And some good hardwoods left there too if you know where to look.

3. Are the roads in halfway decent shape for a 2wd truck? (Last thing I want to do is get stuck off on some rutted out road or not be able to access a lot of the property because of bad road conditions).
Generally, yes. But again it depends on where you are and the weather. There are some steep hills back in there that can get pretty sketchy with heavy rains.

4. Are the campgrounds typically crowded on these gun hunts?
Can't answer this one as I'm not sure if Coosa even has a campground anymore with all the land that they have lost.

Thanks for the input Coosa. Sounds like this gun hunt is when I need to go if I hunt this WMA. Going to have to see how busy we get after the first of the year but if I can take the Friday before off, I may just give it a go.

I know Coosa had lost a lot of land last few years. Looking it up still shows a little over 17k acres. That's much more than I had thought they had. You really don't hear much talk of anyone hunting it anymore.

Shoot me a PM when it gets closer to time and you get your plans worked out. If I'm free the weekend you're down here we might could team up and get after em.

Sounds good!

Don’t know if it’s still part of the management area but I used to go in off Lay Dam rd and go all the way back towards the river where the transmission line crosses and hunt some of those those hardwoods north of the power lines along the water and used to kill some decent deer on those January gun hunts. Killed 3 nice 8 pts on the 7 day gun hunt one year, if you’re going to be hunting alone good luck getting one outta there, them hills are rough