This is somewhat the case at Fall Creek Falls. This area has difficult terrain, limited hunt dates, and limited parking areas (which have the effect of reducing hunter distribution into areas far from the parking). If hunters want to kill any deer, they should concentrate on areas that have good food resources and abundant deer numbers.

Layton said the best bowhunts are those that are timed around peak deer movements, which are generally associated with the rut and the advent of colder weather. Best bowhunting times are typically late October and early November. For WMAs that have bowhunts earlier in the year than this, hunters should concentrate on hunting early in the day and late in the day.

On these hunts, most hunter effort is expended in the morning, so bowhunters may find conditions less crowded if they do also hunt later in the day. Also, on most WMA quota hunts, hunter effort drops to a very low level on the last day of any particular quota hunt. Hunters wanting to hunt in uncrowded conditions should consider hunting this last day, particularly the afternoon of the last day.

Most WMAs offer archery hunts to provide more hunting opportunities for hunters, which is similar to what the statewide archery season provides. Layton said the agency could manage deer herds without archery hunts, but providing these hunts gives hunters more time to hunt without overharvesting deer.

At some WMAs, such as areas within Oak Ridge and VAAP, archery hunting is the only hunting option because of safety concerns. Layton said VAAP can only be hunted with archery equipment or not at all. Fall Creek Falls is archery-only hunting not exclusively for safety concerns but for public relations concerns. Since the hunting area there is in a state park, the area is restricted to bowhunter use only so non-hunters recreating there will not hear gunshots that might affect the aesthetics of the area.

REGION IV
The bowhunting in Region IV (basically, East Tennessee) is a little different than most of the rest of the state and so are the opportunities at WMAs here. Region IV wildlife biologist Dan Gibbs specializes in deer management among other duties. He said archery opportunities in Region IV depend on what the hunter considers a quality hunt or "great opportunity."

If you want solitude with no other hunters and don't care about seeing many, if any, deer, then go to the Cherokee. On the other hand, Gibbs said Chuck Swan WMA offers many more deer, but you're going to see other hunters as well. He added Oak Ridge WMA has the possibility for big deer, but of course, it isn't like Presidents Island, where you can have the hunt of a lifetime.

Region IV bowhunters can choose to concentrate their efforts on food plots and terrain depending on the area as well. Gibbs said terrain and food sources are specific to the management goals of each WMA. For example, food plots are everywhere at Chuck Swan but basically non-existent at Cherokee.

He also suggests that whatever property is hunted, hunters should always have a topo map of that area, especially if they are hunting unfamiliar and large blocks of land.

The role of archery hunting in Region IV with respect to season dates, harvest and management differs from the role archery plays in the rest of the Volunteer State. Gibbs said in West and Middle Tennessee, one could argue that archery seasons are basically for opportunity. In East Tennessee, archery hunts are definitely used for management. In fact, he added the agency has not been able to be as progressive with muzzleloader and gun antlerless opportunities because of the popularity of archery hunting in East Tennessee.

Archery hunting is so popular in East Tennessee that many hunters were opposed to the addition of crossbows because they feared there would be a significant impact on bow harvests here specifically. So far, as Gibbs and other TWRA managers expected, crossbows have not had the effect that many feared.

"We did not track crossbow harvest prior to the legalization," Gibbs explained. "Last year, crossbows made up approximately 25 percent of the archery harvest. However, archery harvest has certainly not increased by 25 percent."

Some traditional archery hunters, compound bows included, still resent the legalization of crossbow use. In 2005, the first year they were legalized statewide, about 20 percent of the archery harvest was from crossbows. The agency speculates that crossbow use will bring more hunters back into the bowhunting arena. These may not be new hunters; in many cases, they will be hunters who had previously stopped archery hunting because of age or physical restrictions.