hunting Dahomey NWR

[gb2w]

anyone hunted Dahomey NWR?

[quack_a_tack]

Yea, several people do.

[gb2w]

Well how is it? Is there very many deer?

[Double R 2]

Have your I's dotted, your t's crossed, hunt to the letter of the law, and pack a lunch going to be a long day. Be ready to hand cart it out, just in case you get lucky.

[huntersmky]

there are some big deer at Dahomey but they are hard as hell to hunt. Watch out for snakes and you might get lucky and kill a hog or two. I enjoyed my time hunting there. Deer are hard to concentrate and its one of the thickest places i've ever hunted. I've seen 20+ deer on some hunts.

[munyoz70]

get a good gps my brother got lost in there and hasnt been right since then.

[JaMak84]

Drive down any open road a couple hundred yards. Park, stand in the middle of the road with your eyes closed. Spin around until you're dizzy. Open your eyes and walk a couple hundred yards into the woods in the direction you're facing. Climb a tree and wait. Every hundred yards looks just like the last hundred yards and I've never been able to pattern deer over there.

[Deltaquack]

There's a few people around that kill big bucks in there every year.......and I know several that go a lot and never see a deer. It's always a hard place to hunt. You can also go one day and see trucks at every closed road.......and go the next and not see a single one.

[TODO]

I used to ride 446 weekly and i very rarely saw deer off the highway, either night or day. For whatever reason the population is low. However, if you do see a buck it could be big. There have been some really nice, like 160" plus deer come out of there. I have hunted it about a dozen times over the years and could count the deer i saw in one hand.

While on the subject, me and some guys at camp that hunted dahomey back when it was Benoit Hunting Club were talking this past weekend about all the deer that used to be there. They said it was way overpopulated and seeing 30 or 40 does a day was the norm. So why arent the deer there now? Its not hunting pressure i dont think, it got hit hard, its brown its down, back in the Benoit days, and there is a lot more grain and crp there now than 30 years ago. Surely the biologists have discussed this, anybody have a theory? I think some timber cutting would be huge but doubt that would ever happen.

[deltadukman]

I hunted it a decent amount back when I was in college at DSU. If you saw a buck, chances are he was going to be a good one, but have hunted a solid week only to see hogs. Got a friend that hunts it pretty often and has taken like 2 in his lifetime off it. Here is my secret...if the river gets high enough for them to shut the season down West of hwy1, then you might can see enough deer to make it worth the trip...otherwise you will be disappointed.

[JaMak84]

It won't ever happen, but TODO you are right. That place is in bad need of some timber management. Back when it was Benoit Hunting Club they did have the occasional select cut, which I think really helped them. Just look at an areial of the place. It's a giant island of trees in a sea of landformed rice and bean ground. No major travel corodors connecting it with a larger population. Most of the deer seen there are just traveling through the area. They have enough acres that they could select cut 100 acre blocks every other year for the next 30 years and never cut the same place twice. There's plenty of food, but no "thickets" for bedding or hidding. Opening up the canopy in some spots would help develope some understory browse and bedding areas, which would in turn help hold a few more deer on the area.

[TODO]

If they used to have timber cuttings back in the Benoit days then that has to be the reason . . . but why is Yazoo covered up? No cuttings there either. Dahomey does have a lot of 10 or so year old CRP/WRP that would be good for bedding i would think.

Vickers-I have been hunting behind the levee my entire life and i cant recall off the top of my head the water being high enough to shut down the season. It may have happened and i never got the notice thou. My new place is about the lowest ground in the county so may hit Dahomey if we flood out.

[dukmisr2005]

i have hunted there are few times, north of 446... never seen a deer... saw lots of sign; scrapes, rubs, tracks, and a trail or two... there are some cane breaks and thickets in it... the thickest part is closed to hunting... the place is full of oak and pecan so deer dont have to move to find acorns or pecans...

[dukluk]

Biggest, meanest, nastiest mosquitos in the world, even in December....they don't just bite ya, they tote machetes....big enough to fly off with small pigs....they'll snap your ThermaCell in half, and shove it up yo booty.

[deltadukman]

TODO happened once that I can recall. It was about junior year of college. Deer everywhere. They shut it down west of hwy 1.