In some cases, the bigger the area, the more deer you’ll have harvested. So it stands to reason that the bigger counties usually have more deer killed. It also stands to reason the top deer harvests even per square mile come from Unit L while the Unit B counties fall towards the bottom. But it’s interesting to see how productive per square mile some of the smaller counties really are in terms of deer killed per square mile.

Hardeman County might be the top dog when it comes to overall deer harvests, but it’s not the top county in terms of deer harvested per square mile. Ratajczak said Meigs County in Region III is the highest deer density county in the state.

Meigs County had a harvest of 10 deer per square mile last season, followed Henry County with a harvest of 9.2 whitetails per square mile. Roane County and Hardeman County both had a harvest of 8.8 deer per square mile. Giles County is the fourth most productive county per square mile with 8.5 deer taken. The fifth most productive spot is a tie as well, with both Fayette and Lincoln Counties having 7.9 deer harvested per square mile.

The seventh and eighth spots go to a couple smaller, sleeper counties. Both Moore and Smith Counties produce 7.6 deer per square mile.

On the flipside, of the top three counties in Region IV — Hawkins, Claiborne, and Sullivan — none exceeded a harvest of more than 3 deer per square mile.

TOP PUBLIC LANDS BY HARVEST SQUARE MILE
Many of the top WMAs in terms of deer harvest per square mile have limited acreage. In some cases, this may mean larger fluctuations in harvest from year to year; it may mean that access is limited or in some cases you’ll have company on your hunts.

That said, however, the harvest per square mile data is surprisingly good. If you think that the best deer hunting is always on private ground, some of these WMAs will be a shock.

Hiwassee Refuge’s harvest of 121 total deer might not have been the highest overall harvest in the state, but Hiwassee is only 2,500 acres and yet hunters there killed 31 deer per square mile last season — a remarkably high harvest rate.

Williamsport WMA, with a harvest of 29.4 deer per square mile on its 1,722 acres, puts it in the second position in this category among public lands. Williamsport features only 2.7 square miles of hunting.

Normandy WMA was a close third, with a deer harvest of 26.5 per square miles on 750 acres. Normandy features only 1.2 square miles of hunting which produced a total harvest of 31 deer overall last year.

Yuchi Refuge features a mere 3.7 square miles of hunting but produced a harvest 23.8 deer per square mile and a total harvest of 88 deer in 2008.

The fifth spot per square mile harvest went to Haynes Bottom WMA with a harvest of 17.1 deer per square mile and total of 26 deer.

Honorable mention goes to Bark Camp Barrens WMA with a total harvest of 72 deer on its 2,800 acres. That equates to 16.5 deer tagged per square mile.

All of these WMAs might not be the biggest or the most noted WMAs out there, but for any hunter near them, they deserve your hunting attention since they produce the top deer harvests per square miles.