NEW ORLEANS (AP) — You don’t need to belong to a private club to enjoy productive deer hunting in Louisiana.
State and federal lands open to public hunting offer hunters ample opportunities for enjoyable deer hunts.
“Some of the best deer in the state come off our wildlife management areas,” said Scott Durham, a Louisiana Department of Wildlife & Fisheries biologist.
Add the federal lands available for public hunting, and the result is a smorgasbord of deer hunting. The trick is to decide whether the goal is killing a trophy or simply bringing home table fare.
Before heading to the closest wildlife management area or national wildlife refuge, it might be worth considering this top-five list:
— Lake Ophelia National Wildlife Refuge, about 20 miles northeast of Marksville, is an 18,000-acre refuge that wasn’t created for hunting but has turned out some monster deer.
“You have some real heavy bodyweights on the refuge,” biologist Bradley Bordelon said. “It’s common to have a 3 1/2 to 4 1/2-year-old deer that weigh 225 to 260 pounds.”
One reason for these massive deer has to do with the soil.
“We have that good rich river bottom land,” Bordelon said.
Also, the refuge is surrounded by land that primarily is managed for trophy bucks.
The last piece of the puzzle is the regulated gun hunting. There are only three muzzleloader lottery hunts (only 900 total hunters involved) and a few youth rifle hunts. Only archery equipment is allowed outside of those, so bucks have a greater opportunity to age.
Hunting can be difficult. Bordelon said that although much of the property is in hardwood bottoms, there are numerous cypress sloughs scattered about the refuge. The understory is generally sparse, so there are great odds of at least seeing deer during a hunt.
Bordelon said access is good, with plenty of ATV trails. However, those who don’t mind taking long walks have the best odds of success.
“We encourage people to walk and get away from the crowd,” Bordelon said.
— Jackson Bienville Wildlife Management Area, 12 miles south of Ruston, is one of the popular public areas in the state, with annual pilgrimages to the 32,000 acres being tradition in many families. The reason is that Jackson Bienville is really a numbers game, providing deer with plenty of thick understory in which to hide.
“We’ve found you really can’t over-hunt the deer (on the WMA),” Durham said.
That means hunters can have some assurance of at least seeing deer, and state data show there’s a high probability of making kills. DWF records show there were 123 deer killed by 933 hunters during the two-day managed hunt last November.
That is a deer for every 7.6 efforts. Durham said that’s fantastic odds.
“Anything that’s in the neighborhood of 10 (deer per hunter effort) or less is good,” Durham said.
Another 237 deer were taken during the rest of the season, which was unmanaged. Such large numbers were made possible with liberalized seasons, with more than a month of either-sex hunting allowed.
Durham said Jackson Bienville also could be a sleeper for quality bucks.
“That’s the place where some really fine deer are likely to show up,” Durham said.
— Buckhorn WMA, about 20 miles southeast of Winnsboro, lies in the rich region between the Tensas and Mississippi rivers, producing perfect conditions for deer.
“It’s that rich bottomland,” Durham said. “It’s all about the dirt.”
Although this fertile soil holds plenty of mast-producing trees, surrounding agricultural fields provide deer with incredible amounts of protein-rich groceries.
The final part of the equation comes in the form of prolific palmettos, the fan-like vegetation that accomplishes two connected things: making it tough for hunters to get shots and providing deer with plenty of cover.
“You can see why those deer can get some age on them,” Durham said. “There were some really nice deer that came off of Buckhorn last year.”
Another result of the thick cover and ample food, however, is an increasing population of deer. That’s evidenced by the 209 deer taken off the 11,000 acres during the 2007-08 season. Eighty-nine of those were taken during managed hunts, during which 534 hunter efforts were made. On the managed hunts, the success ratio was a deer for every six efforts.
That sounds positive, but Durham said the large deer herd has caused problems.
“We’ve done some reforestation work, and we’ve seen a lot of browsing on those new plantings,” he said.
Such heavy browsing makes it difficult to properly manage habitat to maintain herd health. So biologists have liberalized hunting on Buckhorn, offering several gun seasons in addition to the archery either-sex season Oct. 1 through Jan. 31.
Gun hunts include a youth and handicapped hunt Oct. 25-26, either-sex seasons scheduled for late November through mid December, a nine-day bucks-only hunt and a 14-day primitive-weapons season.
“We’re trying to ramp up harvest,” Durham said.
— Sherburne WMA, on the east bank of the Atchafalaya River south of Krotz Springs, is a perennial favorite among public-lands hunters, since it offers a healthy deer herd and the opportunity to spread out and get away from the crowd.
Records show 433 deer were killed off the massive area last season, despite access problems when Interstate 10 was closed during one of the managed hunts due to an oil well fire. During that time, hunters killed a deer for every 8 1/2 efforts.
“Those are very good numbers, considering the closure and the fact that the area is primarily open understory,” Durham said.
The high kill rate is due in large part to the ample hardwood mast that supports a large herd, and the fact that Sherburne lies within the area just west of Baton Rouge that has been overpopulated due to limited kills of does by surrounding landowners the past two decades.
“There are a lot of deer in that entire area,” Durham said.
A look at the numbers from the two managed hunts on the area would indicate pretty high pressure, with more than 2,700 hunters taking advantage of the hunts. But the 44,000 acres of the complex allowed for those hunters to get away from each other.
— Loggy Bayou WMA, 20 miles southeast of Bossier City, is in North Louisiana, but it’s not the piney woods one would expect. Instead it’s located in the Red River Alluvial Valley, and is home to one of the few remaining bottomland/hardwoods stands remaining in the region.
But LDWF biologist Jeff Johnson said hunters shouldn’t expect to see giant oaks.
“There aren’t 80-foot trees like some of the other areas,” Johnson said. “It’s more shorter trees. There are some big woods, but a lot of it is old agricultural fields that have come back naturally.”
These thick stands of small trees provide ample cover for deer, and the animals have responded.
“The deer herd is healthy,” Johnson said. “There’s probably a little more than we’d like, but it’s in check with the habitat.”
Conversely, the thickness of the regenerated forests makes for challenging hunts.
“A fellow would have to hunt hard to find a place for a climber,” Johnson said. “They’re probably better off with a lock-on.”
But that difficulty is one reason some monster bucks have been taken. The potential was seen last year, when Shreveport’s Amanda Hinkie knocked down a 14-pointer that greenscored 185 Boone & Crockett points during a gun hunt.
Johnson said that deer was the largest he had seen come from Loggy Bayou, but the only surprise was that it was killed during the three-day either-sex gun hunt.
“There’s always some good deer killed during that gun hunt, but it’s not something we expect every year,” he said. “There’s so much pressure, and the deer get pretty spooky.”
The only other gun hunting, outside of the Thanksgiving week gun hunt, is a seven-day primitive-weapon season.
Although 450 hunters killed 67 deer in those managed hunts last year, Johnson said such limited gun hunting plays a part in Loggy Bayou’s reputation as a trophy-producer.
“The deer have a better chance of surviving and making it to older age classes,” Johnson explained.
Gun hunters might want to sit out the three-day rifle season, scheduling a trip during the primitive-weapon hunt scheduled for Dec. 1-7.
Loggy Bayou really shines as an opportunity for die-hard archers, who are allowed to hunt from Oct. 1 through Jan. 31.
“That’s one of the best places in the state to kill a Pope & Young deer,” Johnson said. “It’s a good place to see a good buck.”
Odds are, hunters will come back with at least memories of huge deer.
“They see some big deer,” Johnson said. “They tell us about them all the time, but they might not get a shot.”
 
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