Dover Bay and Angola Bay Game land Hunting ?? Update

[Webster1967]

Anybody have any experience hunting either game land? And yes I've heard of issues on public land but not directly. I did try hunting Angola 3 or 4 times a few years back, on odd days like Monday and Wednesday . Only thing I ever saw was a local gentleman that helped me with the layout and how they run dogs hard on Saturdays. Lots of roads to travel on there too and thinking Dover is mostly walk in may be a little better. More exercise if you get something but maybe worth it? So thoughts or ideas? I'm in the Smithfield area looking somewhere to hunt. I do hunt some in Franklin County but not until after Thanksgiving .

 

[Webster1967]

So made a exploratory trip to Dover Bay. I knew it was going to be wet but even with all the rain and actually was easy getting to the parking area. After that though I didn't find a trail I could access without crossing water and wasn't prepared for that.

 

[Average Joe]

Haven’t hunted those game lands before. Not sure of your location but Chatham County has some nice game lands.


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[Mack270]

Anybody have any experience hunting either game land? And yes I've heard of issues on public land but not directly. I did try hunting Angola 3 or 4 times a few years back, on odd days like Monday and Wednesday . Only thing I ever saw was a local gentleman that helped me with the layout and how they run dogs hard on Saturdays. Lots of roads to travel on there too and thinking Dover is mostly walk in may be a little better. More exercise if you get something but maybe worth it? So thoughts or ideas? I'm in the Smithfield area looking somewhere to hunt. I do hunt some in Franklin County but not until after Thanksgiving .

Angola is pretty close to where I live. I’ve never been in the gates but I have spent a bit of time in Holly Shelter which is very close to Angola. I’ve also been around Angola on private land and can guess at most of the terrain. My suggestion would be to find some of the ridges that have oaks on them and hunt those with a climber. We’ve had a good acorn crop this year and the deer are all over them. Rubber knee boots are always a good idea in SE NC. Especially as we get into December. You can hunt Holly Shelter in a similar manner though sometimes hip boots or waders might be better in places there. One thing that helps in the really thick places is a pair of hand pruning clippers to cut vines you might get tangled in. They’re more compact and less noisy than a machete.

A little fun trivia is that there’s a small private dirt airstrip in the middle of Angola bay on a tract of private land. No roads or anything else around it.

 

[tod0987]

So made a exploratory trip to Dover Bay. I knew it was going to be wet but even with all the rain and actually was easy getting to the parking area. After that though I didn't find a trail I could access without crossing water and wasn't prepared for that.

I've been through the area surrounding Dover over the last 15 yrs. Look up a "Carolina Bay" the Dover game land is a large Carolina Bay. Wet, wet ,wet, ... wet, wet and lots of bears. Based on the number of pigs shot nearby there should be some in there as well.