Aldeer.com Forums Alabama Deer Talk Serious Deer Talk Forum Skyline WMA help

I posted this reply under the other Skyline thread but the mor I though about it, the more it felt like thread jacking... so here's my question - would sure appreciate some help from some veteran Skyline hunters.

I'm going to be hunting up there for the first time this year. I won't be able to come out any of the November hunts, but will be there for most of the December and January days. I've done a little scouting, but with that terrain I gotta ask the pros - where are y'all seeing the buck movement? Do bucks move on top of the mountains or are they moving along the sides ( along the shelves and benches)? I'm not asking for anyone's honey hole or anything... just a hint as far as where y'all tend to see some buck sign and movement.

Also... I've heard later is better up there because the rut is kickin late December-mid January. Is this right?

I am new to hunting there too, but the later is better cannot be true. If you go to the Alabama DNR website you can see all the kill number for each hunt for at least last year, and I think the last two years.

If you look at those numbers the most deer by far were killed on the very first gun hunt, then they drop off drastically each hunt.

I hunted a club that joined the WMA....after hunting the extreme bottoms and ridges without much luck....I finally figured out that the most movement and sightings happened to be on the shelfs especially those that funneled into draws and creek crossings at the foot of them. The acorns were obnoxious in amounts that year so food plots were of no help really even toward end of season there was so many. For whatever reason as well i seen a ton of deer 9-2 going in and out till I figured out the moon phase didnt seem to make them adjust as much...just personal observation on that

You have a point, but when I looked at the data, it only shows the harvest on November 20, 26 & 27 in 2011. I wasn't able to find any data on December hunter harvest

I you are looking for a trophy deer, look for the steepest, roughest, thickest area, as far away from a road that you can find. Hunt there. You might need to hire a helicopter to fly your deer out when you kill one, but that's where the big bucks live up here.

Forget hunting a food plot. As far as I know none have even been planted this year. I used to bow hunt some of the food plots in Jan. on the off weekends when nobody else was around and see a lot of deer, but they are useless for the gun hunts.


The DCNR kill reports are a joke. The checking stations are not even open for the buck only hunts.Even on the either sex hunts, I doubt 1/3 of the deer actually get checked in. We always check ours in if they are open, but I know a lot of poeple don't. I always wonder how they come up with a kill number that is even remotely accurate.

Good luck !

I appreciate it! I am looking for a trophy buck - I can whack does all day long where I live. I'm out for a challenging hunt for a big deer on remote WMA land. Any insight into Skyline is a huge help.

If only 1/3 got checked on the first riffle hunt last year, then they killed about 900 that day. Just sayin.....


What is the process in the morning? How early do I need to get there and what do I need to have handy to get my permit?

Stand in line starting at 5am, have your wma permit and your state permit ready. Get your permit, run to your truck and fly to a spot where no one is parked if your lucky.

Can be hard sometimes to know where bucks will travel in the hills looking for does. But I've seen them more times than not on the benches 3/4 way up or higher.

By state permit do you mean all game license?